Reply to APS Superintendent High School Overcrowding Plan

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Reply to "APS Superintendent High School Overcrowding Plan"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think I am going to send an email to both the school and county boards asking them to please, please, please work together to find the money to build a fourth full-size high school.

We know these kids are coming.  They are in the system already.  I don't want my kids doing flex scheduling  or alternate days.[b]  And I don't want them attending a 3,000 kid high school.[/b]  I want them to have a normal high school experience.

Raise our taxes if you need to.  But don't pass a plan that basically throws up its hands for 1,500 kids who won't have high school seats.  The time to buy land is NOW, not 10 years from now.[/quote]

I attended a high school with over 3,000 kids. That's not unusually large. 4,000 would be pushing it though. [/quote]

Can you tell us what state that was? Were they able to fit in 1 building or did you also use trailers ? Was it harder to make sports teams? TIA.[/quote]

Different poster here, but I too attended a HS with over 3,000 students, in suburban MD. The main differences that I see and why I think it won't work well here in Arlington is that my HS was built from the beginning to be that size, on a sprawling campus that was not affected much even when we exceeded capacity. We needed a few relocatables during my years there, but it wasn't a huge issue because we had an enormous campus, and they were able to put the trailers on the parking lot, which was also large, and it was not a big deal. Not a blade of grass was affected by overcrowding. The other major difference is that my school was a STEM magnet school. Out of the 900 or so kids in my class, only 200 (maybe 250, I don't remember) were in the magnet program, so I was part of a smaller school within a school. So I never felt really lost in the crowd. Nearly all of my classes were with the same core group of kids, and we got to know each other well and formed an insular social group. Since Arlington has neither the land, nor a plan to form smaller schools within schools, I think the mega-school idea just not a good one for Arlington. And if they move forward with building a small 750 seat for the lucky few, while the other three schools swell to 3,000 students, I can't imagine this doesn't end in some sort of lawsuit. [/quote]

TL; DR[/quote]

Well, I read it and I thought it was really helpful.  I'm the poster who doesn't want their kids attending a 3,000 kid high school.  It's just too easy to get lost in there.[/quote]

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