Reply to Please explain how Henry parent position on CC makes sense

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]NP. I’ve been following relatively closely but am confused by one thing. When the SB announced the hybrid solution — which I agree 100% was/is stupid, poorly thought out, and poorly articulated, and that Kenmore was/is the right choice for a 4th comprehensive HS — I read it entirely as choice seats for the CC site. I recall the presentation saying something about needing to settle on the educational focus, or whatever the lingo, for those seats. Fast forward 9 months or so, the neighborhoods in question are now rejecting inferior neighborhood seats (fair) *but also* rejecting additional choice seats. So how are we to read this as anything other than the neighborhoods making a grab for their own 4th comprehensive HS (which was basically already rejected as an option by the SB last year) and then throwing a hissy fit when they’re told that isn’t going to happen? Am I misremembering how we got here? Again, I completely and totally agree that this sucks and is stupid, but I don’t see how these neighborhoods truly expected some other outcome. Arl Heights poster and others in the know, what’s the answer?

And please, I’m on the 22204 list serve and am by now familiar with the talking points. Yes, it’s unfair to have inferior neighborhood seats. Yes, no other site has so many choice seats. I’m trying to figure out if I’m really missing information, or if the advocates have just wholly bought into their own spin. [/quote]

As I recall, only a short time before the hybrid option came down the SB decided to expand Arl Tech by another 800 (now 600) seats and brought up CTE to 300 seats. Once people started hearing about this they conflated it with the hybrid option seats, and then lost some trust when it was explained to them that the SB planned to add 1900 seats over the next couple of years but had only really advertised about 800 of those seats. Most of that number were choice seats, but when the SB refused to commit to an educational focus for the 800, that started to worry people. The nightmare scenario was that the SB would say these would "probably" be choice seats while they built it, only to be unable to fill these seats and then switch gears to make it a neighborhood school without any of the facilities. (We've seen this borne out to an extent as Arl Tech, which is a great program, has struggled to meet its enrollment targets). And why else would the SB refuse to commit to a focus at that point but to preserve that option down the road? If you're the neighborhood in that situation, you have several choices: 
1)Do Nothing. Wait as the process plays itself out, and hope that the SB doesn't decide to screw the rare neighborhood that has yet to demand anything from them.
2)Go full NIMBY and threaten to burn this mother down (I like to call this the "Glencarlyn gambit") 
3)Push the SB to commit to making them choice seats. The problem with this is that A)There's already a lot of choice seats and that's a big burden on the neighborhood in terms of traffic and construction w/out much in return, and B)you can't stop the school board from reversing itself later on when the students don't show up. Which seems more likely if they don't bother to put in at least some of the trappings of a high school, like a field space. 
4)Push the SB to admit it's preserving the option for neighborhood seats because it is very likely to actually need them, and it would be better for the entire county to recognize this fact before spending $100 million on a gamble to avoid building a 4th high school, only to be in an even worse fiscal position once it realizes the gamble failed.

It's clear from the fact that so many Arlington residents are accusing the neighborhood of a brazen "grab" followed by "hissy fits" and "buying their own spin," that the correct answer was, and always will be 2). Don't play along with the County because they will likely try to screw you. And don't ask for anything from the county like fair or equal treatment because then you're just a selfish jerk. Just say no and fight it all tooth and nail, and hope that someone else ends up getting screwed instead, because you can be sure that's the other neighborhood's plan for you.

I've learned a lot about my fellow Arlingtonians during this process.  [/quote]

I appreciate how you remembered some of the finer details re. all the option seats and determining what type of option programs people were interested in.  Remember that survey and the big list of potential option programs?  Whatever happened to that, anyway!?

But once again, it has been mis-stated that Arlington Tech has had trouble meeting its enrollment goals.  We are entering the third year and it has met its original goals for all three years.  It technically fell short this year at 130 instead of 200 but that 200 was an increased goal.  So, it actually significantly exceeded its originally planned goal of 100.  And in fairness, the program doesn't seem to be gaining broad popularity fast because of a number of factors, primarily the lack of investment in time and properly making PARENTS understand what the program is and selling it.  And, even more relevant, additional students continue to be interested but ultimately opt not to go becaues of the lack of athletics and/or music/arts, or because their parents don't get it yet.

Interesting point that APS could have just gone ahead with the 800-seat expansion instead of establishing a working group.  I was kind of wondering why we needed a working group to determine how to add 800 seats.  But the impetus for the working group was really to feel out the site for a 4th high school and how one could be phased in.  Because the SB finally was coming around to seeing the need for a fourth comprehensive.  So, the neighborhood has no business fighting the 800 seats because that was the other half of the ed center solution.  And the SB did indeed change course and made those 800 seats (or is now calling them such in all their proposals) neighborhood seats - precisely because that's what hte neighborhood kept clamoring for and insisting on.

I think the neighborhoods are also ignoring the fact that even with neighborhood seats, there are going to be more students coming in by cars and buses for choice seats and some of those neighborhood seats.  If we want to debate the traffic and parking impacts, we should look at how many students within the walk zones of the other high schools actually walk and see exactly how much of a difference neighborhood v. choice makes.

Neighborhoods can provide input and advocate for what they want; but it isn't their high school.  It's the County's and other peoples' desires and needs matter, too.  The whole point of a working group is to bring those desires as well as the concerns to the table - concerns to be noted and mitigated the best possible once a decision is made.  But neighborhoods do not have a "right" to "refuse" choice v. neighborhood seats, or even instructional focus.  Those are decisions to be made to serve the system, not the neighborhood.  The timeline for the CC portion of the 1300 seats is already being delayed by two or possibly four years - at least partially in an effort to provide more funds to be able to provide at least some amenities when the seats open.  Meanwhile, the CTE, CC, ACHS, and AT students continue to be crammed into an insufficient space -  I don't care how many internal renovations they do, it's insufficient and lacks basics like a library and cafeteria and a full gymnasium.[/quote]

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