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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Anonymous wrote:
Busing and teams will just subject some kids to long bus rides, and then you will have a white flight situation like ACPS.

This is a joke, right? Arlington is the smallest county in America. There is no such thing as a long bus ride in Arlington.

[b]Actually there is one route that takes from 1:06-1:20[/b] for drew elementary this year. That’s the longest route.[/quote]

Thanks for proving my point!  :) 
[/quote]

That is an idiotically long ride for ES kids.  Why put a kid on a bus at 7:30 when they don't need to be there until 8:50?  On the flip side, they aren't getting home until close to 5!  Ridiculous.[/quote]

I’m not sure anyone actually rides it. Any route that long to Drew would be a Montessori student, and would have to live near Chain Bridge. My guess is such student doesn’t actually exist.[/quote]

Yep, must be Montessori and if that ride exists, [b]it was your CHOICE to have your child in Montessori and thus not on a much shorter bus ride to your neighborhood school. [/b]The boundary for the Drew neighborhood program is tiny and no one rides the bus very far. [/quote]

This chain is about the idea of teams to desegregate, right? That would have to include non-optional busing or else nothing would change. APS would also have to do some creative and gerrymandered drawing of team boundaries, and even then I can't see how you get Nottingham, Discovery, and Jamestown into a group with any low income schools without making islands. [/quote]
I don't have time to create the actual map, but I think you could draw boundaries such that the teams are a little more balanced and palpable.  
Something like:
Abingdon, Drew, Oakridge, Hoffman-Boston
Fleet, Long Branch, Barcroft, Randolph
Ashlawn, Carlin Springs, Mckinley, Tuckahoe
ASFS, Taylor, Jamestown, new neighborhood school at Key if that ever happens
Glebe, Barrett, Discovery, Nottingham
[/quote]

All this does is spread the low-income students more across the south arlington schools.  Not many Latino families in the Carlin Springs community are going to opt for Ashlawn, let alone McKinley or Tuckahoe.  This simply brings Oakridge and Fleet back in the direction they came from.
What's the point of ASFS, Taylor Jamestown, Key?  That's exactly what there is NOW - and look how diverse those schools are![/quote]

People need to start thinking outside the box....There are ways to integrate schools and make them all great schools.
My recommendation is to breakout the elementary schools to a K-2 school and a 3-5 school. Combine boundaries and integrate two schools to form a separate community. Benefits and drawbacks? Yes - You will be in your neighborhood school for 3 years, and then you will have to go to another school a little farther way, but the schools may be more reflective of the overall Arlington Community. For example, combine Ashlawn and Carlin Springs, McKinley and Barrett, Fleet and Randolph, Oakridge and Hoffman Boston, etc. The key is to start thinking outside of the box.

What are other communities doing? People spend WAY TOO MUCH TIME on DCUM complaining. Instead, we can think about people researching best practices, and other initiatives happening in like-communities across the country? Research how successfully/unsuccessfully Sweden and other countries are educating and assimilating their immigrant populations. We are a county full of smart people from all different perspectives. I think we should stop bit**ing and start looking at best practices. Think beyond the normal. This is not a new problem and now we have the ability to understand best practices from a global perspective. [/quote]

No other community has solved this problem. Option schools are the best shot because they don’t require people to give up steak for a hamburger. The solution is to make integrated schools a desirable thing that people voluntarily CHOOSE to attend. All schools are choice schools when you have enough money to buy a home in Arlington. [/quote]

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