Michael O’Brien, a parent who currently has two children attending Jefferson-Houston, initiated a legal challenge to the Alexandria School Board’s decision to convert the K-8 school into a middle school.
The School Board voted to convert Jefferson-Houston into a middle school in December. In the same meeting, the Board voted to turn Patrick Henry, also an K-8 school, into an elementary school.
The conversions are part of an effort by the School Board to alleviate overcrowding in schools, but community members railed against the decision as capricious and undemocratic.
The legal complaint filed on Jan. 21 said the possibility of converting Jefferson-Houston away from an elementary school was never discussed with the community during community meetings in 2024.
The motion that went to the board the night of the vote, O’Brien noted, read that the School Board would direct the Superintendent to prepare a plan to phase out the K-8 model and convert Jefferson-Houston in to a middle school, but the text of the motion had not been circulated to the public before the meeting.
“The meeting was also not an officially designated public hearing, but simply a routine school board meeting, despite the motion being one that concerned the consolidation of schools,” O’Brien wrote.
The motion was amended during the meeting to more directly state that the Superintendent will phase out the K-8 model and convert Jefferson-Houston to a middle school.
The complaint alleges that the School Board did not provide reasonable notice to the public in a newspaper of general circulation in the school division at least seven days prior to the meeting.
“The only reason I went and spoke out against the concept behind the decision that was made by the Board was because another concerned parent asked me to attend and speak out,” O’Brien wrote. “There was nothing official stating that this vote would take place, but she had watched a school board budget work session and grew concerned.”
Alexandria City Public Schools did not respond to a request for comment.
The complaint concludes:
“Based on the preceding procedural issues, the Board decision ‘to phase out the K-8 model and to convert Jefferson-Houston into a middle school and Patrick Henry into an elementary school’ should be void as the Board exceeded its authority, acted arbitrarily or capriciously, and abused its discretion in taking said action.”
Photo via Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School/Facebook
