Anonymous wrote:Where are these extra students coming from?

Since we are able to count them I assume these are kids who already live in the county but are not yet school-aged.

At DS's ES we have seen the growth. The 4th and 5th grades each have 4 classes. 3rd grade has 5 classes. 2nd, 1st, and K all have 6 classes.
Babies as far as they eye can see in Arlington and they will all be in school before we know it.

Anonymous wrote:I think the pp misunderstood the WL guy. My kids won't be at that school, but I do think a 4,000 student school is a very bad idea. Even if APS increases IB and adds other programs,, WL will still be their home school. Thanks means 4,000 kids FS for 1 sports team, 1 school play, 1 debate team, etc. it will be hurt the students and this dumb 9th grade academy is just a way to make parents this their kid is getting a special deal when they are really just getting cheated out of a regular HS experience.

PP here. I'm not dismissing his concern. Heck I agree with him, I wouldn't want my kids going to a school that big. It was the attitude that rubbed me the wrong way - and not just from him. He was raising his voice and telling everyone he didn't CARE about any of the other topics we were discussing: choice schools, elementary boundaries, transportation, etc. I understand advocating for your own family's needs. But he needs to understand W-L is not Maret or Sidwell Friends, and his daughter is in a public school system. And it seems a lot of other parents basically came to the meeting to say how "crazy" anyone was who disagreed with them. There was so little energy devoted to finding compromises.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'll put up with APS before I deal with a longer commute.

Nothing like putting your kids first....

- give me a break. The schools are still great.

And to the poster who said 'most people move to Arlington because there are choice schools'. I don't believe that is a very high percentage. I moved to Arlington because, at the time, the infrastructure was really great. Arlington takes care of all of its people pretty well. Plus, it's a smaller county. FFX is HUGE and Loudoun is still experiencing growing pains. If Arl folks are worried about rezoning, check out the frequency they rezone in Loudoun. Count your lucky stars you live in Arlington.

In a nutshell, that's why there's such a crisis brewing in Arlington. People pat themselves on the back constantly, and don't deal with the problems.

There aren't really any problems in Arlington. Closest thing to a utopia in this area.

It has been much more of a dystopia lately.

I think the new high school should consolidate all the choice programs. A lot of them would benefit from being under the same roof anyway, as IB and Immersion can pool resources. It'll free up seats at W-L, Wakefield, etc

Where are these extra students coming from?

I cannot stress enough how important it is to send a quick email to the School Board at school.board@apsva.us

Something along the lines of:

Dear APS School Board members:

I live in Arlington and I vote. I am concerned about overall school capacity countywide and flexibility to meet future demand. Please ensure any new high school seats are neighborhood seats, which offer the most flexibility in the future and do not use the 1300 seats for a choice program. Please also plan for the 1300 seats as the beginning of a fourth comprehensive high school.

No new schools should be built as choice schools, including the new HS we need.

There isn't a plan for the coming deluge of students, but worse, APS has a long history of not being able to do a reasonable cost-benefit analysis of the merits of various programs, so it does things that seem good or that people just kind of like the sound of without figuring out whether a program works well enough to justify the expense or checking to see if relatively simple fixes for problems are being adopted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'll put up with APS before I deal with a longer commute.

Nothing like putting your kids first....

- give me a break. The schools are still great.

And to the poster who said 'most people move to Arlington because there are choice schools'. I don't believe that is a very high percentage. I moved to Arlington because, at the time, the infrastructure was really great. Arlington takes care of all of its people pretty well. Plus, it's a smaller county. FFX is HUGE and Loudoun is still experiencing growing pains. If Arl folks are worried about rezoning, check out the frequency they rezone in Loudoun. Count your lucky stars you live in Arlington.

In a nutshell, that's why there's such a crisis brewing in Arlington. People pat themselves on the back constantly, and don't deal with the problems.

That is a warped view of the word "crisis"

"OMG don't make me live in my million dollar home giving my kid a better education than 95% of this country (even in S. Arlington)" CRISIS! They might have to go to a school with a lot of kids or ride on a bus for 20 minutes. Or maybe go to school with some kids that have no interest in college. CRISIS!

We have a wave of students equal to a full high school coming, and we are ignoring it. It's a crisis.

Yes - we are getting to a point where we cannot support the students we have. We finally got a good plan for middle school and will have relief by 2019. High school needs to be addressed next. Our high schools were not built to hold 3000-4000 students.

People who say it is not a crisis have kids in high school now or have kids who are no longer in school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'll put up with APS before I deal with a longer commute.

Nothing like putting your kids first....

- give me a break. The schools are still great.

And to the poster who said 'most people move to Arlington because there are choice schools'. I don't believe that is a very high percentage. I moved to Arlington because, at the time, the infrastructure was really great. Arlington takes care of all of its people pretty well. Plus, it's a smaller county. FFX is HUGE and Loudoun is still experiencing growing pains. If Arl folks are worried about rezoning, check out the frequency they rezone in Loudoun. Count your lucky stars you live in Arlington.

In a nutshell, that's why there's such a crisis brewing in Arlington. People pat themselves on the back constantly, and don't deal with the problems.

That is a warped view of the word "crisis"

"OMG don't make me live in my million dollar home giving my kid a better education than 95% of this country (even in S. Arlington)" CRISIS! They might have to go to a school with a lot of kids or ride on a bus for 20 minutes. Or maybe go to school with some kids that have no interest in college. CRISIS!

We have a wave of students equal to a full high school coming, and we are ignoring it. It's a crisis.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'll put up with APS before I deal with a longer commute.

Nothing like putting your kids first....

- give me a break. The schools are still great.

And to the poster who said 'most people move to Arlington because there are choice schools'. I don't believe that is a very high percentage. I moved to Arlington because, at the time, the infrastructure was really great. Arlington takes care of all of its people pretty well. Plus, it's a smaller county. FFX is HUGE and Loudoun is still experiencing growing pains. If Arl folks are worried about rezoning, check out the frequency they rezone in Loudoun. Count your lucky stars you live in Arlington.

In a nutshell, that's why there's such a crisis brewing in Arlington. People pat themselves on the back constantly, and don't deal with the problems.

There aren't really any problems in Arlington. Closest thing to a utopia in this area.

It has been much more of a dystopia lately.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'll put up with APS before I deal with a longer commute.

Nothing like putting your kids first....

- give me a break. The schools are still great.

And to the poster who said 'most people move to Arlington because there are choice schools'. I don't believe that is a very high percentage. I moved to Arlington because, at the time, the infrastructure was really great. Arlington takes care of all of its people pretty well. Plus, it's a smaller county. FFX is HUGE and Loudoun is still experiencing growing pains. If Arl folks are worried about rezoning, check out the frequency they rezone in Loudoun. Count your lucky stars you live in Arlington.

In a nutshell, that's why there's such a crisis brewing in Arlington. People pat themselves on the back constantly, and don't deal with the problems.

That is a warped view of the word "crisis"

"OMG don't make me live in my million dollar home giving my kid a better education than 95% of this country (even in S. Arlington)" CRISIS! They might have to go to a school with a lot of kids or ride on a bus for 20 minutes. Or maybe go to school with some kids that have no interest in college. CRISIS!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'll put up with APS before I deal with a longer commute.

Nothing like putting your kids first....

- give me a break. The schools are still great.

And to the poster who said 'most people move to Arlington because there are choice schools'. I don't believe that is a very high percentage. I moved to Arlington because, at the time, the infrastructure was really great. Arlington takes care of all of its people pretty well. Plus, it's a smaller county. FFX is HUGE and Loudoun is still experiencing growing pains. If Arl folks are worried about rezoning, check out the frequency they rezone in Loudoun. Count your lucky stars you live in Arlington.

In a nutshell, that's why there's such a crisis brewing in Arlington. People pat themselves on the back constantly, and don't deal with the problems.

There aren't really any problems in Arlington. Closest thing to a utopia in this area.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I'll put up with APS before I deal with a longer commute.

Nothing like putting your kids first....

- give me a break. The schools are still great.

And to the poster who said 'most people move to Arlington because there are choice schools'. I don't believe that is a very high percentage. I moved to Arlington because, at the time, the infrastructure was really great. Arlington takes care of all of its people pretty well. Plus, it's a smaller county. FFX is HUGE and Loudoun is still experiencing growing pains. If Arl folks are worried about rezoning, check out the frequency they rezone in Loudoun. Count your lucky stars you live in Arlington.

In a nutshell, that's why there's such a crisis brewing in Arlington. People pat themselves on the back constantly, and don't deal with the problems.

Anonymous wrote:

I'll put up with APS before I deal with a longer commute.

Nothing like putting your kids first....

Being home with my kids, instead of sitting in my car, is putting my kids first, you dumb cow.