Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:11:35 - Discovery and Jamestown have such low FARMS rates because the houses around them cost minimum $700K and there's little to no rental housing. It's not rocket science that a neighborhood school surrounded by expensive housing will have fewer poor kids. (I'm not opposed to AH going up along Lee Highway or something to drive FARMS numbers up.)

I suspect ATS attracts more N. Arl kids because there are more middle class parents up there, the parents may be more willing to make the time and effort to do the school tours required by the application process, and because many people prefer to have their kids attend a closer school. As a 22207 parent whose child attends ATS, I would not have applied if the school were located in Crystal City, for example, because it would have been a PITA to do dropoff and pickup every day. The current location is less than 2 miles away.

To be fair, I think this is why ATS is centrally located. So that geography is not a barrier.

Faulty logic: It is not 'fair". It's not central; it's in N ARL. It's "centrally" located to great schools and quite far from lower quality schools.
Fair would be to move it to S. arl and make that building a neighborhood school.

If your child could go to a N. arl school and is at ATS, you know that it is not fair.

Anonymous wrote:There were 35 kids in my K class in the late 1970s. There are 20 in my DS's K class in Arlington. We love our school. This complaining is mystifying to me and one big yawn. To be sure, were moving in two years.

My McK's 1st grade class is 21. He has time to eat lunch. Yes, it's a wild-looking mess but the McK staff, teachers and leadership are AMAZING! We love the in-transfer kids. They are fantastic and really enjoying their construction-experience. I mean educational experience. I realize that McK is oversold and the 2-story slide school isn't but I think McK has a very rich environment and they work to fit everybody in. For example, extended day expanded this year significantly. It got done because it was the right thing to do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone take into account building size/capacity?

Our school numbers are lower--but we also are in one of the smallest buildings.

+100 = bigger school means more students.

Yes, size and capacity are both available. Nottingham is at roughly 85% of its capacity. McK is over 100% and will be close to 120% next year, even accounting for the larger building.

Feel free to transfer some of those little darlings at McKinley over to Randolph. They have room, and lots of vibrancy.

That's awesome. Too far.

3 miles. 10 min drive.

Nottingham was at practically double capacity for several years until Discovery was built. It makes sense that APS is finally giving them some relief after severe overcrowding. Both Nottingham and Discovery are already treading towards being over capacity again in the next couple of years. Nothing is perfect, this is an issue that is not going away for anyone. Private is always an option.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone take into account building size/capacity?

Our school numbers are lower--but we also are in one of the smallest buildings.

+100 = bigger school means more students.

Yes, size and capacity are both available. Nottingham is at roughly 85% of its capacity. McK is over 100% and will be close to 120% next year, even accounting for the larger building.

Feel free to transfer some of those little darlings at McKinley over to Randolph. They have room, and lots of vibrancy.

That's awesome. Too far.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone take into account building size/capacity?

Our school numbers are lower--but we also are in one of the smallest buildings.

+100 = bigger school means more students.

Yes, size and capacity are both available. Nottingham is at roughly 85% of its capacity. McK is over 100% and will be close to 120% next year, even accounting for the larger building.

Feel free to transfer some of those little darlings at McKinley over to Randolph. They have room, and lots of vibrancy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone take into account building size/capacity?

Our school numbers are lower--but we also are in one of the smallest buildings.

+100 = bigger school means more students.

Yes, size and capacity are both available. Nottingham is at roughly 85% of its capacity. McK is over 100% and will be close to 120% next year, even accounting for the larger building.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone take into account building size/capacity?

Our school numbers are lower--but we also are in one of the smallest buildings.

+100 = bigger school means more students.

^^^ absolutely would have made much more sense than Rosslyn. The price tag of that palace makes me grind my teeth. It's unbelievable. How much could have been saved if they had looked south?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:11:35 - Discovery and Jamestown have such low FARMS rates because the houses around them cost minimum $700K and there's little to no rental housing. It's not rocket science that a neighborhood school surrounded by expensive housing will have fewer poor kids. (I'm not opposed to AH going up along Lee Highway or something to drive FARMS numbers up.)

I suspect ATS attracts more N. Arl kids because there are more middle class parents up there, the parents may be more willing to make the time and effort to do the school tours required by the application process, and because many people prefer to have their kids attend a closer school. As a 22207 parent whose child attends ATS, I would not have applied if the school were located in Crystal City, for example, because it would have been a PITA to do dropoff and pickup every day. The current location is less than 2 miles away.

To be fair, I think this is why ATS is centrally located. So that geography is not a barrier.

...and also why they should have moved HB to S. Arlington years ago.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We don't have a North vs. South inequity problem-- we have a 22207 vs. the rest of the County inequity problem.

Well said!!

I don't really think that is true. Taylor is 22207- and it is the 5th largest. Jamestown is right in the middle of the pack. Barcroft, Randolph, and Campbell are the smallest.

Yet people keep blaming county decisions about affordable housing for causing overcrowding in the schools. The data are right there.

The affordable housing policy has the secondary effect of pushing people out of poor performing schools and into north Arlington schools. So, it is to blame.

Pushing people out of poor performing schools? That's what we call it now?

Enrollment growth in north Arlington schools started eight years ago--the county was underwriting some APAH projects, mostly converting existing apartments to committed affordable units, but they weren't building new buildings at the time. Housing in south Arlington was market rate affordable, not "housing policy" affordable. You can't sit here and say it was government decisions "pushing" people into north Arlington schools. People were making those decisions based on their own....preferences.

Yes ,you dimwit, people prefer not send their kids to failing schools. So they crowd north. The middle class in south Arlington have been sending their children to choice schools for years. Now those choice schools are full, and can't hold them. So, they move north.

Just don't act like people crowding into 22205 and 22207 ten years ago....which is when all the people with kids in elementary school now moved there....is because of government policy. That was upper middle class people buying into neighborhoods where their kids wouldn't have to go to schools with a lot of low-income kids. AKA, "failing schools." And north Arlington uses choice more than south Arlington--according to the transfer report, there are more kids at ATS from north Arlington than south Arlington, W-L gets as many kids from Yorktown as it does from Wakefield, and H-B wait lists are longer from north Arlington schools than south Arlington schools.

Doesn't the fact that both these bolded statements can be true suggest that you should stop painting everyone who lives in 22205 and 22207 with the same broad brush?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS & HB & Drew Model should have 30% FARM quotas. Countywide schools. Hope that's part of the choice school policy revisions.

Part of the reason some low-income kids don't go to choice schools is because they move a lot, both around and in and out of the county.

This is true. It is a reason to support more committed affordable units. Kids who are housed in CAF's move much less often.

Agreed. And at any rate, you'd think being in a choice school would help with stability if a family moves around. But maybe it just gets too complex. Choice school enrollment has long lead times. My experience at our title I school is that a lot of parents do not plan very far ahead. They take things as they come--the schools tell them what they need to know, when they need to know it, and things mostly work out.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS & HB & Drew Model should have 30% FARM quotas. Countywide schools. Hope that's part of the choice school policy revisions.

Part of the reason some low-income kids don't go to choice schools is because they move a lot, both around and in and out of the county.

This is true. It is a reason to support more committed affordable units. Kids who are housed in CAF's move much less often.

Yes, and in more neighborhoods than we currently do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ATS & HB & Drew Model should have 30% FARM quotas. Countywide schools. Hope that's part of the choice school policy revisions.

Part of the reason some low-income kids don't go to choice schools is because they move a lot, both around and in and out of the county.

This is true. It is a reason to support more committed affordable units. Kids who are housed in CAF's move much less often.

Anonymous wrote:ATS & HB & Drew Model should have 30% FARM quotas. Countywide schools. Hope that's part of the choice school policy revisions.

Part of the reason some low-income kids don't go to choice schools is because they move a lot, both around and in and out of the county. At our Title I school in south Arlington, I flipped through both my kids yearbooks and less than half the kids in their kindergarten classes were still there a few years later. Someone told me the "turnover" rate once (year over year) and it was really high--like 20 percent. Its not just a matter of not knowing about the choice schools--it is literally not worth your time to go through the bother if you aren't necessarily going to be in the county in a year or two. So a quota isn't necessarily going to help, especially since at these choice schools it's hard to start in the later grades--they could get 30% in K or 1 but lose a lot of those kids through attrition anyhow and not be able to backfill (e.g., you can't start Montessori in third grade).