Reply to APS Middle School Boundary Changes

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Why do the break up the kids from Middle school going to high school? Elementary kids in one school should all funnel to the same middle school and then should all funnel from middle to high school together. There are 6 middle schools and 2 middle schools should fully funnel to each of the 3 high schools, correct?[/quote]

Unless you've looked at the Abingdon zone and fixed it, no other zone gets as jerked around in each transition.[/quote]

Ashlawn parents would like a word [/quote]

Is Ashlawn split into 3 middle schools?[/quote]

DP, and wholeheartedly agree that the Abingdon feeder pattern to middle schools (and even to high schools) is the worst in APS. Abingdon goes to three middle schools. Abingdon-Kenmore and Abingdon-TJ are both particularly problematic, as Abingdon-Kenmore splits to two high schools, and I think Abingdon-TJ also splits to two. So, there are significant disruptions in the ES-MS transition, and again in the MS-HS transition.

If there is a more disruptive pattern in APS, I don't know about it. It's a great idea that PP had to send all ES students to the same middle school. I think Abingdon families would just like to see their kids going to only two.   [/quote]

A simple solution like sending all kids at an elementary school to one middle school hasn’t been overlooked, it just doesn’t work across the board in Arlington.[/quote]

Yup. It really can’t work even at the middle school level, if we assign two middle schools to each high school. Unless the community is willing to give up certain benefits like walkability/proximity to schools.

When Arlington Tech is complete, that would likely be that last time for APS to pursue some kind of once-in-a-generation, large scale boundary change at all school levels. But they punted on doing that after the W-L addition. So they may decide not to do it again. [/quote]
It's just not that big a deal that kids aren't in the same cohort from K-12.  I even think it's good to have splits and new social combinations.  It mixes up the social dynamics and encourages kids to make new friends. Arlington also isn't that big a place so kids who are close can't still stay friends outside of school.[/quote]

They just need to build enough school seats to allow transfers for those that are really impacted by a split — but instead of a 4th comprehensive they are gambling on AT — which will have trouble filling i guarantee. The advantage of HB is that’s is small, AT neither has the the TJHS rigor nor the intimacy and personal touch of HBW. Heck, it doesn’t even have its own campus!  Getting to 1600 will take a long time, and the other schools will be way over capacity.

Only hope is the global demographic cliff of no more babies; that is what they are counting on I suspect. [/quote]

Why do you think AT will have trouble filling? I don't think it will. It's sought after already and that's in an old crappy building. [/quote]

It’s only attracting kids right now because it’s small when it’s almost the same size as Yorktown they will be very little benefit[/quote]

I don't think that's true. The kids I know who are there are not interested because of its size. [/quote]

:lol: Yeah just like no one admits they went to HBW because of its small size. It’s for the community and open ended curriculum. [/quote]

How old are your own kids, PP? And do you have a kid at either AT or HB? You sound like you know nothing about either program and are making a lot of wrong assumptions. [/quote]

We are in middle school, we know plenty of families at HBW, in fact even many families with multiple siblings at HBW.

No one in our NA neighborhood is talking about AT for 9th grade. Because they recognize it’s a band aid for high school overcrowding not a real program. [/quote]

Don’t blame the program itself. The genesis of Arlington Tech predates the overcrowding solution the school board voted on. People forget, but that solution was based on community input. [/quote]

Sure, but the plan to expand it to 1400 students and basically make it the defacto less-than neighborhood school to address overcrowding definitely happened well after 2012, when the proposals for a 4th comprehensive high school were being discussed with APS parent groups.[/quote]

Sure. For a rough timeline: Kenmore was explored for a new comprehensive high school in the mid 2010s until the neighborhoods there blocked it. Other sites were also explored, even as far away as Long Bridge Park. The final decisions as implemented were made in 2016 or 2017. That was after APS realized they could not fit a football stadium, pool and a comprehensive high school at the Career Center site. For a brief time, the neighborhood there lobbied for a vertical, high rise comprehensive high school. All kinds of crazy ideas were thrown around like putting the pool on the roof. Not sure where the football field would have gone. Locating that at TJ was not feasible. Fast forward to today— the Penrose community is pretty psyched about the new Grace Hopper campus, even if it’s not the high rise comprehensive high school they wanted.

So the three part solution the majority in the community liked at the time was to plop a new and large state-of-the-art Arlington Tech / Grace Hopper campus in Penrose, gut and renovate the Ed Center for W-L, and finally do a once-in-a-generation comprehensive boundary change for all schools at all levels. APS is doing it all except the county-wide boundary changes, which were cancelled during/after the pandemic, and after the planning team was fired. [/quote]

Nope that's not how I remember it. The community around the Career Center site lobbied hard against a comprehensive high school at that site. Very hard. And they won. That's why there isn't a fourth HS and there's a choice program there instead. [/quote]

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