Reply to APS Fall boundary questionnaire

Forum Index » VA Public Schools other than FCPS

Reply to "APS Fall boundary questionnaire "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I'm not sure the legalities of how PTA's spend money are relevant to the overall question of redistricting and this seems to have gone on a very weird tangent.  Bottom line - wealthier communities have more funds than poorer communities and the ability to offer more supplemental learning opportunities (in whatever way that plays out and however the money moves). I don't think anyone is questioning that.

So back to redistricting - What do you do when the wealth disparity and segregation in the County is so severe that redistricting for equity becomes essentially impossible?

At this point it seems like making the high schools and middle schools all lottery is step one as it lowers one of the drivers of segregation. And the other step is to increase affordable housing in communities that do not currently have it. The housing patterns and segregation are so severe that it would be nearly impossible to redistrict oneself out of the problem at the elementary level.

[/quote]

The answers to that question have been provided countless times on this forum.  People don't like the answers; so they don't consider them answers and say there aren't any and there's nothing we can do.  Keeps their little world just as it is and they can continue on guilt-free.

You can start with high schools and middle schools - admittance by ranking choices and following a formula to ensure a more even student demographic at each (25-30% FRL, 25% minority, 50-50% male-female, whatever).
Or, you can take the plunge and switch entirely to a preferred choice system elementary through high school.  See Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Additionally, the County changes its affordable housing policies.
That means, no more affordable housing in current poor school zones; increasing density along Lee Hwy and ensuring a high percentage of committed affordable (family) housing units (30%) like for the Pike; reducing the CAF goals and requirements for the Pike; and better leveraging "community benefits" from developers.

In the meantime, however, the PTAs could do a lot more with school partnerships.  CCPTA started emphasizing this more a few years ago but there's a ton of room for expansion and increasing the quality of those partnerships beyond basic needs and into academic efforts.  Jamestown and Randolph did some of that in years past, too.  Unfortunate it didn't continue or grow.

And it doesn't have to be left to the PTAs.  APS should collaborate with CCPTA and develop meaningful partnerships between schools that facilitates students from each school actually interacting with each other.

It isn't a one-step answer.  It needs to be a collaborative effort with real commitment to the purpose.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics