Reply to Projected Overcrowding in High School APSVA

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Meanwhile HB Woodlawn has seen zero growth since moving to the new building. They still plan for just around 80 kids per MS grade and around 115 per HS grade. The lottery only accepted 75 6th graders and 26 9th graders (bringing the total 9th grade class next year to just 107 since they currently have 81 8th graders and I’m sure at least one or two will decide to move to another school). They really need to increase their enrollment to 100 per MS grade as promised when plans for them to move to the new building were being discussed.  HS grades should each be at 125 at a minimum. They would still be a small program with these numbers.   [/quote]

HB is a perfect example of APS's fraud, waste and abuse of tax payer dollars.[/quote]

Just stop it. All those kids would be back in the three comprehensive high schools if HB was still on Vacation Lane (where they wanted to stay) and that building was a neighborhood middle school, as originally proposed when they decided not to sell the land. And building it taller to hold more kids would have been cost-prohibitive. There are no fields.

If you have somewhere to put 900 middle and high schoolers, by all means, let us know where to build that school. [/quote]

I believe many of us are not asking for HB to go away - at least I'm not. We are asking for them to do the same as every other secondary school in Arlington and that is to grow. To take just 75 6th graders and then add just 26 9th graders each year is ridiculous. There should have been some growth after they moved into the new building. You quote 900 MS and HS kids in your post but they don't have nearly that many. Current HB enrollment - as of Feb 2021 - is just 241 MS and 449 HS students. That is just 690 kids for combined 6-12 grades, unbelievably small. Yes, the building is shared with the Shriver program, but that program has just 35 kids in grades 6-12, so that brings the number of students currently in the Heights building up to 725. Building capacity is 775.  Why is the HB program not growing if there is capacity for at least 50 more students?  Why did they lottery in just 26 9th graders when current 8th grade enrollment is just 82? If they are planning for class sizes to be just 75 -80 in MS and 108-115 in HS that means APS is planning for HB enrollment to remain at just between 657-700? That is no where near the 900 you quoted, or even the official building capacity of 775. [/quote]

This year is weird, look at the trend. They have been going up every year since 2016 in preparation for the move, and last year were at about 250 middle school and 475 high school (meaning they grew by about 10 percent in five years).

They need to add kids at 6th and 9th, so that the middle school grows and the high school grows on top of the middle schoolers who stay for high school. However, that means they need to retain the middle school growth and it looks like more kids than they expected didn't move to The Heights in 2019 and didn't come this year, so now they have to rebuild some. They had been adding 20 kids a year and will get back on track hopefully next year. [/quote]

Looking at the trend, I agree, they were growing. HB enrollment then suddenly went back down and based on the lottery admissions this past month for next school year, they have no plan to go back to the numbers they were at when the building first opened.

March 2016: 232 MS, 425 HS, Total: 657
February 2017: 244 MS  441 HS  Total:685 
February 2018: 249 MS,  454 HS Total: 703
February 2019: 247 MS,  461 HS Total: 708
Move to new building
February 2020: 243 MS,  473 HS Total:716
February 2021 241 MS,  449 HS, Total: 690

February 2022: (projection based on 6th/9th grade lottery admissions and current enrollment): 
                     234 MS, 452 HS, Total: 686  (add a few admin transfers...so let's say they are back to 690)

Essentially, all of the HB enrollment growth we were seeing is now gone and we are back to 2017 pre-move HB enrollment numbers. How is this acceptable when there is a huge waiting list? It doesn't matter if this year was weird. If someone left APS because they didn't like how things were mostly DL this year, someone on the waiting list should have been offered their seat. Did this not happen?

Maybe I'm missing something but the numbers just don't add up - HB families keep telling me they are doing their fair share of growing like the rest of APS schools, but I'm not seeing it. Happy for someone to correct me and point out where the additional seats are located which would bring them up to 100% capacity of 775 seats.   Please don't say it's the Shriver program. They have just about 35 seats.

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