Reply to Please explain how Henry parent position on CC makes sense

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "Please explain how Henry parent position on CC makes sense"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NP. I’ve been following relatively closely but am confused by one thing. When the SB announced the hybrid solution — which I agree 100% was/is stupid, poorly thought out, and poorly articulated, and that Kenmore was/is the right choice for a 4th comprehensive HS — I read it entirely as choice seats for the CC site. I recall the presentation saying something about needing to settle on the educational focus, or whatever the lingo, for those seats. Fast forward 9 months or so, the neighborhoods in question are now rejecting inferior neighborhood seats (fair) *but also* rejecting additional choice seats. So how are we to read this as anything other than the neighborhoods making a grab for their own 4th comprehensive HS (which was basically already rejected as an option by the SB last year) and then throwing a hissy fit when they’re told that isn’t going to happen? Am I misremembering how we got here? Again, I completely and totally agree that this sucks and is stupid, but I don’t see how these neighborhoods truly expected some other outcome. Arl Heights poster and others in the know, what’s the answer?

And please, I’m on the 22204 list serve and am by now familiar with the talking points. Yes, it’s unfair to have inferior neighborhood seats. Yes, no other site has so many choice seats. I’m trying to figure out if I’m really missing information, or if the advocates have just wholly bought into their own spin. [/quote]

As I recall, only a short time before the hybrid option came down the SB decided to expand Arl Tech by another 800 (now 600) seats and brought up CTE to 300 seats. Once people started hearing about this they conflated it with the hybrid option seats, and then lost some trust when it was explained to them that the SB planned to add 1900 seats over the next couple of years but had only really advertised about 800 of those seats. Most of that number were choice seats, but when the SB refused to commit to an educational focus for the 800, that started to worry people. The nightmare scenario was that the SB would say these would "probably" be choice seats while they built it, only to be unable to fill these seats and then switch gears to make it a neighborhood school without any of the facilities. (We've seen this borne out to an extent as Arl Tech, which is a great program, has struggled to meet its enrollment targets). And why else would the SB refuse to commit to a focus at that point but to preserve that option down the road? If you're the neighborhood in that situation, you have several choices: 
1)Do Nothing. Wait as the process plays itself out, and hope that the SB doesn't decide to screw the rare neighborhood that has yet to demand anything from them.
2)Go full NIMBY and threaten to burn this mother down (I like to call this the "Glencarlyn gambit") 
3)Push the SB to commit to making them choice seats. The problem with this is that A)There's already a lot of choice seats and that's a big burden on the neighborhood in terms of traffic and construction w/out much in return, and B)you can't stop the school board from reversing itself later on when the students don't show up. Which seems more likely if they don't bother to put in at least some of the trappings of a high school, like a field space. 
4)Push the SB to admit it's preserving the option for neighborhood seats because it is very likely to actually need them, and it would be better for the entire county to recognize this fact before spending $100 million on a gamble to avoid building a 4th high school, only to be in an even worse fiscal position once it realizes the gamble failed.

It's clear from the fact that so many Arlington residents are accusing the neighborhood of a brazen "grab" followed by "hissy fits" and "buying their own spin," that the correct answer was, and always will be 2). Don't play along with the County because they will likely try to screw you. And don't ask for anything from the county like fair or equal treatment because then you're just a selfish jerk. Just say no and fight it all tooth and nail, and hope that someone else ends up getting screwed instead, because you can be sure that's the other neighborhood's plan for you.

I've learned a lot about my fellow Arlingtonians during this process.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics