Teachers and other Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) community members spoke at a School Board meeting last week to express anger and disappointment at restructuring inside school leadership.
Much of the criticism focused on the budget cuts (page 352) to the Teaching, Learning and Leadership team, which saw a net loss of four English Learner (EL) Services positions.
The budget eliminates multiple registrar positions, which community members said are especially vital with an influx of parents who may have a language barrier.
Kathy Keenoy, a retired ACPS teacher, said in 2021 the school saw an increase in students from Afghanistan, many of whom had parents who did not speak English.
“Miraculously, ACPS was able to find an Afghan-American who had lived in Afghanistan and speaks fluent Dari and English,” Keenoy said.
Keenoy said the person was hired full-time as a registrar, now their position is cut from the budget.
“Honestly, I don’t know how ACPS will be able to register the volume of students from Afghanistan without her position,” Keenoy said. “She was doing more school registrations than any other EL registrars.”
Keenoy said EL registrations also requires an additional survey of the student’s year-by-year schooling history, something that will be even more difficult without bilingual registrars.
“The EL office is immigrant parents’ first encounter with our schools,” Keenoy said.
Meena Baluch, a school liaison with Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, said bilingual registrars played a vital role in helping with refugee resettlement.
“School registrars’ contribution has been particularly invaluable,” Baluch said. “Language plays an important role in effective communication and understanding. Having someone fluent in Dari and Pashtu bridges language gaps… [but] not only are they a translator, but they can bring a depth of cultural [understanding] and connect with Afghan families on a deeper level.”
Others shared frustration with the changes in leadership as a result of the high school restructuring.
“Our staff has lost confidence in leadership style that leaves out those who are charged with carrying out the district mission of providing an equitable, high quality education for all students,” said Allison Paytas, an Earth Science teacher at the Alexandria City High School King Street campus. “Teachers were assured their input was vital to the high school project, so we participated in the focus groups , volunteered for working groups, developed plans — only to have suggestions and solutions repeatedly discarded by administration.”
Paytas warned that the change will result in significant loss of institutional knowledge and trust.
“When the decision to reorganize the administration and make all 16 current assistant principals and deans reapply was announced to staff, we voiced concerns about losing quality administrators who know our students, our community, and unique challenges that come with being the largest high school in Virginia,” Paytas said. “Once again, we were assured that this was being done with students in mind. We have now seen the results and I struggle to find how the decisions made are in the best interests of our students.”
Paytas said fully qualified, nationally-recognized staff members were pushed out of their positions as a result of the restructuring.
“I question how it’s in the best interest of students to not hire back the people who know our students by name, who consistently show up for our school community, and who work long hours, day after day, to help our students succeed,” Paytas said.
