Paul Weiss

Arlington Students and Parents Need a Teacher’s Perspective on their School Board

Listen to teachers: Teachers work with our students every day. Too many times, APS makes decisions that show an alarming disconnect from the day-to-day realities of the classroom, thus damaging each teacher’s ability to best serve our students.

Decentralize APS Central Office

• Reduce centralized office space. The School Board voted this year to give central office staff more space while teachers share rooms and class sizes rise.
• APS should cut centralized offices and embed staff in schools. Let staff work amidst teachers and support staff — and fill in for building staff when needed.

Compensation and Recruitment

• Stop APS Central Office doublespeak: A step is not a raise. A bonus is not a COLA.
• Keep working to close the COLA gap created by the board these last 10 years.
• Bonuses should not be percentages, but fixed amounts so that the staff who need the money most get an equitable share.
• Recruit teachers of color.
• Provide extra pay to Special Education teachers.

Too Much Testing

• Students are more than a number. The current testing-dominant climate is detrimental to our students, especially our students of color.
• Our English Language Learners bear an extraordinary brunt of this testing-dominant climate.
• APS Central Office leadership recently proposed to subject our 11th grade students to a fourth English SOL (state optional) this spring. Only teacher pushback deterred this action.
• We must return to valuing the practical and more relevant life applications of lessons learned in our classrooms, and stop overemphasizing standardized testing.

Reduce Class Size

• If student success is our #1 priority, the absolute most effective way to get the most out of our budget is to reduce class size.
• Smaller class size is a key component of minority achievement
• Budget-neutral, real-time fixes:
  • Move all teachers out of central office and back to the classroom
  • Staff schools based on student needs, not one size fits all enrollment quotas
  • Relieve teaching assistant shortages with qualified central office staff
• Plan for smaller classes
  • I support many of the ideas in Deborah Waldron’s 200:1 Plan as a model for our future.

Pop the Bloat

• Direct more resources toward the classroom.
• Since 2019, APS Central Office has grown by 64 positions (47%).
• Enrollment has increased by 14% — meaning central office staffing has grown 3.5 times more than enrollment.
• Almost half of new staff -– 29 positions -– are in top tier leadership positions.
  • Imagine if we had used those 29+ positions in the classroom.