Reply to APS boundary process this fall?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Voluntary transfers are not an adequate solution when a school like Williamsburg - at 80% capacity - is allowed to decide that it only wants to take 10 transfers. Swanson is still left overcrowded and Williamsburg only made a symbolic gesture in taking a few extra kids. Why does APS allow this? So the richest middle school in the county is also the least crowded by a long shot? We are a Glebe family and, due to the voluntary transfers, what would be about a 50/50 split between Hamm and Swanson ends up being probably a 80/20 split with several kids left disappointed and on the wait list for transferring to Hamm. Just let them all transfer or none of them - or better yet, switch the PUs to Hamm so that some kids aren’t left behind.[/quote]

What do you mean by richest?  You do understand that APS doesn’t give any extra money to the schools when it accepts transfers. They don’t get to hire any more teachers or any additional staff. Schools are told how much money they have and then the school makes a decision about transfers. If APS really wanted to use transfers to help it would have to give schools money based on number of students after transfers are factored in. Please learn how things work before spouting off about how schools don’t take 20% more students. [/quote]
I assume they meant richest as in that’s where the wealthiest people in the county live. Speaking of not spouting off when you don’t understand how things work,  if they accepted more student, they would hire more teachers. That’s been a complaint at Williamsburg, classes are quite large because they don’t have enough students for an additional team or more sections.[/quote]

That’s not terribly accurate. What is true is that Williamsburg is no longer zoned to neighborhoods with more affordable housing types.

And yes, the large class sizes have been a serious problem there. The building is also quite old and in need of a complete rebuild (along with TJ).[/quote]

And Swanson and Gunston.

Middle schools across the board except Hamm and Kenmore are in rough shape.[/quote]

Swanson could definitely use a renovation but as a designated historic building, the front lawn and the facade can’t be altered.

Hopefully the boundaries and building renovation/rebuild pipeline gets figured out soon. All the APS focus has been on option programs it seems. Montessori, Tech, etc., and not the neighborhood schools. [/quote]

Uh, the focus was never on options in recent decades, and then in the last four years it suddenly had to be. The Career Center had to be finalized to meet HS seat planning that was delayed from a decade before. That also meant addressing Montessori, which is in one of the worst buildings. Meanwhile, APS like many other school districts put long range Capital improvement planning on hold during pandemic. Now it has restarted. I agree the MS (where my kid is now) need to be addressed, but they will. [/quote]

The only reason APS got a new building was that the community wanted to kick HB out of its very old building to put a neighborhood middle school there. That wasn't the original plan. The new building was supposed to be for a new neighborhood middle school, but parents didn't like that plan and wanted the HB building/plot. So HB had to move. Then after HB got a new building on that plot that no one else wanted, the revisionist history is that APS focused on options as expense of neighborhood. But really it was the other way around. [/quote]

People are upset about the Heights not because it was new, it’s because they way way overspent on a small fancy building.

When that location was going to be a 1300 seat neighborhood middle school, they had a very generic box building for the design.

Then when it became HB the pivoted to a boutique award winning architect to make it a show case building (and the APS staff in charge of it used that project to land a better job elsewhere, I forget his name).

It’s ridiculous that HB with 700 students had the largest middle school plot of land when our county is desperate for space. If they had simply expanded HB program, that might have alleviated a lot of overcrowding and made planning simpler. But its model requires a small school. [/quote]

That's not specific to HB. That's what APS has done with all the new buildings, neighborhood or not, didn't you know that? Have you seen Discovery?

If you disagree with overspending on buildings, I am with you, but don't try to blame HB. [/quote]

I blame HB for not expanding their program, and the excess for the Heights far far exceeds any other renovation. It was because it was for “HBW” — their show case program of private school size for public school cost. [/quote]

It's so inconsistent to give HB the tiniest parcel in the county and then demand that it expand. How? Where? Have you been there? There is no room.

Also, you are either unaware or don't care that the building also houses the Shriver program. This program is for kids with severe special needs. Many are in wheelchairs. The building was built to meet their needs. That's just going to be more expensive. That's how it is. APS has a responsibility to educate these kids. So no your narrative that APS built a palace for HB is just plain wrong. They didn't even finish the floors!  [/quote]

HBW is 700 students. It was going to be a 1300 seat neighborhood middle school. Even with Shriver, there was some number between 0 and 600 that they could have expanded. The costs weren’t high because of wheel chair access, but very on brand for HBW parents to use the Shriver kids as shields — it’s a pattern on many prior threads. [/quote]

So first you ignore the Shriver program altogether like it doesn't exist then you come right back with accusing HB of using it as "on brand." Sorry, no. You're just an HB hater. [/quote]

Shriver is independent of HBW completely. It was only located with HBW originally because they had a tiny population on a huge campus so could accommodate at the original Stratford sight.   They had to move with HBW because the property would still be under construction when it became a neighborhood school, so they moved to the Heights but they are in no way associated with HBW other than sharing an address.

It was on brand because EVERY TIME people talk about expanding HBW and how it got to keep 700 students on a site originally intended for 1300, they trot out their building neighbors:  https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/285/1145192.page[/quote]

No Shriver was not going to stay in a middle school, it's a program for kids up to age 22! The Heights was specifically built for their specialized needs. Sorry you have a problem with people raising the needs of the severely disabled kids. I guess you'd prefer they not exist? [/quote]

Talking about Shriver is just a red herring, and the ad hominem attack as if I am anti-disabled is a nice touch.  My point is most of the cost of the Heights was not because of the Shriver program, and the program could have been located elsewhere, it is not part of HBW.

But again, HBW brings up Shriver as an excuse to protect them from criticism. It’s just not material to the discussion. You could have accommodated hundreds of more students at Heights, but HBW said it would hurt their “model”. [/quote]

you just can't let this go. you're looking for a reason to hate on hb. who do you think "you" is anyways? i have a kid at hb now, we weren't there back when this decision was made. i had nothing to do with it. but actually those at hb at the time WANTED to stay where they were. hb got moved anyways. but still you all complain at the result. [/quote]

It’s very simple. When we say that your program should be expanded just like ALL the other upper schools in Arlington, HB parents skirt around reasons why it can’t happen, from “it’s the program”, to “it’s actually the Shriver program occupying the space that would fit 600 students”.  Yeah HB could have stayed at Stratford if it expanded to accept more students there wouldn’t have been a need for a new middle school; but they preferred to move and pretend they were “forced to”.

An HB parent was the one who called out how they were “forced to move” , when the topic was about how the Heights building consumed about 3 schools worth of capital.  They were the ones who decided to play the victim rather than accepting that they received largess from an ambitious buildings planner looking to make a name for themselves. [/quote]

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