Alexandria City Public Schools is preparing to move hundreds of students and reassign staff as part of its redistricting process beginning in July.
The school system has been working on the transition since the Alexandria City School Board approved the plan last June. On Thursday (March 26), ACPS staff will update the board on the plan, which will shift 860 students to new schools in the coming school year.
“The ACPS Redistricting Implementation Team (RIT) has successfully completed several phases of the redistricting implementation timeline to include student notifications, data collection and analysis,” ACPS said in a staff report. “Our RIT is now poised to carry out the logistics and operations to ensure a smooth transition of our students and families to their new school site.”
ACPS said placement and deferral notifications were sent to families last November, and that 333 students chose deferral options to continue at their current school. Before the new school year, ACPS will also reassign staff, ensure specialty programs are adequately staffed, update bus routes and host transition events.
The School Board chose Triangle Plan 3, which will send elementary students from study areas 165 (near Douglas MacArthur Elementary), 95 and 162 (both near Fort Ward Park) to George Mason Elementary School (2601 Cameron Mills Road). George Mason Elementary is undergoing a renovation until 2027, and its students are currently attending school more than three miles away in a temporary swing space at 1703 N. Beauregard Street.
The board also chose middle school Option E, which redraws boundaries to support the future conversion of Old Town’s Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 IB School into a middle school, balancing overcrowding at nearby George Washington Middle School in Del Ray. It also adjusts zones for the West End’s Patrick Henry K-8 School, which will be converted into an elementary school.
Law requires ACPS to do a boundary analysis every five years or when a new school opens. This boundary change was sparked by the 2023 opening of the rebuilt Douglas MacArthur Elementary School, which increased capacity to 840 students.
The redistricting effort wasn’t popular with many families, and more than 100 parents signed a letter in protest.
An ACPS analysis revealed overcrowding in the city’s West End schools, with Patrick Henry K-8 School at 152% utilization, Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School at 122%, Charles Barrett Elementary School at 109%, and Ferdinand T. Day Elementary School at 106% utilization.
