Reply to APS/SA boundary redrawing

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Please stop blaming Henry for the concentration of poverty in S Arlington. This is exactly what N Arlington wants.  Fleet is not going to take N Arlington PUs and the PUs south of the Pike are not all expensive homes. Some are apartments, some are condos, some are duplexes, and many of the single family homes are rentals.  Yes there are some MC homes with kids but let’s not pretend it’s all lily white and UMC SFHs with kids. The area is very diverse economically and it has its share of FARMS and homelessness. Henry did not pull the ladder up. It just wants to keep its school.

It’s the entire counties job to balance diversity that is where the blame lies. A handful of MC kids will not balance a 90% plus poverty rate at Drew. [/quote]

I tried to point some of this out earlier also, as someone who actually lives in that neighborhood. It’s strange that we are suddenly THE thing that is going to take Drew out of high FARMs. I don’t get it, to be honest.[/quote]

But here's the thing: if you do t go to Drew some other neighborhood has to. In this case, it's Columbia Forest. You can run the numbers yourself: both the pu at Henry south of the pike and Columbia Forest have about 200 students. The farms rate for those Henry units south of the pike is about 50% so yes, diverse. Also about half white/Asian.

What about Columbia Forest planning units? It's over 80% disadvantaged. The math here is difficult because in many units, aps says there are more disadvantaged students than there are total students. Likewise, APS figures show Columbia Forest has more black and Hispanic students than total students so it's safe to say it's more racially segregated than the Henry PUs as well.

Basically, when Henry said no, we won't go to Drew aps found a poorer, more minority neighborhood to go to Drew instead, one that definitely worsens Drew's farms rate by its inclusion. And does the students in Columbia Forest no favor either- busing them past two closer schools to attend what will likely be the poorest school in the system.

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The problem and the reason for all of this to begin with is that schools like Abingdon are over crowded. Abingdon's boundaries are HUGE and cover a large area, in the past that worked because lost of parents picked immersion and other choice schools so it balanced out. Now that Claremont is not guaranteed admissions and has a wait list more kids are going to default to Abingdon. They needed to break up the Abingdon school zone and moving Columbia Forest was the best way to do it.

With Barcroft Park located where it is and Randolph being a school for only walkers that whole area is going to cut off and island someone.

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