Save Wilson School coalition meets Ed Fendley and Sally Baird (record of informal meeting on 1/10/08)

Ed Fendley, current chair of the APS Board, wants to task APS Staff to develop a long-term plan to improve Wilson School. He asked to meet, informally, with leaders of the Save Wilson School coalition to explain the process, to assure that he understand our positions, and to assure that we make ourselves heard by the decision makers.

Key players in the coalition were invited including representatives from NRCA, RAFOM, Colonial Village HOA 3, the Mongolian School, the Arlington Artists Alliance, the Arlington Citizens for the Arts, the Artists coalition for Wilson School, the Arlington Civic Federation - Parks Committee, and the Arlington County Historical Society. For his part, Ed brought along fellow School Board member Sally Baird.

Nothing dramatically new came up. I think that all the coalition members agree that the Wilson site should be retained for educational use. I think that all of us would be fairly well satisfied if, over the medium term, the building had some education use by day, plus a very liberal policy toward neighborhood and community service in the evenings. Additionally we all agree that the trailers should go ASAP. Excitingly, Ed Fendley is of similar mind on the trailers.

There's talk about long term projects for the Wilson School site – including some kind of major rebuild/modernization. APS likely will look into building some additional or improved space at Wilson by building up, and paying for that construction with revenue producing commercial usage. Commentary: APS has less than zero funds for a big new capital project anytime in the next decade. I suspect that any self-paying major redevelopment would require so much commercial space that it would deeply harm the education, recreation and historic preservation value of the Wilson site. The Save Wilson School coalition will at a minimum insist that the site continue to be available for an urban school.

Next Steps: It's important that the Save Wilson School coalition make our beliefs and desires clear to the APS board in time for their deliberations. The key times for speaking out are:
- 1/17/08 (Thursday evening) - Project to "Improve the Wilson School Site" is introduced for discussion to the APS board. The agenda is very full that evening and Wilson School is near the bottom. I'd be shocked if Wilson School came up before 9:00 PM and pleasantly surprised if discussion started by 9:30 PM. Despite the time uncertainty, this meeting is probably the best venue for public input.
- 1/30/08 - APS Board votes on direction to staff for improving the Wilson School site. Public comment will also be allowed at this meeting.
- Emails expressing personal and community positions on Wilson may be sent to the APS Board Secretary (MVoultsi@arlington.k12.va.us) throughout the period 1/17-1/30. This could be a good time to re-transmit resolutions on Wilson from Home Owner, Condo and Civic Associations. Kindly copy me on such communications. Thanks.
Mark (Mantell@northrosslyn.org)

The School Board is scheduled to discuss "Wilson Site Improvements" tomorrow, Thursday evening.

I wish I could say with any certainty when that discussion will occur. I plan to arrive around 9PM. I think that our topic will come up around 9:30. Please attend, or failing that, send a note to the board about your feelings. Here's the points (nothing dramatically new) I will make for the Coalition to Save Wilson School:

School enrollment is increasing throughout Arlington. The need for educational sites and spaces is increasing. The neighborhoods surrounding the Wilson School are increasingly urban and dense, and the schools in the area are full. The Wilson site is needed for educational and community needs today; and it will be increasingly needed in the future

It would be ill-advised to give up the Wilson site to address short-term APS financial shortfalls. The benefits (funds) from developing the Wilson site would not come close to meeting broad community education needs. But the damage from losing the site would be vast and unrecoverable.

The Wilson School site should be retained for educational and community uses today, and for future use as an urban school.

Specifically we recommend:

- The Wilson School building should be retained and refurbished;

- The Wilson School building should be utilized for continuing APS school purposes during week days, perhaps as a Montessori site;

- The Wilson School building should be made available during evenings and on weekends for community uses: including arts-related uses, continuing use by the Mongolian school, recreation uses in the gym, community meeting spaces, etc.

- The current empty trailers should be promptly removed from the playing field. The remaining trailers, now used for APS related daycare, should be removed when the permanent location for that program is renovated. The combined area should be restored to its prior use as playing fields - available for school uses by day, and community use on evenings and weekends;

- We support a County contribution toward refurbishing the existing building and playing fields in recognition of the availability of the facilities for community uses. Similarly we'd support some offset of maintenance and operating costs by county contributions and user fees.