Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To get back on topic to the original post, I’m also interested in hearing more about the middle school experience at HBW. Parents get excited when they win the lottery, but does it live up to expectations for the kids? From what I’ve read so far, kids who are very athletic and want the high school sports experience eventually leave for their neighborhood school. Other than the sports issue, are there any major downsides of going the HB route, especially in 6th?

Wow, are you daft? Its private school on public dime. Unless you are big on sports, it is a win win win. The small student body means you have much more connection with your teacher, and whether you are doing homework or projects, that is the biggest driver to success.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

People who can afford to live in the WL zone can afford to live elsewhere and send their kids to another high school (ahem, Wakefield) if they want. They made choices with their money about where to live and what schools to send their kids to. Don't feel sorry that they paid so much to send their kids to crowded schools, it's not like we didn't see this coming the ENTIRE TIME their kids were in school.

Sure, everyone has seen it coming – but it’s also not unreasonable to expect that the school board would have actually done something about it in all this time. Like use some of that insane $$$$ spent to build the new HBW building on a new HS.

They effectively spent it on a new middle school (moved HB and added Hamm)

Why didn’t they just vacant office space for HB students? They are free to leave campus even in middle school, it’s a focus on independence and self directed study, so some converted office spaces with lots of white boards for Socratic discussions seems right up the alley, and would have cost almost nothing.

What are you talking about with Socratic discussions? HB kids take all the same classes as other APS kids (fewer choices, if anything) and have the same graduation requirements. The independence and self directed study has to do with being responsible for how they use their free periods and deciding how to spend the PTA budget--they aren't teaching themselves chemistry and APUSH.

Anonymous wrote:To get back on topic to the original post, I’m also interested in hearing more about the middle school experience at HBW. Parents get excited when they win the lottery, but does it live up to expectations for the kids? From what I’ve read so far, kids who are very athletic and want the high school sports experience eventually leave for their neighborhood school. Other than the sports issue, are there any major downsides of going the HB route, especially in 6th?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

People who can afford to live in the WL zone can afford to live elsewhere and send their kids to another high school (ahem, Wakefield) if they want. They made choices with their money about where to live and what schools to send their kids to. Don't feel sorry that they paid so much to send their kids to crowded schools, it's not like we didn't see this coming the ENTIRE TIME their kids were in school.

Sure, everyone has seen it coming – but it’s also not unreasonable to expect that the school board would have actually done something about it in all this time. Like use some of that insane $$$$ spent to build the new HBW building on a new HS.

They effectively spent it on a new middle school (moved HB and added Hamm)

Why didn’t they just vacant office space for HB students? They are free to leave campus even in middle school, it’s a focus on independence and self directed study, so some converted office spaces with lots of white boards for Socratic discussions seems right up the alley, and would have cost almost nothing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

People who can afford to live in the WL zone can afford to live elsewhere and send their kids to another high school (ahem, Wakefield) if they want. They made choices with their money about where to live and what schools to send their kids to. Don't feel sorry that they paid so much to send their kids to crowded schools, it's not like we didn't see this coming the ENTIRE TIME their kids were in school.

Sure, everyone has seen it coming – but it’s also not unreasonable to expect that the school board would have actually done something about it in all this time. Like use some of that insane $$$$ spent to build the new HBW building on a new HS.

Well, there was the career center idea that fell flat because it couldn't get a swimming pool... The problem is everyone always complaining and no one is happy with any of the proposals.

WTH. the obvious solution was a high school at the Kenmore site. They were just playing chicken with population growth and pushing people to private.

Don’t give me the “Fairfax won’t let us build a road” nonsense; Falls Church City has their entire high school in FFX. They would sort that sheet out

How does making Wakefield the 3000 person school help?

Anonymous wrote:To get back on topic to the original post, I’m also interested in hearing more about the middle school experience at HBW. Parents get excited when they win the lottery, but does it live up to expectations for the kids? From what I’ve read so far, kids who are very athletic and want the high school sports experience eventually leave for their neighborhood school. Other than the sports issue, are there any major downsides of going the HB route, especially in 6th?

Anonymous wrote:To get back on topic to the original post, I’m also interested in hearing more about the middle school experience at HBW. Parents get excited when they win the lottery, but does it live up to expectations for the kids? From what I’ve read so far, kids who are very athletic and want the high school sports experience eventually leave for their neighborhood school. Other than the sports issue, are there any major downsides of going the HB route, especially in 6th?

Anonymous wrote:
OH.MY.GOD. My kid doesn't even go to HB, but I feel the need to remind people that when the SB proposed an urban middle school, keeping Hamm at the Stratford site, Cherrydale parents lost their ever-loving minds at the thought of their snowflakes traveling to Rosslyn for middle school. The H-B people didn't WANT to move there, but they were essentially forced to do so.

This - 1000x this.
The site in Rosslyn doesn't support playing fields, much less a playground for anything other than a school like HB.
Plus, they are co-located with the Stratford (now Kennedy Shriver) program. The facilities needed for compliance to support kids with developmental/physical disabilities costs more.

Anonymous wrote:
Not really, and it’s pretty poor form to stuff WL to 3000 while HB students lounge around in their award winning building.

Anonymous wrote:



OH.MY.GOD. My kid doesn't even go to HB, but I feel the need to remind people that when the SB proposed an urban middle school, keeping Hamm at the Stratford site, Cherrydale parents lost their ever-loving minds at the thought of their snowflakes traveling to Rosslyn for middle school. The H-B people didn't WANT to move there, but they were essentially forced to do so. [/b]

You can't give them grief about the building. They didn't want it.

Right, but they built more seats on the W-L campus. The time to fight this was BEFORE they spent money and constructed infrastructure. Not after, because they can’t just leave those available seats empty. And it’s not an appropriate space for an ES. Montessori was trying to stake its claim, but that didn’t work. So there are HS seats. Allow for more IB transfers, since it’s a unique program and they won’t replicate it elsewhere.