Reply to APS Elementary Planning Mtg at Swanson - Option 1 in, Option 2 out, McKinley Moms out of contro

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Reply to "APS Elementary Planning Mtg at Swanson - Option 1 in, Option 2 out, McKinley Moms out of contro"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I also agree that APS has been very engaged and transparent.  Some people confuse 'you don't listen to me' with 'you don't agree with me.'[/quote]

This 100%.  The staff has been very clear about the alternatives they considered and why they weren't chosen and (as someone with no skin in the game) the recommendation seems reasonable. The only objections really come down to "I personally will be inconvenienced so the plan is bad.". Not agreeing with you is not the same as not listening.

I also think the charge that they already knew what they wanted to do before putting it out for wider community input is ridiculous. It's their job to figure this out! Of course they should have a well-informed point of view![/quote]

The tagline “Save McKinley” is unfortunate. It was a knee-jerk reaction to a surprise announcement, but in the weeks since the tone has changed and the focus is really on the numbers. Key’s current building needs to be a neighborhood school, fine. But Central Arlington has been overcrowded too. We’ve all been looking forward to Reed opening to alleviate the crowding at McKinley and the Key move will allow some of the Eastern tail of Ashlawn to move, alleviating crowding there. The main issue is that the board cited data that is flawed or incomplete. Historically the SB has done a poor job of predicting how many kids will come from apartment buildings. Given the pace of building near Ballston and VA Square, we’re worried that they will under-predict again. The reason the McKinely folks are sensitive  to the county and SB telling them to shut up and trust the numbers is because they made a mistake - not counting a whole planning unit - that caused McKinley to go through a renovation and still open over capacity. It’s really hard for Ashlawn and McKinely to trust the numbers when such historic miscalculations have caused our kids to have trailers taking up their playgrounds. It’s hard to come up with good alternatives when the preschool numbers aren’t in the mix. It’s hard because no one knows what the current Key and ATS families will do. I’ve heard several Ashlawn families say they applied to ATS to be shielded from the boundary changes. They didn’t get in, so that ship has sailed, which pokes a hole is the whole “super long wait list” that ATS claims is why they need to expand. Most ATS kids come from the nearest neighborhoods, so moving it to MCKinley will make it less attractive to many families. [/quote]

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