Anonymous wrote:

i believe the biggest pain point/rejection with Kenmore site was traffic disruption. the school is located in an awkward corner with only bad to terrible access points. if you expanded the school to a HS 1.5 of its current size - more walkers and more student cars, it'd be potentially disastrous in am rush hour. though location wise it's probably better than the VHC site few hundred yards down the street.

I know that traffic is the classic NIMBY excuse - but in this case I agree it s a real program. Carlin Spring Road in front of and around Kenmore is already a complete clusterf***. I can't imagine how bad it will get if they expand that campus.

They might need to look into
a) upgrading the 50 overpass
b) widening Carlin Spring to include dedicate turning lanes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you guys realize that Randolph had always been an IB elementary school with open transfers? No? That's because no one cared.

Great?

That's not true. Randolph is an IB elementary school- but it does not have open transfers. It is considered a neighborhood school and has not been accepting transfers due to capacity limitations. Even when it did accept transfers, there was no busing.

Yes it was a neighborhood school that had IB. That program didn't impress the local homeowners before, I don't know why they think it would now. I thought it was one of the few schools not at capacity. It's also the school APS teacher are allowed to enroll their child if they live out of county, I assumed that was also because they had the space. It's a tiny school, but not brimming like the other elementaries.

Can someone explain to me how IB elementary is different from regular elementary? I went on the IB website, but the explanation of the IB PYP primary years program is so general-- it was hard for me to understand how it would be different day to day from what most APS elementary programs are already doing.

Anonymous wrote:Do you guys realize that Randolph had always been an IB elementary school with open transfers? No? That's because no one cared.

Great?

That's not true. Randolph is an IB elementary school- but it does not have open transfers. It is considered a neighborhood school and has not been accepting transfers due to capacity limitations. Even when it did accept transfers, there was no busing.

Do you guys realize that Randolph had always been an IB elementary school with open transfers? No? That's because no one cared.
Do we think they will now?
Reed will get filled because families want a neighborhood school and it's crowded over there.
And Randolph gets filled with the same students who are sitting there now, and the upper middle class families living near by still don't choose it...
So the SB gave Douglas Park families an automatic out, and guaranteed choice.
Great?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one starting to get highly annoyed that the SB is so focused on creating even more lottery options rather than facing the really difficult problem of finding real seats for neighborhood schools?

If you watch the SB video from the other night, APS and the SB have the perception (right or wrong) that Arlington families want options-- and that the opposition to HB and ATS isn't because families don't like choice schools, but rather because there are not enough of them and so only the "lucky few" get in. In that meeting, there were a number of comments about the long waiting lists for our choice programs-- which the SB and APS interprets as showing intense interest in those alternate models. At one point in the meeting, Nancy Van Doren says that in the new model these will truly be "options" seats and not lottery anymore, because there will be enough seats for everyone to go where they want to go. I don't know if Dr. Natress believes that, but it is definitely how the School Board will be trying to sell it to the community.

It's not just a perception. Many of us DO want more options. If you don't want an option, you go to your neighborhood school. That doesn't change with this proposal. It just allows those of us who do prioritize a distinct program, like language immersion or Montessori, have that option. I'd still like a fourth comprehensive HS, because I think that's what the majority want and we need it, but I don't think we need to abandon HB in order to get it (not an HB family, BTW). We should be able to have both.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Or perhaps they did some analysis of who drops out of the program and why? Perhaps those who'd have the furthest to travel for MS and HS under the new plan have exhibited a willingness to do so?

Also, the east-west divide for immersion is not new. It's been like this at the ES level since forever. It's just they're giving additional options at the MS and HS level. I'd imagine they'll adjust if it seems not to be working to balance populations for both the dual-immersion model and crowding.

But currently Jamestown, Discovery and Barrett go to Key-- they are switching those three zones to Claremont. That's a lot further for Discovery and Jamestown. In the most recently available transfer report (2015-2016) there are 12 Nottingham students at Claremont and 5 Tuckahoe students and 15 McKinley students. It's hard to say if those numbers are low b/c they don't want to go as far as Claremont or b/c they can't get into Claremont since it fills with neighborhood and sibling preference.

In that same transfer report Discovery was sending 15 kids to Key and Jamestown 17. I don't see why if those families don't want to trek to Gunston for Middle School, that they would be willing to trek to Claremont for elementary. Key is just a lot closer for them. (As it is for Tuckahoe and Nottingham.)

I'll be curious to know what happens to the kids currently enrolled at Key / Claremont whose assignment gets shifted from East to West or West to East. I assume the school board would permit those kids to stay in an elementary school they've already been enrolled in, but what happens when it's time for middle school? Do they continue with their Key/Claremont peers, or are they compelled to enroll in their assigned East/West option? These are questions that the school board will hopefully answer in a sensible way to maximize flexibility for kids uniquely impacted by the change. Generally speaking, I think it would be great for Arlington to expand the upper-level immersion options. Ironing out the details will follow, presumably.

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one starting to get highly annoyed that the SB is so focused on creating even more lottery options rather than facing the really difficult problem of finding real seats for neighborhood schools?

If you watch the SB video from the other night, APS and the SB have the perception (right or wrong) that Arlington families want options-- and that the opposition to HB and ATS isn't because families don't like choice schools, but rather because there are not enough of them and so only the "lucky few" get in. In that meeting, there were a number of comments about the long waiting lists for our choice programs-- which the SB and APS interprets as showing intense interest in those alternate models. At one point in the meeting, Nancy Van Doren says that in the new model these will truly be "options" seats and not lottery anymore, because there will be enough seats for everyone to go where they want to go. I don't know if Dr. Natress believes that, but it is definitely how the School Board will be trying to sell it to the community.

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one starting to get highly annoyed that the SB is so focused on creating even more lottery options rather than facing the really difficult problem of finding real seats for neighborhood schools?

I don't think they're mutually exclusive. They could do both. It's not a matter of either/or.

One benefit to option schools is that they have the potential to ease overcrowding at multiple schools, without forcing boundary changes. I think people who choose option schools are largely happy with them, even if it means their students are at schools further from home. Which means, those kids are not taking up seats at multiple neighborhood schools.

Specifically, I'm not sure that the idea of IB ES is going to be a super popular draw, so I'd think those schools with mostly fill up with kids who live nearby and whose families are choosing those schools because they're closer or less crowded than their zoned school, at least at first. I imagine that most Westover families worried about not having access to Reed are worried needlessly. I don't think there are hundreds of students who will suddenly want to bus to that school from very far away. If you look at the feeder schools for the proposed IB school at Reed, it includes all but one of the adjacent schools (McKinley, Nottingham, Tuckahoe, all included except Glebe). Many of the other feeder schools (Ashlawn, Discovery, Jamestown) are ones that families are currently happy with and who don't have crowding problems. And the schools that I could see families wanting to leave are pretty far away from Reed, which I think will be a deterrent for them. I think families who live nearby Reed will have no problem having access to that school, which has the potential to alleviate overcrowding at more than just one school.

In general, I think this is not a terrible way to make use of limited land and resources. In fact, it's the only creative and innovative thing I've seen come from staff in a very long while and I am pleasantly surprised.

Anonymous wrote:Am I the only one starting to get highly annoyed that the SB is so focused on creating even more lottery options rather than facing the really difficult problem of finding real seats for neighborhood schools?

I feel exactly the same way! We don't need more lottery or "option" schools. We need to neighborhood schools and balanced enrollment.

Am I the only one starting to get highly annoyed that the SB is so focused on creating even more lottery options rather than facing the really difficult problem of finding real seats for neighborhood schools?

Anonymous wrote:

Or perhaps they did some analysis of who drops out of the program and why? Perhaps those who'd have the furthest to travel for MS and HS under the new plan have exhibited a willingness to do so?

Also, the east-west divide for immersion is not new. It's been like this at the ES level since forever. It's just they're giving additional options at the MS and HS level. I'd imagine they'll adjust if it seems not to be working to balance populations for both the dual-immersion model and crowding.

But currently Jamestown, Discovery and Barrett go to Key-- they are switching those three zones to Claremont. That's a lot further for Discovery and Jamestown. In the most recently available transfer report (2015-2016) there are 12 Nottingham students at Claremont and 5 Tuckahoe students and 15 McKinley students. It's hard to say if those numbers are low b/c they don't want to go as far as Claremont or b/c they can't get into Claremont since it fills with neighborhood and sibling preference.

In that same transfer report Discovery was sending 15 kids to Key and Jamestown 17. I don't see why if those families don't want to trek to Gunston for Middle School, that they would be willing to trek to Claremont for elementary. Key is just a lot closer for them. (As it is for Tuckahoe and Nottingham.)

Immersion is relatively small. I'd like to see them offer two choices and give parentscthe choice of either middle school.

Anonymous wrote:That's a lot of busing arround.

Only if you want. It looks like you still have options to go to a closer school if that's what you prioritize. Neighborhood elementary schools aren't really changing under this plan. The MS and HS will still be neighborhood schools, as far as I can tell, but you just have more transfer options if you want them. They're kind of doing this now with open transfers. It's not such a huge change.

That's a lot of busing arround.