Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do we get rid of 60-80% FRL neighborhood schools? I think most folks would love to do this if you know how. Bussing children all over the county is not an option, however.

And that's the problem. Folks are all for solving the problem - without using any solutions to solve the problem.
We ALREADY bus children all over the County for option programs - and probably more inefficiently than busing them for neighborhood schools would be because of the ridiculous bus pick-ups for very small #s of children from some areas opting into programs.

So, you eliminate high FRL schools in various ways:
1) you can do it in one fell swoop by changing to an all-choice system (Cambridge model); or
2) with various other tools - note the plurality there, toolSSS - including busing children who are being bused to their neighborhood school now to a different assigned neighborhood school; eliminating geographical preferences for options schools was one piece the Board actually implemented; locate option schools in/near areas of concentrated low-income families so that they are more easily accessible and families more likely to apply; stop fighting weirdly-shaped boundaries and drop the idiotic "contiguity" principle; and push the County to stop adding CAF's in areas of schools that already have a high FRL% and push them TO build CAFs in areas with schools with low FRL%s.

To whoever wrote this comment, will you please run for School Board on this platform? You will have to primary Reid but he is beatable. Many of us will back you. This is the thinking APS needs.

Reid is the last board member who should be challenged if there is any interest at all in addressing high FRL schools. He has been ineffective because he has NOT A SINGLE ALLY on this issue. He needs colleagues who share his thinking, or who are at least not opposed to compromise and trying some bold ideas.

Maura McMahon already ran with this platform; but the ACDC establishment supported an ACDC player and choice program advocates inaccurately painted McMahon as anti-choice. When it comes to equity and diversity, Arlington is simply all talk (because that's easy and makes you look like a good person) and no action (because people who have the best of everything are not really willing to risk even the slightest change in their blessings and perception of being at the top.

Are you kidding me? Reid is terrible. He's totally gutless. He talks like he cares, but ultimately he has no gumption. Plus he has no vision.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RG will meet with you and say one thing then show up a the SB meeting and say the opposite. He is no gem.

+1 Exactly this.

Reid is a liar and a gaslighter. He only admitted his lies when Arlnow published his email. People need to stop blindly following him just because he’s from South Arlington.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I agree. Either you can bear the inconvenience of an long drive to school events or to extended day as the price you play for the choice program that you value, or you can put your kid in his or her neighborhood school. You are not entitled to have a countywide choice program located near your home. Get over yourself.

Just like nobody is entitled to have a neighborhood school near their home. Don't people understand that there are always going to be students who need to take a bus or drive - with the rare near-exception of Randolph? Doesn't anyone get that everyone can't have the school of their choice within walking distance? That it's not possible to have all the option schools in the backyards of everyone attending and that kids are going to need to take a car or bus to a neighborhood school?

Yes, nobody is entitled to be able to walk to school. But, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t consider what’s good for the entire system and evaluate whether some option school sites would be more efficient/cost effective to become a neighborhood school just because we are scared of change. That and we should hold people accountable for saying they “walk”. Take away their buses and see if they still want to be zoned at that particular school.
We should also think about long term planning for the county in these discussions. The county pushes a car free diet and actively reduces parking, but then the school board makes all the walkable schools in that area full option. That makes no sense. The county clusters all of the affordable housing in one part of the county, and then the school board bemoans that they can’t create diverse schools. Again no sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:RG will meet with you and say one thing then show up a the SB meeting and say the opposite. He is no gem.

+1 Exactly this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I agree. Either you can bear the inconvenience of an long drive to school events or to extended day as the price you play for the choice program that you value, or you can put your kid in his or her neighborhood school. You are not entitled to have a countywide choice program located near your home. Get over yourself.

Just like nobody is entitled to have a neighborhood school near their home. Don't people understand that there are always going to be students who need to take a bus or drive - with the rare near-exception of Randolph? Doesn't anyone get that everyone can't have the school of their choice within walking distance? That it's not possible to have all the option schools in the backyards of everyone attending and that kids are going to need to take a car or bus to a neighborhood school?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:so if they are not swapping ASFS/Key, and they are reassessing elementary boundaries, does that mean that the ASFS boundaries may change? Or not, because it remains an option school that does not have a boundary? Obviously it is oddly situated since it does not serve its immediate neighborhood.

[/b

ASFS is not and has never been an option school without boundaries, although in its early years demand was low enough that students from all over the county could attend, albeit without bus service.

My guess its boundaries will change to become a neighborhood school along the orange line and will include, among others,[b] planning units within its walk zone and some Lyon Village planning units that currently are zoned for Taylor

Anonymous wrote:RG will meet with you and say one thing then show up a the SB meeting and say the opposite. He is no gem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do we get rid of 60-80% FRL neighborhood schools? I think most folks would love to do this if you know how. Bussing children all over the county is not an option, however.

And that's the problem. Folks are all for solving the problem - without using any solutions to solve the problem.
We ALREADY bus children all over the County for option programs - and probably more inefficiently than busing them for neighborhood schools would be because of the ridiculous bus pick-ups for very small #s of children from some areas opting into programs.

So, you eliminate high FRL schools in various ways:
1) you can do it in one fell swoop by changing to an all-choice system (Cambridge model); or
2) with various other tools - note the plurality there, toolSSS - including busing children who are being bused to their neighborhood school now to a different assigned neighborhood school; eliminating geographical preferences for options schools was one piece the Board actually implemented; locate option schools in/near areas of concentrated low-income families so that they are more easily accessible and families more likely to apply; stop fighting weirdly-shaped boundaries and drop the idiotic "contiguity" principle; and push the County to stop adding CAF's in areas of schools that already have a high FRL% and push them TO build CAFs in areas with schools with low FRL%s.

To whoever wrote this comment, will you please run for School Board on this platform? You will have to primary Reid but he is beatable. Many of us will back you. This is the thinking APS needs.

Reid is the last board member who should be challenged if there is any interest at all in addressing high FRL schools. He has been ineffective because he has NOT A SINGLE ALLY on this issue. He needs colleagues who share his thinking, or who are at least not opposed to compromise and trying some bold ideas.

Maura McMahon already ran with this platform; but the ACDC establishment supported an ACDC player and choice program advocates inaccurately painted McMahon as anti-choice. When it comes to equity and diversity, Arlington is simply all talk (because that's easy and makes you look like a good person) and no action (because people who have the best of everything are not really willing to risk even the slightest change in their blessings and perception of being at the top.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I agree. Either you can bear the inconvenience of an long drive to school events or to extended day as the price you play for the choice program that you value, or you can put your kid in his or her neighborhood school. You are not entitled to have a countywide choice program located near your home. Get over yourself.

Just like nobody is entitled to have a neighborhood school near their home. Don't people understand that there are always going to be students who need to take a bus or drive - with the rare near-exception of Randolph? Doesn't anyone get that everyone can't have the school of their choice within walking distance? That it's not possible to have all the option schools in the backyards of everyone attending and that kids are going to need to take a car or bus to a neighborhood school?

Anonymous wrote:I get that there are more ideal locations to house the immersion program, but I don’t buy this narrative that Key is a horrible location. It’s not perfect, but it’s far better than many alternatives. My bet, based upon how difficult moving immersion out of Key is likely to be (finding another school that can absorb the change is a lot easier said than done; there was a much earlier thread explaining the complications associated with moving to Carlin Springs or ATS), and the likely expense of drastically shaking things up, they will defer any relocation until the following boundary process. It sounds like a long time to wait, but the immersion program has been in the Key building for several decades and the world won’t come to an end of it stays there a little longer while APS figures out s clearer long-term vision for its immersion program. That’s just my two cents. Should be interesting to revisit these threads when all is said and done.

Anonymous wrote:Yes. I agree. Either you can bear the inconvenience of an long drive to school events or to extended day as the price you play for the choice program that you value, or you can put your kid in his or her neighborhood school. You are not entitled to have a countywide choice program located near your home. Get over yourself.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do we get rid of 60-80% FRL neighborhood schools? I think most folks would love to do this if you know how. Bussing children all over the county is not an option, however.

And that's the problem. Folks are all for solving the problem - without using any solutions to solve the problem.
We ALREADY bus children all over the County for option programs - and probably more inefficiently than busing them for neighborhood schools would be because of the ridiculous bus pick-ups for very small #s of children from some areas opting into programs.

So, you eliminate high FRL schools in various ways:
1) you can do it in one fell swoop by changing to an all-choice system (Cambridge model); or
2) with various other tools - note the plurality there, toolSSS - including busing children who are being bused to their neighborhood school now to a different assigned neighborhood school; eliminating geographical preferences for options schools was one piece the Board actually implemented; locate option schools in/near areas of concentrated low-income families so that they are more easily accessible and families more likely to apply; stop fighting weirdly-shaped boundaries and drop the idiotic "contiguity" principle; and push the County to stop adding CAF's in areas of schools that already have a high FRL% and push them TO build CAFs in areas with schools with low FRL%s.

To whoever wrote this comment, will you please run for School Board on this platform? You will have to primary Reid but he is beatable. Many of us will back you. This is the thinking APS needs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So now there will only be immersion in the western part of Arlington? If we commute into DC from courthouse I will have to go past Carlin Springs or at least George Mason to get to school events?

Wouldn't you, more accurately, have to drive out another 5 - 7 minutes rather than go past?
C'mon, people. It's just events - they don't happen daily. If you're driving your kid every day, then maybe you should consider using the school bus even if it is a longer ride than you'd like; or explore other scheduling options; or forget immersion for your child if it just isn't convenient enough for you.

Car free diet...the western part of Arlington isn't as easy to get to especially for those of us who live near Rosslyn.