I am an Arlington Resident and parent of a three year-old, and my husband and I pay a fortune for child care.
You should be aware that the Arlington Public School System provides free child care (infant through age 4) to APS employees via The Children's School, which is described by APS as follows:
"Arlington Public Schools provides, for a minimal fee, space, utilities, and custodial services to The Children's School, a day care facility for the children of school system employees. The Children's School is an employee-owned and run cooperative. It is located at Reed School, 1644 N. McKinley Road, across the road from the Westover Shopping Center".
If anything in Arlington Government should be audited it should be The Children's School. The 'minimal fee' the cooperative pays to APS is reportedly $30 per year. The board of directors of this cooperative is controlled by the Arlington Democratic Party. Several million dollars are given to The Children's School yearly, directly and indirectly, with no accountability whatsoever for how tax dollars are spent.
What's worse, admission of the children of non-residents to this and other facilities and programs of the Arlington School System is out-of-control. All non-residents have to present as proof-of-residence are old mortgage papers for the condo they are currently renting to others. And APS looks the other way when it comes to allowing non-resident employees to enroll their kids in Arlington's schools, when it isn't giving out residency exemptions to favorite non-resident employees.
This costs more than $21,000 per non-resident student per year (total school budget divided by total students).
There is no way I am going to vote for any incumbent School Board member. No way. Replace them all.
Rebecca