I think the options that would best serve Arlington aren't being offered. One option would be to open Kenmore as a 1300 seat choice school to start-- and put a choice program there that people actually want, not this "world languages" stuff-- and then turn it into a 2200 seat comprehensive high school in the future once a new middle school is built at VHC or somewhere else. Second option is to build out the Career Center into a real 2200 seat comprehensive science and technology high school like TJHS in Fairfax-- complete with its own extracurriculars so the kids don't have to return to WL, WF, and YT. It would not have space for a football team and a swim team, but we all know that enough Arlington parents would chomp at the bit to send their kids to a real science high school so I don't think there would be as much complaining about the trade-off if it came with state of the art labs and AP science classes. APS says they love choice schools, but those three options that were presented only included a choice school if you were fine with IB/World Languages at WL.

This is a public service announcement from SALA:

We look best in jewel tones.

That is all.


VIVA SALA

Anonymous wrote:

I'm interested in my kid not getting the short end of the stick again.

I live in an odd-numbered zip code, but self-pity like this makes me want to smuggle arms (by which I mean soup and matching tshirts) to SALA.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile everyone in 22205 is going to get screwed by Lander's decision to build the 1300 high school seats at WL-- because guess what Yorktown neighborhoods are going to be the first to get redistricted to WL when it grows to 4000 students? Westover and East Falls Church ones. The SALA moms on here are annoying, but they are totally correct that the Northside is going to implode into a big shitshow over who gets kicked out of Yorktown and moved to the WL ant farm in 2022. If you need a reason to vote AGAINST Lander, that should be your #1 reason.

What option doesn't screw the people of 22205?

The 1,300 seat addition will most likely mean enlarging the WL boundaries. Won't they just take back the boundaries that are being shifted now? I don't think that impacted 22205 b/c the one PU (150X) that was under consideration stayed at WL. The Westover Apts. provide much of the diversity at Yorktown, so I don't know that the board will mess with that. APS claims the 1,300 seats will be to expand the IB program, but I don't buy it.

The Kenmore option comes with unknown boundaries. People on here like to stir the pot making maps to get people riled op. I could see the Kenmore HS boundaries going N of 50 (obviously), but maybe I don't know if it will even go much past Wilson b/c of density. The boundaries are going to be smaller b/c it's a smaller school. However, the map folks like to suck up all of Westover and put it at Kenmore. So, how does that not screw Westover? A realtor friend told me that homes zoned for Yortown sell higher than those for WL. I don't have data, but I do trust her as this is her profession. Won't rezoning from Yorktown to Kenmore affect property values, as well.

What's left? Should 22205 be championing the Career Center option?

I don't think that's correct. The Westover Apartments don't provide diversity at Yorktown, or at any school, because there are very few young children living in those mainly one bedroom apartments. The racial/economic diversity at Yorktown comes almost entirely from the Rosslyn-Courthouse area and the historically black neighborhood of Highview Park/Hall's Hill along Lee Highway.

I don't know what you're looking for, but I think it's a bit of hyperbole to think that you're going to be screwed, or more screwed than any of the rest of us. We're all getting lemons because of the failure to adequately address capacity in a timely manner, and because of the limited land and resources at APS's disposal. Not many of us are getting a better deal in all of this. And none of us are going to get the perfect situation. It's time to accept this, and try to make lemonade.

There are plenty of ES aged children.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile everyone in 22205 is going to get screwed by Lander's decision to build the 1300 high school seats at WL-- because guess what Yorktown neighborhoods are going to be the first to get redistricted to WL when it grows to 4000 students? Westover and East Falls Church ones. The SALA moms on here are annoying, but they are totally correct that the Northside is going to implode into a big shitshow over who gets kicked out of Yorktown and moved to the WL ant farm in 2022. If you need a reason to vote AGAINST Lander, that should be your #1 reason.

What option doesn't screw the people of 22205?

The 1,300 seat addition will most likely mean enlarging the WL boundaries. Won't they just take back the boundaries that are being shifted now? I don't think that impacted 22205 b/c the one PU (150X) that was under consideration stayed at WL. The Westover Apts. provide much of the diversity at Yorktown, so I don't know that the board will mess with that. APS claims the 1,300 seats will be to expand the IB program, but I don't buy it.

The Kenmore option comes with unknown boundaries. People on here like to stir the pot making maps to get people riled op. I could see the Kenmore HS boundaries going N of 50 (obviously), but maybe I don't know if it will even go much past Wilson b/c of density. The boundaries are going to be smaller b/c it's a smaller school. However, the map folks like to suck up all of Westover and put it at Kenmore. So, how does that not screw Westover? A realtor friend told me that homes zoned for Yortown sell higher than those for WL. I don't have data, but I do trust her as this is her profession. Won't rezoning from Yorktown to Kenmore affect property values, as well.

What's left? Should 22205 be championing the Career Center option?

I don't think that's correct. The Westover Apartments don't provide diversity at Yorktown, or at any school, because there are very few young children living in those mainly one bedroom apartments. The racial/economic diversity at Yorktown comes almost entirely from the Rosslyn-Courthouse area and the historically black neighborhood of Highview Park/Hall's Hill along Lee Highway.

I don't know what you're looking for, but I think it's a bit of hyperbole to think that you're going to be screwed, or more screwed than any of the rest of us. We're all getting lemons because of the failure to adequately address capacity in a timely manner, and because of the limited land and resources at APS's disposal. Not many of us are getting a better deal in all of this. And none of us are going to get the perfect situation. It's time to accept this, and try to make lemonade.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The Kenmore option comes with unknown boundaries. People on here like to stir the pot making maps to get people riled op. I could see the Kenmore HS boundaries going N of 50 (obviously), but maybe I don't know if it will even go much past Wilson b/c of density. The boundaries are going to be smaller b/c it's a smaller school. However, the map folks like to suck up all of Westover and put it at Kenmore. So, how does that not screw Westover? A realtor friend told me that homes zoned for Yortown sell higher than those for WL. I don't have data, but I do trust her as this is her profession. Won't rezoning from Yorktown to Kenmore affect property values, as well.

What's left? Should 22205 be championing the Career Center option?

Should you champion that? Sure, if you think it's best for Arlington as a whole.

How long are you staying in your house? Are you uninterested in anything other than the maximum financial return on your investment?

From what I've seen "best for Arlington" is worst for whoever didn't fight hardest.

SALA agrees.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The Kenmore option comes with unknown boundaries. People on here like to stir the pot making maps to get people riled op. I could see the Kenmore HS boundaries going N of 50 (obviously), but maybe I don't know if it will even go much past Wilson b/c of density. The boundaries are going to be smaller b/c it's a smaller school. However, the map folks like to suck up all of Westover and put it at Kenmore. So, how does that not screw Westover? A realtor friend told me that homes zoned for Yortown sell higher than those for WL. I don't have data, but I do trust her as this is her profession. Won't rezoning from Yorktown to Kenmore affect property values, as well.

What's left? Should 22205 be championing the Career Center option?

Should you champion that? Sure, if you think it's best for Arlington as a whole.

How long are you staying in your house? Are you uninterested in anything other than the maximum financial return on your investment?

I'm interested in my kid not getting the short end of the stick again.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The Kenmore option comes with unknown boundaries. People on here like to stir the pot making maps to get people riled op. I could see the Kenmore HS boundaries going N of 50 (obviously), but maybe I don't know if it will even go much past Wilson b/c of density. The boundaries are going to be smaller b/c it's a smaller school. However, the map folks like to suck up all of Westover and put it at Kenmore. So, how does that not screw Westover? A realtor friend told me that homes zoned for Yortown sell higher than those for WL. I don't have data, but I do trust her as this is her profession. Won't rezoning from Yorktown to Kenmore affect property values, as well.

What's left? Should 22205 be championing the Career Center option?

Should you champion that? Sure, if you think it's best for Arlington as a whole.

How long are you staying in your house? Are you uninterested in anything other than the maximum financial return on your investment?

From what I've seen "best for Arlington" is worst for whoever didn't fight hardest.

Anonymous wrote:
The Kenmore option comes with unknown boundaries. People on here like to stir the pot making maps to get people riled op. I could see the Kenmore HS boundaries going N of 50 (obviously), but maybe I don't know if it will even go much past Wilson b/c of density. The boundaries are going to be smaller b/c it's a smaller school. However, the map folks like to suck up all of Westover and put it at Kenmore. So, how does that not screw Westover? A realtor friend told me that homes zoned for Yortown sell higher than those for WL. I don't have data, but I do trust her as this is her profession. Won't rezoning from Yorktown to Kenmore affect property values, as well.

What's left? Should 22205 be championing the Career Center option?

Should you champion that? Sure, if you think it's best for Arlington as a whole.

How long are you staying in your house? Are you uninterested in anything other than the maximum financial return on your investment?

Anonymous wrote:Meanwhile everyone in 22205 is going to get screwed by Lander's decision to build the 1300 high school seats at WL-- because guess what Yorktown neighborhoods are going to be the first to get redistricted to WL when it grows to 4000 students? Westover and East Falls Church ones. The SALA moms on here are annoying, but they are totally correct that the Northside is going to implode into a big shitshow over who gets kicked out of Yorktown and moved to the WL ant farm in 2022. If you need a reason to vote AGAINST Lander, that should be your #1 reason.

What option doesn't screw the people of 22205?

The 1,300 seat addition will most likely mean enlarging the WL boundaries. Won't they just take back the boundaries that are being shifted now? I don't think that impacted 22205 b/c the one PU (150X) that was under consideration stayed at WL. The Westover Apts. provide much of the diversity at Yorktown, so I don't know that the board will mess with that. APS claims the 1,300 seats will be to expand the IB program, but I don't buy it.

The Kenmore option comes with unknown boundaries. People on here like to stir the pot making maps to get people riled op. I could see the Kenmore HS boundaries going N of 50 (obviously), but maybe I don't know if it will even go much past Wilson b/c of density. The boundaries are going to be smaller b/c it's a smaller school. However, the map folks like to suck up all of Westover and put it at Kenmore. So, how does that not screw Westover? A realtor friend told me that homes zoned for Yortown sell higher than those for WL. I don't have data, but I do trust her as this is her profession. Won't rezoning from Yorktown to Kenmore affect property values, as well.

What's left? Should 22205 be championing the Career Center option?

Anonymous wrote:13:20 - You make some good points. However, the moms of babies won't have kids comfortably in McK and Tuckahoe. They will have kids in trailers on the parking lot b/c they already used up field space. Heck, McK is already at that point. The whole Taylor/ASFS/Key switch could be fixed with cascading boundary changes and a liberal transfer policy.

If Reed is opened as a 725 student choice ES, then it will voluntarily draw students from all over the county-- including the NW schools. And if current transfer trends hold, it will likely be overly represented by kids living in the NW area, since that is what is happening at choice schools right now (e.g., ATS has more kids from Glebe and Ashlawn; Campbell from Carlin Springs, etc.)-- check out the transfer report posted to the APS website if you don't believe me. I suspect a lot of the McKinley overflow would be taken care of by Reed even if it is a choice school, which is also why I don't think APS is bothering with the McK boundaries now (and my kids are at McK, so I understand how much the current situation sucks). McK is overenrolled by about 100 kids, not 725.

I favor the proposed change to ASFS, but moving the boundaries does not take care of the NE capacity problem. Taylor is overcapacity too. In an ideal world, you would just build additions onto both buildings (and probably also onto Nottingham) and leave Reed as a preschool. But we all know (or should know) that multiple additions costs more money than just renovating a single building. This is why Murphy wants to use Reed as an escape valve for overcrowding at multiple schools across the entire Northside (or Westside, under Natress's new proposal). You can't "cascade" the boundaries enough to make it work, simply for the fact that we're going to have too many seats concentrated in a small geographic area once Reed reopens as a 725 seat school, so close to McKinley. Look at the utilization chart on the More Seats website.

Lander is pulling a page right out of Trump's playbook- making promises that things will be oh so simple to fix with Reed if he just gets elected. (Nevermind that he has been in office for 8 years already.) It makes me ill to see how many people in Westover and EFC are eating it up.

13:20 - You make some good points. However, the moms of babies won't have kids comfortably in McK and Tuckahoe. They will have kids in trailers on the parking lot b/c they already used up field space. Heck, McK is already at that point. The whole Taylor/ASFS/Key switch could be fixed with cascading boundary changes and a liberal transfer policy.

Not sure how this post veered off onto Reed, but here it goes... I live in Westover and attended the debate where Lander made a lot of promises. Reed advocates need to understand though that APS needs a way to put more kids into the NW because that's the only place where new ES space exists. Spend some time looking at the numbers before you rush into your caucus vote. We've got capacity at Discovery and Nottingham this year. Arguably, you also have capacity at Jamestown and Ashlawn too-- the only reason those schools look "full" is because APS filled the spaces with a bunch of preschool kids who could go anywhere. The only NW schools that are truly overcapacity this year are Tuckahoe, McKinley, and Glebe. So, at surface level, it seems to make sense to open Reed as a neighborhood school because it takes care of the excess kids at those three schools. The only problem is that combined excess does not add up to 725 students (the capacity at Reed) and so you still end up with extra space in the NW-- only spread out among Reed, Discovery, Nottingham instead of concentrated at one school. Maybe you can fill those spots with NE and S Arlington kids via the liberalized transfer policy-- but that's a big gamble, esp if transportation will not be provided (which is the current plan). Also, making Reed a neighborhood school means-- once again-- the entire 22205 (and parts of 22213 and 22207) are going to be forced through massive redistricting. That's a lot of churn to eliminate (maybe) 5-6 school buses coming through Westover two times a day. Parents in those other areas who aren't paying attention now are going to go insane once they figure out their kids might be redistricted again. I supported Reed as a neighborhood ES before Discovery and the Ashlawn & McKinley additions were decided. But the seat situation is a lot more complicated now. My kids are going to be far past elementary school by the time Reed is opened, so I don't have a dog in this fight. But I think a lot of parents who currently have babies and toddlers are going to be really pissed off in 4 years when their kids are comfortably attending McKinley or Tuckahoe or Nottingham and APS comes in and rips those schools apart in order to appease a small number of Westover residents who don't like school buses in their neighborhood. So yes, I think Maura is correct that this is a really complicated situation and you can't make this call with all the population/projection unknowns at this point. Good for her for trying to make good policy decisions and being honest. And if James Lander loves Westover so much, then explain why he voted for the crappy 2015 boundary refinement that screwed over McKinley (half of who are Westover residents)? He was chair of the School Board at the time, if I recall. People in Westover are hearing what they want to hear from James and Monique because they don't want to face the complicated reality of this entire situation. Meanwhile everyone in 22205 is going to get screwed by Lander's decision to build the 1300 high school seats at WL-- because guess what Yorktown neighborhoods are going to be the first to get redistricted to WL when it grows to 4000 students? Westover and East Falls Church ones. The SALA moms on here are annoying, but they are totally correct that the Northside is going to implode into a big shitshow over who gets kicked out of Yorktown and moved to the WL ant farm in 2022. If you need a reason to vote AGAINST Lander, that should be your #1 reason.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The way I read it:

McMahon is not in favor of Reed as a neighborhood school. She understands the interest, but wants to expand option schools. "It may seem easier to simply establish an option program in a new school, rather than considering
an existing neighborhood school location. "

O'Grady says she wants to investigate ways that the neighborhood can be guaranteed access to the school. That's v. questionable considering the SB is voting in June to do away with neighborhood preference. It's all "investigate" without any committment.

Lander flat out supports Reed as a neighborhood school.That's all he said.

The way I read it is that McMahon isn't committing one way or the other before being elected. O'Grady's answer was slightly more finessed, but yeah, she's not going to be able to make it another neighborhood/choice hybrid when we're just updating the transfer policies to move away from that. It will be one or the other. But she's savvy enough not to come out and say that she supports a choice school there, and technically she's not making a promise she can't keep since she's just talking about investigating. Lander, as usual, is going straight for the easy votes.

Yeah, it perplexes me to see O'Grady signs near Reed. She's not going to help those residents.

Anonymous wrote:The way I read it:

McMahon is not in favor of Reed as a neighborhood school. She understands the interest, but wants to expand option schools. "It may seem easier to simply establish an option program in a new school, rather than considering
an existing neighborhood school location. "

O'Grady says she wants to investigate ways that the neighborhood can be guaranteed access to the school. That's v. questionable considering the SB is voting in June to do away with neighborhood preference. It's all "investigate" without any committment.

Lander flat out supports Reed as a neighborhood school.That's all he said.

The way I read it is that McMahon isn't committing one way or the other before being elected. O'Grady's answer was slightly more finessed, but yeah, she's not going to be able to make it another neighborhood/choice hybrid when we're just updating the transfer policies to move away from that. It will be one or the other. But she's savvy enough not to come out and say that she supports a choice school there, and technically she's not making a promise she can't keep since she's just talking about investigating. Lander, as usual, is going straight for the easy votes.