Along with new school boundaries, newly drawn school walk zones went into effect in Alexandria on July 1.
The new walk zone maps show where students walking to school will find hazardous road crossings, bridge crossings and areas without sidewalks. Outside Alexandria City High School’s King Street and Minnie Howard campuses, for instance, there are dozens of hazardous crossing points identified by the school system.
“For a majority of our elementary schools, there’s going to be walkable routes,” School Board Member Ryan Reyna said at the June 11 School Board meeting.
Alexandria City Public Schools provides bus transportation for students living a mile from their elementary schools and a mile and a half from Alexandria City High School.
The boundary changes affect approximately 1,400 currently enrolled students, as the city and school system focus on creating more pedestrian-friendly school zones. Recently, road work started outside the high school’s King Street campus, as part of the City’s Safe Routes to School program, which will add new high-visibility crosswalks, expanded bus stops, white flexible sign posts and lane dividers.
According to a 2023 walk audit, about half the 3,500 ACHS students at King Street took the school bus, nearly 500 rode in cars, about 430 kids walked and less than 1% of students biked to school.
“In 1969, about 89% of children who lived within one mile of school walked or biked to school,” the city said. “In 2009, that number was 35 percent. Increasing the proportion of children walking and biking to school requires communities to be proactive about encouraging walking and biking as a way of getting from place to place.”
Last year, the city also reduced speed limits in school zones and installed a number of speed cameras.
ACPS boundary changes
The School Board approved the redistricting plan last June. It sends students from study areas 165 (near Douglas MacArthur Elementary School), 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.
Middle school boundaries also support conversion of Old Town’s Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 IB School into a middle school, helping balance 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.
The School Board made the boundary changes after the complete redevelopment of Douglas MacArthur Elementary School in 2023, a project that increased the school’s capacity to 840 students.
