Reply to Another choice school in N Arlington?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]BTW, Reed as an ES is NOT a done deal.  That was the super's recommendation.  It was never presented in any of the previous CIP meetings.  APS said they would form a working group to determine the location of the ES and Reed was only ever presented (publicly) as an early education center.  So, when the Super presented the plan to make Reed an ES and bypass the whole NAWG plan, even the Facilities Advisory Committee was caught off guard.  
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Speaking as someone who was part of the vaunted SAWG, I can tell you the result you'll get if you form a NAWG: you will delay the construction of a new school by about a year, and the end result will be the one APS had in mind all along. But, please do go ahead with the charade so that you can see for yourself. Truly, APS is out of good options, so the working groups are not going to magically find one. They won't let you include the Buck property, because APS doesn't and won't own it, just like SAWG wasn't allowed to include the VHC site, or the two different sites that developers were offering in exchange for up-zoning. But if you need this process so that you can come to the same conclusion, be my guest. Just trying to show you the real picture. [/quote]

Is there a good place to find this information?  I'd like to share this with neighbors pushing for a NAWG, but I think it would sound better if I had a source I would point them to other than DCUM.  :)[/quote]

The meeting minutes posted online: http://www.apsva.us/Page/30469

I haven't read them, so I'm not sure that they will accurately reflect the experience, or my take on the experience. I think they tried to be fair, certainly the facilitators did, but we weren't allowed to even consider some of the sites, and APS only did renderings of APS-owned sites (all were schools if I remember correctly, to show what the campuses would look like with two schools placed on them). Also, the people who joined the WG had preconceived ideas coming in about where a school should be, and really it was a lot of what you'd expect: most coming out for their own neighborhood or school or personal best interest. Ultimately, the group decided the need for a new school in 2019 was greater than finding the ideal location, which I agreed with even before joining the WG. Doesn't mean I think they chose the most ideal site. Basically, we have a bunch of truly shitty options moving forward. So, if APS and their advisory committees are recommending a certain site, and recommending that it's choice vs. neighborhood, it is out of necessity and not some hidden agenda and I don't think you'll be able to change much with a working group, but you might delay it, which is what happened down here. If I had it to do over again, I would've rather tucked my kids into bed all of those evenings. Cynical, I know, but my advice would be to save your energy to fight for ways to mitigate the traffic/parking/etc. issues, or to help guide which of the choice programs would be moved here (how to get the least bad out of of your set of options). [/quote]

Thanks for this![/quote]

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