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

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

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

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is what happens at Campbell. There is a huge VPI class and between that class and siblings there are few spaces left in the lottery.[/quote]

Interesting, I hadn't realized that was the case at Campbell. I'm a believer in making preschool more available to low and middle income families. It's the source of achievement gaps- these gaps everyone is concerned about are large and evident by kindergarten and so it's preschool that matters. Kids who don't go really do get to elementary school far behind peers who did go. Pretty much all well-off kids in Arlington go to preschool, mostly private ones because there's no room at aps ones. I'm ok with that. My kid does, I happily pay the equivalent of a second mortgage because I value education.

That said, making option schools unavailable to UMC families like mine is eventually going to have consequences. It's not going to "force" me to send my kid to a neighborhood school that is great at teaching English and study skills to 1st gen immigrants but lacks resources to challenge other kinds of kids in other ways, and has no PTA. Families like mine will just move if they see no pathway to a diverse elementary school with at least average test scores and parent involvement. And that will just lead to increased segregation.[/quote]

They're not trying to make option schools unavailable to you. My heavens, the privilege. You CAN move, that's the difference. Also, by trying to re-locate the option schools to certain neighborhoods, they ARE suggesting the only way to get more balance is through choice, because doing it by force doesn't seem to be working and people like you DO move, and you take your time and money with you and that leaves some schools, and the children who have NO CHOICE about where they live, at a distinct disadvantage. [/quote]

PP here. Um, yeah, whether directly or indirectly, they are trying to make option schools unavailable or less attractive to UMC through enrollment caps and relocation. I completely support the use of option schools to integrate schools.[b] I think they should be expanded, not shrunken or capped.[/b] Im UMC but not by north Arlington standards. I'm not so privileged I can up and move to north Arlington and I wouldn't want to anyway. I live in SA and I won't be shamed by cries of "privilege!" for wanting my kid to have a shot attending a school with engaging instructional models and a diverse (actually diverse) student body. At least I, unlike some school board member's an APS administrators,daddy administrators, actually live among the populations whose interests they purport to represent.[/quote]

They are not being shrunken. Montessori seems like a very temporary thing as they transition to a new independent building. If history is any indication, they will let in the siblings. And when they are in their own space, I think they will take more applicants.

The option schools are capped, because there isn't any school that can hold all the current demand. We haven't built any that big yet. They are simply saying that they will need to flex with trailers, because the larger schools should be for neighborhood seats. That makes sense to me, since the majority of kids are attending plain neighborhood schools. I don't think they can or will flex option schools to max capacity. That seems like a worst-case contingency plan and not what they are aiming for. And setting aside seats for disadvantaged kids is a MUST, because when they don't do that, the option programs become increasingly wealthy and less ethnically diverse. Look at HB, or even ATS before they added an additional VPI class.

Anyway, I am not suggesting parents have to accept status quo. I am saying here we are, and they seem to be actually acknowledging the reality of the situation in South Arlington and there are parents who are going to fight it because they think this is about creating capacity for North Arlington and crapping on South Arlington yet again. IT IS NOT. I think they are betting, and I think they are right, that a lot of North Arlington families are NOT going to either follow programs that move S, or apply to ones that are S, and that alone will free up seats for South Arlington students in option schools. For some areas, they cannot draw boundaries that will allow for diverse schools, so they are considering making them option schools. This is what most highly segregated jurisdictions around the country have been doing to desegregate public schools.

Or we can just do nothing and keep having the same fights over and over again. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics