Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Split ATS and make Drew the S. Arlington version and the current ATS the N. Arlington version, like Key and Claremont. It increases ATS spots, which is extremely popular, and will fill Drew. Then close Nottingham.

Not going to happen WRT Drew. It’s untouchable as a neighborhood school and with a seat deficit predicted in the adjacent Oakridge zone, it’s going to get more kids.

Redistricting students to Drew is just going to make parents unhappy. If you make it an option school, you don't reduce the number of seats and parents voluntarily enroll instead of kicking and screaming about being moved.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The option schools.

You mean close the high performing schools that are full and super popular with waiting lists, while there are under enrolled elem schools that no one wants to go to (ahem Drew). lol, no.

The programs are super popular because middle class families don't want to send their children to the low-performing schools. Not everyone can access those programs and the busing is a drain on our resources.

so again you really want to close the highest performing and most popular schools? we should be opening more of them, not less.

close the low performing neighborhood schools that no one wants to go to.

AMAC has joined the conversation. The Mary Coup didn't work so now they'll go after the Title I schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Split ATS and make Drew the S. Arlington version and the current ATS the N. Arlington version, like Key and Claremont. It increases ATS spots, which is extremely popular, and will fill Drew. Then close Nottingham.

Not going to happen WRT Drew. It’s untouchable as a neighborhood school and with a seat deficit predicted in the adjacent Oakridge zone, it’s going to get more kids.

+1

Extra buildings in APS? Turn one of them into a high school! Which site is the biggest?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Split ATS and make Drew the S. Arlington version and the current ATS the N. Arlington version, like Key and Claremont. It increases ATS spots, which is extremely popular, and will fill Drew. Then close Nottingham.

Not going to happen WRT Drew. It’s untouchable as a neighborhood school and with a seat deficit predicted in the adjacent Oakridge zone, it’s going to get more kids.

+1

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The option schools.

You mean close the high performing schools that are full and super popular with waiting lists, while there are under enrolled elem schools that no one wants to go to (ahem Drew). lol, no.

The programs are super popular because middle class families don't want to send their children to the low-performing schools. Not everyone can access those programs and the busing is a drain on our resources.

Keeping open underenrolled adjacent schools in the NW is a drain on our resources. If a school needs to close, it should be one that underesourced kids do not attend and that isn’t controversial. What’s the big difference between any of those low poverty adjacent schools in the NW that all feed to the same middle and HS? They’re interchangeable. Close one and move kids slightly further to a school that is the same in any measurable way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The option schools.

You mean close the high performing schools that are full and super popular with waiting lists, while there are under enrolled elem schools that no one wants to go to (ahem Drew). lol, no.

The programs are super popular because middle class families don't want to send their children to the low-performing schools. Not everyone can access those programs and the busing is a drain on our resources.

so again you really want to close the highest performing and most popular schools? we should be opening more of them, not less.

close the low performing neighborhood schools that no one wants to go to.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The option schools.

You mean close the high performing schools that are full and super popular with waiting lists, while there are under enrolled elem schools that no one wants to go to (ahem Drew). lol, no.

The programs are super popular because middle class families don't want to send their children to the low-performing schools. Not everyone can access those programs and the busing is a drain on our resources.

Anonymous wrote:Split ATS and make Drew the S. Arlington version and the current ATS the N. Arlington version, like Key and Claremont. It increases ATS spots, which is extremely popular, and will fill Drew. Then close Nottingham.

Not going to happen WRT Drew. It’s untouchable as a neighborhood school and with a seat deficit predicted in the adjacent Oakridge zone, it’s going to get more kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None. Kids aren’t widgets in a factory. Keep schools smaller and redo boundaries.

Push the CB and Youngkin to properly fund our schools.

All across the US, school funding and school spending is primarily local - your real estate taxes. Has very little to do with Richmond.

The CB definitely needs to step up, but so does Youngkin:
https://www.apsva.us/post/superintendent-presents-proposed-fy-2025-budget-to-maintain-core-services/
"According to an independent review by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC), Virginia school divisions receive less K-12 funding per student than the 50-state average, the regional average, and three of Virginia’s five bordering states. School divisions in other states receive 14% more per student than school divisions in Virginia, on average. This equates to about $1,900 less per student for Virginia. The JLARC estimates that annually, APS is underfunded by approximately $51 million."


https://www.arlnow.com/2024/03/04/aps-superintendent-says-lean-budget-proposal-reflects-state-funding-uncertainties/
"Youngkin’s conservative budget comes despite a recent report from the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission, which found Virginia gives less funding to schools than the national average, using outdated models from the Great Recession, Durán noted.

On top of this statewide deficiency, APS receives less funding from the state, says School Board member Mary Kadera. State funding accounts for 29% and 27%, respectively, of the budgets for the public school systems in Loudoun and Fairfax counties, compared to 15% for APS, she said."


https://jlarc.virginia.gov/landing-2023-virginias-k-12-funding-formula.asp
Formula does not adequately account for local labor costs

An effective education funding formula should also account for higher labor costs. Virginia’s SOQ formula attempts to account for higher labor costs in some divisions through the cost of competing adjustment, which provides varying funding increases to divisions in and around Northern Virginia.

The cost of competing adjustment provides less additional funding than actual salary differences. For example, Arlington County Public Schools receives a 9.83 percent adjustment for teachers’ salaries but its actual labor costs are 40 percent more than the average Virginia school division’s labor cost.


Virginia is one of only nine states that use a staffing-based formula, and some academic experts now view it as an outdated approach. The vast majority of states (34) use a student-based funding formula that allocates divisions a specified amount of funding per student (figure). Seven states use hybrids of the staffing- and student-based approaches or another approach.

A well-designed student-based funding model would be more accurate, more transparent, and easier to maintain over time than Virginia’s current staffing-based formula.

Split ATS and make Drew the S. Arlington version and the current ATS the N. Arlington version, like Key and Claremont. It increases ATS spots, which is extremely popular, and will fill Drew. Then close Nottingham.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t we move Montessori back into Drew?

I know politics but is that really going to get in the way of the most obvious and cheapest fix?

That was a terrible idea then and a terrible idea today. Drew deserves to be its own neighborhood school. AMAC needs to stop sucking all of the oxygen.

Why does Drew "deserve" this when it's chronically under enrolled and bleeding money? What about what's good for the rest of the system?

Why does MPSA "deserve" its own program? It's basically middle class white parents who want APS to build them a private school. What about what's good for the rest of the system?

Same could be said for ATS!

Same could be said for all of the option schools

ATS and the other option programs aren't asking for a fancy building for themselves. Two out of the five would rather be in their old buildings tbh.

But yes, particularly for Claremont, ATS and Montessori, they do function to keep those precious white and/or privileged BIPOC kids out of S. Arlington schools.

I thought the neighborhood elementary boundary system was what kept precious white and/or privileged BIPOC kids out of S. Arlington schools, that's why most N Arlington kids are in schools with >70% white kids and people will pay $1.7M to live in a 70-year-old brick rambler.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t we move Montessori back into Drew?

I know politics but is that really going to get in the way of the most obvious and cheapest fix?

That was a terrible idea then and a terrible idea today. Drew deserves to be its own neighborhood school. AMAC needs to stop sucking all of the oxygen.

Why does Drew "deserve" this when it's chronically under enrolled and bleeding money? What about what's good for the rest of the system?

Why does MPSA "deserve" its own program? It's basically middle class white parents who want APS to build them a private school. What about what's good for the rest of the system?

I don't disagree, let's just combine MPSA and Drew. MPSA will get a building and Drew will be filled up. Problem solved.

I don't even understand why they were separated in the first place. MPSA was put in a much crappier building, while Drew never really got that influx of students. I chalk it to APS Planning Department being the planning department. They've never gotten it right.

No, the result was entirely predictable and not planning’s fault. MPSA highjacked the SAWG to get out of Drew, and then then highjacked the Career Center BLPC to get a new facility for Pre-K-8 on site. They have too many people in the right advisory groups, on the SB, and CB to be stopped. They have organized in a way that no other parent group has and been very effective in getting what they want and making it look like it wasn’t even their doing.

Drew being just a neighborhood school with the old neighborhood boundaries was not going to fill, planning knew it, so did the SB, that’s why Babs said they could just move more of the Pre-K programs there rather than drawing a larger boundary if it came to that. And honestly, even with a larger boundary that assumes parents won’t use other means to not attend a high poverty school. Frankly, it’s better that a high poverty school be underenrolled anyway. More resources for fewer kids who need them. If any schools have to be consolidated it will be those in the NW, where no growth is expected.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can we vote to get rid of certain principals instead of closing schools? As long as we’re voting.

CB

Why on earth would you use initials instead of the name? Are you protecting yourself or the principal? This is the silliest of silly DCUM.

We're all anon. They are not protecting themselves. They're just trying to be "in the know". Which is typical APS parent.

Not the PP but sometimes posts get deleted when names are mentioned.

Anonymous wrote:The option schools.

You mean close the high performing schools that are full and super popular with waiting lists, while there are under enrolled elem schools that no one wants to go to (ahem Drew). lol, no.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why can’t we move Montessori back into Drew?

I know politics but is that really going to get in the way of the most obvious and cheapest fix?

That was a terrible idea then and a terrible idea today. Drew deserves to be its own neighborhood school. AMAC needs to stop sucking all of the oxygen.

Why does Drew "deserve" this when it's chronically under enrolled and bleeding money? What about what's good for the rest of the system?

Why does MPSA "deserve" its own program? It's basically middle class white parents who want APS to build them a private school. What about what's good for the rest of the system?

I don't disagree, let's just combine MPSA and Drew. MPSA will get a building and Drew will be filled up. Problem solved.

No, that was the problem that was solved by separating them. They need different administrative teams and they don't operate on the same bell schedule. Sorry that you're so late to the game; but this is ancient history now. You're just gonna have to take our word for it that there were good reasons for the two to be separated - beyond Montessori's self-interests and strong advocacy for their own building.

not good enough