Reply to APS elementary planning initiative called off

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is probably going to get me flamed, but how about moving ATS to a bigger site like Reed?  The waiting list for ATS is ridiculously long -- its almost like HB in demand.  ATS is a good location for a neighborhood school for shorter bus times for the Ballston/VA square (that currently goes to Ashlawn) and you could either relieve crowding at glebe or have it shoot east and relieve crowding without having to move key.  Again not sure if there is the political will to do it.  
All do fairness, I live in Rosslyn, so I'd prefer that they make Key into a neighborhood school or move the immersion program to the ATS site, but I'd pick going to ATS (which is as metro accessible as ASFS) over trying to navigate buses to get to Taylor.  [/quote]

The problem with that is that NW is also overcrowded and needs more neigborhood seats. If they take what will be by far the largest school in that region as an option school they will actually make the boundaries up there even worse trying to relieve overcrowding. If an option school goes into NW, it has to be one of the smaller schools (but not Nottingham, because that school can take the most trailers to help cope with future overcrowding in the region).[/quote]

They aren't going to revisit the decision to make Reed neighborhood. The question is whether another school becomes an option school, and if so, which option? I think they could make a good case for any of them.[/quote]

That's kind of a backwards way to look at it because the schools are very differently situated in many of the relevant respects. We shouldn't decide on the school and then make the case to fit it, we should set out our needs and priorities for site selection and then choose the best sites based on that.[/quote]

In a perfect world, yes. But this is APS. They are trying to clean up a mess. The only reason they're even looking at this quadrant for an option program is because they are projecting an excess of neighborhood seats once Reed comes online, and have no good way to draw boundaries to fill the schools. All the school sites that were discussed as potential places for an option program are equally poor for one reason or another. So, to my mind, they could make an equally poor case for any of them. None make sense for Immersion or for a countywide option since none are centrally located. But, here we are. [/quote]

Come on, you can do better than that. Surely you could, at the very least, take a position on whether the schools with the greatest ability to flex their capacity via trailers should be option programs (giving APS the ability to increase program size as demand increases) or neighborhood schools (giving APS the ability to increase neighborhood capacity as needed between boundary reviews to address unexpected overcrowding).[/quote]

Not the PP, but obvious to me to make options bigger. Henry and Oakridge are so overcrowded for one reason: parents have been packing I to those zones to avoid the surrounding neighborhood schools. Making neighborhood schools like them bigger just worsens that problem and will lead to more frequent rezonings, lobbying, etc. make the option schools bigger and you give more people more choices. It's nice to have choices. Which behavior do you wa t to support, more self segregation, or more countywide integration?[/quote]

Okay, so let's leave Henry as it is and move Montessori to Fleet instead to give more option opportunities. I'm sure the sibling families who didn't get a spot for next year would be thrilled.[/quote]

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