Reply to APS/SA boundary redrawing

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]To PP who corrected me on Montessori 2/3: thank you for info. We also are afraid of efforts, direct or inadvertent, to strangle Montessori. Killing it in the crib of Henry would be very convenient (although not painless in that there would still be a few hundred kids to redirect). 
Still, the school boards before O'Grady joined were amazingly ignorant of the program - I don't mean they were insufficient cheerleaders, I mean they seemed to know nothing. And yet the program is one of the most successful in closing skills gap, diversity, etc. Also the oldest. Now, we wonder why there is a sudden registration issue dramatically under-filling slots? And why in the plan for Henry is it being capped at 400-something with no growth. Every other school, and especially choices, are expected to be 700ish and grow with school growth. If APS doesn't intend to try to kill it, they should know they are raising fears unnecessarily. [/quote]

I'm that PP. I'm also a Montessori parent though frankly I"m just not very involved (no PTA, don't go to many Montessori-centric events). But, I don't know about some of the above. I did go to the Montessori meeting last winter at Henry and I left with the understanding that Montessori in fact will be growing just like all the other elementaries. They certainly aren't taking those trailers away anytime soon. Seems much more likely that APS just bungled process and numbers vs. any type of master plan.

All that said, the plans for use of the Career Center site are nuts and I do expect Montessori to move again within 5-8 years to make room for whatever the HS program will eventually be.[/quote]

The concerns and sympathy are unwarranted.  Montessori doesn't even really WANT the Henry building.  They just wanted their own space and the moment O'Grady took her oath of office she began scheming for a new Montessori space.  Or at least tried with the Ed Center debacle.  Don't be fooled by Montessori or by O'Grady for an instant.
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What did Montessori think was going to happen when they started pushing for their own space? Montessori getting its own space = taking over a neighborhood school. Don't tell me you thought you'd get the new Fleet building?[/quote]

I think montesorri was actually surprised when they got the Henry building. Keep in mind, the Nauck CA has been trying to reclaim the Drew building for at least 15 years. their kids are all adults now, of course. I don't think we should feel sorry for the program or anything, but we're talking about a chain of events here with several moving pieces, including an organized effort to push them out of Drew. And, it may be too good to be true. The program is not growing, despite having the Henry building to itself. No one outside of the APS montessori preschool classrooms was given a spot in the elementary program; the preschoolers are guaranteed admission. A lot of the enmity on here towards montessori seems to be the perception that "private" montessori kids are the bulk of the students. Nope. Not one has been given admission to Drew in 2 years, and there is no indication any will for the foreseeable future. Then there's the fact that in a few years, the Henry building will be torn down to build the high school, at which point montessori will lose its building and at least at the moment, no one can say where they will go, though everyone "expects" that the program won't simply dissolve.[/quote]

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