Anonymous
12/27/2017 21:46
Subject: Re:South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019
Before the current Hoffman Boston principal was hired there was a temporary “turn-around” principal there for two years. I believe she put a lot of processes in place and was involved in hiring the next principal. She is currently interim principal at Randolph. I know people with kids at Abington who are happy but I don’t have any other information on the school.
Anonymous
12/27/2017 21:26
Subject: South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019
Anonymous wrote:I’d like to know what is happening at Hoffman Boston, that isn’t happening at Abingdon?
My kids go to Hoffman Boston. The principal is really positive, strong, and amazing - I think she runs a tight ship and it trickles down. The teachers put in a lot of extra effort to help the kids, many of whom are learning English as a foreign language and come from low-income backgrounds. I was initially wary buying into the neighborhood, but I've been really impressed.
Don't know anything about Abingdon.
Anonymous
12/27/2017 15:50
Subject: South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019
I’d like to know what is happening at Hoffman Boston, that isn’t happening at Abingdon?
Anonymous
12/27/2017 15:11
Subject: South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What is the percentage of disadvantaged students in south Arlington?
All of APS is something like 36%. What is the percentage south of 50?
South
Abingdon 47%
Barcroft 60%
Campbell 54%
Henry 32%
Hoffman Boston 49%
Carlin Springs 83%
Oakridge 25%
Randolph 74%
North
Ashlawn 19%
Barrett 62%
Discovery 4%
Long Branch 35%
Glebe 18%
Jamestown 4%
McKinley 9%
Nottingham 3%
Taylor 4%
Tuckahoe 2%
Choice
Claremont 62%
Drew 52%
ATS 26%
Key 41%
Science Focus 23%
Corrected
Campbell is a choice school.
Anonymous
12/27/2017 14:49
Subject: South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What is the percentage of disadvantaged students in south Arlington?
All of APS is something like 36%. What is the percentage south of 50?
South
Abingdon 47%
Barcroft 60%
Campbell 54%
Henry 32%
Hoffman Boston 49%
Carlin Springs 83%
Oakridge 25%
Randolph 74%
North
Ashlawn 19%
Barrett 62%
Discovery 4%
Long Branch 35%
Glebe 18%
Jamestown 4%
McKinley 9%
Nottingham 3%
Taylor 4%
Tuckahoe 2%
Choice
Claremont 62%
Drew 52%
ATS 26%
Key 41%
Science Focus 23%
Corrected
Anonymous
12/27/2017 14:48
Subject: South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019
Anonymous wrote:What is the percentage of disadvantaged students in south Arlington?
All of APS is something like 36%. What is the percentage south of 50?
South
Abingdon 47%
Barcroft 60%
Campbell 54%
Henry 32%
Hoffman Boston 49%
Carlin Springs 83%
Oakridge 25%
Randolph 74%
North
Ashlawn 19%
Barrett 62%
Discovery 4%
Long Branch 35%
Glebe 18%
Jamestown 4%
McKinley 9%
Key 41%
Nottingham 3%
Taylor 4%
Tuckahoe 2%
Choice
Claremont 62%
Drew 52%
ATS 26%
Science Focus 23%
Anonymous
12/27/2017 09:55
Subject: South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019
What is the percentage of disadvantaged students in south Arlington?
All of APS is something like 36%. What is the percentage south of 50?
All of APS is something like 36%. What is the percentage south of 50?
Anonymous
12/27/2017 06:27
Subject: Re:South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We're in Columbia Forest with two kids at Claremont and another on the way. Specifically moved to S Arlington to get into the Immersion program, and are fully committed to continuing through Gunston & Wakefield. I can see both sides of this argument. On one hand, I'm pretty sure we would not have moved here to attend Barcroft or Randolph. On the ohter, when there was talk of moving the middle school Immersion program to Williamsburg we were adamantly against it. Even though the test scores there are through the roof, it's just way too far for us - especially juggling 3 kids. Distance is an issue. I get why Patrick Henry performs so well, but I am struggling to understand why schools like Abingdon & Hoffman-Boston aren't facing the same issues.
Percentages matter. Over 60 percent of a school population struggling to make ends meet starts to really effect performance.
Hopefully there's some equitable way to balance the demographics then, to bring schools like Barcroft & Randolph more in line with Hoffman-Boston and Claremont. But it doesn't sound as if the Board even cares
Anonymous
12/26/2017 15:12
Subject: South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019
affordable housing by itself isn’t a problem, but saying that CAF’s are just so wonderful because the kids aren’t being moved around...
Ok... sure. That’s all well and good as long as there is still less than 60% poverty in a school.
Randolph
Drew
Barcroft
Carlin Springs
Abingdon
They all need to be at under 60% poverty. Really doesn’t matter if those kids come from CAF’s or market rate.
So how do we make that happen?
Ok... sure. That’s all well and good as long as there is still less than 60% poverty in a school.
Randolph
Drew
Barcroft
Carlin Springs
Abingdon
They all need to be at under 60% poverty. Really doesn’t matter if those kids come from CAF’s or market rate.
So how do we make that happen?
Anonymous
12/26/2017 06:17
Subject: South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019
Anonymous wrote:Ref AH - thanks for posting the links, very good data that frankly corrected what I previously believed.
Part of the problem with AH in Arlington is how it is sold. Time and time again the county and advocates present AH as a way to keep county employees (teachers, public safety, etc) housed in the county they work. However this is patently false and exposed as such every time they present it.
That kind of misrepresentation really poisons the well for any future AH arguments.
Additionally, while I now appreciate that ~66% of committed affordable housing residents had previous ties to the county, I am not thrilled with the remaining third. I would much rather see a retrenchment in AH spending and focus those resources on existing Arlington residents that need more assistance
Just how much affordable housing can you cram into the same area? Don't understand the reasoning behind this. Every major city in the country has been dismantling its massive public housing projects, because time & again research shows clustering large numbers of economically disadvantaged families together REDUCES their chances of improvement. It drags everyone down. The County Board seems hell bent on ignoring 30 years of research and examples. How about investing some of that money in improving the lives of people already living here in AH?
Anonymous
12/23/2017 09:58
Subject: South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019
Ref AH - thanks for posting the links, very good data that frankly corrected what I previously believed.
Part of the problem with AH in Arlington is how it is sold. Time and time again the county and advocates present AH as a way to keep county employees (teachers, public safety, etc) housed in the county they work. However this is patently false and exposed as such every time they present it.
That kind of misrepresentation really poisons the well for any future AH arguments.
Additionally, while I now appreciate that ~66% of committed affordable housing residents had previous ties to the county, I am not thrilled with the remaining third. I would much rather see a retrenchment in AH spending and focus those resources on existing Arlington residents that need more assistance
Part of the problem with AH in Arlington is how it is sold. Time and time again the county and advocates present AH as a way to keep county employees (teachers, public safety, etc) housed in the county they work. However this is patently false and exposed as such every time they present it.
That kind of misrepresentation really poisons the well for any future AH arguments.
Additionally, while I now appreciate that ~66% of committed affordable housing residents had previous ties to the county, I am not thrilled with the remaining third. I would much rather see a retrenchment in AH spending and focus those resources on existing Arlington residents that need more assistance
Anonymous
12/23/2017 08:00
Subject: South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Maybe I’m reading that wrong, but that 65% have a member of their family living in Arlington. Am I understanding that correctly?
No you are not reading it correctly. It says adult member of the household. Theoretically, there could be a new adult member of the household who lives outside of Arlington who moves into the household. I'm sure this happens occasionally- that there is a new adult member of the household from outside Arlington- but I doubt that it is a frequent occurrence because it is difficult to qualify for AH if you have 2 working adults in the household.
There is a person or group of people on this board who firmly believe that there is a grand conspiracy in Arlington to attract poor people into Arlington and that the "AH Lobby' is somehow profiting from this- and that AH is the reason why schools have poorer outcomes.
I strongly disagree both as a factual matter and a matter of philosophy, and I worry about this getting repeated so often that others began to believe it too.
First- as a matter of philosophy, I think it is unacceptable to try and drive lower income people out of Arlington (I could go into reasons why- but I don't want to derail.)
Second- if you accept the first point, AH is a good good thing. Living in affordable housing (as compared to market rate affordable housing) dramatically improves schools and school outcomes.
The biggest way you see this is in the dramatic reduction of turnover. Here is a sheet with facts about turnover of AH as compared to market rate affordable housing-
https://arlingtonva.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2014/02/Turnover-in-CAFs-August-2014.pdf
That improves schools because kids stay in the same school for longer, instead of moving around constantly.
It also reduces overcrowding. AH has a lot more controls. Reducing overcrowding also improves school outcomes. i am thinking in particular of one family I am familiar with- They were Arlington residents the whole time. Before they got a CAF, they were stuffing into a 1 bdrm with multiple people- at one point I think they had 6 people living in a 1 bdrm apartment. The kids never got enough sleep b/c of the overcrowding. Now they have an appropriately sized CAF the kids are sleeping more and their school performance has dramatically improved.
I'm curious if anyone who is so critical of AH and is sure that people are living in it fraudulently has ever tried to apply, or helped someone apply. The amount of documentation that has to be submitted and paperwork reqmts is ridiculous.
DP here. I understand and tend to agree with you on benefits of CAFs. However, I don't understand the need for concentrated CAFs (or for concentrating it all in South Arl, but that's an issue apparently way beyond any of us to solve). What about mixed buildings? Seems to me that the strain on infrastructure, particularly schools, and the potential to ghettoize is worse when you set it up this way. Plus, if the whole idea is that our community is economically diverse, shouldn't we try to rub elbows from time to time rather than basically setting up parallel communities? We used to live in a mixed income building in NYC, so that's more my frame of reference. What am I missing?
You are missing a fundamental truth that is as old as shelter and schooling themselves: people do not want to live near or have their kids go to school with the poors. The poors themselves don't want to be around other poors. The poors have "poor" habits- they are prone to violence and criminality and lack intellectual curiosity. No amount of social engineering can change this.
Anonymous
12/22/2017 11:57
Subject: South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019
Dp- at this point we can’t even handle mixed income buildings west of Glebe. We need high end 100% market rate buildings. If and when the day comes, that complexes like Barcroft Apartments see a wrecking ball ( not holding my breath), that’s when we should be talking about mixed income. I think we all need to truly start embracing some gentrification. It’s not a dirty word and we desperately need it in 22204. I understand that there is an entrenched immigrant community in place, but I can’t help but bristle when posters get a little sanctimonious about how long the communities have been in place. It’s come in waves, and back the 80-90’s they were different groups. It’s been evolving over time. Certainly though it didn’t cost middle class homeowners 750k to move into Alcova Heights in 1994...
So can we get real and just say we’ve invested too much for crappy schools? North Arlington has no problem saying that, even in the more diverse sections. I’m just not certain what the county is expecting from the middle class in south Arlington zoned to these poor performing schools. Other than shut up and defer to the largest number of “stake holders” (spoiler alert: not anyone reading this) and just assume your kid’ll “be fine”- which they totally might. Hopefully your kid doesn’t need extra attention, because they likely won’t receive it. OR go private/move.
20 plus years ago we had one of our current school board members try one of these schools. Eventually they pulled their children out. The kids were falling through the cracks, because the school was overwhelmed with larger concerns.
It’s 2 decades later and not much has changed.
Wait, something has changed. There is no room to transfer your child out to a better school.
So can we get real and just say we’ve invested too much for crappy schools? North Arlington has no problem saying that, even in the more diverse sections. I’m just not certain what the county is expecting from the middle class in south Arlington zoned to these poor performing schools. Other than shut up and defer to the largest number of “stake holders” (spoiler alert: not anyone reading this) and just assume your kid’ll “be fine”- which they totally might. Hopefully your kid doesn’t need extra attention, because they likely won’t receive it. OR go private/move.
20 plus years ago we had one of our current school board members try one of these schools. Eventually they pulled their children out. The kids were falling through the cracks, because the school was overwhelmed with larger concerns.
It’s 2 decades later and not much has changed.
Wait, something has changed. There is no room to transfer your child out to a better school.
Anonymous
12/22/2017 10:41
Subject: South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Maybe I’m reading that wrong, but that 65% have a member of their family living in Arlington. Am I understanding that correctly?
No you are not reading it correctly. It says adult member of the household. Theoretically, there could be a new adult member of the household who lives outside of Arlington who moves into the household. I'm sure this happens occasionally- that there is a new adult member of the household from outside Arlington- but I doubt that it is a frequent occurrence because it is difficult to qualify for AH if you have 2 working adults in the household.
There is a person or group of people on this board who firmly believe that there is a grand conspiracy in Arlington to attract poor people into Arlington and that the "AH Lobby' is somehow profiting from this- and that AH is the reason why schools have poorer outcomes.
I strongly disagree both as a factual matter and a matter of philosophy, and I worry about this getting repeated so often that others began to believe it too.
First- as a matter of philosophy, I think it is unacceptable to try and drive lower income people out of Arlington (I could go into reasons why- but I don't want to derail.)
Second- if you accept the first point, AH is a good good thing. Living in affordable housing (as compared to market rate affordable housing) dramatically improves schools and school outcomes.
The biggest way you see this is in the dramatic reduction of turnover. Here is a sheet with facts about turnover of AH as compared to market rate affordable housing-
https://arlingtonva.s3.dualstack.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/15/2014/02/Turnover-in-CAFs-August-2014.pdf
That improves schools because kids stay in the same school for longer, instead of moving around constantly.
It also reduces overcrowding. AH has a lot more controls. Reducing overcrowding also improves school outcomes. i am thinking in particular of one family I am familiar with- They were Arlington residents the whole time. Before they got a CAF, they were stuffing into a 1 bdrm with multiple people- at one point I think they had 6 people living in a 1 bdrm apartment. The kids never got enough sleep b/c of the overcrowding. Now they have an appropriately sized CAF the kids are sleeping more and their school performance has dramatically improved.
I'm curious if anyone who is so critical of AH and is sure that people are living in it fraudulently has ever tried to apply, or helped someone apply. The amount of documentation that has to be submitted and paperwork reqmts is ridiculous.
DP here. I understand and tend to agree with you on benefits of CAFs. However, I don't understand the need for concentrated CAFs (or for concentrating it all in South Arl, but that's an issue apparently way beyond any of us to solve). What about mixed buildings? Seems to me that the strain on infrastructure, particularly schools, and the potential to ghettoize is worse when you set it up this way. Plus, if the whole idea is that our community is economically diverse, shouldn't we try to rub elbows from time to time rather than basically setting up parallel communities? We used to live in a mixed income building in NYC, so that's more my frame of reference. What am I missing?
Anonymous
12/22/2017 10:20
Subject: Re:South Arlington elementary school boundary adjustments 2019
Anonymous wrote:We're in Columbia Forest with two kids at Claremont and another on the way. Specifically moved to S Arlington to get into the Immersion program, and are fully committed to continuing through Gunston & Wakefield. I can see both sides of this argument. On one hand, I'm pretty sure we would not have moved here to attend Barcroft or Randolph. On the ohter, when there was talk of moving the middle school Immersion program to Williamsburg we were adamantly against it. Even though the test scores there are through the roof, it's just way too far for us - especially juggling 3 kids. Distance is an issue. I get why Patrick Henry performs so well, but I am struggling to understand why schools like Abingdon & Hoffman-Boston aren't facing the same issues.
Percentages matter. Over 60 percent of a school population struggling to make ends meet starts to really effect performance.