The Alexandria City Public Schools School Board has narrowed its redistricting options, eliminating the Circle Plan while advancing the Triangle 2 and Triangle 3 maps for elementary schools. The decision came during a six-hour Regular School Board meeting on May 29, setting the stage for a final vote on June 12.
For middle schools, the board will consider three options: Option B (minor changes), Option C (Quaker Lane), and Option E (a combination that includes specific grade 6-8 boundary lines for K-8 schools).
The redistricting process aims to address several guiding principles adopted by the board in December 2024, including equitable school utilization, maintaining neighborhood schools, demographic alignment, capacity focus, and minimizing bus dependency.
“Triangle Plan 2 provides more demographic balance between Charles Barrett and George Mason and attempts to right size for the swing space,” according to the presentation materials shared at the meeting.
Triangle Plan 3 “attempts to provide more demographic balance and increase utilization of the George Mason expansion,” the materials note.
The Circle Plan, which was eliminated from consideration, had been designed to address “a combination of minimizing transportation impact and utilization imbalances where possible.”
Transportation analysis shows the Triangle 3 Plan would result in 4,300 students eligible for transportation, slightly more than the current 4,290. The Triangle 2 Plan would have 4,243 transportation-eligible students, while the eliminated Circle Plan would have reduced the number to 3,992.
Policy revisions effective July 2025 include adding projected building utilization to criteria for programmatic transfers, aligning K-8 programmatic transfers between programs, clarifying that the sibling rule applies only to elementary schools, and requiring central office authorization for all transfers.
For the 2026 implementation, the board is considering a new regulation (JCE-R2) to govern redistricting implementation, including provisions for deferrals.
School Board Vice Chair Kelly Carmichael Booz noted on social media that the board “discussed the impact on programmatic transfers in regards to siblings in the dual language program. Siblings have priority on space for kindergarten. The kindergarten class size will not be reduced to compensate for over utilization.”
Booz also mentioned that the board requested “a breakdown on school impact to allow a deferral for any new George Mason student during the swing space year beyond our agreement to allow rising DMAC 4th graders in 2026 the ability to defer during the swing space year.”
I’ll work on another blog update soon. In the meantime, for those who could not watch the full board meeting on redistricting recommendations, here’s where we landed: Triangle 2 and 3 maps are still on the table. Circle was eliminated. 🧵 ⬇️ go.boarddocs.com/va/acps/Boar…
— Kelly Carmichael Booz (@kellycbooz.bsky.social) May 30, 2025 at 1:07 AM
The middle school options still under consideration present different approaches to balancing enrollment. Option B would increase utilization imbalances between George Washington Middle School and Francis C. Hammond Middle School compared to current boundaries, though less severely than Option A.
Option C would move the boundary to Quaker Lane for GWMS and FCHMS to better balance utilization and would reduce transportation eligibility by 328 students by moving students within walking distance of FCHMS from GWMS to FCHMS.
Option E builds on Option D and expands the Jefferson Houston attendance area by creating an independent attendance area for grades 6-8.
The next steps in the process include:
– A public hearing on June 5
– A steering committee meeting on June 11
– The School Board votes on June 12
Following the June 12 vote, certain policies will take effect in July 2025. Families will be notified of adjusted boundaries between July 2025 and August 2026, with full implementation of boundaries and all policies scheduled for August 2026.
School Board Member Ryan Reyna characterized the May 29 meeting as a “6-hour meeting” and noted there are “lots of policies to go along to smooth implementation.”
For those that missed our 6-hour meeting last night, we ended up moving forward two ES maps: Triangle 2 and Triangle 3. We also moved forward three MS maps: Option B (keep 24-25 feeder pattern lines), Option C (split at Quaker), Option E (option B plus MS lines for the K-8s to balance utilization)
— Ryan Reyna (@ryanreyna.bsky.social) May 30, 2025 at 7:24 AM
ALXnow is still rereviewing the entire meeting and will have further coverage on redistricting and the entire meeting in the near future.
