Anonymous wrote:How come you don't hear the Oakridge people complaining like McKinley?

They are complaining, just not on DCUM. Residents in the Oakridge boundary have been actively advocating for the County to build a new ES in the Pentagon City area. Also, Oakridge parents don't want boundary changes to fix the problem, because Hoffman-Boston is viewed by parents as sub-par to Oakridge-- so parents use the excuse that they don't want to have to cross over 395.

http://apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Oakridge-SAWG-Recommendation-Presentation_JCC_160316.pdf

That's very different from McKinley, where most families would be fine being moved to Nottingham, Tuckahoe, Glebe, or Ashlawn (and indeed, many McKinley families actually live closer to those schools). The McKinley situation was also completely preventable if APS hadn't relied on population data that was later determined by the APS outside consultant to be flawed.

In short, the McKinley problem exists solely because APS flubbed the boundary changes in 2015 and McKinley parents are pissed off and want APS to own up to that error and rebalance the enrollment. In contrast, Oakridge's enrollment situation is due primarily to increased housing density within the original Oakridge boundaries-- not really any fault of APS.

How come you don't hear the Oakridge people complaining like McKinley?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard Oakridge was chaos yesterday- 8 kindergarten classes. Henry will move to the new school but probably will still be over capacity- the surrounding neighborhoods are filled with toddlers who will in K in 2020 at the new school.

There are 6 kindergarten classes at Oakridge. (And two pre-K.) It may be in chaos frequently, but not for that reason.

Is there any room to physically expand the Oakridge campus? Or is it geographically constrained?

With 800+ kids, I seriously hope it won't be expanded further. They just took out part of a playground to add to the trailers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I heard Oakridge was chaos yesterday- 8 kindergarten classes. Henry will move to the new school but probably will still be over capacity- the surrounding neighborhoods are filled with toddlers who will in K in 2020 at the new school.

There are 6 kindergarten classes at Oakridge. (And two pre-K.) It may be in chaos frequently, but not for that reason.

Not PP, but were the 6 K classes in line with projections? Or were you expecting more?

Expecting six, and we got six.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have decided what they are going to do. Nothing. They aren't going to do anything.
We need like 2 more elementary schools another middle school and another high school.
That's not going to happen.
Jay Fisette got up and gave a little speech about leaving the county, and in that speech he literally said he doesn't believe the projections.
They aren't going to do anything. So you can put up with it, or move.

VHC is planning to build a separate maternity hospital in the land is just got from the county (the Edison plot). They clearly don't see a slowdown.

It is a bubble and will pass. No need to address it.

The other big override on the demographer's work? Those 50+ high rise apartment buildings that the County Board has approved in Shirlington, Ballston, Clarendon, Courthouse, Crystal City, Penrose and soon to-be-approved developments along Lee Highway. The demographer said to factor in a certain child population for those units. APS said, "no all those young couples will move out to FFx and they won't stay." WRONG. Turns out no one wants to sit on I-66 for 2 hours. Turns out they can't afford a house in McLean or in Clifton or in Ashburn for that matter. So what are they doing? They are staying. This is part of why enrollments at Oakridge (where all those Crystal City highrises now filled with children send their kids), why Henry (where all those units at Penrose and along Columbia Pike now send their kids) and why ASFS (where all those Courthouse units now send their kids)...

I really think this is what happens if you have a County Board that does not have responsibilities for the school. They just approve things in their immediate short-term interest and can't imagine there are consequences downstream for APS.

It's also what happens when APS Superintendent and Board don't reach out to the County and work with available, accurate information to make their own plans. I would vote for any County Board candidate who stood up and said they were against affordable housing, simply because APS cannot absorb continued influx of large numbers of students from multi-family dwellings.

Yeah, we got the hell out of APS because of this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have decided what they are going to do. Nothing. They aren't going to do anything.
We need like 2 more elementary schools another middle school and another high school.
That's not going to happen.
Jay Fisette got up and gave a little speech about leaving the county, and in that speech he literally said he doesn't believe the projections.
They aren't going to do anything. So you can put up with it, or move.

VHC is planning to build a separate maternity hospital in the land is just got from the county (the Edison plot). They clearly don't see a slowdown.

It is a bubble and will pass. No need to address it.

The other big override on the demographer's work? Those 50+ high rise apartment buildings that the County Board has approved in Shirlington, Ballston, Clarendon, Courthouse, Crystal City, Penrose and soon to-be-approved developments along Lee Highway. The demographer said to factor in a certain child population for those units. APS said, "no all those young couples will move out to FFx and they won't stay." WRONG. Turns out no one wants to sit on I-66 for 2 hours. Turns out they can't afford a house in McLean or in Clifton or in Ashburn for that matter. So what are they doing? They are staying. This is part of why enrollments at Oakridge (where all those Crystal City highrises now filled with children send their kids), why Henry (where all those units at Penrose and along Columbia Pike now send their kids) and why ASFS (where all those Courthouse units now send their kids)...

I really think this is what happens if you have a County Board that does not have responsibilities for the school. They just approve things in their immediate short-term interest and can't imagine there are consequences downstream for APS.

The student boom will subside when people can teleport downtown. Until then...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have decided what they are going to do. Nothing. They aren't going to do anything.
We need like 2 more elementary schools another middle school and another high school.
That's not going to happen.
Jay Fisette got up and gave a little speech about leaving the county, and in that speech he literally said he doesn't believe the projections.
They aren't going to do anything. So you can put up with it, or move.

VHC is planning to build a separate maternity hospital in the land is just got from the county (the Edison plot). They clearly don't see a slowdown.

It is a bubble and will pass. No need to address it.

Maybe, when Millennials are out of child-bearing years. That's still at least a decade away. But who needs brick and mortar schools and live teachers anyway? Amirite? Bring on the online learning!!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They have decided what they are going to do. Nothing. They aren't going to do anything.
We need like 2 more elementary schools another middle school and another high school.
That's not going to happen.
Jay Fisette got up and gave a little speech about leaving the county, and in that speech he literally said he doesn't believe the projections.
They aren't going to do anything. So you can put up with it, or move.

VHC is planning to build a separate maternity hospital in the land is just got from the county (the Edison plot). They clearly don't see a slowdown.

It is a bubble and will pass. No need to address it.

Anonymous wrote:They have decided what they are going to do. Nothing. They aren't going to do anything.
We need like 2 more elementary schools another middle school and another high school.
That's not going to happen.
Jay Fisette got up and gave a little speech about leaving the county, and in that speech he literally said he doesn't believe the projections.
They aren't going to do anything. So you can put up with it, or move.

VHC is planning to build a separate maternity hospital in the land is just got from the county (the Edison plot). They clearly don't see a slowdown.

They have decided what they are going to do. Nothing. They aren't going to do anything.
We need like 2 more elementary schools another middle school and another high school.
That's not going to happen.
Jay Fisette got up and gave a little speech about leaving the county, and in that speech he literally said he doesn't believe the projections.
They aren't going to do anything. So you can put up with it, or move.

The dumbest "smart" county in America.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Capacity_Utilization_FallProjections17-26_Final_Web.pdf

At least one school is already severely off the projections, so don't look at these as having any reflection on actual reality. Despite being provided numbers to the contrary, APS stuck with their 757 projection for McKinley. Final numbers don't come in until 30 September but it looks to be over 800.

Agreed. It's sort of a capacity cluster in Arlington. I actually think that is the biggest issue facing the county. It needs to decide what it is going to do.

It's actually worse in Fairfax. The elementary school I went to is now over 1,000 and some are past 1,200.

They are building a new elementary in south Arlington already and will be able to add capacity for Henry and Oakridge by moving some kids to Drew.