Reply to HB Woodlawn -- High School Only

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m so sorry I’m ignorant about this, but why isn’t Arlington building more schools? Why aren’t we using more of the Arlington county budget for more buildings? I know we already spent quite a bit per student and schools are expensive but it seems like a district full of million dollar homes should be able to afford enough schools to not be overcrowded? [/quote]

This is an excellent question.  I have only been paying minimal attention so I'm sure others will correct me, but I seem to recall the Kenmore site as a 4th HS was killed by the local neighborhood complaining about traffic and Arlington not being able to remedy that by coordinating with Fairfax on a solution, and then the Career Center idea died after no one could agree on whether it could really be called a 4th HS if it didn't have its own pool.

In other words, seems to boil down to a lack of good sites to build on, [b]paralysis due to various interests fighting each other, and no leadership decisions too move forward with the big picture in mind[/b].[/quote]

These two.
There are sites, though limited.  And those sites have to compete with other County "interests."
So, reason 3 is:  CB doesn't care about schools and conveniently relies on the separation of jursidictions with the SB.  CB believes it gives schools sufficient funds and it's APS' problem.  CB, although they acknowledge they aren't the experts and they aren't in charge of schools, want APS to solve capacity by providing online education.  CB won't put other priorities on hold to allow more bond funding to schools to build the facilities it needs, lacks leadership on resolving the issues surrounding sites (traffic, etc. which APS is NOT in charge of making happen), and will not push back on individual neighborhood objections.
Reason 4 is:  SB lacks backbone and leadership to stand up to the CB and directly tell them what they need and elicit a true collaborative relationship to make it happen.

There.  You're all caught up.[/quote]

Thank you, PPs! I try to keep up but I feel like I’m watching every fourth episode of a TV show.

What leverage could a school board have? I saw a video of somebody (presumably on the school board, sorry I don’t know her name) basically venting to the CB about how the CB never gives them enough funding. What could better SB leadership do?

Also, do any of the CB members have school-age kids? Obviously you don’t need to be a parent to make sure schools are adequately funded but maybe if the CB members had a bigger stake in public education in Arlington we would see some changes. (But do I want to run for a seat on the county board? Lol no, so I’m probably part of the problem)

[/quote]

A thread unto its own; but for now:
There are many ways APS and the County can coordinate to make things more efficient and cost-effective.  For instance, coordinating public transit so that students can take public transit (for free) to get to and from school and school activities, and to make it easier for parents relying on public transit to get to schools that are farther from their homes (increases access to option programs and eliminates some of the arguments against boundaries that  don't send kids to the closest school, etc).
APS needs to stop just asking for more money and work with the County to figure out more efficient ways to deliver services.  Preschool and daycares for example.  The County runs a preschool program (an excellent one, BTW). People want to expand pre-K opportunities, so how about the County expanding its program or looking at funding sources with schools to coordinate programs, or????

Better SB leadership could prod the CB to be more focused on the needs of schools and on ways to collaborate.  We already have shared-use policies with Dept of Parks and Rec -- schools are the only location for public swimming pools in Arlington (until Long Bridge opened....but that costs money to join, I believe); schools are used for community meetings, basketball, fields are shared with county Rec programs, etc.

Anyway, to your other question:  Yes, there are Board members with school-aged kids (Priddy, Kadera).  Goldstein and Kanninen's kids are older and all out of the system now.  Diaz-Torres has no children.  I don't think any currently have elementary aged kids anymore.  I think they are 6th and up?  
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