Alexandria City Council took a step Tuesday (May 26) to consider changes to the School Board’s terms and the size of the nine-member board. The council is also considering using potential contingent funds that will be available in the new fiscal year to fund Community in Schools of Northern Virginia at Alexandria City Public Schools.
Mayor Alyia Gaskins received support from a majority of City Council members on the proposal to form an ad hoc committee on election reform. City Council’s request will direct City Manager Jim Parajon to prepare a resolution to create the committee that two City Council members would be in. Gaskins said the committee’s scope would allow it to look at staggered terms and other election reform items such as board size, timing of terms or representation. The two City Council members would work with two School Board members to bring forward election reform recommendations.
The action comes after the School Board pressed City Council for reforms to the nine-member board, including staggered elections, higher salaries and more. In an April blog post, School Board Members Ashley Simpson Baird and Kelly Carmichael Booz said 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.
Council Member Canek Aguirre said he appreciates that the committee wouldn’t have a narrow scope on election reform.
“I don’t want to make it too open for the city manager, but around governance, I think the only other thing that I didn’t hear that I would potentially think about is compensation,” Aguirre said. “I think if we’re talking about the board as a whole, I think that would be something that would be included, but again leaving it open gives us the opportunity to have a fuller conversation.”
Vice Mayor Sarah Bagley agreed that the committee should discuss School Board pay, although the final decision lies with the School Board.
Parajon said the committee’s scope would involve input from various city departments, including the registrar, city attorney’s office, management and budget office and the finance office.
Council Member Sandy Marks stressed the importance of upfront information about the costs and legality of potential actions by the committee.
“I’m really looking forward to some positive, respectful experiences on this topic, specifically, which I know the School Board has been asking to review for quite a while,” Marks said.
Councilmember Abdel Elnoubi, a former School Board member, wants to see more competition in the board’s elections and conversations about reducing the board size. He agreed with the scope of the committee but said City Council should get the School Board to sign off before moving forward.
“I say that because we’ve had an experience in the past where we were told that we tried to force things into the conversation, and that we were not on the same page from the beginning. I want to avoid that scenario,” Elnoubi said. “We look at things differently, just because we have different responsibilities.”
Elnoubi also called for adding staff aides for the School Board to the discussion, although that was not in the scope of the mayor’s proposal.
Gaskins would like to see City Council vote on the resolution and identify two members for the ad hoc committee before its summer recess.
“If there are topics that have not been covered, we can always vote to extend the subcommittee to pick up other issues of governance or things that we’d want to cover,” Gaskins said. “But I think initially this would give us enough to get started to at least see how this could be framed to respond to the request from the School Board and then see if there’s an alignment in this path.”
Gaskins’s other motion directs the city manager to provide a CIS NOVA funding option from contingent reserve funds generated by parking revenues. However, that funding proposal wouldn’t come until late September or early October due to revenues not being available until the new fiscal year on July 1.
In a letter, Chair Michelle Rief requested $350,000 from City Council’s anticipated reserves to maintain funds for CIS NOVA, which provides 10 bilingual staffers at Alexandria City High School, Francis Hammond Middle School, Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School and Samuel Tucker, John Adams and William Ramsay Elementary Schools. CIS NOVA funding was identified as one cut to fill the $5.6 million ACPS budget gap for the school system’s proposed $12.7 million collective bargaining agreement.
“The challenge is that we don’t currently have the money in hand. I think, as many of you know, the parking revenue is based on whether or not people actually accumulate the same number of fines that they did in the previous year,” Gaskins said. “Additionally, the program would not go into effect until [July 1] and then still require time to turn over all of our parking meters, and to begin the new enforcement, and speaking with the manager.”
Council Member Jacinta Greene asked how the program could continue to run if the reserve funds wouldn’t be available until the fall.
Gaskins said she has spoken with organizations that provide $814,500 in grant funding to supplement the $350,000 local funding match.
“They said that they would need to have additional discussions, depending on this conversation, but a signal of support might be helpful for them to be able to put embracing the funding in that they need to advance the next phase of their decisions,” Gaskins said.
Aguirre shared disappointment that the CIS NOVA was even on the chopping block in the ACPS budget process.
“My only frustration is that if the school system was aware that this additional money unlocks additional money, that they would have tried to have budgeted this within the means that they have, so it’s unfortunate,” Aguirre said. “I’m not saying that I’m against [providing reserve funds], but I wish there would have been a little bit more fiscal responsibility there, if you will, to make sure that this was something that was going to go forward.”
Council Member John Taylor Chapman wants to know if the School Board can commit to covering the difference if City Council can only provide partial funds.
“I think the issue of timing is very well placed, and even if there maybe needs to be a discussion with our liaisons about something they can front load and maybe be able to get the money later and then not have that affect CIS programming,” Chapman said. “Because I have seen this program not only work here in Alexandria but across the region as well, and so I do know that is certainly a benefit to our young people.”
