Reply to Another choice school in N Arlington?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Seems like a neighborhood school would be good for the Westover people.  I understand that they would welcome an elementary school if it is a neighborhood school.

The SB's estimates/projections (which have never been accurate) about overcrowding have changed.  Now the SB believes that crowding will be worse in the Balston - Rosalyn corridor, and still  be overcrowded, but less so in the NW quadrant.  What changes will come out of next year's projections?  IF they need to solve and overcrowding in the B-R corridor, and no parcel is available in the B-R corridor, Then build a neighborhood school in Westover and change boundaries --

When is the last time the SB looked at boundaries in a comprehensive way?  Seems like that could solve some issues.  [/quote]

The issue is that they just spent a ton of money expanding McK and Ashlawn to 685 student schools, but these two facilities are extremely close to Reed (McK in particular). It is hard to draw boundaries for these three NW facilities (Reed, McK, and Ashlawn) as neighborhood schools that meaningfully alleviates NE overcrowding especially when Ashlawn itself is still overcrowded even with the addition. What they should have done is turned Reed into an ES and put the money for the McK addition towards an addition at one of the NE ES buildings-- but too late for that. However, the only way choice works as a solution to the NE overcrowding is if enough NE families are willing to travel to Reed for ES. And those of you in South Arlington who are lobbying for Reed to be a choice school-- go right ahead, but it won't help your situation. Look at the CIP deck-- once the new ES is up and running and they redraw South Arlington boundaries, they are predicting a SURPLUS of South Arlington seats. They will prioritize seats at a new Reed choice school to North Arlington residents because they have to do that to relieve NE overcrowding. Don't yell at me for saying that-- just look at slide #8 of the CIP deck that is linked in one of the prior posts. Those are the numbers APS is working with and they have to slice down that NE capacity crunch in some way. They aren't looking to engage in some sort of policy debate about the value of choice schools with South Arlington. APS thinks the new ES takes care of all of your problems. Don't complain here... go to the School Board meeting on Thursday.[/quote]

Actually, slide #8 shows that there would still be a deficit of seats in SW Arlington, which is the poorest area of the county and where the county is agitating to add/concentrate even more affordable housing. Seems like redrawing the boundaries to draw in some of those students to Reed could be a good solution; it evens out some of the demographics, satisfies S Arlington parents, and alleviates some of the overcrowding.[/quote]

True, but they can also even out that SW issue by redistricting some of the SW kids to SE once the new S. Arl ES is finished. Overall, South Arlington has a net seat surplus in 2020/21 of +254 seats. Meanwhile, North Arlington combined has a deficit of -920. My point is that S. Arl should not assume they are going to get a piece of whatever they put in Reed, because that program is primarily directed at reducing the 920 student capacity issue in N. Arl. They will need all 725 seats to go to N. Arl students to make a dent in the overcrowding in the North (and especially in NE). So you can argue to make Reed a choice school, but don't assume that it will be open to you. It is likely to give preference to NE students for capacity reasons-- that is the only way the numbers support opening it as a choice school. (Again, I am not making this a policy debate about choice schools, and neither is APS. They are focused on the overcapacity numbers in deciding how to best use Reed.)
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