Reply to Who said there isn't a North-South divide?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No it doesn’t. It’s one county. S Arlington is approximately 1/3 of the size of N Arlington.[b] It’s an Arlington problem. [/quote][/b]

One that can't be addressed countywide without "busing." You can nibble at the edges with boundaries across 50, but not too much, and you will still probably end up with more schools closer to 50%. As I said before, this would be better than the current state of a couple of school (one of which IS in North Arlington) continuing to have poverty levels above 65%. Look at a map. You push SFH from Ashlawn into Carlin Springs, then you have to move some of the high density CAFs near Columbia Pike to an adjacent school. What are the adjacent schools? Barcroft (59%) or Abingdon (47%). I think it would have to be Anbjngdin if we're doing this for fr/l balancing. So, then you move some kids from Barcroft to Barrett? Well, the closest PUs to Barrett are the wealthiest part of Barcroft. So maybe you then push a few of the Buckingham PUs to Long Brach, bringing Barrett's fr/l percentage down from 65%, probably not all the way to 50% though, and Long Branch goes up a bit. But back to Barcroft, now who do you move into Barcroft to fill it? Can't move Alcova, they are already in the zone, for now. What else is adjacent? If you take some of Arlington Forest N to Barcroft, that takes higher income families out of Barrett. Then there's  Randolph. Okay, so that's not going to help Barcroft with fr/l numbers. There is no way to move the kids around to adjacent boundaries that would get the numbers to the countywide averages, and if you're waiting for countywide busing, it'll never happen. I still say aiming for 50% for the current highest poverty schools is better than accepting a few outliers. 50% gives your school Title 1 money, plus 50% of the kids from non-disadvantaged homes. This is a good position to be in, and definitely better than a school that's around 80% fr/l with no PTA. If you want North Arlington to be part of this conversation, go to the CB and advocate for Affordable Housing in N Arlington outside of Buckingham, Courthouse, and Rosslyn. That's the only way this changes. [/quote]

This is exactly the problem with absolute contiguity and proximity being the sole controlling factors in boundary decisions. Locating immersion in the midst of the highest concentration of FRL-eligible families also could be a significant help because more lower-income students would likely attend the program and boundaries shift around - in multiple directions - for the other schools. Kids who are going to be bused to school no matter do not have to be bussed to the closest school and they don't have to be bused to the farthest school, either.  They can go somewhere in the middle that at least attempts to address better SED balance.  Shift boundaries around clockwise and strategically locate the choice programs with SED draw.  Some inconvenience of change and going to a school a little farther away for some families (north and south) is worth the academic and social benefits for all families.

Just so you know, people in this County HAVE been advocating for affordable housing in NA.  But until NA stops objecting and finding ways to avoid or limit it and the CB and APAH and AHC and other developers choose to actually listen, it isn't going to happen.  In the meantime, APS needs to take steps to mitigate the harmful impacts of "the Arlington Way" on schools.[/quote]

It will never happen. A significant portion of NA is deeply conservative: they have theirs, and don't want to change or share ina meaningful way; they will happily pay for AH, of course, as long as it's not in NA.[/quote]

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