Reply to APS Elementary Planning Mtg at Swanson - Option 1 in, Option 2 out, McKinley Moms out of contro

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Reply to "APS Elementary Planning Mtg at Swanson - Option 1 in, Option 2 out, McKinley Moms out of contro"

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[quote=Anonymous]09:14, I think part of the problem is that McKinley is so focused on their own self-interest that they fundamentally misunderstand the goal of this process.  Opponents of these proposal keep shouting about how moving schools doesn't create new seats, but the staff knows this.  Unfortunately APS has limited capital investment funds, though, so they have a limited ability to add new seat capacity.  They've done a lot through additions to existing schools, but their running out of sites where they can expand existing schools on a more cost-effective basis than building a new school, so the answer can't be to leave all of the schools where they are and make spot additions where needed -- there simply isn't the money for that.

So the way APS is trying to address the overcrowding issue is to figure out where they can more effectively add new capacity, either through a new school or in places where it's still cost-effective to expand existing schools, and target their capital projects there, and then address the needs of the other zones by shifting around existing capacity.  For this purpose, the zone system makes a lot of sense because people don't want their kids bused miles away past two other neighborhood schools to get to their own neighborhood school, they want their kids to go to their local neighborhood school.  This is something the McKinley advocates don't understand, or don't want to acknowlege -- they all live within the McKinley walk zone so crazy McKinley boundaries are fine wtih them.  But they're not thinking at all about why the Ashlawn tail that has been clamoring to go ASFS  because it's their local school won't see going to McKinley (even further from them than Ashlawn) as an acceptable alternative.

APS has identified Zone 3 as the one that's going to see some of the greatest growth in the next several years *and* that has the most potential for cost-effective seat construction.  Therefore, this process is about moving option schools around to balance the number of neighborhood seats against anticipated student population in Zones 1, 2 and 4.  Proposal 2 actually would have been the best from this standpoint, but the other challenges it created were more than the community would tolerate, so proposal 1 is the compromise solution.  And it's a good one if you look at the needs of the whole community, including (arguably even particularly) for the more disadvantaged students in APS.[/quote]

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