Two candidates for the open principal position at Alexandria City High School were introduced at an online meeting Thursday (May 14).
The candidates are Michael Burch, the ACHS lead administrator for operations and student support, and Anthony McWright, the executive principal at Denver School of the Arts and president of the Arts Schools Network. The meet-and-greet was moderated by former ACHS principal John Porter, who said Alexandria City Public Schools will conduct the final candidate interview next week before the finalist’s name goes to the School Board for consideration on May 28.
With approximately 4,500 students and hundreds of staffers spread across four campuses, ACHS is the largest public high school in Virginia. The salary range for the position is $120,672 to $180,518, according to the job listing.
Burch joined ACPS in 2010 and has been in his current position for the past three years. Before that, he was an assistant principal at the King Street Campus for three years and also worked as an ACHS substitute administrator, summer school administrator, assistant director of student activities and as a health, physical education and driver education teacher, according to ACPS. A U.S. Army veteran, he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from Virginia Tech, and a post-master’s certification in educational leadership and administration from George Washington University.
Burch said he will be ready to lead on day one and would work to strengthen relationships with students and staff, touting a long list of achievements.
“I assisted with the operational launch of the new Minnie Howard campus,” Burch said. “I organized an interview for Titan Lunch, integral in the implementation of the academy model to ensure every graduate leaves with either a high-value industry credential pathway towards a college. If you‘ve been with us for a while, I actually developed the in-person COVID master schedule, which balances health and safety with our continued instruction. Most recently I am the coordinator of our school improvement plan and cohesive instructional framework across all four campuses.”
Burch said the size of the school is a challenge, but that the school system’s academy model is working. He said he will focus on using data and stakeholder feedback to identify priorities that “improve instruction, enrich school culture, and ensure operational excellence.”
“We have over 500 staff, 4,200 students, and if you multiply that by how many parents, how many stakeholders, the challenge is getting everybody what one family may need might be different than another family, and that can be challenging,” Burch said. “In order to meet that challenge, we need to have every single person at the table and we need to hear every single voice.”
McWright said he’s been an educator for 30 years, and earned his bachelor’s degree in music education from Delta State University, a master’s degree in music education and a specialist degree in educational leadership from the University of Southern Mississippi.
“I’ve been a 30-plus year educator, as well as an advocate that education really is a game changer,” McWright said. “That’s why I sit here before you today, is just to take my years of experience and try to bring it to the Alexandria City High School community.”
McWright said that, if hired, he would conduct a listening tour of all staff to build cohesiveness across campuses and expand the school’s arts offerings.
“We’ve got to figure out why they’re leaving, why they want to leave,” McWright said. “It’s not perfection, but progress toward perfection is something that speaks to me.”
Since last August, Lance Harrell has been acting executive principal at ACHS, succeeding Alexander Duncan III, who left June 30, 2025 after two years to become principal at Washington-Liberty High School in Arlington. Harrell was previously the lead administrator of operations and student support at the ACHS Minnie Howard Campus for two years.
ACPS posted the job description March 16, after which Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt said the principal position will no longer carry central office duties, allowing the principal to focus solely on leading the high school’s four campuses. The four campus administrators will also be renamed campus principals.
The school system hopes to fill the position in May, with the new principal set to start July 1.
