Reply to APS Families--Pls email county and school boards by Tues. 5/24!!

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I just hope that if people are emailing the county and school boards they are being clear about what reasonable measures parents are willing to tolerate the help the capacity crunch (like a 9th grade academy and having bigger schools) and to make the other arguments that several posters have outlined above (like the need to mitigate the negative impacts on the thousands of kids who will go through the system over the next 20 years) -- to give the politicians the words they need to push back on the affordable housing and other lobbies and make schools a priority. Just telling the boards "make schools a priority" doesn't help them much. [/quote]

I don't think writing in and asking the Boards to build a new high school while at the same time saying "I am also okay with a 9th grade academy and/or adding seats to the existing schools so that they are massive, massive schools." is a very helpful strategy.  Why are people pushing this 9th grade academy so hard?  I don't think it makes sense to mention it at all, since doing it just buys some time and puts a new high school further down on the timeline, since they'd have to allocate millions and millions of dollars to make the academy happen.

Just write in discussing the ideas suggested that you hate, such as the alternative scheduling and internet learning and making the existing schools very, very big.  It's not necessary to discuss every single option.  But the options that have been suggested are unacceptable and what is really needed is a new high school, and the Boards need to work towards that.[/quote]

Because politics is give and take and parents don't hold a trump card here--they have to compromise. So show that they are ALREADY compromising -- W-L is already huge, and the other two high schools are going to be a lot bigger. Remind the county board about that. Then say, we STILL need a new school. You can't just send an email to the county board saying it's self-evident that we need a new high school. It's not, and you are just wasting your time if you don't provide some support for your position. The interests you are competing against are well organized and have lots of data supporting their positions. [/quote]

You can certainly write an effective letter by saying that you are a taxpaying resident of Arlington with kids who will be attending high school in 5-10 years and the proposed half-solutions to the capacity problems -- including schedule shifting and internet learning -- are untested and wholly inadequate.  You don't need to write a letter with footnotes, and you certainly don't have to go in offering compromises that you don't believe in like the 9th grade academy (if you are against that as I am).  [/quote]

Also, you never begin by asking for the compromise. [/quote]

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