Reply to South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There is a powerpoint presentation from that work session online now.

I'm a new poster to this thread, and have read the previous posts. As a preface, our house is zoned for Drew, and that's fine. We've lived here for 6 years and while I'd have preferred to have sent our kid to Montessori at Drew, he probably wouldn't have gotten in anyway. He's in a private Montesori school now and it's becoming clear that APS Montessori only accepts a handful to none of those students as kindergartners or 1st graders. So Drew it is, for the time being.

I'm aware of how bad the graded program scores are at Drew, and so redrawing the boundaries can only improve a school that's had like, 5 principals in six years, one of them a drunk. I'm optimistic, in that regard. I'm not sure what the standards are, but it seems to me that absent an influx of MC students to fill the void left by Montessori leaving Drew, it could be in danger of losing accreditation? I mean, the scores must be truly atrocious, when you consider that the Montessori program is 2 or 3 times larger than the graded program and the combined scores are still the lowest in the county by large margin.

I'm curious where APS thinks it's going to find such MC families nearby that won't pitch a fit at the prospect of getting rezoned to the worst performing school in the county. The scores are not just bad relative to other Arlington elementaries; they are really bad, period.

I guess there's that triangle currently zoned to Henry that is bordered by Glebe, Walter Reed, and the Pike, which seems a likely candidate. Is that enough? I've also heard Abingdon and Oakridge. It seems to me that moving Oakridge students to Drew is probably the top priority, because of overcrowding. The cynic is me thinks what'll probably happen is that the SB will cave to MC and UMC Oakridge parents who don't want to roll the dice on Drew, and so will draw a boundary east of 395 to include basically rental housing, and no owner-occupied housing. I'm probably being too negative, but the Arlington Forest/Wakefield episode is a precedent.

What's the consensus here on Drew's future boundary?
[/quote]

Good question. I’m in that triangle you referred to where everyone thinks we might be rezoned to Drew. However, I don’t think that alone is enough - there are still plenty of rental properties that seem somewhat transient.

Apparently the consensus is that Drew will be an entirely new school once the boundary change happens (new principal, lots of new staff, etc) so we shouldn’t focus on the current scores. At least that’s what a few of us have been told on this thread and others when we expressed concern over the stark contrast between current Henry/will-be Fleet and current Drew. I get the distinct feeling we’re not entitled to pitch a fit because we’re in S. Arlington and should have known better.[/quote]

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