Remaining Trailers at Wilson

Paul Mulligan and Mark Antell met with Sally Baird (Arlington County Public Schools - Board Member) on Monday June 4, during school board open-meeting hours.

We told Sally that a couple of trailers are sitting in the middle of the field pretty much blocking any use of the field. I (Mark) told her that I had lost faith in APS staff who promised last year that the trailers would all be removed by February. Sally was familiar with the issue and was surprised and a bit disappointed that the trailers were still there. “This shouldn’t keep coming up to the board. We’ve got huge policy issues upcoming.”

She said she’d get back as soon as she had additional word.

Also last week (Tuesday June 5), Arlington Public Schools (APS) staff presented some materials on school bond plans at the Arlington County Civic Federation meeting. Clarence Stukes, head of facilities for APS, was present and pulled me aside briefly asking for “just one more month to move the trailers off the field.” I told him that I was not giving anyone a free pass on this. I’d heard a ‘one month’ promise back in January.

Finally, today, June 11, I met with Abby Raphael (Arlington County Public Schools - Board Member) during open-meeting hours. Abby also was surprised and disappointed that the trailers were still there. I took the opportunity to ask her about APS long-range plans for Wilson. The only thing settled by the board is that they will not use it for an elementary school because ‘Wilson is too small.’ That’s not what I wanted to hear, not from a school system that has huge capacity problems, but that is the current thinking of the APS board.