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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]Let's refresh everyone on what a neighborhood-school is supposed to be about.  We are all supposed to live near each other and its supposed to be a community.  If I am in a PU that gets bused to TJ I don't want to now get bused to freaking Williamsburg and not be with any people near me just so some N Arlington jerks can still walk to school.

I'm sure that's just a rumor but it's freaking outrageous.[/quote]

Yeah it is hard for kids to remain friends with other kids who live close by when they go to different schools. This would be awful. [/quote]
The community is defined by the boundaries drawn by by APS.  Your neighbors would still go to the same school, unless you happen to be right on a boundary.  And boundaries have to be somewhere.  It's not really a change from the status quo.  It's just a question of what methodology and inputs APS uses to decide the boundary map.  [/quote]

When boundaries are not contiguous there is no community.  Sorry but some bused island over by TJ or Kenmore is not going to be part of the school community no matter how you spin it.[/quote]
That's crazy.  [b]Option schools have plenty of community.  [/b]And MS and HS boundaries are already large.  APS has already said it won't create small islands of PUs.  Trying to preserve walk zones shouldn't do anything crazy.[/quote]

It's very different than when the kids all live in the same area.  By middle school they can all walk to see each other etc.   In elementary you're talking about easy drives and play dates.   I'm not saying it's not community, but it's not the same feel at all.  Had kids do both.[/quote]

Okay, so they will ride the bus home with a huge population of kids and then walk to see each other. It’s no different than current middle schools where a friend could live on one end of boundary and the other — they would be bused and still far from each other. Nothing changes for bused students except destination. [/quote]

You really can't see how bused kids on the outer rings of a boundary but still contiguous would be having a different experience if they are bused to a school and don't live near their classmates.  Your suggestion is they should just be friends with the kids on the bus with them.  So basically the school will have 2 groups...the walkers and the busers.  Keep in mind in most of these schools the busers will be the minority.  But that's okay for them is what you're saying.  No big deal.[/quote]

Have you ever been to middle school? 
Have you ever had a friend who didn't live in your neighborhood?
Just how much do you think friends have to get together outside of school and their extracurricular activities anyway?[/quote]

I have children in middle school.  My kids do have time to get together outside of school and they walk and ride bikes to see friends.  They live outside of our very immediate neighborhood but their close enough to get to.[/quote]

If they bus kids from by Hamm to WMS, thats 3 miles away. How is that not also destroying community? It’s not a neighborhood over, kids will be spread 5 miles apart. It’s no different than the walkable islands, except the walkable islands plan would minimize buses to the greatest degree possible. [/quote]
So the kids in Rosslyn (who go to hamm) already have a multimile bus ride to school.  Everyone who gets a bus to middle school is at least a mile away.  The kids in hamm’s walk zone all go to Yorktown, which is just as far away as wms.  I get that it sucks if you bought your house intending to walk, but getting a bus to middle school is really no big deal.  My kids friends at hamm are all over the place from right by the school to way over in river place in Rosslyn.  Very little of that is really bikeable since it involves going along busy streets.   They get where they need to go or a parent drives them.  For all required school events a bus is provided or teachers explicitly find people transportation.  It’s not a big deal.  This whole thread really makes me question if the “hamm posters” even have kids at the school or have kids that are old enough to be in middle school.  [/quote]

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