Alexandria City School Board members are asking the public to help push for reforms to the nine-member board, including staggered elections, higher salaries and more.
The clock is ticking, School Board Members Ashley Simpson Baird and Kelly Carmichael Booz wrote in a recent blog post. The pair wrote that City Council must act this year by beginning a process to amend the City Charter — a change that would need to go to the Virginia General Assembly’s 2027 session for approval.
“If Council doesn’t act this year, we lose another cycle,” Booz and Simpson Baird wrote. “The next School Board election under the current concurrent structure will happen in 2027, and we’ll likely see the same pattern of wholesale turnover we’ve seen in seven of the last ten elections. The Board that takes office in January 2028 will start from scratch — again — and this conversation will restart — again.”
In November 2024, the School Board passed a resolution asking City Council to amend the City Charter to increase School Board terms from three to four years and transition from widespread elections every three years to staggered terms, with a member from each school district elected every year. Currently, all School Board members are elected in the same cycle every three years.
“The 2024 resolution is itself a formal request to Council and was followed by a letter from the school board chair on Dec. 12, 2024, to Council requesting consideration,” the School Board members said. “It asks Council to amend the City Charter—and it has been sitting with Council since November 2024.”
No action without School Board reduction
City Councilman Abdel Elnoubi, a former School Board member, told ALXnow any conversation about School Board reform needs to include talk about reducing its size.
“I’m not against a conversation on staggered and/or four year terms but I’m against a conversation that is only about staggered terms and/or four year terms and not a size reduction,” Elnoubi said. “A smaller board increases the likelihood of more competitive elections hence better accountability and representation.”
Booz and Simpson Baird wrote that staggered elections — not the board’s size — are what matter. They also noted that the board has had nine members since 1964 and that without staggered elections, the result is superintendent instability, a loss of institutional knowledge and disrupted initiatives.
“Reducing Board size without addressing concurrent elections would not solve the core turnover problem,” they wrote. “You could have a seven-member board and still see a majority turnover in a single election.”
Mayor Alyia Gaskins said that she is in favor of reducing the size of the School Board.
“I am supportive of their calls to reduce the size of the School Board and to explore other reforms related to how members are elected,” Gaskins said. “I look forward to conversations with my colleagues, the School Board, and our State Delegation on how best to move forward recognizing that there is a state mandated process to amend the city’s charter.”
A recent petition has so far garnered 286 signatures, and also calls for a reduction in board size.
“We write as Alexandria parents who have reached a breaking point,” the petition organizer wrote. “We have attended meetings, submitted public comments, and engaged with the School Board in good faith for years. We are not writing because we have given up on ACPS — we have not. We are writing because we believe the School Board’s governance failures now require the City Council’s attention.”
Councilman Canek Aguirre told ALXnow said he is willing to support all of the School Board’s proposals, but only if they include a reduction in board size.
“If there is no reduction in board size then they will not have the support of this council member,” Aguirre said.
The petition also supports a salary increase for School Board members. While the board can approve its own salary increases, it may only do so in the year before an election under Virginia law. Pay currently stands at $15,000 for members and $17,000 for the chair.
With the next School Board election in November 2027, members would have to vote on a salary increase by Dec. 31, 2026.
“Under the statute, no salary increase may take effect during an incumbent member’s term of office,” Booz and Simpson Baird wrote. “But — and this is notable — that restriction does not apply if school board members serve staggered terms.”
Councilman John Taylor Chapman is against staggered terms, and said that he will bring reform concerns up at an upcoming City Council meeting with the School Board.
“In the past, I have not been supportive of changing board size, believing that having more representation for each district could provide better constituent service to the community, but as more and more stories of less than stellar feedback come forward, I am willing to give up that position,” Chapman said. “Regarding staggered terms, I am not in favor, as it robs the community of having the electoral ability to have wholesale change on the board. Given what we are hearing from community members, that is still something some are interested in.”
