Alexandria’s Planning Commission threw its voice behind criticisms that Alexandria City Public Schools dropped the ball on the recent K-8 and PreK-8 school conversions controversy.
The Planning Commission voted unanimously last week in support of a letter concerning the George Mason Elementary School Modernization project and the Pre-K-8 School Capacity Planning Project, both of which faced scrutiny for lapses in public engagement.
In December, after a public engagement period that emphasized that no decisions were being made, Alexandria’s School Board ordered the conversion of Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School and Patrick Henry K-8 schools to a middle school and elementary school respectively.
The decision outraged community members, particularly at Jefferson-Houston, who expressed shock at the decision and said it appeared as though it was decided behind closed doors. The decision is currently the subject of a recent legal filing.
“It became apparent… that there were weaknesses in the quality of the engagement and the techniques used that seemed to be potentially jeopardizing the potentially optimal outcome,” said Planning Commissioner Melissa McMahon.
Commissioner David Brown said the Planning Commission shouldn’t be “so polite” and be more forceful in its condemnation of the project engagements’ failure to follow city policy, but others noted the Planning Commission was already on thin ice by targeting school leadership.
The Planning Commission addressed its criticisms of the project as a note to Mayor Alyia Gaskins and City Council, but given that the real target is Alexandria City Public Schools leadership, Commissioners also admitted this was straining the limits of what the Planning Commission is supposed to cover.
Some noted that the Planning Commission should keep its focus on criticism around the use of the school building, which the Planning Commission does cover, rather than diving into academic programming discussions at the crux of some of the school conversion debate.
“What we’re trying to be mindful of is: we’re an advisory group to the City Council,” Chair Nathan Macek said. “We’re talking to City Council and hoping ACPS is listening when we say this, because it’s outside of our lane to direct this to them.”
The letter was unanimously approved and McMahon added a note of optimism that she hopes the new school board can take lessons away from this process.
“We will continue to see these processes unfold,” McMahon said. “[This is a] good faith attempt to communicate that there may be improvements possible here. We can also see if there are good faith efforts to address them.”
Photo via Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School/Facebook
