Anonymous wrote:The school board has only minimal ways to reduce FARMS rates, that is mainly decided by the county boards affordable housing policy. By far the easiest way to get inequitable FARMS rate under control is for the board to change AH policy to emphasize quality (build anywhere but the pike/Buchanan) over the current policy of quanitity

Yes, everyone knows the CB is to blame. It's the CB's fault for making decisions the same way the SB makes them: catering to small interest groups like hard-core "quanitity is most imperative" affordable housing advocates pushing for more and more and more in the same south Arlington neighborhoods.

Ok, got it. But that does not mean the SB can't do anything about the FRL rates in schools. SB makes boundaries and despite Arlingtonians entitlement to the closest school if it suits them, there are many ways boundaries can be made. All across the country, jurisdictions have implemented policies to help minimize the segregation in their schools that results from segregated neighborhoods. But Arlington "liberals" buckle down and insist those things are unfair, inefficient, social-engineering, and morally reprehensible.

Fact is, the CB is more limited in its ability to "social engineer" residential by-right development than the SB is limited to mitigate the impacts of existing housing patterns. With the exception of using race to determine admissions, the SB has the freedom to make boundaries in whatever manner it wants or needs. Everything we do - all policies, all pushback to proposals, finger-pointing and waiting for the other guy to change their policy first - is social engineering. We have social engineered the segregation in our County and in our schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The middle school boundaries SHOULD have been about evening out enrollment. Instead, SB screwed Kenmore and entitled families at Swanson couldn’t put their parochial interests aside to think about the greater good. Now, Williamsburg is 1% FARMS and way under-utilized. (BTW- None of the Williamsburg families I know are particularly happy about that but they also felt shouted down when they wanted to engage and had hateful accusations hurtled at them.)

Now - this ES boundary change is lining up to be worse. We must move units around to fix the weird gerrymandering and even out the capacity at all schools. Tuckahoe hunkering down so early is disgusting. And throwing other schools to the wolves is entertaining.

Williamsburg is 12.4% FARMS this year. If you want to babble, at least check your statistics first. You just embarrass your fellow Arlingtonians with this nonsense.

PP was talking about the FARMS rate of 1% (!) that is projected for Williamsburg when the boundary change goes into effect.

At this point I don't care so much about the FARMs rate, but why did so many PU's get moved to make Kenmore so much more overcrowded? If it has to be the poorest school, it should also be the least crowded so that the kids have a shot at getting the additional attention and resources they need. Remember, Arlington doesn't use any of its federal Title 1 money on secondary schools (they target it all at ES), so allowing one MS and one HS to become both poorer and more crowded is a double whammy.

The school board has only minimal ways to reduce FARMS rates, that is mainly decided by the county boards affordable housing policy. By far the easiest way to get inequitable FARMS rate under control is for the board to change AH policy to emphasize quality (build anywhere but the pike/Buchanan) over the current policy of quanitity

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The middle school boundaries SHOULD have been about evening out enrollment. Instead, SB screwed Kenmore and entitled families at Swanson couldn’t put their parochial interests aside to think about the greater good. Now, Williamsburg is 1% FARMS and way under-utilized. (BTW- None of the Williamsburg families I know are particularly happy about that but they also felt shouted down when they wanted to engage and had hateful accusations hurtled at them.)

Now - this ES boundary change is lining up to be worse. We must move units around to fix the weird gerrymandering and even out the capacity at all schools. Tuckahoe hunkering down so early is disgusting. And throwing other schools to the wolves is entertaining.

Williamsburg is 12.4% FARMS this year. If you want to babble, at least check your statistics first. You just embarrass your fellow Arlingtonians with this nonsense.

PP was talking about the FARMS rate of 1% (!) that is projected for Williamsburg when the boundary change goes into effect.

Above that should read as outyears at 1%

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The middle school boundaries SHOULD have been about evening out enrollment. Instead, SB screwed Kenmore and entitled families at Swanson couldn’t put their parochial interests aside to think about the greater good. Now, Williamsburg is 1% FARMS and way under-utilized. (BTW- None of the Williamsburg families I know are particularly happy about that but they also felt shouted down when they wanted to engage and had hateful accusations hurtled at them.)

Now - this ES boundary change is lining up to be worse. We must move units around to fix the weird gerrymandering and even out the capacity at all schools. Tuckahoe hunkering down so early is disgusting. And throwing other schools to the wolves is entertaining.

Williamsburg is 12.4% FARMS this year. If you want to babble, at least check your statistics first. You just embarrass your fellow Arlingtonians with this nonsense.

Pretty sure pp meant to refer to what Williamsburg will look like when the new boundaries go into effect. If so, pp is absolutely correct.

-Williamsburg parent who, as pp pointed out, is not happy about this

That would be more like 5%, and remind me why it makes you unhappy that your kids will be at an affluent school that isn’t over-enrolled like Kenmore and others.

I am the 1% poster. Yes - it will be around 4% estimated in the first year, but the outyear projections show it at -%. That is embarrassing. I am mad about what happened to Kenmore in the boundaries. I did speak to SB members and wrote letters to advocate for an equitable distribution of all students. SB got weak and caved to colored shirts.

Same thing is getting ready to happen with Reed construction and ES boundaries.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The middle school boundaries SHOULD have been about evening out enrollment. Instead, SB screwed Kenmore and entitled families at Swanson couldn’t put their parochial interests aside to think about the greater good. Now, Williamsburg is 1% FARMS and way under-utilized. (BTW- None of the Williamsburg families I know are particularly happy about that but they also felt shouted down when they wanted to engage and had hateful accusations hurtled at them.)

Now - this ES boundary change is lining up to be worse. We must move units around to fix the weird gerrymandering and even out the capacity at all schools. Tuckahoe hunkering down so early is disgusting. And throwing other schools to the wolves is entertaining.

Williamsburg is 12.4% FARMS this year. If you want to babble, at least check your statistics first. You just embarrass your fellow Arlingtonians with this nonsense.

Pretty sure pp meant to refer to what Williamsburg will look like when the new boundaries go into effect. If so, pp is absolutely correct.

-Williamsburg parent who, as pp pointed out, is not happy about this

That would be more like 5%, and remind me why it makes you unhappy that your kids will be at an affluent school that isn’t over-enrolled like Kenmore and others.

Tuckahoe is embarrassing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The middle school boundaries SHOULD have been about evening out enrollment. Instead, SB screwed Kenmore and entitled families at Swanson couldn’t put their parochial interests aside to think about the greater good. Now, Williamsburg is 1% FARMS and way under-utilized. (BTW- None of the Williamsburg families I know are particularly happy about that but they also felt shouted down when they wanted to engage and had hateful accusations hurtled at them.)

Now - this ES boundary change is lining up to be worse. We must move units around to fix the weird gerrymandering and even out the capacity at all schools. Tuckahoe hunkering down so early is disgusting. And throwing other schools to the wolves is entertaining.

Williamsburg is 12.4% FARMS this year. If you want to babble, at least check your statistics first. You just embarrass your fellow Arlingtonians with this nonsense.

Pretty sure pp meant to refer to what Williamsburg will look like when the new boundaries go into effect. If so, pp is absolutely correct.

-Williamsburg parent who, as pp pointed out, is not happy about this

Anonymous wrote:The middle school boundaries SHOULD have been about evening out enrollment. Instead, SB screwed Kenmore and entitled families at Swanson couldn’t put their parochial interests aside to think about the greater good. Now, Williamsburg is 1% FARMS and way under-utilized. (BTW- None of the Williamsburg families I know are particularly happy about that but they also felt shouted down when they wanted to engage and had hateful accusations hurtled at them.)

Now - this ES boundary change is lining up to be worse. We must move units around to fix the weird gerrymandering and even out the capacity at all schools. Tuckahoe hunkering down so early is disgusting. And throwing other schools to the wolves is entertaining.

Williamsburg is 12.4% FARMS this year. If you want to babble, at least check your statistics first. You just embarrass your fellow Arlingtonians with this nonsense.

I think the best case for Tuckahoe is for the SB to co platelet disregard that letter. The alternative is for the SB to take it seriously, which would only highlight how incredibly weak their arguments are, and how un-unique Tuckahoe is given that all of those arguments could be applied to any neighborhood school.

Also, did anyone bother to proofread that thing? I would have been embarrassed to sign my name to something with so many typos. But hey, at least they recognized that the SB is aware it had already launched the Elementary Planning Initiative.

The middle school boundaries SHOULD have been about evening out enrollment. Instead, SB screwed Kenmore and entitled families at Swanson couldn’t put their parochial interests aside to think about the greater good. Now, Williamsburg is 1% FARMS and way under-utilized. (BTW- None of the Williamsburg families I know are particularly happy about that but they also felt shouted down when they wanted to engage and had hateful accusations hurtled at them.)

Now - this ES boundary change is lining up to be worse. We must move units around to fix the weird gerrymandering and even out the capacity at all schools. Tuckahoe hunkering down so early is disgusting. And throwing other schools to the wolves is entertaining.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You don't even understand how much overcrowding we have had in NW Arlington Elementary Schools. It is our turn to have breathing room for a few years while they build housing on Lee Highway and EFC. It is okay for Tuckahoe, Nottingham. McKinley and Reed to be under-enrolled for 5-10 years. These kids have been through so much and just look what will happen once they go to middle school. Swanson is like a Zoo. Don't send kids from across the county here it just wouldn't be fair to Tuckahoe.

Proposed bumper sticker: TUCKAHOE SUFFERS

Exactly! And cry me a river about Swanson! Those jerks refused to go to Williamsburg, which is why that school will now be under-enrolled.

No, Williamsburg will be so undercapacity while all the rest are overcrowded because the SB lacks any guts to actually lead and make decisions with the interest of the school system in mind. Perhaps that should be the #1 guiding principle for boundaries rather than proximity: best interest of the school system.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
You don't even understand how much overcrowding we have had in NW Arlington Elementary Schools. It is our turn to have breathing room for a few years while they build housing on Lee Highway and EFC. It is okay for Tuckahoe, Nottingham. McKinley and Reed to be under-enrolled for 5-10 years. These kids have been through so much and just look what will happen once they go to middle school. Swanson is like a Zoo. Don't send kids from across the county here it just wouldn't be fair to Tuckahoe.

Proposed bumper sticker: TUCKAHOE SUFFERS

Exactly! And cry me a river about Swanson! Those jerks refused to go to Williamsburg, which is why that school will now be under-enrolled.

As a current parent at a heavily title 1 school this quote and the entire attitude of entitlement makes me feel a little sick.

Tuckahoe didn't overcrowd Swanson. They are actually losing units to Williamsburg. It's the Glebe units that are moving over that pushed it over the edge.