Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My non-JH, ACPS 2nd grader is starting to suffer the effects of being an average MC child in a class of high needs children. The fact that she is only performing at grade level when she was in the 97% on the NNAT in first grade seems to me that she is not reaching potential. But, her teachers and the school are overwhelmed by the 45% ESL population, meaning she does not even make the list of kids needing a parent-teacher conference. This is why one should not send their kids to certain schools - they will be consumed by kids needing 90% of teachers and staff attention and mediocrity becomes success.

Yes this is the key issue. What is needed in those schools is more than one teacher per classroom. Spend less on the central office and more on getting teachers into classrooms.

There are kids who start out in PreK and go all the way thru ACHS and are still failing and can barely read or do basic math. So clearly something the school is doing doesn’t work.

Public housing is filled with generational poverty. And that’s not mean it’s the fact that once a family is in they can’t leave because where else can they go they can afford. Blame the City for not helping two generations ago move into their own permanent housing.

The mistake of J-H was putting that IB program there. Instead they should have went with the traditional
model that Lyles Crouch. There was a high demand for that program and it had good results. I feel they cheated the students who needed it most.

I think this is going to consume ACPS at all schools - even the east end schools. ACPS’ ELL population is growing exponentially (hello sanctuary city policies). 40% of ACPS is ELL and growing. In some of that population the kids not only come from non-English speaking households, but households where the adults are illiterate (no matter the language). ACPS is not positioned to effectively and meaningfully educate kids in classrooms where a few are gifted and 40% come from illiterate, non-English-speaking homes. And a portion of those 40% are special needs. The teachers are not trained or equipped to address these disparities.

Who are you to say ACPS teachers are not trained or equipped to work with these students? All I see at school events are highly effective, professional teachers. Teachers with specialities in interventions and English language learning. Shame on you for putting down these hard working teachers who work thier butts off in difficult positions.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My non-JH, ACPS 2nd grader is starting to suffer the effects of being an average MC child in a class of high needs children. The fact that she is only performing at grade level when she was in the 97% on the NNAT in first grade seems to me that she is not reaching potential. But, her teachers and the school are overwhelmed by the 45% ESL population, meaning she does not even make the list of kids needing a parent-teacher conference. This is why one should not send their kids to certain schools - they will be consumed by kids needing 90% of teachers and staff attention and mediocrity becomes success.

Yes this is the key issue. What is needed in those schools is more than one teacher per classroom. Spend less on the central office and more on getting teachers into classrooms.

There are kids who start out in PreK and go all the way thru ACHS and are still failing and can barely read or do basic math. So clearly something the school is doing doesn’t work.

Public housing is filled with generational poverty. And that’s not mean it’s the fact that once a family is in they can’t leave because where else can they go they can afford. Blame the City for not helping two generations ago move into their own permanent housing.

The mistake of J-H was putting that IB program there. Instead they should have went with the traditional
model that Lyles Crouch. There was a high demand for that program and it had good results. I feel they cheated the students who needed it most.

I think this is going to consume ACPS at all schools - even the east end schools. ACPS’ ELL population is growing exponentially (hello sanctuary city policies). 40% of ACPS is ELL and growing. In some of that population the kids not only come from non-English speaking households, but households where the adults are illiterate (no matter the language). ACPS is not positioned to effectively and meaningfully educate kids in classrooms where a few are gifted and 40% come from illiterate, non-English-speaking homes. And a portion of those 40% are special needs. The teachers are not trained or equipped to address these disparities.

Anonymous wrote:My non-JH, ACPS 2nd grader is starting to suffer the effects of being an average MC child in a class of high needs children. The fact that she is only performing at grade level when she was in the 97% on the NNAT in first grade seems to me that she is not reaching potential. But, her teachers and the school are overwhelmed by the 45% ESL population, meaning she does not even make the list of kids needing a parent-teacher conference. This is why one should not send their kids to certain schools - they will be consumed by kids needing 90% of teachers and staff attention and mediocrity becomes success.

Yes this is the key issue. What is needed in those schools is more than one teacher per classroom. Spend less on the central office and more on getting teachers into classrooms.

There are kids who start out in PreK and go all the way thru ACHS and are still failing and can barely read or do basic math. So clearly something the school is doing doesn’t work.

Public housing is filled with generational poverty. And that’s not mean it’s the fact that once a family is in they can’t leave because where else can they go they can afford. Blame the City for not helping two generations ago move into their own permanent housing.

The mistake of J-H was putting that IB program there. Instead they should have went with the traditional
model that Lyles Crouch. There was a high demand for that program and it had good results. I feel they cheated the students who needed it most.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JH parent here. Everyone that makes assumptions about public housing, if you aren’t at the school and don’t know the families, you don’t have credibility. Yes, ACPS - not just JH has families with tremendous challenges. However there are underserved families who care deeply about their children’s education. The people on this forum who keep painting this picture of JH from how it was a decade ago or even 5 years ago are no longer informed and have not seen its transformation and evolution. JH is a vibrant, wonderful community of families. The parents are all so active and we have awesome events and opportunities for the community to come together. Test scores are reflective of ACPS demographics generally and not a metric to measure broad opinion. Test scores are also something the district is focusing on across all schools.

There is a lot of misinformation in many of these posts about transfers. Admin transfers are not allowed and are no longer granted. For a long time, district allowed principals to transfer kids to JH from all over the city. That too has stopped. JH is no only serving the kids who are zoned for JH - Potomac Yard, Old Town North, and Half of Del Ray. Many of the comments about public housing is also incorrect, as much of the public housing has been rebuilt or will be rebuilt into mixed income high rises.

There is a difference between pushing racial tropes and stereotypes and criticizing a school on approach to education. The people that do the first are indeed racist. That’s a fact. Everyone on this forum who, when they visualize or think about people from public housing at an elementary school, if you feel scared or shudder or feel anger, should read How to be an Anti-Racist. If you don’t want to be in a school district thats 50% FARM, fine don’t be, but the fact that you come onto a anonymous public site and fear monger, say things like Run, or speak ill of underserved children of color and their families, that’s what makes you racist, whether you want to see and accept that or not.

That is 100% false. I can't put it any clearer. Not a single kid on my block goes to JH, despite being zoned for it. My own kids had transfers to Brooks long after they supposedly stopped being handed out. You are just wrong. And, really, please dispense with the racist this and racist that. Most of us are just simply trying to raise our kids as best we can. There is no agenda. JH is the worst school in the system (and was the lowest performing school in the entire state at one point). People avoided THAT, not the skin color inside the school.

Yep! The simple fact of ACPS is that you will never find a parent who is critical about JH because they are gone or took a transfer and don't want to talk about it. The best people to talk to would be the families that moved their rising third graders to Fairfax, but they are gone. If you don't know how to transfer out of JH then you likely aren't ever going to find out as you don't run in the right circles.

Anonymous wrote:My non-JH, ACPS 2nd grader is starting to suffer the effects of being an average MC child in a class of high needs children. The fact that she is only performing at grade level when she was in the 97% on the NNAT in first grade seems to me that she is not reaching potential. But, her teachers and the school are overwhelmed by the 45% ESL population, meaning she does not even make the list of kids needing a parent-teacher conference. This is why one should not send their kids to certain schools - they will be consumed by kids needing 90% of teachers and staff attention and mediocrity becomes success.

Better yet, the actual purpose of the redistricting was to literally use your child to boost the poor performance of those other kids and therefore give the appearance of a higher performing school. They are not there to challenge your kid.

My non-JH, ACPS 2nd grader is starting to suffer the effects of being an average MC child in a class of high needs children. The fact that she is only performing at grade level when she was in the 97% on the NNAT in first grade seems to me that she is not reaching potential. But, her teachers and the school are overwhelmed by the 45% ESL population, meaning she does not even make the list of kids needing a parent-teacher conference. This is why one should not send their kids to certain schools - they will be consumed by kids needing 90% of teachers and staff attention and mediocrity becomes success.

Anonymous wrote:JH parent here. Everyone that makes assumptions about public housing, if you aren’t at the school and don’t know the families, you don’t have credibility. Yes, ACPS - not just JH has families with tremendous challenges. However there are underserved families who care deeply about their children’s education. The people on this forum who keep painting this picture of JH from how it was a decade ago or even 5 years ago are no longer informed and have not seen its transformation and evolution. JH is a vibrant, wonderful community of families. The parents are all so active and we have awesome events and opportunities for the community to come together. Test scores are reflective of ACPS demographics generally and not a metric to measure broad opinion. Test scores are also something the district is focusing on across all schools.

There is a lot of misinformation in many of these posts about transfers. Admin transfers are not allowed and are no longer granted. For a long time, district allowed principals to transfer kids to JH from all over the city. That too has stopped. JH is no only serving the kids who are zoned for JH - Potomac Yard, Old Town North, and Half of Del Ray. Many of the comments about public housing is also incorrect, as much of the public housing has been rebuilt or will be rebuilt into mixed income high rises.

There is a difference between pushing racial tropes and stereotypes and criticizing a school on approach to education. The people that do the first are indeed racist. That’s a fact. Everyone on this forum who, when they visualize or think about people from public housing at an elementary school, if you feel scared or shudder or feel anger, should read How to be an Anti-Racist. If you don’t want to be in a school district thats 50% FARM, fine don’t be, but the fact that you come onto a anonymous public site and fear monger, say things like Run, or speak ill of underserved children of color and their families, that’s what makes you racist, whether you want to see and accept that or not.

That is 100% false. I can't put it any clearer. Not a single kid on my block goes to JH, despite being zoned for it. My own kids had transfers to Brooks long after they supposedly stopped being handed out. You are just wrong. And, really, please dispense with the racist this and racist that. Most of us are just simply trying to raise our kids as best we can. There is no agenda. JH is the worst school in the system (and was the lowest performing school in the entire state at one point). People avoided THAT, not the skin color inside the school.

JH parent here. Everyone that makes assumptions about public housing, if you aren’t at the school and don’t know the families, you don’t have credibility. Yes, ACPS - not just JH has families with tremendous challenges. However there are underserved families who care deeply about their children’s education. The people on this forum who keep painting this picture of JH from how it was a decade ago or even 5 years ago are no longer informed and have not seen its transformation and evolution. JH is a vibrant, wonderful community of families. The parents are all so active and we have awesome events and opportunities for the community to come together. Test scores are reflective of ACPS demographics generally and not a metric to measure broad opinion. Test scores are also something the district is focusing on across all schools.

There is a lot of misinformation in many of these posts about transfers. Admin transfers are not allowed and are no longer granted. For a long time, district allowed principals to transfer kids to JH from all over the city. That too has stopped. JH is no only serving the kids who are zoned for JH - Potomac Yard, Old Town North, and Half of Del Ray. Many of the comments about public housing is also incorrect, as much of the public housing has been rebuilt or will be rebuilt into mixed income high rises.

There is a difference between pushing racial tropes and stereotypes and criticizing a school on approach to education. The people that do the first are indeed racist. That’s a fact. Everyone on this forum who, when they visualize or think about people from public housing at an elementary school, if you feel scared or shudder or feel anger, should read How to be an Anti-Racist. If you don’t want to be in a school district thats 50% FARM, fine don’t be, but the fact that you come onto a anonymous public site and fear monger, say things like Run, or speak ill of underserved children of color and their families, that’s what makes you racist, whether you want to see and accept that or not.

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jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an ACPS parent with kids at Brooks. I have friends that send their kids to Jefferson-Houston and friends that teach there. You will hear the same issues in all of ACPS. Frankly, the sad issue is that our city has a concentration of children in high poverty. Brooks has the same thing too, from the public housing. Jefferson-Houston's stats are pretty much the same. I know parents from all different backgrounds who go there and they have the same experience that we have in ACPS. It is really hard to judge on statistics for students whose basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter aren't being met. For what it's worth, three families in Rosemont that I am friends with personally send their kids to Jefferson-Houston over Brooks. There is a lot of turnover with principals in ACPS in general. Focus on the classroom teachers and the school communities. You sound like a person who values people from all different backgrounds. The hardest thing for me is explaining to my elementary aged students why we have so much and other classmates have so little. It is a hard lesson and something they are beginning to understand and see. It is sad to me that ACPS and the city cannot do more to help. Education is the great equalizer. My parents grew up in public housing. My grandparents worked in factories and dropped out in fifth grade. My mom and dad were the first in their family to graduate middle school, let alone HS and college. My mom has her PhD and my dad graduated from law school. In a city like Alexandria, I'd love to see the elected officials and central office staff put their money where their mouths are and invest more in out of school time and our public schools. I agree with the PTA poster to join the JH specific groups and remember that a lot of trolls on this thread only value diversity when it is diverse people from the same upper middle class or wealthy background.

Thank you for speaking up on behalf against the racist people on this site, and on behalf of ACPS parents. Another JH parent here, and I underscore the sentiment in this post. Our school 50-60% underserved populations, 30% middle to upper income. My child learns the world as it because he is in school with the children of our neighborhood. What is so sad about this forum is so many people from outside Alexandria speak so ill of children, CHILDREN, at our schools in ACPS who need us to uplift communities, not bring it down. It's the reason we have all left this site for honest, open, transparent discussion on ACPS and moved to the groups where the discussion is respectful and open.

I appreciate your support for this school. But, please be a bit more polite in your reports to me. I am not sure how you can complain that I "allow" certain posts while simultaneously asking me to "clean up" this thread. If I allow the posts, why would I clean them up? The expectation that I will clean up a thread implies that those posts are, in fact, not allowed. The reason you may be confused about this is that you don't seem to understand that neither I, nor anyone else, is capable of reading every post on this website. As such, I frequently have no idea what has been posted unless someone reports it to me. I appreciate your reporting and bringing inappropriate posts to my attention. The willingness of users to do that is extremely important and is greatly appreciated. However, as I said, I don't really need to be talked down to in the reports.

But you do have a problem with anti-Alexandria trolls, don't you? Nothing brings out trolling and thinly veiled racism than a post about Alexandria and ACPS in particular.

Unless you are privy to Jeff's servers, you have not a clue who is 'troll' or who isn't from Alexandria. I am from Alexandria and I have 3 kids in ACPS. I know all about JH. Claiming that anyone not interested in sending their kid to an unacccredited (or jerry rigged accredited) school, or one with astronomical FARMS rates is racist is simply..... BS. We all want what is best for our child and that includes surrounding my kids with positive influences.[

Poor kids aren't positive influences?

Not if they are borderline illiterate and threatening to "put a cap in yo ass", both of which are reality at JH. I have seen it first hand on the playground there and have heard reports from teachers in the building.

You're conflating behavioral issues with poverty. And you're about over the line on racism with the way you're talking about it.

I'm not conflating anything. I'm sharing first hand accounts that apparently upset you enough that you're resorting to name calling. JH will never change so long as it pulls from the neighborhood with the shots fired calls.

Let's make this explicit: you're saying that poor black children in neighborhoods with crime shouldn't attend schools with UMC white children.

That's not me you are quoting, but let me take this oppurtinity to be absolutely clear about how completely batsh*t crazy you are to have that takeaway. Than you for letting us all know to disreagrd your posts.

PP literally said the school won't improve until it changes it's demographics to exclude a certain element.

PP said it won't change until the school stops pulling kids from the neighborhood with the most shots fired calls.

Nary a demographic nor a race mentioned.

This just kills you, doesn't it.

ACPS tried this to some extent when they districted the housing development across the street from the Braddock Metro that has so much gun violence they had those huge mobile cameras installed on 4 streets for Brooks instead of JH (which is much closer). It would just be too many kids from ARHA developments (and these are not one demographic). My son was good friends with a kid that lived over there and I hated whenever I had to drop him off at home knowing all the things he heard and saw there (he would tell us). And Brooks didn’t really help him either. He would tell me how much school he would skip (esp during zoom school) but they don’t fail kids there so he thought it was so funny how he kept passing each grade. Great, nice, funny kid in a real $hit situation. ACPS 101.

When did this redistricting happen? I wish Alexandria city council would quit it with public housing.

I believe that redistricting was at least 15 years ago.

I guess you don’t believe in the concept of ensuring everyone has decent housing.

Not even half that. It was seven years ago (2017) and the process lingered for a year and a half. Essentially nothing changed except they drew more kids from the ARHA housing (projects) into Maury (now Brooks) and they publically proclaimed they would cease all admin transfers out of JH. But, privately, they granted every single one.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I really want to know who is such an extreme ACPS apologist that he/she spews vitriol to Jeff - no wonder things here will never improve. Totally unhinged.

"Vitriol" is putting it a little strongly. "Frustration" might be more accurate. Also, the poster apologized.

Everyone should probably be more careful with their language. Not all kids from a specific housing development necessarily cause problems so broad statements about such kids are probably inaccurate and unfair. Similar, not every criticism of the school is "racist".

Fair point. The saddest part is the kids from that housing development who want to succeed having to go to the school. That’s the disservice in this, and it is nothing ACPS is willing to confront. And UMC kids going to the school and also being poorly served by a broken system is not going to fix anything either.
In other words, if I were OP and had options, I would look to not send my children to JH. I have said it somewhere on here before - ACPS parents tend to be disingenuous cheerleaders for the system; otherwise we feel guilty that we cannot afford to move or send our kids to private school. I assuage my guilt by trying to promote change and publicly criticize where warranted. Others do so by gaslighting themselves and those who will listen.
There is only one conditionally accredited school in all of FCPS (Justice HS), and in ACPS our single, monstrous HS is only conditionally accredited. That is derelict. (JH is also only conditionally accredited).

Anonymous wrote:I really want to know who is such an extreme ACPS apologist that he/she spews vitriol to Jeff - no wonder things here will never improve. Totally unhinged.

"Vitriol" is putting it a little strongly. "Frustration" might be more accurate. Also, the poster apologized.

Everyone should probably be more careful with their language. Not all kids from a specific housing development necessarily cause problems so broad statements about such kids are probably inaccurate and unfair. Similar, not every criticism of the school is "racist".

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jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an ACPS parent with kids at Brooks. I have friends that send their kids to Jefferson-Houston and friends that teach there. You will hear the same issues in all of ACPS. Frankly, the sad issue is that our city has a concentration of children in high poverty. Brooks has the same thing too, from the public housing. Jefferson-Houston's stats are pretty much the same. I know parents from all different backgrounds who go there and they have the same experience that we have in ACPS. It is really hard to judge on statistics for students whose basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter aren't being met. For what it's worth, three families in Rosemont that I am friends with personally send their kids to Jefferson-Houston over Brooks. There is a lot of turnover with principals in ACPS in general. Focus on the classroom teachers and the school communities. You sound like a person who values people from all different backgrounds. The hardest thing for me is explaining to my elementary aged students why we have so much and other classmates have so little. It is a hard lesson and something they are beginning to understand and see. It is sad to me that ACPS and the city cannot do more to help. Education is the great equalizer. My parents grew up in public housing. My grandparents worked in factories and dropped out in fifth grade. My mom and dad were the first in their family to graduate middle school, let alone HS and college. My mom has her PhD and my dad graduated from law school. In a city like Alexandria, I'd love to see the elected officials and central office staff put their money where their mouths are and invest more in out of school time and our public schools. I agree with the PTA poster to join the JH specific groups and remember that a lot of trolls on this thread only value diversity when it is diverse people from the same upper middle class or wealthy background.

Thank you for speaking up on behalf against the racist people on this site, and on behalf of ACPS parents. Another JH parent here, and I underscore the sentiment in this post. Our school 50-60% underserved populations, 30% middle to upper income. My child learns the world as it because he is in school with the children of our neighborhood. What is so sad about this forum is so many people from outside Alexandria speak so ill of children, CHILDREN, at our schools in ACPS who need us to uplift communities, not bring it down. It's the reason we have all left this site for honest, open, transparent discussion on ACPS and moved to the groups where the discussion is respectful and open.

I appreciate your support for this school. But, please be a bit more polite in your reports to me. I am not sure how you can complain that I "allow" certain posts while simultaneously asking me to "clean up" this thread. If I allow the posts, why would I clean them up? The expectation that I will clean up a thread implies that those posts are, in fact, not allowed. The reason you may be confused about this is that you don't seem to understand that neither I, nor anyone else, is capable of reading every post on this website. As such, I frequently have no idea what has been posted unless someone reports it to me. I appreciate your reporting and bringing inappropriate posts to my attention. The willingness of users to do that is extremely important and is greatly appreciated. However, as I said, I don't really need to be talked down to in the reports.

But you do have a problem with anti-Alexandria trolls, don't you? Nothing brings out trolling and thinly veiled racism than a post about Alexandria and ACPS in particular.

Unless you are privy to Jeff's servers, you have not a clue who is 'troll' or who isn't from Alexandria. I am from Alexandria and I have 3 kids in ACPS. I know all about JH. Claiming that anyone not interested in sending their kid to an unacccredited (or jerry rigged accredited) school, or one with astronomical FARMS rates is racist is simply..... BS. We all want what is best for our child and that includes surrounding my kids with positive influences.[

Poor kids aren't positive influences?

Not if they are borderline illiterate and threatening to "put a cap in yo ass", both of which are reality at JH. I have seen it first hand on the playground there and have heard reports from teachers in the building.

You're conflating behavioral issues with poverty. And you're about over the line on racism with the way you're talking about it.

I'm not conflating anything. I'm sharing first hand accounts that apparently upset you enough that you're resorting to name calling. JH will never change so long as it pulls from the neighborhood with the shots fired calls.

Let's make this explicit: you're saying that poor black children in neighborhoods with crime shouldn't attend schools with UMC white children.

That's not me you are quoting, but let me take this oppurtinity to be absolutely clear about how completely batsh*t crazy you are to have that takeaway. Than you for letting us all know to disreagrd your posts.

PP literally said the school won't improve until it changes it's demographics to exclude a certain element.

PP said it won't change until the school stops pulling kids from the neighborhood with the most shots fired calls.

Nary a demographic nor a race mentioned.

This just kills you, doesn't it.

ACPS tried this to some extent when they districted the housing development across the street from the Braddock Metro that has so much gun violence they had those huge mobile cameras installed on 4 streets for Brooks instead of JH (which is much closer). It would just be too many kids from ARHA developments (and these are not one demographic). My son was good friends with a kid that lived over there and I hated whenever I had to drop him off at home knowing all the things he heard and saw there (he would tell us). And Brooks didn’t really help him either. He would tell me how much school he would skip (esp during zoom school) but they don’t fail kids there so he thought it was so funny how he kept passing each grade. Great, nice, funny kid in a real $hit situation. ACPS 101.

When did this redistricting happen? I wish Alexandria city council would quit it with public housing.

I believe that redistricting was at least 15 years ago.

I guess you don’t believe in the concept of ensuring everyone has decent housing.

I really want to know who is such an extreme ACPS apologist that he/she spews vitriol to Jeff - no wonder things here will never improve. Totally unhinged.

I think you can definitely get some real info here about ACPS. Facebook pages, not so much, as those do get censored. Although, if you’re on the GWMS parent and community page you’ll see many daily laments about various administrative frustrations with a large, overcrowded school. This week it was multiple people commenting about the fact that there’s no easy way to report a school absence. These are basic things most other school districts can and do figure out but are a constant never-ending challenge in ACPS. And that’s the low-hanging fruit. If they can’t get the simple stuff sorted out, no way are they going to be able to manage the huge entrenched problems.

Anyone painting rosy picture of ACPS is living in denial about reality. There are great people with ACPS (educators, kids, and families) but the system is very broken and just beyond repair. Sadly, the problems get bigger as you move from elementary to middle to high school.

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an ACPS parent with kids at Brooks. I have friends that send their kids to Jefferson-Houston and friends that teach there. You will hear the same issues in all of ACPS. Frankly, the sad issue is that our city has a concentration of children in high poverty. Brooks has the same thing too, from the public housing. Jefferson-Houston's stats are pretty much the same. I know parents from all different backgrounds who go there and they have the same experience that we have in ACPS. It is really hard to judge on statistics for students whose basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter aren't being met. For what it's worth, three families in Rosemont that I am friends with personally send their kids to Jefferson-Houston over Brooks. There is a lot of turnover with principals in ACPS in general. Focus on the classroom teachers and the school communities. You sound like a person who values people from all different backgrounds. The hardest thing for me is explaining to my elementary aged students why we have so much and other classmates have so little. It is a hard lesson and something they are beginning to understand and see. It is sad to me that ACPS and the city cannot do more to help. Education is the great equalizer. My parents grew up in public housing. My grandparents worked in factories and dropped out in fifth grade. My mom and dad were the first in their family to graduate middle school, let alone HS and college. My mom has her PhD and my dad graduated from law school. In a city like Alexandria, I'd love to see the elected officials and central office staff put their money where their mouths are and invest more in out of school time and our public schools. I agree with the PTA poster to join the JH specific groups and remember that a lot of trolls on this thread only value diversity when it is diverse people from the same upper middle class or wealthy background.

Thank you for speaking up on behalf against the racist people on this site, and on behalf of ACPS parents. Another JH parent here, and I underscore the sentiment in this post. Our school 50-60% underserved populations, 30% middle to upper income. My child learns the world as it because he is in school with the children of our neighborhood. What is so sad about this forum is so many people from outside Alexandria speak so ill of children, CHILDREN, at our schools in ACPS who need us to uplift communities, not bring it down. It's the reason we have all left this site for honest, open, transparent discussion on ACPS and moved to the groups where the discussion is respectful and open.

I appreciate your support for this school. But, please be a bit more polite in your reports to me. I am not sure how you can complain that I "allow" certain posts while simultaneously asking me to "clean up" this thread. If I allow the posts, why would I clean them up? The expectation that I will clean up a thread implies that those posts are, in fact, not allowed. The reason you may be confused about this is that you don't seem to understand that neither I, nor anyone else, is capable of reading every post on this website. As such, I frequently have no idea what has been posted unless someone reports it to me. I appreciate your reporting and bringing inappropriate posts to my attention. The willingness of users to do that is extremely important and is greatly appreciated. However, as I said, I don't really need to be talked down to in the reports.

But you do have a problem with anti-Alexandria trolls, don't you? Nothing brings out trolling and thinly veiled racism than a post about Alexandria and ACPS in particular.

Unless you are privy to Jeff's servers, you have not a clue who is 'troll' or who isn't from Alexandria. I am from Alexandria and I have 3 kids in ACPS. I know all about JH. Claiming that anyone not interested in sending their kid to an unacccredited (or jerry rigged accredited) school, or one with astronomical FARMS rates is racist is simply..... BS. We all want what is best for our child and that includes surrounding my kids with positive influences.[

Poor kids aren't positive influences?

Not if they are borderline illiterate and threatening to "put a cap in yo ass", both of which are reality at JH. I have seen it first hand on the playground there and have heard reports from teachers in the building.

You're conflating behavioral issues with poverty. And you're about over the line on racism with the way you're talking about it.

I'm not conflating anything. I'm sharing first hand accounts that apparently upset you enough that you're resorting to name calling. JH will never change so long as it pulls from the neighborhood with the shots fired calls.

Let's make this explicit: you're saying that poor black children in neighborhoods with crime shouldn't attend schools with UMC white children.

That's not me you are quoting, but let me take this oppurtinity to be absolutely clear about how completely batsh*t crazy you are to have that takeaway. Than you for letting us all know to disreagrd your posts.

PP literally said the school won't improve until it changes it's demographics to exclude a certain element.

PP said it won't change until the school stops pulling kids from the neighborhood with the most shots fired calls.

Nary a demographic nor a race mentioned.

This just kills you, doesn't it.

ACPS tried this to some extent when they districted the housing development across the street from the Braddock Metro that has so much gun violence they had those huge mobile cameras installed on 4 streets for Brooks instead of JH (which is much closer). It would just be too many kids from ARHA developments (and these are not one demographic). My son was good friends with a kid that lived over there and I hated whenever I had to drop him off at home knowing all the things he heard and saw there (he would tell us). And Brooks didn’t really help him either. He would tell me how much school he would skip (esp during zoom school) but they don’t fail kids there so he thought it was so funny how he kept passing each grade. Great, nice, funny kid in a real $hit situation. ACPS 101.

When did this redistricting happen? I wish Alexandria city council would quit it with public housing.