Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First they are going to look and see if their option schools are in the right place- of if the option schools need a neighborhood boundary. (This Spring) They have been very careful to say that this look will not include looking at which option schools should go where.
In doing so (my prediction) is that they will decide that Key should have a neighborhood boundary, and ASFS should be option.
They will then flip the schools.

I have a hard time believing the Board would swap out all the students/staff/specific facilities of Key and ASFS. That's a much larger - and expensive - undertaking than what it seems on the surface. There's been years of discussion & planning to move the Montessori program into Patrick Henry. I haven't seen anywhere near that level of talk about Key.

Why? Montessori requires specific classroom configurations. Does immersion require that? Asfs is a run of the mill school, there isn't anything specific there other than the science lab and investigation station which wouldn't be movable anyways.

Ok, but Key has about 750+ students. It's already over capacity in a larger building. You want to move it to the smaller ASFS, which is built for 550 kids?

They can control the size of the immersion program. They can't control the size of the key neighborhood. It makes sense to have the larger school building be the neighborhood school. Otherwise you're saying a county wide program is more important than the needs of that neighborhood (rosslyn/courthouse/Clarendon). The key asfs zone is the part of the county that the county board actively eliminated parking in in order to promote a car free diet. You get rid of key, none of the other north Arlington schools are walkable at all except for asfs. Bussing those kids to discovery or even Taylor (which means parents without a car can't pick up from extended day), goes completely contrary to all the planning done for decades to make that area car free.
Maybe immersion goes to Taylor. Asfs absorbs the Taylor units near it, and units it can't accommodate go to Jamestown.

I think the county-wide choice program should outweigh the needs of one neighborhood. It's supposed to benefit kids across half of Arlington County, not just the families that go to ASFS. And look, this isn't even under discussion so not sure why you're playing checkers with the schools. "Let's move Key to Taylor, then swap those kids out with ASFS ...which we'll greatly expand to accommodate the needs of that n'hood!"

New poster. I don't think you realize how in the middle of the Taylor zone the current asfs building is. To create a walk zone and connect it to the existing key zone and not create an island of kids still going to Taylor, you have to move at least 7 planning units. That's around 70 kids per year or 420 kids total (and that's a conservative estimate based off of the middle school data, really the total number of kids that get moved from Taylor may be Much higher)! So if they humor the people in the asfs neighborhood who want it to be a neighborhood school for cherrydale, the only way you can do it without creating an island is to move 200 kids to long branch from Clarendon (which correct me if I'm wrong but there isn't space) and then create either an island or peninsula moving kids to Taylor or Jamestown or discovery from Rosslyn/courthouse for the other 200 or so kids. Not saying they won't do it, it's just much more disruptive than people here make it seem. Lots of Taylor kids will get moved, most of the existing key zone will have to go to Taylor or bussed up county.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First they are going to look and see if their option schools are in the right place- of if the option schools need a neighborhood boundary. (This Spring) They have been very careful to say that this look will not include looking at which option schools should go where.
In doing so (my prediction) is that they will decide that Key should have a neighborhood boundary, and ASFS should be option.
They will then flip the schools.

I have a hard time believing the Board would swap out all the students/staff/specific facilities of Key and ASFS. That's a much larger - and expensive - undertaking than what it seems on the surface. There's been years of discussion & planning to move the Montessori program into Patrick Henry. I haven't seen anywhere near that level of talk about Key.

Why? Montessori requires specific classroom configurations. Does immersion require that? Asfs is a run of the mill school, there isn't anything specific there other than the science lab and investigation station which wouldn't be movable anyways.

Ok, but Key has about 750+ students. It's already over capacity in a larger building. You want to move it to the smaller ASFS, which is built for 550 kids?

They can control the size of the immersion program. They can't control the size of the key neighborhood. It makes sense to have the larger school building be the neighborhood school. Otherwise you're saying a county wide program is more important than the needs of that neighborhood (rosslyn/courthouse/Clarendon). The key asfs zone is the part of the county that the county board actively eliminated parking in in order to promote a car free diet. You get rid of key, none of the other north Arlington schools are walkable at all except for asfs. Bussing those kids to discovery or even Taylor (which means parents without a car can't pick up from extended day), goes completely contrary to all the planning done for decades to make that area car free.
Maybe immersion goes to Taylor. Asfs absorbs the Taylor units near it, and units it can't accommodate go to Jamestown.

I think the county-wide choice program should outweigh the needs of one neighborhood. It's supposed to benefit kids across half of Arlington County, not just the families that go to ASFS. And look, this isn't even under discussion so not sure why you're playing checkers with the schools. "Let's move Key to Taylor, then swap those kids out with ASFS ...which we'll greatly expand to accommodate the needs of that n'hood!"

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The key asfs zone is the part of the county that the county board actively eliminated parking in in order to promote a car free diet. You get rid of key, none of the other north Arlington schools are walkable at all except for asfs. Busing those kids to discovery or even Taylor (which means parents without a car can't pick up from extended day), goes completely contrary to all the planning done for decades to make that area car free.
Maybe immersion goes to Taylor. Asfs absorbs the Taylor units near it, and units it can't accommodate go to Jamestown.

How does your plan help families without a car who need to drop off at or pick up from extended day? Doesn't it just make life easier for some families and harder for others?

All of Rosslyn, Courthouse, and Clarendon are within 0.7 miles of the key building. That entire area is the part of the county that the county board actively eliminated parking in and is advocating be car free. That entire area can walk to key.

Anonymous wrote:The key asfs zone is the part of the county that the county board actively eliminated parking in in order to promote a car free diet. You get rid of key, none of the other north Arlington schools are walkable at all except for asfs. Busing those kids to discovery or even Taylor (which means parents without a car can't pick up from extended day), goes completely contrary to all the planning done for decades to make that area car free.
Maybe immersion goes to Taylor. Asfs absorbs the Taylor units near it, and units it can't accommodate go to Jamestown.

How does your plan help families without a car who need to drop off at or pick up from extended day? Doesn't it just make life easier for some families and harder for others?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing to consider is that APS tries to limit the amount of times a child is rezoned to just once per level (once in elementary, once in middle school, etc). So it's highly unlikely you would be rezoned twice--both for the upcoming rezoning (to take effect in 2019) and after Reed (to take effect in 2021), because your kindergartener would be in the same level (elementary for both rezonings).

Because these rezonings happen so close together, I would hope APS would take that into consideration when making changes next spring.

I don't think they are rezoning the N twice. South Arlington ES boundaries are changing in 2019 to coincide with the opening of the new ES, but N ES boundaries will not change until Reed opens.

I don't think we know that for sure. In addition, the changes to Key/ASFS would be before Reed comes online, would they not?

I think we do. They changed the admission/transfer policy at Key/ASFS to take affect 2018-2019 school year I believe, but AFAIK, they are not changing any boundaries in N Arlington until the Reed school process. PP with a current ASFS student, you will not be affected.

I think this is really unclear. Long Branch is likely to be affected by the "south" adjustment since some of their population is across 50 near the new Fleet ES. And the Key/ASFS shift will require changes before Reed opens.

You're probably right. This SB is actively undoing past boundaries that incorporated diversity as a priority. We can't have any kids from SOUTH Arlington going past route 50. Such BS.

Yes because concerns about diversity have to fall by the wayside when literally schools don't have space for students. You can pretend that busing would be a solution, but the controversy would more the conversation up for years, and all these changes need to be decided promptly. So focus on proximity and efficiency and get the kids to a school with a seat -- that's the best way to serve all students at this juncture.

This! Because separate but equal is at least EQUAL!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First they are going to look and see if their option schools are in the right place- of if the option schools need a neighborhood boundary. (This Spring) They have been very careful to say that this look will not include looking at which option schools should go where.
In doing so (my prediction) is that they will decide that Key should have a neighborhood boundary, and ASFS should be option.
They will then flip the schools.

I have a hard time believing the Board would swap out all the students/staff/specific facilities of Key and ASFS. That's a much larger - and expensive - undertaking than what it seems on the surface. There's been years of discussion & planning to move the Montessori program into Patrick Henry. I haven't seen anywhere near that level of talk about Key.

Why? Montessori requires specific classroom configurations. Does immersion require that? Asfs is a run of the mill school, there isn't anything specific there other than the science lab and investigation station which wouldn't be movable anyways.

Ok, but Key has about 750+ students. It's already over capacity in a larger building. You want to move it to the smaller ASFS, which is built for 550 kids?

They can control the size of the immersion program. They can't control the size of the key neighborhood. It makes sense to have the larger school building be the neighborhood school. Otherwise you're saying a county wide program is more important than the needs of that neighborhood (rosslyn/courthouse/Clarendon). The key asfs zone is the part of the county that the county board actively eliminated parking in in order to promote a car free diet. You get rid of key, none of the other north Arlington schools are walkable at all except for asfs. Bussing those kids to discovery or even Taylor (which means parents without a car can't pick up from extended day), goes completely contrary to all the planning done for decades to make that area car free.
Maybe immersion goes to Taylor. Asfs absorbs the Taylor units near it, and units it can't accommodate go to Jamestown.

That makes sense.

Which is why they'll never do it.

Hahaha. Exactly!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Ok, but Key has about 750+ students. It's already over capacity in a larger building. You want to move it to the smaller ASFS, which is built for 550 kids?

well- the capacity of the Key building is 653, and the capacity of ASFS is 553.
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Capacity_Utilization_FallProjections17-26_Final_Web.pdf

The facilities optimization study suggests that ASFS could have a preferred capacity of 841, and Key's preferred capacity is 749.
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Facilities-Optimization-Study.pdf

The lot at ASFS is bigger than Key too. Just how it’s utilized.

Would love to see the park next to ASFS be used to build a new and much larger elementary school to replace ASFS. The current ASFS building could then be turned into a soccer field and splash park /park. The tennis courts could be placed on the lower property close to ASFS that houses some type of water plant, but has a large unused lot along Kirkwood.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First they are going to look and see if their option schools are in the right place- of if the option schools need a neighborhood boundary. (This Spring) They have been very careful to say that this look will not include looking at which option schools should go where.
In doing so (my prediction) is that they will decide that Key should have a neighborhood boundary, and ASFS should be option.
They will then flip the schools.

I have a hard time believing the Board would swap out all the students/staff/specific facilities of Key and ASFS. That's a much larger - and expensive - undertaking than what it seems on the surface. There's been years of discussion & planning to move the Montessori program into Patrick Henry. I haven't seen anywhere near that level of talk about Key.

Why? Montessori requires specific classroom configurations. Does immersion require that? Asfs is a run of the mill school, there isn't anything specific there other than the science lab and investigation station which wouldn't be movable anyways.

Ok, but Key has about 750+ students. It's already over capacity in a larger building. You want to move it to the smaller ASFS, which is built for 550 kids?

They can control the size of the immersion program. They can't control the size of the key neighborhood. It makes sense to have the larger school building be the neighborhood school. Otherwise you're saying a county wide program is more important than the needs of that neighborhood (rosslyn/courthouse/Clarendon). The key asfs zone is the part of the county that the county board actively eliminated parking in in order to promote a car free diet. You get rid of key, none of the other north Arlington schools are walkable at all except for asfs. Bussing those kids to discovery or even Taylor (which means parents without a car can't pick up from extended day), goes completely contrary to all the planning done for decades to make that area car free.
Maybe immersion goes to Taylor. Asfs absorbs the Taylor units near it, and units it can't accommodate go to Jamestown.

That makes sense.

Which is why they'll never do it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First they are going to look and see if their option schools are in the right place- of if the option schools need a neighborhood boundary. (This Spring) They have been very careful to say that this look will not include looking at which option schools should go where.
In doing so (my prediction) is that they will decide that Key should have a neighborhood boundary, and ASFS should be option.
They will then flip the schools.

I have a hard time believing the Board would swap out all the students/staff/specific facilities of Key and ASFS. That's a much larger - and expensive - undertaking than what it seems on the surface. There's been years of discussion & planning to move the Montessori program into Patrick Henry. I haven't seen anywhere near that level of talk about Key.

Why? Montessori requires specific classroom configurations. Does immersion require that? Asfs is a run of the mill school, there isn't anything specific there other than the science lab and investigation station which wouldn't be movable anyways.

Ok, but Key has about 750+ students. It's already over capacity in a larger building. You want to move it to the smaller ASFS, which is built for 550 kids?

They can control the size of the immersion program. They can't control the size of the key neighborhood. It makes sense to have the larger school building be the neighborhood school. Otherwise you're saying a county wide program is more important than the needs of that neighborhood (rosslyn/courthouse/Clarendon). The key asfs zone is the part of the county that the county board actively eliminated parking in in order to promote a car free diet. You get rid of key, none of the other north Arlington schools are walkable at all except for asfs. Bussing those kids to discovery or even Taylor (which means parents without a car can't pick up from extended day), goes completely contrary to all the planning done for decades to make that area car free.
Maybe immersion goes to Taylor. Asfs absorbs the Taylor units near it, and units it can't accommodate go to Jamestown.

That makes sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Ok, but Key has about 750+ students. It's already over capacity in a larger building. You want to move it to the smaller ASFS, which is built for 550 kids?

well- the capacity of the Key building is 653, and the capacity of ASFS is 553.
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Capacity_Utilization_FallProjections17-26_Final_Web.pdf

The facilities optimization study suggests that ASFS could have a preferred capacity of 841, and Key's preferred capacity is 749.
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Facilities-Optimization-Study.pdf

The lot at ASFS is bigger than Key too. Just how it’s utilized.

Anonymous wrote:

Ok, but Key has about 750+ students. It's already over capacity in a larger building. You want to move it to the smaller ASFS, which is built for 550 kids?

well- the capacity of the Key building is 653, and the capacity of ASFS is 553.
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Capacity_Utilization_FallProjections17-26_Final_Web.pdf

The facilities optimization study suggests that ASFS could have a preferred capacity of 841, and Key's preferred capacity is 749.
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Facilities-Optimization-Study.pdf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First they are going to look and see if their option schools are in the right place- of if the option schools need a neighborhood boundary. (This Spring) They have been very careful to say that this look will not include looking at which option schools should go where.
In doing so (my prediction) is that they will decide that Key should have a neighborhood boundary, and ASFS should be option.
They will then flip the schools.

I have a hard time believing the Board would swap out all the students/staff/specific facilities of Key and ASFS. That's a much larger - and expensive - undertaking than what it seems on the surface. There's been years of discussion & planning to move the Montessori program into Patrick Henry. I haven't seen anywhere near that level of talk about Key.

Why? Montessori requires specific classroom configurations. Does immersion require that? Asfs is a run of the mill school, there isn't anything specific there other than the science lab and investigation station which wouldn't be movable anyways.

Ok, but Key has about 750+ students. It's already over capacity in a larger building. You want to move it to the smaller ASFS, which is built for 550 kids?

They can control the size of the immersion program. They can't control the size of the key neighborhood. It makes sense to have the larger school building be the neighborhood school. Otherwise you're saying a county wide program is more important than the needs of that neighborhood (rosslyn/courthouse/Clarendon). The key asfs zone is the part of the county that the county board actively eliminated parking in in order to promote a car free diet. You get rid of key, none of the other north Arlington schools are walkable at all except for asfs. Bussing those kids to discovery or even Taylor (which means parents without a car can't pick up from extended day), goes completely contrary to all the planning done for decades to make that area car free.
Maybe immersion goes to Taylor. Asfs absorbs the Taylor units near it, and units it can't accommodate go to Jamestown.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First they are going to look and see if their option schools are in the right place- of if the option schools need a neighborhood boundary. (This Spring) They have been very careful to say that this look will not include looking at which option schools should go where.
In doing so (my prediction) is that they will decide that Key should have a neighborhood boundary, and ASFS should be option.
They will then flip the schools.

I have a hard time believing the Board would swap out all the students/staff/specific facilities of Key and ASFS. That's a much larger - and expensive - undertaking than what it seems on the surface. There's been years of discussion & planning to move the Montessori program into Patrick Henry. I haven't seen anywhere near that level of talk about Key.

Why? Montessori requires specific classroom configurations. Does immersion require that? Asfs is a run of the mill school, there isn't anything specific there other than the science lab and investigation station which wouldn't be movable anyways.

Ok, but Key has about 750+ students. It's already over capacity in a larger building. You want to move it to the smaller ASFS, which is built for 550 kids?

Key will be getting smaller as a lottery only school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:First they are going to look and see if their option schools are in the right place- of if the option schools need a neighborhood boundary. (This Spring) They have been very careful to say that this look will not include looking at which option schools should go where.
In doing so (my prediction) is that they will decide that Key should have a neighborhood boundary, and ASFS should be option.
They will then flip the schools.

I have a hard time believing the Board would swap out all the students/staff/specific facilities of Key and ASFS. That's a much larger - and expensive - undertaking than what it seems on the surface. There's been years of discussion & planning to move the Montessori program into Patrick Henry. I haven't seen anywhere near that level of talk about Key.

Why? Montessori requires specific classroom configurations. Does immersion require that? Asfs is a run of the mill school, there isn't anything specific there other than the science lab and investigation station which wouldn't be movable anyways.

Ok, but Key has about 750+ students. It's already over capacity in a larger building. You want to move it to the smaller ASFS, which is built for 550 kids?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Didn't read the whole thread -- was it decided whether they were rezoning ASFS borders before the broader elem rezoning?

Yes ASFS is decided by 2019 with s Arlington rezone. Any word on if there will be grandfathering (like is occurring at Key)

Probably. I think it depends on just how the enrollment shakes out.

I'm not sure how they can make a fair assessment of how crowded the school will be in 2019 since the enrollments and transfers policy wont be in effect until fall 2018, so the additional students won't even enroll until fall 2019. They should hold off and do one boundary change for all of north arlington rather than doing one for asfs and then doing another one for the rest of north arlington later in the year. Making the asfs boundary fixed makes balancing enrollment at taylor and glebe much harder -- they should leave it as is for another year and see what makes sense for the entire county.
Also, sorry but how does zoning people from the current boundary out but keeping the 20% of the school that are transfers (from Taylor or Jamestown) in any way seem fair?

ASFS can't wait until Reed is done and the next zoning kicks off (2021? 2023?) -- with the key zone population now fully allocated to ASFS rather than split between Key/ASFS, in a couple years their enrollment could double.

Does anyone know how Key/Clarement enrollment lottery zones will work? It used to be Key was North and Clarement was south, and that meant that Key had no waiting list (b/c demand was mostly from in-bounds anyway). if they rezone the lottery zones for 2019, then key will likely have a waitlist as more families apply from South/East Arlington; if they can wait to change lottery boundaries until 2023 when Reed comes along, they can probably handle the demographic bulge by dispersing Key boundary to neighboring schools more smoothly.

This is false. The split is and hasbeen E/W, with E going Key and W going Claremont. It's always been this way. The issue was that all families living in the Oakridge, Abingdon, Hoffman-Boston neighborhoods had a guaranteed spot at Claremont, while Key only guaranteed admittance to people living in one geographic area, who also had the guaranteed option of another well-regarded non-immersion school. This left Claremont overcrowded and unable to admit anyone outside of guaranteed zones while Key still had space. The split is still E/W, but I think they moved the line slightly to better balance enrollment, and changed the policy so that nobody is guaranteed spots at any school other than their neighborhood school.