Arlington School Board held an important 2015-2024 Capital Improvement Program Work Session last night. According to presentations by Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Management Services Deirdre McLaughlin and Assistant Superintendent for Facilities and operations John Chadwick, the Arlington Public School System will be hard pressed to both borrow enough through issuing bonds and find enough sites to build all the new classrooms and other infrastructure the school system will need by FY 2022.
APS will not have enough borrowing capability to build the classrooms and other infrastructure needed by FY 22 when new classrooms are actually needed. The school system will need to borrow at least $450 million by FY 2022 for new and replacement infrastructure.
Regarding capacity, the school system plans significantly expand Abingdon Elementary School and build a new elementary school on County-owned land somewhere in South Arlington. (The school system is apparently not aware that a major infill redevelopment will occur at Park Shirlington, which is adjacent to Abingdon School, at the same time Abingdon School is expanded).
APS is considering repurposing existing school sites for a new middle school (HB Woodlawn and Arlington Traditional School are being considered).
APS thinks it can jam 2000 or more students into Wakefield, Yorktown, and Washington-Lee by repurposing interior space, and building an addition at W-L.
APS considered leasing commercial building space but found that option would be too expensive. The school system has apparently not considered buying and renovating an existing commercial building to be used as a school.
Details are going to be on the Arlington Public Schools Web site in the near future.
2100 too
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Information from this meeting will be posted on arlington.k12.va.us by 4 PM on April 11th, according to APS.
Can you spell s-t-o-v-e-p-i-p-e-s? APS's Facilities and Operations which is responsible for school planning and construction apparently didn't know anything about the massive Park Shirlington redevelopment, adjacent to Abingdon School, which is going to site plan review. DUH
So APS won't have the bonding capacity to pay for the new school buildings and additions when the new classrooms are needed? So APS will have to build a new school on County-owned land somewhere in South Arlington?
Has anyone from APS told the County Board?
School Board promised Abingdon School parents a big modern school that would also serve to relieve overcrowding in South Arlington.
Stovepipes? APS apparently doesn't know that the Latinos and other minorities who send lots of kids to Abingdon School are scheduled to be gentrified out when Park Shirlington is redeveloped.
So, which South Arlington neighborhood gets the new elementary school?
Wakefield, Yorktown, and W-L each with more than 2,000 students? Can you spell C-O-L-U-M-B-I-N-E ?
Upper limit for number of HS students per HS will be 2,200.
Let me see if I have this correct....the Democratic Party has been running the County Board, School Board, everything else, for the past 15 years? And the VIP Democrats don't talk to each other about anything, let alone really important stuff like planning.
But the County Board met with the School Board on April 8th in a joint budget work session.
Last night's powerpoint presentation has been posted to APS's Web Site
Search for:
Arlington School Board CIP Work Session April 10, 2014
If you go to Powerpoint slide 59 you will see that that APS will have a deficit in bond borrowing capability of minus $25 million in FY 2017-18, minus $80 million in FY 2018-19, minus $84.3 million in FY 2019-20, minus $72.4 million in FY 2020-21, and minus $35.2 million in FY 2021-22.
So how much more $$$$ is APS going to have to ask from the County Board?
Maybe $50 million?
Last middle class resident to move from Arlington to Fredericksburg...turn out the lights.
Hey tax-borrow-spend local pols and the the local media that back them - corporations and middle class are outta NoVa and moving to Central VA.
Looks like the School Bord will hit up the County Board for at least $30 million extra.
Here we go again...Just like williamsburg....Abingdon School parents are lobbying for a brand new extravagantly furnished school and Fairlington residents who oppose that are the 'bad guys'.
Oh, hundreds of students are bussed to Abingdon School from Columbia Pike every school day. So much for 'neighborhood schools'.
Fairlington residents who live in the neighborhood close to Abingdon School are already overwhelmed by AM and PM rush hour traffic, the Millennials delvering their Gen Z kids to Abingdon School.
Yeah, and they speed through the neighborhood and ignore stop signs.
There's at least one K Street Fortune 500 corporate lobbyist who's an Abingdon School parent involved in lobbying for making Abingdon Elementary a Taj Mahal school.
The school buses delivering kids to Abingdon from the Pike also speed through the neighborhood and run stop signs.
Abingdon School? Isn't that where Sun Gazette Editor Scott McCaffrey gave the Democratic Party's poll workers the finger last Tuesday?
If APS's Facilities and Operations staff weren't completely clueless it would know that the County Board (including Walter Tejada) have approved the gentrification of almost ALL the Latinos, and other minorities, who send hundreds of kids to Abingdon School, out of redeveloped Park Shirlington.
Madison precinct residents... watch out for ACDC / County Board / School Board politrickster antics ...they want your community center for their new Taj Mahal Middle School.
One hundred million to build a new middle school? Any you thought their aquatic center was extravagant?
In addition to the middle school a new $50 million elementary school will be constructed in South Arlington, which the taxpayers will pay for via a supplemental from County Government to APS.
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