Reply to Holding APS Leadership, Staff and School Board Accountable for the Boundary Mess

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Reply to "Holding APS Leadership, Staff and School Board Accountable for the Boundary Mess"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I won’t say there aren’t parts of this process that were mishandled, but I think one of the biggest problems was unrealistic expectations on the part of South Arlington residents. [b]So many people seemed to expect that the process would 1) fix the demographic issues in all of the affected schools[/b] while 2) not changing their zoning to a school with lower historical performance. Neither of those expectations were reasonable, especially since they are in direct conflict for many people.[/quote]

Yes. I'm one of the people who was pushing for this, but it's unrealistic. It's unrealistic for several schools period, in particular Randolph.  [/quote]

Were you willing to personally give up the second item to make more progress toward the first?[/quote]

I'm neither CH/DP or SF. My personal views are that walkability should be respected with proximity a close second, because that is what everyone across the demographic spectrum wants. After that, demographic balancing should be a big priority. That doesn't leave much to work with in order to "fix" many South Arl schools.

If I got to make the decision, I would have sent SF to Drew because it is not in a walk zone, is pretty close to Drew, and would help balance FR/L rates with Abingdon having another shot at balance in 2020 if Columbia Hills swamps it. I also think it makes more sense generally to fill far-south seats and move empty seats north to where the greater need is (I understand that north of 50 going into Fleet is a third rail issue, but IMO people just need to get over that). But this pie in the sky discussion about how to fix Randolph is not productive given current realities. The only way to "fix" that west Pike area like that is to eliminate option schools and allow neighborhoods to gentrify. Arlington currently makes different choices.[/quote]

None of that can be blamed on APS or the school board, though, because those patterns are due to county board housing policy decisions that the school board and APS leadership have to live with and make the best of with limited resources.[/quote]

I completely agree with you. I meant for that point to come across in noting current realities. My view is that APS and the Board should do the best they can with what they have to work with, which isn't much. I don't agree they even met that goal here though, with respect to Drew.[/quote]

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