Reply to The demise of McKinley ES (APS)

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Anonymous wrote:
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They are not going to budge. They’ve sunk a lot of time and money into these proposals. They made a video! They planned this all summer. We might get a SB surprise. They love to do that. But staff won’t change course. That’s my prediction. And not sure they should. These are some pretty well thought plans.

The first plan is well thought out. The second one is not. It’s just too many moves and more than they really need to do to get reasonable boundaries around Reed. It also boxes them in for planning additions/new schools in the SW quadrant in the next CIP.

I disagree. The second plan was more thoughtful and nuanced - that's why more schools are involved!!

Where’s the nuance in moving a program away from the thing that makes it special and appealing just to take away neighborhood seats? Taking Carlin Springs offline isn’t smart until they have built a new school or addition in the SW quadrant. That’s why. Unlike the Key to ATS swap, this swap takes away neighborhood seats. It gives the bigger building to an option program. And either they plan to shrink the Campbell boundary, in which case many neighborhood kids will have to be bused to schools outside of their neighborhood not by choice, or they will put them in trailers rather than keep them in existing permanent seats until an adopted is built.

The idea is that many of those displaced Carlin Springs students will enter the immersion program. Then, CS' FRL goes down - and Campbell's goes up in its place.

Only if there's a neighborhood preference. If there's still a lottery there's no guarantee that more than a handful will enter it.

Assuming the lottery is like it is today, there is no need for neighborhood preference for native speakers. They can show up and register up to the week before school starting -- there isn't a waiting list and the spots are held for them. If APS does any outreach (which could be as simple as the registrar at Campbell/Barcroft/Ashlawn/whereever letting them know the program exists), there has to be an improvement versus how many kids apply now. 
Did I miss something -- isn't Campbell already a Title 1 school even though its a county wide option (because most of the seats go to VPI)? How does making it a neighborhood school really effect things that much, considering up until last year it was a neighborhood school (there was neighborhood preference right)? It seems like they are trying to create another school like Randolph, which honestly may not be a bad idea since it allows them to really concentrate services and they make it an almost 100% walking school. I think its unfortunate that they have to move the EL program, but it doesn't seem like Campbell is a real county wide option as it is right now, since they reserve so many seats for VPI.

UGH!! This is exactly the mentality causing the problems! [/quote]

So here is the reality - they will never zone across 50.  Look at the uproar from N. Arlington having to move from 1 all rich school school to another all rich school.  They will never use N. Arlington to fix segregation south of 50.

Reality part 2 - there are so many frl kids in the south (really the population numbers are astounding) that any attempt to rezone only south of 50 where you purposely tried to spread poverty,  would just make every single school south of 50 over 50% frl and ever rising due to continued housing policies.

Reality part 3 - right now there are a handful of schools South of 50 that have balanced demographics and are pretty good.  The people who live in those neighborhoods paid a premium to go to those schools (just like the people in N. Arlington did) and do not want their schools rezoned to be high poverty. Especially if its an only South Arlington solution while North Arlington sits with their 10% frl rates.

So unless you are going to topple the entire power structure of the County to dismantle the Affordable Housing beast; and also somehow force County-wide busing along North-South lines; and stay in power long enough to continue to enforce that busing --- There is no solution to this. Ever.

At which point you have to decide what is the best of a very bad situation - some 100% poverty schools with wrap around services that do the best they can while you maintain some good schools and decent pockets of prosperity South of 50? Or fully sacrifice half the County?  If Arlington rezoned every school south of 50 to be over 50% poverty the UMC and MC would bail. And then you end up with every school in a death spiral.

saying that "this mentality causes the problems" is disingenuous at best. Housing Policy and segregation caused the problems.

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I disagree that South Arlington families would bail at 50%. That’s a totally workable number and what Henry had when it was posting some great results and just a few years before Blue Ribbon status. It’s good to have Title 1 money and still be able to raise PTA funds. That’s a number where many families decide to stick around and really try to invest in their own communities, rather than moving N or W, because nobody moves to South Arlington for the low poverty schools. Families bail closer to 60%, and when they get the message that their kids are not a priority at all. Making a “community” school that really only addresses the symptoms of poverty, without providing any of the opportunities or enrichment of lower poverty schools just a mile away only accelerates segregation and limits opportunities for children of all backgrounds. [/quote]

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