Comments on: Superintendent to Present Boundary Change Recommendation

By: emanon

emanon — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 02:11:00 +0000

re: claremont. My daughter is in 2nd grade there, and for Kindergarten was 29 on the waitlist (she got in a week after school started). they have 6 kindergartens there this year and are planning for 6 again next year. Any under-enrollment is certainly dissolving as I write. And Claremont is not in Fairlington. Not that it’s terribly convenient to North Arlington where it is, but it IS closer than Fairlington. That said, I’d welcome the move! Would make it a whole lot closer! Alas, not in the cards.

By: Novanglus

Novanglus — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 16:27:00 +0000

Moving ASFS south doesn’t solve anything — all those kids already live in over-capacity school zones.

But they could create a second ATS at the Claremont building, moving the immersion program to the new school next to Carlin Springs. Because of the east-west immersion school split, Claremont is under capacity and Key is over capacity — parents in NW Arlington don’t want to send their kids all the way to Fairlington. But if the “west” immersion school were in a more central location, it would attract more kids from the crowded schools.

By: sandy

sandy — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:08:00 +0000

Oh, the rent I’m paying to be in ASFS school zone… I would love for it to be moved to the south.. LOL But you’re right, it’s absolutely not going to happen. Too many of the communities “esteemed” have children there… including a school board member and the US secretary of education.

By: New School Parent

New School Parent — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 14:00:00 +0000

Reality check? At the mid-point of the process, there were several comments that the process should be shelved until choice schools could be reexamined. The schedule is already tight, so that would have derailed a 2015 opening, pushing Nottingham and Tuckahoe to 1 in 3 kids in trailers. I call that trying to hold it hostage. And who are these “several hundred more students” that were going to be bussed? The PU changes for potential walkers amounts to fewer than 150 kids, but some of those are already on a bus and/or are adjacent to another PU that is on a bus, minimizing effect and cost.

In the end, I think recommended solution was primarily concerned with easing overcrowding – even above proximity. For the final solution, I think the Board and Super did a good job of trying to accommodate parents who indicated they’d rather face a bit more crowding pressure than change schools. In my mind, the process worked, even if it wasn’t pleasant to go through.

By: willy

willy — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 13:30:00 +0000

This looks like its as good as its going to get. We have to make decisions and move forward. I was involved with this issue during 2004-2005. We at the community level and at the school board level punted then and it has only gotten worse.

By: Frenchie

Frenchie — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 02:56:00 +0000

I still think that the only reasonable address of the middle school challenge is to convert H-B back to Stratford and build a brand new non-traditional facility for H-B. Since H-B, as a true alternative program, doesn’t have athletic teams, it doesn’t need all that land. It will never happen, but I think that’s a grave mistake.

By: Good job APS!

Good job APS! — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 01:09:00 +0000

Nah, I can’t stand the guy. Far too smarmy for me. But for once he got it right.

By: Reality check

Reality check — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 01:08:00 +0000

Whose ideas were ignored? Why would he let his staff come up with several other plans that made even less sense if he was rigging the process. This is the best solution withing the parameters. Should choice schools be put on the table? Sure. Would the process have been better if Taylor’s goofily shaped district were fixed? Sure. But if you are trying to have tight proximity, which 46% of parents who responded to the survey wanted, this is by far the best solution given the parameters they operated under.

By: Reality check

Reality check — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 01:04:00 +0000

How were the walker parents holding anything hostage? Do you think it’s worth an extra few hundred thousand to bus several hundred more students, when there are other solutions that don’t add those buses? Maybe they can spend that extra money to make New School even nicer instead, rather than wasting putting more buses on the road in N. Arlington for no reason.

By: ??

?? — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 01:02:00 +0000

What changes would you make that would make Option B more reasonable. This is actually one that I submitted almost to the T because it fit all the parameters most closely.