PRESS RELEASE: Arlington Test Scores Continue Downward Trend

I’m Audrey Clement, the Independent candidate for Arlington School Board, and I’m concerned that Arlington Public Schools (APS) is misleading you about the performance of students enrolled in its schools.

In a recent press release the Superintendent boasted about the fact that all Arlington schools remain accredited, and pass rates exceed the state average in most categories.

Yet the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) Report Card–measuring Standards Of Learning (SOL) test results–indicates that Arlington high schools are on a downward trend. Since 2014 Washington-Lee (W-L) pass rates have declined in all five categories tested, and Yorktown and Wakefield have declined in four.

W-L Mathematics pass rates declined 7 percentage points between 2014 and 2018 from 88 to 81. Wakefield English Reading declined 9 percentage points from 86 to 77.

High school pass rates are a key barometer of school district performance, because they are highly correlated with college admission rates. They are also correlated with real estate values, a fact that APS has publicized to justify its annual budget requests to the County.

It’s no accident that my opponent Barbara Kanninen has been on the School Board since 2015 when high school performance began to decline. It’s not just that Barbara is giving herself a a pass when she should get a fail.

It’s that APS spends inordinate amounts to get the same academic results as other jurisdictions in Northern Virginia. In fact the 2018 Washington Board of Education (WABE) Guide indicates that Arlington spends $4,500 more per pupil than Fairfax County. Arlington also spends 2.5 times the per pupil state average for new classroom capacity.

If you’re worried about the quality of Arlington schools and looking for better leadership, then look no further. I’m a 14-year Westover resident and civic activist–with a Ph.D. in Political Science and service as a Congressional Fellow. I also serve on the Arlington Transportation Commission.

If elected, I pledge to:

  • Preserve the name: Washington-Lee High School.
  • Reverse declining high school test scores.
  • Close the minority student achievement gap.
  • Rein in profligate School Board spending.
  • Listen to the concerns of all taxpayers.
  • Build schools not trailers on time and on budget.
  • Mainstream special needs students.
  • End "teaching to the test".
  • Install efficient renewable energy in all public schools.
  • Promote school safety with a focus on violence prevention.

If you share my agenda, then:

  • Spread the word about my candidacy.
  • Volunteer to help.
  • Donate to my campaign.

If you’re interested in helping out, just shoot me an email or call or text. If you want to find out more about my campaign, visit my website.

Together we can make Arlington Public Schools provide all students with an honest education.

PRESS RELEASE: Arlington Student Pass Rates Slipping

I’m Audrey Clement, the Independent candidate for Arlington School Board, and I’m concerned about the fact Arlington high school student performance is slipping.

My opponent Barbara Kanninen is no doubt as complacent as I am concerned, because a recent Niche report rated Arlington schools tops in the state of Virginia.

Yet the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) 2016-17 Report Card on Arlington Public Schools (APS) indicates that pass rates for Arlington Community High were behind the state average in all categories tested, and pass rates for Wakefield High School and W-L were behind in History & Social Sciences.

Furthermore, pass rates for Wakefield and W-L declined in four categories since 2014, when my opponent Barbara Kanninen was elected, and Yorktown pass rates declined in three categories.

So how do declining pass rates square with Niche’s glowing evaluation of APS? Niche also gave Arlington Public Schools an “A” for diversity. Yet the Superintendent’s own published Performance Highlights indicate that pass rates for Black students are about 20 percent below White pass rates for most subjects at all levels. So clearly Niche’s ratings are suspect.

If you want to know more about this important issue, come to my booth (C-19) at the Arlington County Fair, Thomas Jefferson Community Center located at 3501 S. 2nd Street, Arlington Virginia 22204, from Friday through Sunday, August 17-19.

I will be happy to provide you with more details on Arlington student achievement and explain how I can improve educational attainment if elected to the School Board.

I’m a 14-year Westover resident and civic activist–with a Ph.D. in Political Science and service as a Congressional Fellow. I also serve on the Arlington Transportation Commission.

If elected, I pledge to:

  • Preserve the name: Washington-Lee High School.
  • Reverse declining high school test scores.
  • Close the minority student achievement gap.
  • Rein in profligate School Board spending.
  • Listen to the concerns of all taxpayers.
  • Build schools not trailers on time and on budget.
  • Mainstream special needs students.
  • End “teaching to the test”.
  • Install efficient renewable energy in all public schools.
  • Promote school safety with a focus on violence prevention.

If you share my agenda, then:

  • Spread the word about my candidacy.
  • Volunteer to help.
  • Donate to my campaign.

If you’re interested in helping out, just shoot me an email or call or text. If you want to find out more about my campaign, visit my website.

Together we can make Arlington Public Schools provide all students with an honest education.

PRESS RELEASE: The Cost of a More Car Diet

I’m Audrey Clement, the Independent candidate for Arlington School Board, and I want to clarify my position on new school construction in the County.

At the July, 2018 School Board meeting I criticized the design of the $55 million Reed School, because it requires demolishing the existing $20 million school constructed in 2009. It will also force 9 and 10 year olds to march up three flights of stairs several times a day.

When ARLnow published some of my remarks, readers accused me of flip flopping, since I had advocated “Build Up Not Out to Preserve Green Space” as a School Board candidate in 2014.

True. Westover residents were told that the Reed School had to be built up rather than out to preserve green space. But inspection of the design reveals the real reason for building up–namely to expand parking space on an existing lot. While this scheme furthers APS’ commitment to a “more car diet”, it will impose a physical hardship on the students and drive up costs.

The same focus on parking governed the design of Alice Fleet Elementary School off Route 50 and Glebe Road in South Arlington. There a 4 story structure is under construction on an existing parking lot with a two story underground parking garage that has driven up the project cost to an eye popping $59 million. That’s a cost per pupil of $78,457 as compared with the new Patrick Henry Elementary in Alexandria with a cost per pupil of $48,848.

Virtually every recent school construction project in the county has resulted in expanded run off inducing surface parking and massive loss of tree canopy. According to longtime civic activist Suzanne Sundburg:

“Likewise most APS school construction projects result in mature tree loss: at least 94 at Ashlawn Elementary School, almost 80 at McKinley Elementary School, more than 160 at Stratford Middle School, etc.”

APS will tell you that additional costs and degraded surroundings are a necessary sacrifice to provide ample parking for teachers and staff. I disagree.

Parking and drop off facilities could be scaled back if:

  • more teachers took transit, and
  • more kids were bused instead of driven to school.

This would also reduce congestion around schools.

These options aren’t feasible now, because the County is not providing the incentives. If the County had a policy in place like Fairfax County to provide workforce housing to Arlington teachers, and APS changed its school bus policy to pick up kids within a half mile of the school, more people would leave their cars at home.

Other incentives include:

  • replacing school bus routes with ART service, and
  • subsidizing transit use by teachers and staff.

If you like these ideas or are concerned about the steady erosion of green space throughout the county and loss of tree canopy on school campuses–then support my run for Arlington School Board.

I’m a 14-year Westover resident and civic activist–with a Ph.D. in Political Science and service as a Congressional Fellow. I also serve on the Arlington Transportation Commission.

If elected, I pledge to:

  • Promote a school construction program that increases classroom capacity on time and on budget
  • Reduce the need for trailers with an accelerated building program that brings the cost of new classroom capacity in line with the rest of the Commonwealth
  • Cut the fat out of the School Board’s top heavy administration and use the savings to fund needed services
  • Close the achievement gap
  • Mainstream special education programs
  • Implement more efficient school transit alternatives
  • Install renewable energy in all public schools
  • Provide a voice–minus the doublespeak–on Arlington School Board for all taxpayers

If you share my agenda, then:

  • Spread the word about my candidacy
  • volunteer to help
  • Donate to my campaign

If you’re interested in helping out, just shoot me an email or call or text. If you want to find out more about my campaign, visit my website.

Together we can make Arlington Public Schools provide all students with an honest education.

Reed School: Builds Up Not Out To Provide More Parking

Comments at Arlington School Board Meeting on July 17, 2018.

While I support a new neighborhood elementary school at the Reed site, I am concerned about both the design and the cost. The four story structure outlined in the final schematic design appears to blend in well with its surroundings and preserves open space.

However it requires demolishing the existing school, which is less than ten years old. It will also force 9 and 10 year olds to march up three flights of stairs several times a day.

Westover residents were told that the school had to be built up rather than out to preserve green space. But inspection of the design reveals the real reason for building up—namely to expand parking space. (more…)

School Renaming Diverts Attention From Minority Achievement Gap

Comments at Arlington County Board Meeting on July 14, 2018.

On June 7 Arlington School Board (APS) voted unanimously to rename Washington-Lee (W-L) High School without prior public notice. The School Board’s rationale for the unscheduled vote was that as leader of the Confederate Army Robert E. Lee was a traitor to the nation.

Overlooked was:

  • the pardon Lee received posthumously from Congress in 1975;
  • the credit given to him for reconciling North and South after the war; as well as
  • the hypocrisy of honoring George Washington and other Founding Fathers, who profited from slavery, while vilifying Lee.

(more…)

PRESS RELEASE: What’s Good For Washington Is Good For Lee

I’m Audrey Clement, the Independent candidate for Arlington School Board, and I want to set the record straight about a matter that is important to all Virginia residents.

Several weeks a go my campaign issued a press release deploring the June 7, 2018 decision by the Board to strike Robert E. Lee’s name from Washington-Lee (W-L) High School.

To his credit Scott McCaffrey, editor of the Arlington Sun Gazette, accurately reported that I was angered at the hypocrisy of striking the name of Robert E. Lee, who defended slavery, but not that of George Washington, who profited by it.

From this and my acknowledgement that Lee’s position on slavery was wrong, McCaffrey erroneously concluded that I was good with striking Lee’s name from W-L High School, as long as Washington’s name were stricken also.

In fact I don’t want to strike either “Washington” or “Lee” from the name of W-L High School. I want to strike a blow at the institutional hypocrisy embodied in the School Board’s decision to rename the school. (more…)

Tree Canopy Estimate Questioned

Comments at Arlington County Board Meeting On June 16, 2018.

At the April 21, 2018 County Board meeting, civic activist Suzanne Sundburg blasted the County for misrepresenting the health of Arlington’s tree canopy. She said:

“Arlington’s claim of a 1 percent tree canopy increase between 2011 and 2017 is not statistically valid”—due to the wide 6 percent margin of error in the reported statistic.

Christian Dorsey dismissed Sundburg’s criticism of the County’s 2017 tree canopy study that reported this number. He said: “Getting into a misunderstanding about data points of a percentage point or two are not really useful for our public policy.”

Yet the District of Columbia Urban Forestry Administration (UFA) is embroiled in a controversy right now with Forest Service (USFS) researchers over a similar difference in reported statistics. (more…)

PRESS RELEASE: Hypocrisy Is No Remedy For Racism

At its June 7, 2018 monthly meeting, Arlington Public Schools (APS) revised its policy on the naming of schools, ostensibly to tighten the rules.

The actual purpose was to justify removal of Robert E. Lee’s name from Washington-Lee (W-L) High School on the grounds that as leader of the Confederate Army, Lee was a traitor to the United States.

While I agree that in defending the Confederacy Lee defended slavery, which was clearly wrong, Lee was no ordinary traitor. At the time he took up arms against the Union, the views that Lee espoused on slavery were precisely those of the Founding Fathers.

Had not George Washington, James Madison and Thomas Jefferson-all Virginia native sons and all slave holders-greased the skids of institutionalized slavery by agreeing to write it into the U.S. Constitution, Lee would not have taken up arms against his own nation. (more…)

Crystal City Traffic Impact Analysis Misreported

Comments at Arlington County Board Meeting on May 19, 2018.

Although I’m a member of the Arlington Transportation Commission, I’m speaking on my own behalf, and my opinion does not reflect that of the Commission on the matter at hand.

I like this plan because its principal feature, a 21 story residential tower, represents a practical way to reuse a vacant office building that promises to remain vacant otherwise. It will meet the demand for more housing while promising economic benefits to the developer and the County. The architectural design is aesthetically pleasing, and the developer promises to dedicate a major portion of the site to a public park.

However, my principal focus is traffic generated by the development, and I am concerned about the numbers reported and the conclusions drawn by the Traffic Impact Analysis (TIA), which is referenced in the staff report accompanying this agenda item. (more…)