No hope for changing Reed to the option school it should be. Because you've never seen anything quite like the entitled community in Westover. Unparallelled.

Reed should have never been made a neighborhood school. That is not what is needed there. Option is.
And as for "unintended consequences" of the open option school enrollment policy--everyone should've seen this coming. Plenty of people told the SB this would happen if they changed the enrollment policy. I agree they needed to do it. But don't say this is unintended. It's only unintended to the short sighted APS school board and staff. They refuse to hear criticisms of their plans. Especially legit ones.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, I do. However, those unintended consequences outweigh the benefits of that decision. And herein lies the problem, the staff and the SB are not planning well, or rather, are planning for a predetermined outcome and trying to make their “data” fit that outcome.

The change to the lottery was what was fair and what was right. It was only a matter of time before everyone was shut out of that lottery, too. It's not like the school has infinite space.

Yes, but why stuff a 700 plus student body into a substantially smaller ASFS building?

Honest question— if they moved the immersion program to reed (which is bigger), would everyone be ok with reverting key back to a neighborhood school?
Or what if they started a new immersion program at Carlin springs or Ashlawn (have it be collocated with a neighborhood school)? Is the issue with the swap that there is no other workable location for the key immersion program other than key, or is it that the program will shrink?
No one wants immersion to die, but the arguments the key community make it hard to figure out what the issue is and if there is an alternative that they would be ok with.

Um, the Reed community that has put a lot of time and effort into the planning process based on the SB's promise (including formally-approved board resolution) that it would be a neighborhood school might have something to say about that.

But go ahead and keep thinking that you all are the only people that matter. It's a good look.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, I do. However, those unintended consequences outweigh the benefits of that decision. And herein lies the problem, the staff and the SB are not planning well, or rather, are planning for a predetermined outcome and trying to make their “data” fit that outcome.

The change to the lottery was what was fair and what was right. It was only a matter of time before everyone was shut out of that lottery, too. It's not like the school has infinite space.

Yes, but why stuff a 700 plus student body into a substantially smaller ASFS building?

Honest question— if they moved the immersion program to reed (which is bigger), would everyone be ok with reverting key back to a neighborhood school?
Or what if they started a new immersion program at Carlin springs or Ashlawn (have it be collocated with a neighborhood school)? Is the issue with the swap that there is no other workable location for the key immersion program other than key, or is it that the program will shrink?
No one wants immersion to die, but the arguments the key community make it hard to figure out what the issue is and if there is an alternative that they would be ok with.

The ASFS LV and Clarendon parents would NOT be okay with two neighborhood schools— that’s what APS suggested in it’s second analysis (that Key and ASFS both be neighborhood schools) and certain parents went nutso because they didn’t just want any old neighborhood school, they wanted ASFS and the lab and the faculty. They then launched a whole movement to turn Buck into a superschool so everyone could stay together which was a huge farce because they had literally been lobbying APS for a year to do the swap.They fact that they are now claiming it was always about the commute from Rosslyn and how a move to Taylor would add an extra hour to their commute every day is just a cover that they only want the Key building so long as they “move” ASFS. They will be relentless about moving the lab and making sure they name goes too— they will NOT accept just being Key neighborhood school. They truly believe ASFS is a special program better than the other Arlington schools and that it will maintain or increase their home values (at least that’s what the LV parents believe, the Clarendon parents just don’t want to get sent to Long Branch). The Rosslyn parents have a valid point about the commute and probably don’t care as much what school is there just so long as they can have a shorter commute. They got duped into taking up this fight for the LV and Clarendon parents. I think someone mentioned before that it will be pretty ironic when Rosslyn still gets bussed to Taylor or Long Branch because APS will now have to send the rest of LV to the Key building— that’s where APS saves bus transportation mentioned by the PPs— they can cut out the 2-3 busses that takes the LV kids to ASFS and Taylor.

It’s both. Key is where immersion started in Arlington County and it’s one of the oldest dual language immersion schools in the country. This is not insignificant. Dual language immersion is cheaper than ESL for ELL’s and has better outcomes. Key is also the closest school to a metro station in Arlington County. To show just how little staff researched the impact a move would have on Key, they did not even factor in transportation for extended day, (none of those kids are on a bus), and I think Key has the largest or second largest extended day in the county. All of those kids will be on buses if a swap occurs, and if they choose to follow Key to another location. Also, Key gets NA kids to Gunston and Wakefield, if immersion shrinks (which it will in any other smaller building) all of those kids will go to neighborhood MS and HS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, I do. However, those unintended consequences outweigh the benefits of that decision. And herein lies the problem, the staff and the SB are not planning well, or rather, are planning for a predetermined outcome and trying to make their “data” fit that outcome.

The change to the lottery was what was fair and what was right. It was only a matter of time before everyone was shut out of that lottery, too. It's not like the school has infinite space.

Yes, but why stuff a 700 plus student body into a substantially smaller ASFS building?

Honest question— if they moved the immersion program to reed (which is bigger), would everyone be ok with reverting key back to a neighborhood school?
Or what if they started a new immersion program at Carlin springs or Ashlawn (have it be collocated with a neighborhood school)? Is the issue with the swap that there is no other workable location for the key immersion program other than key, or is it that the program will shrink?
No one wants immersion to die, but the arguments the key community make it hard to figure out what the issue is and if there is an alternative that they would be ok with.

The problem is that Key parents find the location very convenient and don’t want to give that up. That is why a site like Carlin Springs that has room to grow and is close to a large population of economically disadvantaged native Spanish speakers is unacceptable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, I do. However, those unintended consequences outweigh the benefits of that decision. And herein lies the problem, the staff and the SB are not planning well, or rather, are planning for a predetermined outcome and trying to make their “data” fit that outcome.

The change to the lottery was what was fair and what was right. It was only a matter of time before everyone was shut out of that lottery, too. It's not like the school has infinite space.

Yes, but why stuff a 700 plus student body into a substantially smaller ASFS building?

Honest question— if they moved the immersion program to reed (which is bigger), would everyone be ok with reverting key back to a neighborhood school?
Or what if they started a new immersion program at Carlin springs or Ashlawn (have it be collocated with a neighborhood school)? Is the issue with the swap that there is no other workable location for the key immersion program other than key, or is it that the program will shrink?
No one wants immersion to die, but the arguments the key community make it hard to figure out what the issue is and if there is an alternative that they would be ok with.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No, I do. However, those unintended consequences outweigh the benefits of that decision. And herein lies the problem, the staff and the SB are not planning well, or rather, are planning for a predetermined outcome and trying to make their “data” fit that outcome.

The change to the lottery was what was fair and what was right. It was only a matter of time before everyone was shut out of that lottery, too. It's not like the school has infinite space.

Yes, but why stuff a 700 plus student body into a substantially smaller ASFS building?

I tend to think that this switch must have something to do with amazon hq2. That is, there will have to be a neighborhood school to accommodate the new arrivals.

Anonymous wrote:No, I do. However, those unintended consequences outweigh the benefits of that decision. And herein lies the problem, the staff and the SB are not planning well, or rather, are planning for a predetermined outcome and trying to make their “data” fit that outcome.

The change to the lottery was what was fair and what was right. It was only a matter of time before everyone was shut out of that lottery, too. It's not like the school has infinite space.

No, I do. However, those unintended consequences outweigh the benefits of that decision. And herein lies the problem, the staff and the SB are not planning well, or rather, are planning for a predetermined outcome and trying to make their “data” fit that outcome.

Anonymous wrote:That was absolutely not the case for Key, which has students from approximately 18 APS elementary schools. Access to Key was not inequitable, and the SB and staff have never produced any proof of this. It might be true for Claremont, but we’re talking about Key here and how it supports immersion in the northeastern part of the county, and further into the MS and HS level at Gunston and Wakefield.

You don’t see the issue with one option school in the county having neighborhood preference? The new policy is absolutely more equitable than the old one, but it does have a lot of unintended consequences.

That was absolutely not the case for Key, which has students from approximately 18 APS elementary schools. Access to Key was not inequitable, and the SB and staff have never produced any proof of this. It might be true for Claremont, but we’re talking about Key here and how it supports immersion in the northeastern part of the county, and further into the MS and HS level at Gunston and Wakefield.

Anonymous wrote:So you’re saying they want what they already had, before they stripped Key of its neighborhood status? Two neighborhood schools, with those in the neighborhood getting a choice between two great schools? Who didn’t this work for?

The problem was that other areas of the county did not have access to Claremont, Key, and Campbell. The mess was created when they decided the entry point to option schools should be more equitable across the county. Sounds good, right?

So you’re saying they want what they already had, before they stripped Key of its neighborhood status? Two neighborhood schools, with those in the neighborhood getting a choice between two great schools? Who didn’t this work for?