Reply to APS - new CIP proposal

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]APS presented updated CIP plans for the Career Center tonight:
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/2021-05-24-WS-2-Inst-messages-FINAL.pdf

Tonight's work session is available for viewing here:
https://www.apsva.us/school-board-meetings/school-board-work-sessions-meetings/

The plan is a 1,700 seat building for the new Career Center: 
- 450 middle school Arl Tech seats
- 950 high school Arl Tech seats (I think - this number isn't spelled out, but based on the total of 1,700)
- 300 part-time CTE seats (to accommodate 900 students from other high schools coming to CC for classes in three blocks)

Montessori gets a new building and grows to 775 seats (it's 460 now).  [b]All satellite preschool Montessori classes from around the County will move to the campus, as well as the middle school seats (which are now about 70 Gunston students).

Total students at the Career Center campus at any time will be 2,475.

Costs aren't broken down but total costs are estimated at $185 million.

My first reaction is that it's so many option seats.  I hope families will apply for all these seats.

Does Arl Tech allow students to take the full range of AP classes, languages, etc?
[/quote]

New building or renovated current CC building? Also, I don’t think Tech students do have access, on site, for all AP or Language courses offered at the comprehensive HS, but that’s part of the calculation families make when opting for this school, which has access to other different courses that aren’t offered at the comprehensive schools, I believe. [/quote]

APS is proposing to renovate the existing CC building for Montessori but I imagine the renovations will have to be substantial to work for a PreK and up program vs a high school. APS hasn't estimated the real costs yet. $185 million is just a placeholder.

They said that currently 304 of the 513 Arlington Tech students are in trailers and it will stay that way until this building is completed in 5 years. That sounds awful for those kids. What is the plan for where all those trailers and students will go during construction of the new CC?

I don't agree that we can plan on excess elementary capacity (if we actually get that, which seems unlikely) to solve our problems with secondary capacity, but I wonder about putting all the eggs in one basket with the CC project. It's so expensive, requires so many phases, and isn't flexible at all. We urgently need middle school seats by 2024. Why not focus on one or two smaller and quicker additions to our middle schools - Kenmore? And build the current CC out so that it adequately serves the current Arl Tech students but not more than that for now. And leave Montessori and ACHS where they are. They don't need to move - it is unnecessary extra cost that we can't afford.[/quote]

Because Kenmore is the highest poverty middle school and shouldn’t be the one to take on the burden of 300 additional students, to boot. That’s not equitable in the least. I like the idea of adding MS seats to Tech, just wish it were sooner. I think the not bad/riskiest part of this plan is that it’s adding so many seats to Montessori, which hasn’t proven to be that popular, or attractive beyond Pre-K. Especially to diverse communities. Not sure that spending so much to grow Montessori is the wisest choice, or one based on data, rather it seems to be based on their small and very vocal lobby.[/quote]

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