Despite mixed community reaction, the Alexandria School Board voted to convert Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 IB School into a middle school and Patrick Henry K-8 School into an elementary school.
Alexandria’s two middle schools are both well over 100% capacity, and as budgeted, the conversion of Jefferson-Houston won’t start for a few years. That means that the strain at George Washington Middle School and Francis C. Hammond Middle School won’t be eased unless the Board takes an immediate action.
“This still leaves us with an issue about how we deal with high capacity at GW and Hammond in the next two or three years,” School Board Member Tim Beatty said. “It’s going to be a challenge that we’re going to have to take on as well and address in a very specific way.”
Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt included the conversions in her 10-year Capital Improvement Program budget, which the Board also approved Thursday night.
Kay-Wyatt said that the conversions are the first step in the school system’s redistricting efforts that will kick off next month.
“This is a tough decision,” Kay-Wyatt said. “We need this decision, and it will impact everything from elementary to middle school and beyond as we enter into this decision, rolling immediately into redistricting in January. It’s all tied together. So, this decision is needed for districting and is needed for how we plan for enrollment across K-8.”
The CIP budget includes $2.7 million for design, project management and other soft costs for the Jefferson-Houston conversion into a middle school in fiscal year 2030, as well as $27.5 million for construction in FY 2031. It also lists $858,000 in FY 2031 for design, project management and other costs for Patrick Henry’s conversion to an elementary school, as well as $8.6 million for construction in FY 2032.
Outgoing Board Members Abdel Elnoubi and Jacinta Greene voted in opposition to the CIP and are both starting new terms on City Council next month.
Greene and Elnoubi voted no because of minimal public engagement between the school system and public on the ramifications of the conversions.
Greene said that members of the public were unaware that the Board was going to vote on the issue.
“If we fail to communicate to a community in the in the most effective way possible, I have an issue with it,” Greene said.
Plans for Jefferson-Houston and Patrick Henry are based on a recent ACPS kindergarten-8 (K-8) analysis, which anticipates capacity at both schools exceeding 110% without the conversions.
Jefferson-Houston parent Salomea Fredericks told the Board that the proposal was rushed.
“We’ve been asked to fill out surveys and told our voices matter,” Fredericks said. “Yet we learned a vote was scheduled with no communication to families or the community at large. It feels like this was hidden to avoid scrutiny.”
ACPS Chief Academic Officer Pierrette Finney told the Board that no community conversations have been had on this specific proposal, but that she would be happy to go back out and conduct them.
Parent Sujata Mitra said the plan eliminates elementary education from a neighborhood that desperately needs it.
“It uproots young children, many from low income and immigrant families, and busses them to schools outside their walkable neighborhoods,” Mitra said. “This feels like another messy decision without a clear path to success.”
