Anonymous
02/08/2023 18:31
Subject: Ashlawn or Campbell ES?
If the VP were/wanted to be principal I would bet ashlawn could return to past glory. Current trajectory not a positive direction.
Anonymous
02/08/2023 09:46
Subject: Re:Ashlawn or Campbell ES?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:This is ridiculous. Ashlawn is widely known as being exceptional for special needs kids. The principal does NOT make decisions about individual kids - that is a system issue and there are regulations guiding those decisions.
NP. We did not find Ashlawn to be exceptional for our special needs kid. We had some teachers that were great, but some really awful experiences as well. They clearly tried to do as little as possible. It wasn’t until we switched to a different school when we realized how much of the problem was them making my kid feel like a bad/stupid student because they refused to address underlying learning differences.
We have found Ashlawn quite good for our special needs kiddos though the new principal leaves some things to be desired. The old principal did a great job and the still vice principal is pretty solid.
Anonymous
02/08/2023 08:09
Subject: Re:Ashlawn or Campbell ES?
Also these boards are so skewed. If you are talking to parents in the neighborhood I always here great things and then on here it feels so different. You will very likely be very happy here. It’s a great place for kids and families
Anonymous
02/08/2023 08:06
Subject: Re:Ashlawn or Campbell ES?
Oh my gosh op people love ashlawn. My younger sons daycare is in the neighborhood and it seems like such a gem because all of the houses back into the trails so all the kids walk and bike on the trails to school truly lovely.
People also like Campbell but there are lots of choice schools in Arlington that you’d be eligible to apply the lottery for but like others have said it’s lottery and not that likely to get a spot. We are zoned to cardinal (quite close to ashlawn) and personally aren’t even putting our hat in the ring for any lottery schools. Going to a neighborhood school in Arlington is wonderful. Walk to school, walk to friends houses. It makes your life easy. People almost uniformly seem to like the option schools too! To be honest you can’t go wrong but I don’t want to deal with early bus pick ups to travel across Arlington when we have a great school in our neighborhood.
People also like Campbell but there are lots of choice schools in Arlington that you’d be eligible to apply the lottery for but like others have said it’s lottery and not that likely to get a spot. We are zoned to cardinal (quite close to ashlawn) and personally aren’t even putting our hat in the ring for any lottery schools. Going to a neighborhood school in Arlington is wonderful. Walk to school, walk to friends houses. It makes your life easy. People almost uniformly seem to like the option schools too! To be honest you can’t go wrong but I don’t want to deal with early bus pick ups to travel across Arlington when we have a great school in our neighborhood.
Anonymous
02/08/2023 07:47
Subject: Ashlawn or Campbell ES?
While there seems to be mixed reviews about the new principal, the vice principal who has been there
for several years is absolutely fantastic! In fact, I found her support to be more consistent and helpful than the former principal.
for several years is absolutely fantastic! In fact, I found her support to be more consistent and helpful than the former principal.
Anonymous
02/07/2023 22:25
Subject: Ashlawn or Campbell ES?
We have almost a decade of experience with ashlawn and aps.
It was a great school with an exceptional principal; she handed over to her vice principal who was solid. Then APS picked someone out of succession planning and eligibility.
It is not a bad school; APS is probably not a premier school district to begin with; but ashlawn was above average 10-15 years ago; now it is just a typical (sub-par) APS school that is typically not great as is all APS (unless you get a lottery school).
The principal will not advocate or support special needs students for requested transfers; there is a teacher in the upper grades that should not be teaching. The principal owns her actions or lack there of.
It was a great school with an exceptional principal; she handed over to her vice principal who was solid. Then APS picked someone out of succession planning and eligibility.
It is not a bad school; APS is probably not a premier school district to begin with; but ashlawn was above average 10-15 years ago; now it is just a typical (sub-par) APS school that is typically not great as is all APS (unless you get a lottery school).
The principal will not advocate or support special needs students for requested transfers; there is a teacher in the upper grades that should not be teaching. The principal owns her actions or lack there of.
Anonymous
02/07/2023 11:21
Subject: Re:Ashlawn or Campbell ES?
Anonymous wrote:This is ridiculous. Ashlawn is widely known as being exceptional for special needs kids. The principal does NOT make decisions about individual kids - that is a system issue and there are regulations guiding those decisions.
NP. We did not find Ashlawn to be exceptional for our special needs kid. We had some teachers that were great, but some really awful experiences as well. They clearly tried to do as little as possible. It wasn’t until we switched to a different school when we realized how much of the problem was them making my kid feel like a bad/stupid student because they refused to address underlying learning differences.
Anonymous
02/07/2023 10:26
Subject: Ashlawn or Campbell ES?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Ashlawn is a wonderful school. My kids have had 6 great main teachers and adore both art teachers, the librarian, and the gifted resources teacher so much. The extended day staff has a core group of employees that were there since before the pandemic. We ran into the counselor out of school and both my kids ran to say hi and introduce us to her.
My only concern is the new principal. I can’t put my finger on what bugs me about her but I feel like she doesn’t fit. Maybe it will take more time, but the last principle and VP were such a great team and you could tell how much they liked each other and how much the kids liked them.
So you criticize her online, for some nebulous reason you “can’t put your finger on,” just because a new person doesn’t immediately re-create the chemistry of the previous “ principle and VP.”
I feel like there’s some reason phenomenal people are not willing to be principals and assistant principals. Just can’t quite put my finger on it.
I’ll put my finger on it. Won’t transfer special needs kids; has a train wreck 5th grade teacher with highest student absenteeism in history as parents do not send their kids to school and does nothing. And that teacher has had half the class quit aps or find a way out through other means.
She's probably that parent who thinks the class is out of control and its unfair for her NT behavior model student.
Ashlawn has a great reputation for their support of SN kids.
I’d love to know what you think a principal can do about transferring special needs kids. Are you saying parents of SN kids aren’t getting transfers to get the services they need, or other people’s kids aren’t being transferred out?
Anonymous
02/07/2023 10:14
Subject: Re:Ashlawn or Campbell ES?
This is ridiculous. Ashlawn is widely known as being exceptional for special needs kids. The principal does NOT make decisions about individual kids - that is a system issue and there are regulations guiding those decisions.
Anonymous
02/07/2023 08:15
Subject: Ashlawn or Campbell ES?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Ashlawn is a wonderful school. My kids have had 6 great main teachers and adore both art teachers, the librarian, and the gifted resources teacher so much. The extended day staff has a core group of employees that were there since before the pandemic. We ran into the counselor out of school and both my kids ran to say hi and introduce us to her.
My only concern is the new principal. I can’t put my finger on what bugs me about her but I feel like she doesn’t fit. Maybe it will take more time, but the last principle and VP were such a great team and you could tell how much they liked each other and how much the kids liked them.
So you criticize her online, for some nebulous reason you “can’t put your finger on,” just because a new person doesn’t immediately re-create the chemistry of the previous “ principle and VP.”
I feel like there’s some reason phenomenal people are not willing to be principals and assistant principals. Just can’t quite put my finger on it.
I’ll put my finger on it. Won’t transfer special needs kids; has a train wreck 5th grade teacher with highest student absenteeism in history as parents do not send their kids to school and does nothing. And that teacher has had half the class quit aps or find a way out through other means.
I’d love to know what you think a principal can do about transferring special needs kids. Are you saying parents of SN kids aren’t getting transfers to get the services they need, or other people’s kids aren’t being transferred out?
Anonymous
02/07/2023 07:52
Subject: Re:Ashlawn or Campbell ES?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Why did previous principal leave? I liked her a lot.
Left to be with her kids. The previous beloved principal was sent to help Barcroft.
I did not care for the principal who left for Barcroft. But her successor, who just left, was phenomenal.
I know a lot of Ashlawn families and teachers were unhappy that she was reassigned to Barcroft, but that school needed her. She’s really turned it around. It’s a testament to the ability of a principal to really make a difference.
OP, you have two great choices, so it really depends on your personal preferences. Things to consider: school start/end times and how they work with your family’s schedules. Transportation: would you be walkers at Ashlawn and do you prefer that? You’d be bus riders at Campbell and driving is strongly discouraged. School size: Campbell is a much smaller school than Ashlawn. I believe class sizes are fairly equivalent, but the overall sizes are really different. Do you prefer the EL model? Basically, it comes down to what you think you want/like in a school for your kid and your family.
Note that OP doesn’t have a spot at Campbell. OP is new to the area and didn’t understand that Campbell is an option school.
Anonymous
02/07/2023 07:41
Subject: Ashlawn or Campbell ES?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Ashlawn is a wonderful school. My kids have had 6 great main teachers and adore both art teachers, the librarian, and the gifted resources teacher so much. The extended day staff has a core group of employees that were there since before the pandemic. We ran into the counselor out of school and both my kids ran to say hi and introduce us to her.
My only concern is the new principal. I can’t put my finger on what bugs me about her but I feel like she doesn’t fit. Maybe it will take more time, but the last principle and VP were such a great team and you could tell how much they liked each other and how much the kids liked them.
So you criticize her online, for some nebulous reason you “can’t put your finger on,” just because a new person doesn’t immediately re-create the chemistry of the previous “ principle and VP.”
I feel like there’s some reason phenomenal people are not willing to be principals and assistant principals. Just can’t quite put my finger on it.
I’ll put my finger on it. Won’t transfer special needs kids; has a train wreck 5th grade teacher with highest student absenteeism in history as parents do not send their kids to school and does nothing. And that teacher has had half the class quit aps or find a way out through other means.
It's possible the principal can't do anything about either of those things. I'm not going to touch the "won't transfer special needs kids" thing aside from reminding you this a public school that special needs kids can attend. But the teacher issue- if this teacher isn't brand new, it takes A LOT to fire an experienced teacher. It's possible admin is collecting data and evidence to not renew this teacher's contract for next year but it would take something super serious like coming to school on drugs or physically abusing children to fire a teacher mid year- not being a train wreck.
Our fifth grade teacher last year at discovery would leave our children alone in the classroom because she “needed a break” from the kids. She would tell the children how they were stressing her out. She told a substitute teacher that she hated the class. And so much more but the teacher never got fired. In fact, they just sent her to another APS school this year.
Anonymous
02/07/2023 07:37
Subject: Ashlawn or Campbell ES?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Ashlawn is a wonderful school. My kids have had 6 great main teachers and adore both art teachers, the librarian, and the gifted resources teacher so much. The extended day staff has a core group of employees that were there since before the pandemic. We ran into the counselor out of school and both my kids ran to say hi and introduce us to her.
My only concern is the new principal. I can’t put my finger on what bugs me about her but I feel like she doesn’t fit. Maybe it will take more time, but the last principle and VP were such a great team and you could tell how much they liked each other and how much the kids liked them.
So you criticize her online, for some nebulous reason you “can’t put your finger on,” just because a new person doesn’t immediately re-create the chemistry of the previous “ principle and VP.”
I feel like there’s some reason phenomenal people are not willing to be principals and assistant principals. Just can’t quite put my finger on it.
I’ll put my finger on it. Won’t transfer special needs kids; has a train wreck 5th grade teacher with highest student absenteeism in history as parents do not send their kids to school and does nothing. And that teacher has had half the class quit aps or find a way out through other means.
It's possible the principal can't do anything about either of those things. I'm not going to touch the "won't transfer special needs kids" thing aside from reminding you this a public school that special needs kids can attend. But the teacher issue- if this teacher isn't brand new, it takes A LOT to fire an experienced teacher. It's possible admin is collecting data and evidence to not renew this teacher's contract for next year but it would take something super serious like coming to school on drugs or physically abusing children to fire a teacher mid year- not being a train wreck.
Anonymous
02/06/2023 23:47
Subject: Ashlawn or Campbell ES?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Ashlawn is a wonderful school. My kids have had 6 great main teachers and adore both art teachers, the librarian, and the gifted resources teacher so much. The extended day staff has a core group of employees that were there since before the pandemic. We ran into the counselor out of school and both my kids ran to say hi and introduce us to her.
My only concern is the new principal. I can’t put my finger on what bugs me about her but I feel like she doesn’t fit. Maybe it will take more time, but the last principle and VP were such a great team and you could tell how much they liked each other and how much the kids liked them.
So you criticize her online, for some nebulous reason you “can’t put your finger on,” just because a new person doesn’t immediately re-create the chemistry of the previous “ principle and VP.”
I feel like there’s some reason phenomenal people are not willing to be principals and assistant principals. Just can’t quite put my finger on it.
I’ll put my finger on it. Won’t transfer special needs kids; has a train wreck 5th grade teacher with highest student absenteeism in history as parents do not send their kids to school and does nothing. And that teacher has had half the class quit aps or find a way out through other means.
Anonymous
02/06/2023 21:28
Subject: Ashlawn or Campbell ES?
Anonymous wrote:Ashlawn is a wonderful school. My kids have had 6 great main teachers and adore both art teachers, the librarian, and the gifted resources teacher so much. The extended day staff has a core group of employees that were there since before the pandemic. We ran into the counselor out of school and both my kids ran to say hi and introduce us to her.
My only concern is the new principal. I can’t put my finger on what bugs me about her but I feel like she doesn’t fit. Maybe it will take more time, but the last principle and VP were such a great team and you could tell how much they liked each other and how much the kids liked them.
So you criticize her online, for some nebulous reason you “can’t put your finger on,” just because a new person doesn’t immediately re-create the chemistry of the previous “ principle and VP.”
I feel like there’s some reason phenomenal people are not willing to be principals and assistant principals. Just can’t quite put my finger on it.