Anonymous wrote:Don't you worry. 22207 got their palace for Discovery. They've been very clear that the new south Arlington elementary school would be nothing fancy at all.

I live in 22207 (but my kids haven't started APS yet) and I don't approve of excessive spending. i still believe that we need to put off upgrades, etc. until we have building space for all students in APS.

Can one watch the CIP meeting afterward online? I tried to stay awake but fell asleep during some of it last night.

Don't you worry. 22207 got their palace for Discovery. They've been very clear that the new south Arlington elementary school would be nothing fancy at all.

Anonymous wrote:Does someone here have the figures that the SB mentioned last night re: the actual number of seats that will be created through Arlington Tech and the other mid-sized HS? I did feel some sense of relief when the SB member mentioned that they were going to start looking at possible sites for future school seats; however, I'm also getting angry when I see how wasteful the SB has been on allocating its resources.

Do we really need state of the art facilities for certain elementary schools (slides etc.) and gadgets (Ipads and Airbooks) for all 2nd and 9th graders. Yes, I realize some of the stuff isn't a huge amount of money, but shouldn't ensuring that every child is APS has an adequate classroom first be a priority v. shelling out millions here and there for extras?!! Also for upgrades, etc. I haven't seen the condition of the schools that were upgraded recently but my cousin who's kids went/go to Langley said they almost fell over when they came to an APS HS for a recent event b/c of how much nicer the facilities were compared to their top ranked school. Shouldn't we think about stretching out the upgrades/renovations a bit longer until we can at least get the entire 7th graders at Swanson out of trailers?!!

http://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/arlington/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=AABK8B4F9909

The School Board's proposal (which is different from the Superintendent's proposal, based on feedback received over the past month) starts on slide 23.

Pay attention to the financial analysis on slide 34. The colors show how much money is available in each bond -- orange is the bond they will float this fall, green is in 2018, light blue in 2020, etc. That is how much money they have to spread around--and most of this year's bond is to pay for projects they have already committed to like the Wilson and Stratford projects. (On some of the other slides you will see there is a little bit of other money that they have in reserves already--when they have money left over at the end of each year in the annual operating budget they usually set it aside for capital projects, like renovating the high schools to add 300 seats--and there is a joint fund with the county that pays for things like road improvements associated with new buildings.) That debt service ratio at the bottom--that's the number that can't go above 10%, and 9.8% is very close; if for some reason our tax collections in a year were lower than expected we could hit 10% and our bond rating would drop. So the numbers you see are pretty much the max.

There won't be any new elementary seats between the new school at Jefferson in 2019 and the Reed expansion in the fall of 2023, and apart from the new middle school at Stratford and a few new seats at H-B that are already approved, there are no additional middle school seats planned in this CIP.

Anonymous wrote:Langley has been due for renovation for years. Not a good comparison.

my point was that you can still have a quality education in an older building. why can't we just spend money to provide adequate building space to all of our current students before getting any bells and whistles at a few or blowing it on gadgets?

Langley has been due for renovation for years. Not a good comparison.

Does someone here have the figures that the SB mentioned last night re: the actual number of seats that will be created through Arlington Tech and the other mid-sized HS? I did feel some sense of relief when the SB member mentioned that they were going to start looking at possible sites for future school seats; however, I'm also getting angry when I see how wasteful the SB has been on allocating its resources.

Do we really need state of the art facilities for certain elementary schools (slides etc.) and gadgets (Ipads and Airbooks) for all 2nd and 9th graders. Yes, I realize some of the stuff isn't a huge amount of money, but shouldn't ensuring that every child is APS has an adequate classroom first be a priority v. shelling out millions here and there for extras?!! Also for upgrades, etc. I haven't seen the condition of the schools that were upgraded recently but my cousin who's kids went/go to Langley said they almost fell over when they came to an APS HS for a recent event b/c of how much nicer the facilities were compared to their top ranked school. Shouldn't we think about stretching out the upgrades/renovations a bit longer until we can at least get the entire 7th graders at Swanson out of trailers?!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lottery for $10k/yr/student voucher for private or home or FFX schools.

wait nobody liked my idea?

10k isn't enough

enough to pay ~50%, which would make it feasible for some families to go private.

50% where? Parochials, maybe.

well if Parochial schools is below you then don't apply for the lottery.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lottery for $10k/yr/student voucher for private or home or FFX schools.

wait nobody liked my idea?

10k isn't enough

enough to pay ~50%, which would make it feasible for some families to go private.

50% where? Parochials, maybe.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lottery for $10k/yr/student voucher for private or home or FFX schools.

wait nobody liked my idea?

10k isn't enough

enough to pay ~50%, which would make it feasible for some families to go private.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lottery for $10k/yr/student voucher for private or home or FFX schools.

wait nobody liked my idea?

10k isn't enough

Anonymous wrote:Lottery for $10k/yr/student voucher for private or home or FFX schools.

wait nobody liked my idea?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^ if you missed something, then you must not have been paying attention at last night meeting, where they magically some up with some more seats.
Dubious, but they aren't speaking of shifts now...

Um..they had those numbers pulled together before the petition. You think they came up with that at 5:30 yesterday afternoon?

Ummm... They're not spluttering about shifts now.

1. Superintendent proposes a ridiculous solution to a budget or capacity problem
2. Community flips out, takes torches and pitchforks to public hearing
3. School board proposes its plan with slightly less ridiculous solution that now looks totally reasonable in comparison
4. Everyone is tired of shouting, gives up
5. Repeat

Many of us aren't shouting, nor are we giving up. Discussions, engagements, and communications with the Boards continue by many of us.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^ if you missed something, then you must not have been paying attention at last night meeting, where they magically some up with some more seats.
Dubious, but they aren't speaking of shifts now...

Um..they had those numbers pulled together before the petition. You think they came up with that at 5:30 yesterday afternoon?

Ummm... They're not spluttering about shifts now.

1. Superintendent proposes a ridiculous solution to a budget or capacity problem
2. Community flips out, takes torches and pitchforks to public hearing
3. School board proposes its plan with slightly less ridiculous solution that now looks totally reasonable in comparison
4. Everyone is tired of shouting, gives up
5. Repeat

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^^ if you missed something, then you must not have been paying attention at last night meeting, where they magically some up with some more seats.
Dubious, but they aren't speaking of shifts now...

Um..they had those numbers pulled together before the petition. You think they came up with that at 5:30 yesterday afternoon?

Ummm... They're not spluttering about shifts now.