Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sends some of Claremont, not all

I don’t think any of Claremont ends up at Drew in the proposal. The Windgate townhomes on Walter Reed do though- I think that’s considered part of the Shirlington neighborhood. It says the neighbors affected are Douglas Park, Shirlington and Columbia Forest.

Oh, there aren’t any houses in the PU in which Claremont ES sits. That was my mistake.

Yea that PU is mostly woods/creek, the trail, and the businesses and parks along Four Mile Run Dr.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It sends some of Claremont, not all

I don’t think any of Claremont ends up at Drew in the proposal. The Windgate townhomes on Walter Reed do though- I think that’s considered part of the Shirlington neighborhood. It says the neighbors affected are Douglas Park, Shirlington and Columbia Forest.

Oh, there aren’t any houses in the PU in which Claremont ES sits. That was my mistake.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So when these PUs push back can we call them racist?

Call them whatever you want. Who cares? APS needs to get a backbone and just make boundaries that suit APS' needs and goals and the interests of the students.

I think it's pretty clear that making Drew very high FRL and Abingdon a lower (but still not low, frankly) FRL school is the situation that suits APS best. Is it best for the students? There will be some whose needs aren't met, but there is an argument to be made for having a community school with wrap around social services for families at Drew like they do at Carlin Springs. That's not going to be a popular argument with the "equity" lens we are supposedly using, but it's certainly expedient. I don't know what the right answer is.

This past year showed we should not rely on schools for wrap around services. Schools are to learn that’s it!! Remember they are not babysitters or social workers. Stop treating them as such!

Anonymous wrote:Is there a tool where you can put in your address and see which PU you are? I am very bad at reading these maps

It’s difficult to tell where some boundaries end/begin on the map!

https://gis.arlingtonva.us/Html5Viewer/Index.html?configBase=https://gis.arlingtonva.us/Geocortex/Essentials/REST/sites/APS_Attendance_Locator/viewers/APS_School_Boundary_Locator/virtualdirectory/Resources/Config/Default

Anonymous wrote:It sends some of Claremont, not all

I don’t think any of Claremont ends up at Drew in the proposal. The Windgate townhomes on Walter Reed do though- I think that’s considered part of the Shirlington neighborhood. It says the neighbors affected are Douglas Park, Shirlington and Columbia Forest.

Is there a tool where you can put in your address and see which PU you are? I am very bad at reading these maps

Anonymous wrote:It's not written in blood that Drew has to be an elementary school for all time. They tried it, it hasn't work. Stop playing Jenga with the boundaries and get real with what APS needs. We need a middle and/or high school (probably both).

Figure out where the elementary kids can go. Turn Claremont back into a neighborhood school or something, Spanish Immersion is a joke anyways.

Drew is not a good location for a high school. A fourth high school is definitely needed; but for many reasons, Kenmore is where it should go.
Claremont absolutely could return to being a neighborhood school and immersion could move to Carlin Springs. That would help break-up some of the highest concentration of poverty in the schools.
I was previously not a fan of the K-2/3-5 split between schools idea; but maybe that's the only way APS would ever be willing to break-up some of the highest concentrations of poverty within schools. I'm becoming more of a potential convert on the idea.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So when these PUs push back can we call them racist?

Call them whatever you want. Who cares? APS needs to get a backbone and just make boundaries that suit APS' needs and goals and the interests of the students.

I think it's pretty clear that making Drew very high FRL and Abingdon a lower (but still not low, frankly) FRL school is the situation that suits APS best. Is it best for the students? There will be some whose needs aren't met, but there is an argument to be made for having a community school with wrap around social services for families at Drew like they do at Carlin Springs. That's not going to be a popular argument with the "equity" lens we are supposedly using, but it's certainly expedient. I don't know what the right answer is.

Every single school should be equipped with those wraparound resources to serve any student who might walk through its doors. Putting them only in the schools with the most students in need does not help the similar student in a low FRL school. I guess in that respect, your equity lens statement is correct. But you don't seem to understand that this set-up of concentrating the needs and services precisely fits how APS and Arlington County view equity. at least it's the rationale they use to justify segregation.

Anonymous wrote:It's not written in blood that Drew has to be an elementary school for all time. They tried it, it hasn't work. Stop playing Jenga with the boundaries and get real with what APS needs. We need a middle and/or high school (probably both).

Figure out where the elementary kids can go. Turn Claremont back into a neighborhood school or something, Spanish Immersion is a joke anyways.

The county owns the former VHC urgent care site on Carlin Springs--that should absolutely be utilized as a middle or high school site!

It sends some of Claremont, not all

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So when these PUs push back can we call them racist?

Call them whatever you want. Who cares? APS needs to get a backbone and just make boundaries that suit APS' needs and goals and the interests of the students.

I think it's pretty clear that making Drew very high FRL and Abingdon a lower (but still not low, frankly) FRL school is the situation that suits APS best. Is it best for the students? There will be some whose needs aren't met, but there is an argument to be made for having a community school with wrap around social services for families at Drew like they do at Carlin Springs. That's not going to be a popular argument with the "equity" lens we are supposedly using, but it's certainly expedient. I don't know what the right answer is.

Isn’t this proposal a pretty good idea, though, in that it sends Claremont, which is almost entirely SFHs, to Drew? They’re keeping the APAH property at Abingdon, along with Fairlington. Am I missing something? At worst, the kids don’t ever materialize at Drew and all go option or private, but that still solves the capacity problem for Abingdon without exacerbating the poverty at Drew.

They conveniently leave the FRL rate out of the proposal info. They gave us K-3 demographics and EL status. At 68% English learner and 75% non-white (which is somewhat correlated to income in Arlington) it's not looking like a particularly affluent bunch. https://www.apsva.us/engage/fall-2021-boundary-process-abingdon-drew/

It's not written in blood that Drew has to be an elementary school for all time. They tried it, it hasn't work. Stop playing Jenga with the boundaries and get real with what APS needs. We need a middle and/or high school (probably both).

Figure out where the elementary kids can go. Turn Claremont back into a neighborhood school or something, Spanish Immersion is a joke anyways.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So when these PUs push back can we call them racist?

Call them whatever you want. Who cares? APS needs to get a backbone and just make boundaries that suit APS' needs and goals and the interests of the students.

I think it's pretty clear that making Drew very high FRL and Abingdon a lower (but still not low, frankly) FRL school is the situation that suits APS best. Is it best for the students? There will be some whose needs aren't met, but there is an argument to be made for having a community school with wrap around social services for families at Drew like they do at Carlin Springs. That's not going to be a popular argument with the "equity" lens we are supposedly using, but it's certainly expedient. I don't know what the right answer is.

Isn’t this proposal a pretty good idea, though, in that it sends Claremont, which is almost entirely SFHs, to Drew? They’re keeping the APAH property at Abingdon, along with Fairlington. Am I missing something? At worst, the kids don’t ever materialize at Drew and all go option or private, but that still solves the capacity problem for Abingdon without exacerbating the poverty at Drew.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Except that Fairlington is on the table. That was just a first proposal map. Fairlington needs to be zoned to Drew. It’s the only neighborhood left that will have kids that can or will be forced to attend Drew.

You realize Abingdon is inside Fairlington? You want kids in GV to have a neighborhood school (and force everyone to attend it) but people in Fairlington cant.


Insane argument

And Fairlington is also divided in half BY A HIGHWAY. It's not impossible that Fairlington could be zoned to two different schools. Lots of other neighborhoods get split up. The way APS does boundaries is stupid. And Drew should have stayed an option school.

Douglas Park (not split by a highway) goes to two different schools, Randolph and Drew. Randolph is actually in DP, yet part of DP goes to Drew. Fairlington needs to be moved to Drew

They go to 3 actually. Part of Douglas Park is split off to Barcroft, also. Not arguing that Fairlington should go to Drew, but the idea that the neighborhood can’t be split is absurd when many neighborhoods already are split for ES and or MS.

Open up fairlington elementary school in south fairlington for k-2 for south fairlington and drew and then send this population to drew for 3-5 grades.