Anonymous wrote:I'm still years away from having a kid in school, but I'm curious about the animosity towards Mount Vernon. I've lived in Del Ray for a few years now, and it's FULL of kids. It seems like the community and school have a great relationship, and neighbors of ours even moved just blocks away from where they were to get into the district instead of Jefferson-Houston. Are standardized test scores really that important? Don't kids learn at different paces and in different ways? Isn't socialization and making friends and being creative and inspired to learn important too, especially at the elementary level?

I am a parent zoned for Mt. Vernon and we decided to send our kids to another public in the city. We also applied to several parochial and private schools as alternatives because we were that unimpressed with Mt. Vernon. The kids you see at the playground on the weekends, and in and around Del Ray are not the kids who populate the school. Watch the busses drop off in the morning - it's a demographic that is 60+% Hispanic/ESL and not the yuppie Del Ray families who descend on the playground during the weekends and evenings. We toured the school. We spoke with the principal. We talked to neighbors. We reviewed test scores and curriculum. The school is NOT succeeding. IMO, it's worse than Jefferson Houston. The school is entirely devoted to Spanish immersion, not because del ray families want their kids to learn Spanish, but because the zoned population can't speak English and were failing subjects in English, failing test scores, etc., so they are trying to reach them in Spanish. The classes we saw were chaotic and noisy. The school is huge with 900+ children, the majority of which are ESL. Resources are focused toward ESL families and non-ESL children are not taught Spanish, But are expected to learn math and science in a language that isnt English. The English speaking kids are failing Bc they aren't learning Spanish, but are expected to do math word problems in Spanish. The SPANISH speaking kids are still failing even with immersion. And the dual language doesn't carry over into middle school, so all the kids will have to learn back in English again anyway.

Why would I subject my bright English-speaking children to such a flawed and failing institution? Especially at the start of their academic careers? We are appalled that this school is forced on us with the failing dual language paradigm. It should be an optional charter school. Dual language shouldn't be forced on any family.

We are very happy with our chosen public. Thank god for the admin transfer process. Otherwise, like many other families we know, we would be fleeing to Arlington or Fairfax ASAP!

Anonymous wrote:I'm still years away from having a kid in school, but I'm curious about the animosity towards Mount Vernon. I've lived in Del Ray for a few years now, and it's FULL of kids. It seems like the community and school have a great relationship, and neighbors of ours even moved just blocks away from where they were to get into the district instead of Jefferson-Houston. Are standardized test scores really that important? Don't kids learn at different paces and in different ways? Isn't socialization and making friends and being creative and inspired to learn important too, especially at the elementary level?

You are looking at this through rose colored glasses.

Mt. Vernon had to switch to an immersion program because the ESL population is so larger and trying to teach English as a Second Language was failing. So to accommodate, they switched over to teaching Spanish.

As far as kids being social and socialization - it's easier in the very early grades but by 2nd grade, the kids can tell the division and the kids tend to naturally gravitate towards kids who are like them. It's not on purpose, it just happens.

Don't kids learn at different paces and in different ways? Isn't socialization and making friends and being creative and inspired to learn important too, especially at the elementary level?

Well, yes, of course, but if your child is advanced or has a much more substantial background in the information being taught than the other students, they are going to be bored and unchallenged. If there is one teacher and 22 students, 18 of whom desperately need help to achieve basic skills, the teacher is not going to be able to focus a lot of energy on the kid who needs more challenging work.

I'm still years away from having a kid in school, but I'm curious about the animosity towards Mount Vernon. I've lived in Del Ray for a few years now, and it's FULL of kids. It seems like the community and school have a great relationship, and neighbors of ours even moved just blocks away from where they were to get into the district instead of Jefferson-Houston. Are standardized test scores really that important? Don't kids learn at different paces and in different ways? Isn't socialization and making friends and being creative and inspired to learn important too, especially at the elementary level?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why there is a little patch of "George Mason" in what seems to be firm MVCS/Barrett? Seems like some serious gerrymandering: http://www.acps.k12.va.us/enroll/zone_map.pdf

Well, first off in that section, I think you're talking maybe 3 children. Not like an entire neighborhood. It is the little town house community right off Glebe and friends that live there have children they send to Barrett. She said the school district has handled them (the families in that community) on a case by case basis. Her children and one other child are the only elementary kids in that area - and they don't go to Mason.

It's more than just the townhouse community. It involves a sizable chunk of the apartment complexes in that section of Arlandria as well. While there are only a few of us with school age kids in the townhomes, there are several dozen that get on the buses each day from the apartments. I agree that it looks quite strange on the map and I wonder how the planning for this section was worked out.

I think that little patch is the way to increase George Mason socioeconomic diversity. if the school had 'natural' boundaries, given the way that neighborhood has developed, the school (one of alexandria's smallest) would have 99 percent affluent kids. Of course, the result is that the neighborhood kids walk to school and the kids from arlandria are the only ones getting on and off the bus. Not sure that's great.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why there is a little patch of "George Mason" in what seems to be firm MVCS/Barrett? Seems like some serious gerrymandering: http://www.acps.k12.va.us/enroll/zone_map.pdf

Well, first off in that section, I think you're talking maybe 3 children. Not like an entire neighborhood. It is the little town house community right off Glebe and friends that live there have children they send to Barrett. She said the school district has handled them (the families in that community) on a case by case basis. Her children and one other child are the only elementary kids in that area - and they don't go to Mason.

It's more than just the townhouse community. It involves a sizable chunk of the apartment complexes in that section of Arlandria as well. While there are only a few of us with school age kids in the townhomes, there are several dozen that get on the buses each day from the apartments. I agree that it looks quite strange on the map and I wonder how the planning for this section was worked out.

The JH principal may express views about redistricting, but the JH principal plays no decisional role, and the pre-JH experience involved closing schools, not improving them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's all sorts of odd things on the current map...the long Maury peninsula in what's squarely JH territory, the patch on the lower left that is Polk even though it's surrounded by three other schools' boundaries and not even adjacent to Polk territory, the long Patrick Henry peninsula between Tucker and Polk, etc. All of it is a big case of who knows

That Maury peninsula includes the Adkins public housing and used to include The Bland public housing (now redeveloped). I think it was an attempt to move some of the low-income kids out of J-H. Adkins is also now slated for redevelopment as is the public housing right next to J-H. With the Bland redevelopment, they retained about 2/3 of the number of units and moved 1/3 elsewhere and I think the plan is to follow roughly the same proportion for the Adkins development.

Thanks for this info. Is there a map that shows where the public housing is now in Alexandria? I know there has been a lot of redevelopment of this type of housing and an effort to have it be less concentrated in certain areas.

Here you go. Also as a tip, you can always identify public housing in Alexandria, it's the same almost everywhere row houses that are non descript. Outside of Old Town there are weird pockets of it located in odd places - corner of van dorn and w. braddock for example,

Assisted housing info - http://alexandriava.gov/uploadedFiles/housing/info/AffordableProgramsList.pdf

Section 9 map - http://www.alexandriava.gov/uploadedFiles/housing/info/MAP%20Privately%20Owned%20Properties%20with%20Project%20Based%20Assistance.pdf

Public housing map - http://www.alexandriava.gov/uploadedFiles/housing/info/Map%20Public%20Replacement%20Housing(1).pdf

Anonymous wrote:
Whose going to want to move to Alexandria City anymore, when so many other jurisdictions have better public schools?

I moved here recently, but I am an empty nester. Empty nesters, singles, DINKs, and those who would choose private school or homeschooling anyway will continue to move here. As well as those whose choices in Arlington or Fairfax won't be that much better, and will take the tradeoffs.

That does not mean its not desirable to improve the schools. But anyone on the right who thinks Alexandria is going to abolish all its public housing in order to reduce the FARMs ratio in the schools is living in fantasy land - just as are those on the left who think Alexandria will stop encouraging the construction of new market rate luxury multfamily housing, or who think they can reverse the Beauregard Small Area Plan, which will reduce the number of market rate affordable housing units.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There's all sorts of odd things on the current map...the long Maury peninsula in what's squarely JH territory, the patch on the lower left that is Polk even though it's surrounded by three other schools' boundaries and not even adjacent to Polk territory, the long Patrick Henry peninsula between Tucker and Polk, etc. All of it is a big case of who knows

That Maury peninsula includes the Adkins public housing and used to include The Bland public housing (now redeveloped). I think it was an attempt to move some of the low-income kids out of J-H. Adkins is also now slated for redevelopment as is the public housing right next to J-H. With the Bland redevelopment, they retained about 2/3 of the number of units and moved 1/3 elsewhere and I think the plan is to follow roughly the same proportion for the Adkins development.

Thanks for this info. Is there a map that shows where the public housing is now in Alexandria? I know there has been a lot of redevelopment of this type of housing and an effort to have it be less concentrated in certain areas.

Anonymous wrote:There's all sorts of odd things on the current map...the long Maury peninsula in what's squarely JH territory, the patch on the lower left that is Polk even though it's surrounded by three other schools' boundaries and not even adjacent to Polk territory, the long Patrick Henry peninsula between Tucker and Polk, etc. All of it is a big case of who knows

That Maury peninsula includes the Adkins public housing and used to include The Bland public housing (now redeveloped). I think it was an attempt to move some of the low-income kids out of J-H. Adkins is also now slated for redevelopment as is the public housing right next to J-H. With the Bland redevelopment, they retained about 2/3 of the number of units and moved 1/3 elsewhere and I think the plan is to follow roughly the same proportion for the Adkins development.

There's all sorts of odd things on the current map...the long Maury peninsula in what's squarely JH territory, the patch on the lower left that is Polk even though it's surrounded by three other schools' boundaries and not even adjacent to Polk territory, the long Patrick Henry peninsula between Tucker and Polk, etc. All of it is a big case of who knows

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know why there is a little patch of "George Mason" in what seems to be firm MVCS/Barrett? Seems like some serious gerrymandering: http://www.acps.k12.va.us/enroll/zone_map.pdf

Well, first off in that section, I think you're talking maybe 3 children. Not like an entire neighborhood. It is the little town house community right off Glebe and friends that live there have children they send to Barrett. She said the school district has handled them (the families in that community) on a case by case basis. Her children and one other child are the only elementary kids in that area - and they don't go to Mason.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Alexandria: IB to the Rescue? Jefferson-Houston to expand International Baccalaureate program.

"Phillips said the IB classes will have a capacity limit, and in the first few years of Jefferson-Houston’s recovery he said the priority should be on ensuring that the school doesn’t go over its capacity. Phillips said in a few years, he’s expecting there to be a wait list for the program.

Having a waiting list also isn’t one of Jefferson-Houston’s immediate problems. The school has a maximum capacity of 800 students and currently has a student population of 444. By 2024, that number is expected to rise slightly to 572 students."

http://www.alexandriagazette.com/news/2015/mar/19/alexandria-ib-rescue/

Now that this has been announced, it's pertinent to the re-districting discussion.

-How many of the current 444 JH students are pre-K? I understand ~100? Are pre-K students officially part of ACPS?

-Why so low a goal of 572 students enrolled by 2024, given our elementary schools are busting at the seems and schools in disrepair?

If re-districting is being undertaken, why not plan to be at full capacity at brand new, $45 million dollar, Jefferson Houston Elementary by 2024?

I'm not sure, but I think that these numbers are the projected numbers right now, as in, WITHOUT boundary changes.
Certainly a top goal of redistricting should be having schools be near, but not above capacity, so once the changes are made these projected numbers will be out of date.

I've read the article several times and reflected on the wording. Firstly, the preK-8 IB has to be approved and if/when it is, it would not start to the 2016-2017 school year. But Principal Phillips seems quite clear that IB classes in general have lower capacity than regular non-IB classes. Seemingly to address forthcoming re-districting, Phillips emphasizes priority on not going over capacity.

Jefferson Houston Elementary is a sparkling new elementary for Alexandria City, and can service 800 students. It's all ACPS elementary schools goals to ensure class size is not over capacity, but this luxury is not available to most of the older, jammed full and deteriorating ones.

Perhaps the fear is JH Elementary can't fill up without real resident upset, so starting preK-8 International Bachelorette with lower class size will serve as the fall back explanation for under enrollment or slow enrollment occurring.

Just seems a waste to build a brand new $45 million dollar, much needed public elementary in Alexandria and then lay the ground work ahead of time for perpetual under capacity until 2024!