Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids in the Key zone already have a choice between ASFS or Key. What are you nervous about?

Key is going to be all lottery, ASFS is going to be a regular neighborhood school rather than a choice school. The boundaries are going to change, though the specifics are unclear at this point. Basically there will no longer be a Key zone, it will be split between the other schools, included ASFS.

ASFS has never been a choice school. It has been and will continue to be a neighborhood elementary. The only difference is kids who live near Key will no longer be guaranteed a spot at the school, and any family in N Arlington interested in Immersion will have a better shot at getting in. Now that may mean ASFS will have to absorb the extra n'hood kids that Key was educating, but that's a separate issue. The rules on choice schools needed to be streamlined.

I am so sick of reading on this forum that ASFS was never a choice school, always a neighborhood school. This is patently false. The school is a little over 20 years old - not that old. It’s first 10 years at least it was most certainly a choice school and kids from all over Arlington could attend, there just wasn’t bus transportation. My 2 kids were zoned for Oakridge and attended ASFS.

Sorry, but that is incorrect. ASAF was never a choice school and you just proved it in your comment. Choice schools always provide transportation. Neighborhood transfers do not provide transportation. Just because your kids got a transfer from Oakridge doesn't make ASFS a choice school. ASFS is not and has never been choice. It did have a team arrangement, but it was still always a neighborhood school.

It's hard to have a reasonable discussion about the future when people keep arguing about the past. Reality is that APS put an exemplary project at ASAP when it reopened and was designated a neighborhood school. APS also complicated things with the boundary by allowing guaranteed access to a couple other schools. Many ASFS parents wanted the school to have the same status as ATS, but it never did. it was never designated choice, nor was it given all of the things that go with that, such as transportation. These are the facts whether people like them or not.

Fast forward and it is all moot. ASFS is the same as all other neighborhood schools with an exemplary project. Key is no longer choice with a neighborhood component. It is only choice and any non-immersion students will go to a different school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids in the Key zone already have a choice between ASFS or Key. What are you nervous about?

Key is going to be all lottery, ASFS is going to be a regular neighborhood school rather than a choice school. The boundaries are going to change, though the specifics are unclear at this point. Basically there will no longer be a Key zone, it will be split between the other schools, included ASFS.

ASFS has never been a choice school. It has been and will continue to be a neighborhood elementary. The only difference is kids who live near Key will no longer be guaranteed a spot at the school, and any family in N Arlington interested in Immersion will have a better shot at getting in. Now that may mean ASFS will have to absorb the extra n'hood kids that Key was educating, but that's a separate issue. The rules on choice schools needed to be streamlined.

I am so sick of reading on this forum that ASFS was never a choice school, always a neighborhood school. This is patently false. The school is a little over 20 years old - not that old. It’s first 10 years at least it was most certainly a choice school and kids from all over Arlington could attend, there just wasn’t bus transportation. My 2 kids were zoned for Oakridge and attended ASFS.

Sorry, but that is incorrect. ASAF was never a choice school and you just proved it in your comment. Choice schools always provide transportation. Neighborhood transfers do not provide transportation. Just because your kids got a transfer from Oakridge doesn't make ASFS a choice school. ASFS is not and has never been choice. It did have a team arrangement, but it was still always a neighborhood school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please stop calling ASFS a neighborhood school. That implies it serves its surrounding neighborhood. There is NO walk zone for ASFS-- all of the homes around ASFS are zoned for other schools (mostly Taylor) so EVERY student "zoned" for ASFS has to be bussed in. Anyone living in the ASFS "neighborhood" has to beg for a transfer to be let in.

Really - Every single student at the school has to be bussed in? From where, pray tell? You certainly can't go to Science Focus from our neighborhood. I'm sorry your kids can't walk to school 4 blocks away, but ASFS pretty much does serve its surrounding area. How many kids from the Tuckahoe and Jamestown zones go there? Can families from Carlin Springs or Patrick Henry apply too? It is not a choice school.

My kids are in high school now so I have no dog in this fight but, no, ASFS absolutely does not serve its surrounding area and even as recently as 2 years ago, APS did not consider ASFS a neighborhood school and still had procedures in place that allowed for even out of team students to attend. Obviously, thanks to overcrowding throughout most of Arlington, ASFS has become the elementary school for those living in the Roslyn and Courthouse areas, as well as some planning units in Lyon Villege close to Courthouse. But the people living in Lyon Village within about half a mile from ASFS are zoned for Taylor, as are those within 4-5 blocks of ASFS in Cherrydale and Virginia Square.

Um, Key is still also the elementary school for people in that area. Maybe rich white people are just afraid of immersion. Who knows.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please stop calling ASFS a neighborhood school. That implies it serves its surrounding neighborhood. There is NO walk zone for ASFS-- all of the homes around ASFS are zoned for other schools (mostly Taylor) so EVERY student "zoned" for ASFS has to be bussed in. Anyone living in the ASFS "neighborhood" has to beg for a transfer to be let in.

Really - Every single student at the school has to be bussed in? From where, pray tell? You certainly can't go to Science Focus from our neighborhood. I'm sorry your kids can't walk to school 4 blocks away, but ASFS pretty much does serve its surrounding area. How many kids from the Tuckahoe and Jamestown zones go there? Can families from Carlin Springs or Patrick Henry apply too? It is not a choice school.

My kids are in high school now so I have no dog in this fight but, no, ASFS absolutely does not serve its surrounding area and even as recently as 2 years ago, APS did not consider ASFS a neighborhood school and still had procedures in place that allowed for even out of team students to attend. Obviously, thanks to overcrowding throughout most of Arlington, ASFS has become the elementary school for those living in the Roslyn and Courthouse areas, as well as some planning units in Lyon Villege close to Courthouse. But the people living in Lyon Village within about half a mile from ASFS are zoned for Taylor, as are those within 4-5 blocks of ASFS in Cherrydale and Virginia Square.

But you do understand some of that is due to the makeup of those neighborhoods. It is extremely difficult to build out an elementary school in either Roslyn or Courthouse. You barely have any green space, let alone room for an elementary school and place for kids to play. And can you imagine what drop off would look like at rush hour in Roslyn? Bottom line, ASFS is not a choice school.

Why are you guys arguing about this? The decision was already made, policy already changed. ASFS was a (limited) choice school. As of next year, it will be a neighborhood school. The question is what will the neighborhood boundary be? For now, it's the Key boundary. It will likely change when they redraw boundaries as they open the new ES at Reed, but probably not before then.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please stop calling ASFS a neighborhood school. That implies it serves its surrounding neighborhood. There is NO walk zone for ASFS-- all of the homes around ASFS are zoned for other schools (mostly Taylor) so EVERY student "zoned" for ASFS has to be bussed in. Anyone living in the ASFS "neighborhood" has to beg for a transfer to be let in.

Really - Every single student at the school has to be bussed in? From where, pray tell? You certainly can't go to Science Focus from our neighborhood. I'm sorry your kids can't walk to school 4 blocks away, but ASFS pretty much does serve its surrounding area. How many kids from the Tuckahoe and Jamestown zones go there? Can families from Carlin Springs or Patrick Henry apply too? It is not a choice school.

My kids are in high school now so I have no dog in this fight but, no, ASFS absolutely does not serve its surrounding area and even as recently as 2 years ago, APS did not consider ASFS a neighborhood school and still had procedures in place that allowed for even out of team students to attend. Obviously, thanks to overcrowding throughout most of Arlington, ASFS has become the elementary school for those living in the Roslyn and Courthouse areas, as well as some planning units in Lyon Villege close to Courthouse. But the people living in Lyon Village within about half a mile from ASFS are zoned for Taylor, as are those within 4-5 blocks of ASFS in Cherrydale and Virginia Square.

But you do understand some of that is due to the makeup of those neighborhoods. It is extremely difficult to build out an elementary school in either Roslyn or Courthouse. You barely have any green space, let alone room for an elementary school and place for kids to play. And can you imagine what drop off would look like at rush hour in Roslyn? Bottom line, ASFS is not a choice school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please stop calling ASFS a neighborhood school. That implies it serves its surrounding neighborhood. There is NO walk zone for ASFS-- all of the homes around ASFS are zoned for other schools (mostly Taylor) so EVERY student "zoned" for ASFS has to be bussed in. Anyone living in the ASFS "neighborhood" has to beg for a transfer to be let in.

Really - Every single student at the school has to be bussed in? From where, pray tell? You certainly can't go to Science Focus from our neighborhood. I'm sorry your kids can't walk to school 4 blocks away, but ASFS pretty much does serve its surrounding area. How many kids from the Tuckahoe and Jamestown zones go there? Can families from Carlin Springs or Patrick Henry apply too? It is not a choice school.

My kids are in high school now so I have no dog in this fight but, no, ASFS absolutely does not serve its surrounding area and even as recently as 2 years ago, APS did not consider ASFS a neighborhood school and still had procedures in place that allowed for even out of team students to attend. Obviously, thanks to overcrowding throughout most of Arlington, ASFS has become the elementary school for those living in the Roslyn and Courthouse areas, as well as some planning units in Lyon Villege close to Courthouse. But the people living in Lyon Village within about half a mile from ASFS are zoned for Taylor, as are those within 4-5 blocks of ASFS in Cherrydale and Virginia Square.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please stop calling ASFS a neighborhood school. That implies it serves its surrounding neighborhood. There is NO walk zone for ASFS-- all of the homes around ASFS are zoned for other schools (mostly Taylor) so EVERY student "zoned" for ASFS has to be bussed in. Anyone living in the ASFS "neighborhood" has to beg for a transfer to be let in.

Really - Every single student at the school has to be bussed in? From where, pray tell? You certainly can't go to Science Focus from our neighborhood. I'm sorry your kids can't walk to school 4 blocks away, but ASFS pretty much does serve its surrounding area. How many kids from the Tuckahoe and Jamestown zones go there? Can families from Carlin Springs or Patrick Henry apply too? It is not a choice school.

Our neighborhood gets a bus, but a good majority of our neighbors walk their kids to school. We are a little bit closer to Key, but that is Immersion. ASFS is the next closest option and a 0.75 mile walk.

Anonymous wrote:Please stop calling ASFS a neighborhood school. That implies it serves its surrounding neighborhood. There is NO walk zone for ASFS-- all of the homes around ASFS are zoned for other schools (mostly Taylor) so EVERY student "zoned" for ASFS has to be bussed in. Anyone living in the ASFS "neighborhood" has to beg for a transfer to be let in.

Really - Every single student at the school has to be bussed in? From where, pray tell? You certainly can't go to Science Focus from our neighborhood. I'm sorry your kids can't walk to school 4 blocks away, but ASFS pretty much does serve its surrounding area. How many kids from the Tuckahoe and Jamestown zones go there? Can families from Carlin Springs or Patrick Henry apply too? It is not a choice school.

Please stop calling ASFS a neighborhood school. That implies it serves its surrounding neighborhood. There is NO walk zone for ASFS-- all of the homes around ASFS are zoned for other schools (mostly Taylor) so EVERY student "zoned" for ASFS has to be bussed in. Anyone living in the ASFS "neighborhood" has to beg for a transfer to be let in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids in the Key zone already have a choice between ASFS or Key. What are you nervous about?

Key is going to be all lottery, ASFS is going to be a regular neighborhood school rather than a choice school. The boundaries are going to change, though the specifics are unclear at this point. Basically there will no longer be a Key zone, it will be split between the other schools, included ASFS.

ASFS has never been a choice school. It has been and will continue to be a neighborhood elementary. The only difference is kids who live near Key will no longer be guaranteed a spot at the school, and any family in N Arlington interested in Immersion will have a better shot at getting in. Now that may mean ASFS will have to absorb the extra n'hood kids that Key was educating, but that's a separate issue. The rules on choice schools needed to be streamlined.

I am so sick of reading on this forum that ASFS was never a choice school, always a neighborhood school. This is patently false. The school is a little over 20 years old - not that old. It’s first 10 years at least it was most certainly a choice school and kids from all over Arlington could attend, there just wasn’t bus transportation. My 2 kids were zoned for Oakridge and attended ASFS.

It's a neighborhood school. Get over it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing to consider is that APS tries to limit the amount of times a child is rezoned to just once per level (once in elementary, once in middle school, etc). So it's highly unlikely you would be rezoned twice--both for the upcoming rezoning (to take effect in 2019) and after Reed (to take effect in 2021), because your kindergartener would be in the same level (elementary for both rezonings).

Because these rezonings happen so close together, I would hope APS would take that into consideration when making changes next spring.

I don't think they are rezoning the N twice. South Arlington ES boundaries are changing in 2019 to coincide with the opening of the new ES, but N ES boundaries will not change until Reed opens.

I don't think we know that for sure. In addition, the changes to Key/ASFS would be before Reed comes online, would they not?

I think we do. They changed the admission/transfer policy at Key/ASFS to take affect 2018-2019 school year I believe, but AFAIK, they are not changing any boundaries in N Arlington until the Reed school process. PP with a current ASFS student, you will not be affected.

I think this is really unclear. Long Branch is likely to be affected by the "south" adjustment since some of their population is across 50 near the new Fleet ES. And the Key/ASFS shift will require changes before Reed opens.

Not only that, it's very possibly much of Rosslyn could end up at Long Branch; they are geographically far from ASFS, so with it overcapacity they maybe zoned elsewhere which has more space.

No, they're not going to do this until they open all the boundaries up. Because they can't send all the kids to any one school. Some Taylor PU's will probably shift to Glebe, some ASFS to Taylor, and some Key will stay ASFS and others may go to Long Branch. It's not like Long Branch will have all this space if a handful of the military kids zoned there now are sent to Fleet instead in 2019.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One thing to consider is that APS tries to limit the amount of times a child is rezoned to just once per level (once in elementary, once in middle school, etc). So it's highly unlikely you would be rezoned twice--both for the upcoming rezoning (to take effect in 2019) and after Reed (to take effect in 2021), because your kindergartener would be in the same level (elementary for both rezonings).

Because these rezonings happen so close together, I would hope APS would take that into consideration when making changes next spring.

I don't think they are rezoning the N twice. South Arlington ES boundaries are changing in 2019 to coincide with the opening of the new ES, but N ES boundaries will not change until Reed opens.

I don't think we know that for sure. In addition, the changes to Key/ASFS would be before Reed comes online, would they not?

I think we do. They changed the admission/transfer policy at Key/ASFS to take affect 2018-2019 school year I believe, but AFAIK, they are not changing any boundaries in N Arlington until the Reed school process. PP with a current ASFS student, you will not be affected.

I think this is really unclear. Long Branch is likely to be affected by the "south" adjustment since some of their population is across 50 near the new Fleet ES. And the Key/ASFS shift will require changes before Reed opens.

Not only that, it's very possibly much of Rosslyn could end up at Long Branch; they are geographically far from ASFS, so with it overcapacity they maybe zoned elsewhere which has more space.

They'll have to pull a lot more kids out of Long Branch to Fleet than just the small slice currently south of 50 if they need to accommodate Rosslyn. Long Branch is well over capacity and hamstrung by the fact that the tiny site has very little room to accommodate trailers.

Maybe but by rolling in the former key population, total school enrollment is projected at like 180% capacity -- unless they get the buck property or something neighboring schools like long branch will have to go to a more manageable 140%. Think remote parking lots with shuttles b/c trailers go onto the school parking lot, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids in the Key zone already have a choice between ASFS or Key. What are you nervous about?

Key is going to be all lottery, ASFS is going to be a regular neighborhood school rather than a choice school. The boundaries are going to change, though the specifics are unclear at this point. Basically there will no longer be a Key zone, it will be split between the other schools, included ASFS.

ASFS has never been a choice school. It has been and will continue to be a neighborhood elementary. The only difference is kids who live near Key will no longer be guaranteed a spot at the school, and any family in N Arlington interested in Immersion will have a better shot at getting in. Now that may mean ASFS will have to absorb the extra n'hood kids that Key was educating, but that's a separate issue. The rules on choice schools needed to be streamlined.

I am so sick of reading on this forum that ASFS was never a choice school, always a neighborhood school. This is patently false. The school is a little over 20 years old - not that old. It’s first 10 years at least it was most certainly a choice school and kids from all over Arlington could attend, there just wasn’t bus transportation. My 2 kids were zoned for Oakridge and attended ASFS.

So? It's been a neighborhood school for ten years, none of the kids there now came in when it was a choice school, and no one has had an expectation of it being a choice option for ten years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids in the Key zone already have a choice between ASFS or Key. What are you nervous about?

Key is going to be all lottery, ASFS is going to be a regular neighborhood school rather than a choice school. The boundaries are going to change, though the specifics are unclear at this point. Basically there will no longer be a Key zone, it will be split between the other schools, included ASFS.

ASFS has never been a choice school. It has been and will continue to be a neighborhood elementary. The only difference is kids who live near Key will no longer be guaranteed a spot at the school, and any family in N Arlington interested in Immersion will have a better shot at getting in. Now that may mean ASFS will have to absorb the extra n'hood kids that Key was educating, but that's a separate issue. The rules on choice schools needed to be streamlined.

I am so sick of reading on this forum that ASFS was never a choice school, always a neighborhood school. This is patently false. The school is a little over 20 years old - not that old. It’s first 10 years at least it was most certainly a choice school and kids from all over Arlington could attend, there just wasn’t bus transportation. My 2 kids were zoned for Oakridge and attended ASFS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids in the Key zone already have a choice between ASFS or Key. What are you nervous about?

Key is going to be all lottery, ASFS is going to be a regular neighborhood school rather than a choice school. The boundaries are going to change, though the specifics are unclear at this point. Basically there will no longer be a Key zone, it will be split between the other schools, included ASFS.

So? Why is this a concern?