Reply to What do you expect from APS staff (option/neighborhood) on 4/30?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]--I'm a South Arlington parent. I'll answer for you. If I'm an UMC parent in the Henry, Oakridge, or Hoffman Boston walk zone, I want walkable neighborhood schools.

If I'm an UMC parent in any of the other zones, I want access to option programs (I am fine with a long bus ride, too, just want to be able to get into one).

If I'm a disadvantaged parent, I will send my kids to school wherever is closest and easiest to get to, don't mind too much if the kid has a short bus trip because then I don't have to walk them, but I want a school that is safe and welcoming, and I don't care so much about the program focus. Wherever we get in to VPI is where kid will go for Kindergarten.

If I am educated immigrant parent, I want access to option programs because we can't afford to live in-bounds to a "good" school, but we moved here just to give the kids a "good" education. So I want access to option programs. Or I'll report a fake address and send kids to the "good" school anyway.

Any questions?--

Another SA parent, PP;s statement above is truth. We are in the neighborhood of a low performing school and we choiced out when choicing out was an option. Now with the long waitlists at immersion and Campbell, that is not an option for SA parents who want out. Every single family on my block choiced out. Every single one. Families who move into the neighborhood often already have kids in private or in choice. One family down the street is moving before kids get into K, as are 4 other families I know of in the last couple years.  Something is really wrong with a school system when UMC of any ethnic group choice out of neighborhoods schools.

Don't force Barcroft to Randolph, families will literally leave the neighborhood or go private if they cannot get into a choice program. Only the lower income families on the edge of the neighborhood will be left. They get the scraps. Even if they all want immersion, there are not nearly enough seats to accommodate them.

Breaking up Barcroft will have very different consequences for UMC and poor families than doing the same to Nottingham. Very different considerations going on.[/quote]

In addition to not moving an option program to Barcroft, is there anything else you think could be done in this process to help things over there? I'm being very serious, I'm a NA parent so I won't pretend to understand the dynamics of SA, but I know my kids will be fine no matter what happens up by us and so to extent I can say anything people will listen to, I'd like to be able to help, or at the very least not hurt.[/quote]

Yes. First, the year-round calendar has to go. Even if it's just an excuse for why people don't want to go there, don't give them the excuse. Honestly, almost all the neighborhood have their kids in option schools, and it's sad for the kids on a different schedule to not be able to enjoy the summer with the rest of their friends. All the other kids are out playing, but the ones at Barcroft have to go in to bed because it's a school night for them. One year there was just one boy on our street at Barcroft and it was pitiful. The family had moved in to Barcroft not understanding the dynamic and weren't able to get a transfer out of Barcroft after the fact. They moved instead. I know there are families who do like it, or at least get used to it, but they are in the minority. And I would never advocate for doing away with a program that could demonstrate some type of improved outcome for disadvantaged kids. But it's not. Not in any way that an objective observer could measure. There is no data.

Second, keep the current boundary. If the boundary changes by moving much further S or further W, nothing else will matter. The fr/l rate will go up and nothing will induce UMC families/engaged families to enroll at Barcroft. And some families who have given it a shot based on the new principal might leave. I really hope this doesn't happen.

And Randolph, well, with their walk zone there doesn't seem to be much they can do to decrease poverty there. There just aren't enough SFH's in that boundary to balance out the low-income apartments. And if they change the boundary, then where do the kids in the boundary go? Over to Barcroft? Or Drew? I don't know. [/quote]

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