Anonymous wrote:Right now APS is saying 60% of the population would move to Reed. A majority but by no means all. The remaining could be split between as many as three different schools. In the end it may be best for the county but the school community is well aware that it isn’t moving lock, stock and barrel as a whole which is how the APS staff has viewed it. Splitting a school four ways is a big deal to those families.

Yeah, but even if McKinley stayed neighborhood those kids would be moving. It’s getting split not matter what.

Anonymous wrote:Right now APS is saying 60% of the population would move to Reed. A majority but by no means all. The remaining could be split between as many as three different schools. In the end it may be best for the county but the school community is well aware that it isn’t moving lock, stock and barrel as a whole which is how the APS staff has viewed it. Splitting a school four ways is a big deal to those families.

But they'd be split up even more keeping both Reed and McK as neighborhood schools.

Right now APS is saying 60% of the population would move to Reed. A majority but by no means all. The remaining could be split between as many as three different schools. In the end it may be best for the county but the school community is well aware that it isn’t moving lock, stock and barrel as a whole which is how the APS staff has viewed it. Splitting a school four ways is a big deal to those families.

Anonymous wrote:if the county would just ditch the option schools, it would be so much easier to get this done. I just don't understand the move first approach.

Lisa Stengle made an interesting point at the SB meeting the other night about how option schools help manage capacity issues, just not in the way we usually think about them. She said that if there were no option schools and every school was neighborhood, they would have severe boundary issues and difficulty filling schools in certain parts of the county because of how schools are distributed geographically. One thing strategically-placed option schools allows them to do is open up space where schools are otherwise too close together to draw reasonable boundaries. Think Carlin Springs/Campbell/Barcroft/Claremont/Randolph or McKinley/Ashlawn/Reed/Barrett/Glebe/Tuckahoe, where it would be nearly impossible to draw boundaries for some schools without drawing from other schools' walk zones. Option schools do tend to draw disproportionately from surrounding schools so the impact on capacity in the area isn't as significant, and allows more reasonable boundaries to be drawn for the remaining neighborhood schools.

I'd always thought the argument that option schools help manage capacity was about pulling students from over-crowded schools to areas with excess capacity, and never bought into it because APS can't control where students come from (except for HB). This was a totally different way of looking at it that I hadn't thought of before, and it makes a lot of sense.

The only reason ATS is now seen as a balanced enrollment is because APS forced (in the face of parent complaints) more vpi a few years ago. Prior to 2015 it had about a 15% free/reduced lunch population. I’m not sure where this giant track record of closing the opportunity gap comes from unless income isn’t a consideration. To keep being a diverse school ATS has to grow each grade by a classroom to accommodate the additional kids feeding into K thru that vpi pre-K program. They need 100 more seats to do this. ATS parents also complain loudly about their trailers. Do they not realize that without a move to McKinley they would permanently need more trailers? Their program just had a building refresh for ATS. If they force a no move you better believe parents all over will fight any building CIP money to accommodate growth with an addition. Very very very few neighborhood schools are operating without trailers.

Further if Lisa Stengle is telling us that when they gave the state the estimate of the number of McKinley kids who live in the Reed school walkzone the state said that’s enough to move accreditation. To me that means that no matter if school moves take place or not McKinley in essence moves to Reed with a slight majority of students or with the school moves taking 75% or more. APS made a walkzone already for Reed it moves so many McKinley students (whether McKinley stays a neighborhood site or not) that McKinley will be able to better retain their school community with the move. What shit storm next fall for that PTA if the moves don’t happen and all the parents who didn’t care either way wake up and see that they have in essence divided their current school population in half for APS through their ridiculous behavior and even more ridiculous alternative proposals that split up multiple schools

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Anonymous wrote:We will have a tough decision to make if our option school moves. I'm not throwing a tantrum either, but the county has no idea how the moves will impact the option programs.

Which school?

Either way it sounds like they didn’t pick it for the pedagogy. If a option program isn’t strong enough to survive a 2 mile move, why are we putting so many resources into it?

I don't think option schools are necessary more expensive. There may be more busing, but where we live there is no neighborhood school we can walk to anyways.

We need extra buses to go to the extra schools though.

I wonder how many, though. How many ATS students live in the walk zones for other schools? If there’s a neighborhood school two blocks from your house, your neighborhood vs option calculus may be different than if your kid is going to end up on a bus either way.

Completely agree. I think this type of analysis is too hard for the county to do. (but certainly this type of complex analysis is done for college admissions and such). Same can probably be said for Key students living blocks away from Key.

But we currently need to bus kids from one neighborhood to multiple schools. You need to account for different (longer) routes with overlapping start times and you’d end up with more buses on the road, even for kids who’d take the bus to their neighborhood school.

And FWIW the vast majority of kids living in the Key walk zone currently do take the bus.

And I'm pro-option school, but realize there is an added expense.

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Anonymous wrote:Abingdon’s heads just exploded.

Why?

Staff said that students will have to move.

EAT IT SOUTH FAIRLINGTON

Nope, eat it Barcroft. See above.

As much as I love the poster always salivating to stick it to South Fairlington, the truth is it’ll probably be another neighborhood like parts of Columbia Forest or as mentioned above, the apartments along 4 mile run or the pike (all of which are far less middle class than Fairlington) that’ll probably move out of Abingdon.

Sadly, this poster is probably right. However, after all the arguing coming from Key about the inhumane treatment of poor minorities being moved, maybe APS will target moving wealthier Fairlington instead after all.

Anonymous wrote:Because these schools close the opportunity gap. Because our community can afford to do so. Because these schools help relieve overcrowding. Like many other families, option school families also have jobs and commutes and transportation logistics to consider.

I take issue with the "help relieve overcrowding" argument. If we still had the same # of buildings but they were all neighborhood schools, we would just have boundaries to alleviate the overcrowding equitably across the County instead of "by choice" and varying degrees of crowding depending on where in the County a school is.

I don’t think the option schools need to be disbanded, but I am very annoyed at option parents pretending like they need to be in a certain building or else all is lost. If keeping your optional school at Key means that kids are zoned to a “neighborhood” school 3 miles away, you need move 2 miles down the road for your special choice program.

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Anonymous wrote:No way this is a done deal.

No, but it will be on Feb 6.

Remember when the superintendent declared the swap a done deal? I think they want the change, but I won’t be shocked if it falls through. I’m ready to move on to the next phase of the boundary process, which will probably be a bigger hotter mess than this.

Yes it will! I wonder how many people realize that every school will be impacted by boundary changes. Can't wait for the yelling when they realize.

Lisa Stengle said last night re: Abingdon that the same scenarios as 2018 were going to come back because it's overcrowded. I assume that means part of Fairlington to Drew?

No. It means apartments south of columbia pike will go to an expanded Barcroft. It will make Barcroft like Carlin Springs. The CIP anticipates growth on the west end of the Pike, meaning move the kids to Barcroft. I heard it directly from a school board member.

No, because that SB member doesn’t know their a** from their elbow. That’s not happening. Abingdon needs relief, not Barcroft. Some bus riders to Abingdon are taking a bus to the half-empty and adjacent Drew.

It will be both. Abingdon will need more trailers next year, despite it's addition and renovation; so boundary changes to relieve crowding there likely send students to Drew. Once Barcroft gets an addition, it will be assigned more students and the only places they'll have to draw from are the CAFs in the west end. So, yes, Barcroft will become another Randolph and Carlin Springs sdemographically.

Option schools are some of the most integrated schools in the county, and do a lot to close the opportunity gap. People would still be upset about boundaries even without option schools.

if the county would just ditch the option schools, it would be so much easier to get this done. I just don't understand the move first approach.

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Anonymous wrote:We will have a tough decision to make if our option school moves. I'm not throwing a tantrum either, but the county has no idea how the moves will impact the option programs.

Which school?

Either way it sounds like they didn’t pick it for the pedagogy. If a option program isn’t strong enough to survive a 2 mile move, why are we putting so many resources into it?

I don't think option schools are necessary more expensive. There may be more busing, but where we live there is no neighborhood school we can walk to anyways.

We need extra buses to go to the extra schools though.

I wonder how many, though. How many ATS students live in the walk zones for other schools? If there’s a neighborhood school two blocks from your house, your neighborhood vs option calculus may be different than if your kid is going to end up on a bus either way.

Completely agree. I think this type of analysis is too hard for the county to do. (but certainly this type of complex analysis is done for college admissions and such). Same can probably be said for Key students living blocks away from Key.

But we currently need to bus kids from one neighborhood to multiple schools. You need to account for different (longer) routes with overlapping start times and you’d end up with more buses on the road, even for kids who’d take the bus to their neighborhood school.

And FWIW the vast majority of kids living in the Key walk zone currently do take the bus.

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Anonymous wrote:We will have a tough decision to make if our option school moves. I'm not throwing a tantrum either, but the county has no idea how the moves will impact the option programs.

Which school?

Either way it sounds like they didn’t pick it for the pedagogy. If a option program isn’t strong enough to survive a 2 mile move, why are we putting so many resources into it?

I don't think option schools are necessary more expensive. There may be more busing, but where we live there is no neighborhood school we can walk to anyways.

We need extra buses to go to the extra schools though.

I wonder how many, though. How many ATS students live in the walk zones for other schools? If there’s a neighborhood school two blocks from your house, your neighborhood vs option calculus may be different than if your kid is going to end up on a bus either way.

Completely agree. I think this type of analysis is too hard for the county to do. (but certainly this type of complex analysis is done for college admissions and such). Same can probably be said for Key students living blocks away from Key.

Why would it be too difficult for the county to do? They have all the data, from there it’s not hard to do a rough calculation of how many students at each option school live in a school walk zone, how many would need to be bused somewhere, and an approximation of how many extra bus routes that would put into the system.

Also, keep in mind that one extra bus route isn’t the same as one extra bus. The target is to have each bus do three routes (pick-up and drop-off), so let’s say eliminating option schools would reduce the number of elementary bus routes by 20. That doesn’t mean APS needs 20 fewer buses, because they still need to service the middle and high school routes those buses cover. With staggering routes, that 20 route savings might only actually save them three buses.

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Anonymous wrote:We will have a tough decision to make if our option school moves. I'm not throwing a tantrum either, but the county has no idea how the moves will impact the option programs.

Which school?

Either way it sounds like they didn’t pick it for the pedagogy. If a option program isn’t strong enough to survive a 2 mile move, why are we putting so many resources into it?

I don't think option schools are necessary more expensive. There may be more busing, but where we live there is no neighborhood school we can walk to anyways.

We need extra buses to go to the extra schools though.

I wonder how many, though. How many ATS students live in the walk zones for other schools? If there’s a neighborhood school two blocks from your house, your neighborhood vs option calculus may be different than if your kid is going to end up on a bus either way.

Completely agree. I think this type of analysis is too hard for the county to do. (but certainly this type of complex analysis is done for college admissions and such). Same can probably be said for Key students living blocks away from Key.