Reply to APS - Elementary school -who is opting for virtual in 2021/22

Forum Index » VA Public Schools other than FCPS

Reply to "APS - Elementary school -who is opting for virtual in 2021/22"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[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]And if you watch SB meetings, last Fall, Lisa Stengle hinted strongly that an option program may be moved "North of Lee Highway." So my prediction is that Tuckahoe or Nottingham aren't long for the world either. North North Arlington schools will become overcrowded like the rest of the county.[/quote]

There was no hinting.  The proposal specifically identified Discovery, Jamestown, Nottingham, Taylor and Tuckahoe as schools to be considered as potential option sites in the future to provide capacity on the western end of Columbia Pile, and also specifically identified Campbell and Claremont as option schools to evaluate moving north.[/quote]

And it totally makes sense that discovery Nottingham or Tuckahoe would be used as an option school, since they have overlapping  walk boundaries and are all under populated. One of the big push backs is that more kids would have to be bussed up there. [/quote]

My prediction is that poor Campbell will move to N. Arlington. Discovery may make the most sense for an expeditionary school to move to because it has woods and focuses on green space already, but it will probably be Tuckahoe. Claremont will probably move to Carlin Springs to ease up space for Abington, and the poor Carlin Springs kids will move to Campbell, the one school that isn't walkable for most of its population.

When the original school moves proposal was put out, it included Campbell and Carlin Springs in addition to Key, ATS and McKinley. Kadera saw all of this, and that's where her arguments came from. She wasn't trying to throw other schools under the bus.[/quote]

All of the outdoor space around Discovery is covered in artificial material or playground mulch.  There’s about a 20’ strip of trees behind the soccer fields before you’re in neighbors’ backyards, but that’s it.[/quote]

My point is that while no N Arlington school has a Long Branch Nature Center next door, Discovery at least has the solar panels, a rain garden and some trees. It's better suited to an expeditionary program than Tuckahoe or Nottingham. But I think due to its proximity to the Metro, Tuckahoe may be the more likely choice for an option program. It's unfortunate that the Pandora's box has been opened with the first school moves, but parents should start strategizing now how to fight back when your turn eventually comes. I hope you have someone like Mary fighting for you.

Signed, an ATS parent[/quote]

Well they are proposing to close East Falls Church Metro station  early next year. So if the argument to use Tuckahoe is the metro accessibility  wouldn't count on it. 
[/quote]

What elementary kids are going to metro to school???    I have never understood the idea of yet another option school which will just siphon off high functioning kids from families who are engaged in the system.  Why?  There is a need for this?  [/quote]

The metro is also a mile away and it’s not a pedestrian friendly walk.  No one is doing that.[/quote]

Lots of people walk that route from the Tuckahoe neighborhood every day to commute to work.[/quote]

That's great.  We're talking about 5-11 year olds doing the walk.  Not adults commuting to work.  [/quote]

Actually, we are talking about commuting adults.  See the post above about parents needing to use public transportation for extended day pick-ups, parent teacher conferences, etc.  Also, the 52 ART bus goes from metro to a bus stop at the corner of Sycamore and 26th, which cuts out most of the walk.[/quote]

With extended day pick up, the kid is with them one way right?  But ok, the need is really the parents needing to get to the school using the metro.  These parents have enough time and flexibility in their job to take time off to ride the metro, walk to school (or wait for a bus...would take longer but ok), go to the school event or meeting, get back to the metro, ride the metro back to work.   This is a multi-hour affair at this point.  And yet these very same people don't have cars.

I'd like to meet this population.

You're acting like this is Manhattan.  [/quote]

DP.  I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that you have never ridden an ART bus.[/quote]

Not only have I ridden an ART bus, through my work I have a lot of knowledge of bus ridership stats and the demographics and housing options along the R-B corridor.

But keep on acting like there is this massive population of people who would behave the way you are suggesting in this part of the County.[/quote]

"in this part of the County" is doing an awful lot of work here.  People who live it the Tuckahoe neighborhood generally aren't the people we are talking about here.  We are talking about whether an option school will still be accessible to lower-income families south of Rt. 50 after it moves to North Arlington (which will need to happen given how overcrowded south Arlington schools are becoming, additional housing coming online, and the lack of funding to build a new school down there).  Tuckahoe is not a perfect solution (nor is there a perfect solution elsewhere), but as compared to Nottingham, Discovery or Jamestown, it is by far the most accessible school for people who rely on mass transit because of its proximity to that metro stop.  Not just because of metro itself, but also because the station is a hub for buses from so many other areas/  [/quote]

The reference was to the orange line because otherwise it's a metro line transfer, yet another hurdle that would stop families from bothering to even consider the option school.  Have you transferred at Rosslyn at rush hour times?   It's a nightmare.  Or they'll change buses at Rosslyn or Ballston.  Equally onerous.

If the goal of the option schools is to bring together more of a mix of kids, these schools in play are not the answer in my opinion.  Choose a school that is more centrally located near more of a central transportation hub for the whole County where you won't just get self-selected bunch of N. Arlington families using the option school.

How many S. Arlington families are going to willingly sign up for Tuckahoe or these other schools?  If they are, they are highly motivated families and not really getting at the root of the issues many people claim they are trying to solve.

The ATS people objected moving from their previously more central location to McKinley for this very reason.  And McKinley is much better situated than these other schools.

My objection all along is acting like offering up Tuckahoe as option is some obvious solution.  Its not.  It's kind of dumb.[/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