Reply to APS middle school boundary process

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Some of you guys posting here are just talking out of your asses and not looking at the map. We're talking about several Dominion Hills streets that are less than 1/2 mile from Swanson. If we want more diversity as a County, fine. Then lets break up the walk zones at all the middle schools. But this plan targets one walk zone at one middle school in one of the only areas in North Arlington that has welcomed affordable housing. But go ahead, peel off the walkers from that neighborhood. Meanwhile Williamsburg sits at 4% FARMS and only 93% utilization. You know who is pushing this plan the most? All those Nottingham and Discovery and Jamestown parents... sacrifice the Westover walkers and it makes South Arlington feel like the School Board has addressed "diversity"- meanwhile they get to keep their wall up around 22207. [/quote]

I don't think you are being persecuted. Geography alone makes you a target, and walls off the others. There is not some big conspiracy now, and there wasn't during the HS boundary decision against Arlington Forest. I know you guys got hosed in the ES boundary decision a few years ago, and that [i]was[/i] deliberate, since it involved a campaign by parents. But these scenarios were created by staff without any input from the public beforehand.

I'm not some rube, just a pragmatist who doesn't feel that perfect should be the enemy of good. I don't think any of the current scenarios are perfect, but they are an imperfect attempt to balance community priorities, including diversity and proximity. Those two criteria seem to be the two most common priorities based on what I've heard here, at the meetings, and during the HS boundary debate, with probably an even split of half favoring diversity and half favoring proximity. My understanding is that the blended options are meant to be conversation starters. So can we come up with a better plan? Something that maybe keeps the fr/l rates a little closer together (or at the very least holds the numbers steady at the schools with the highest rates), and keeps most walkers walking? Are there scenarios that don't involve islands that would maintain diversity at Williamsburg? Probably hard to do, given the location of the new school, but if someone can figure it out I can't imagine anyone would fight it.

Anyone have access to enough planning level data take a crack at this? Did anyone save files from the HS boundary decision? I know it wasn't perfect data, but it's better than just guessing.[/quote]

You aren't "balancing" diversity and proximity by only disrupting the walk zone at one school. That's saying to Westover that their walk zone is not as important as everyone else's walk zone. On map 1H, you can just as easily take Williamsburg kids who live in the lower middle of the Williamsburg zone and are already on a bus and move them down Glebe Road or George Mason to Carlin Springs. Busting up the Swanson walk zone also disregards the traffic impact to Westover, which is about to get a new 725 student elementary school blocks away from Swanson. [/quote]

I think "balancing" means balancing on the whole of Arlington, not necessarily for every individual PU. I don't love this option, I've already said that. But can somebody come up with an alternative that the SB might actually adopt that has a similar effect? Meaning, no islands. [/quote]

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