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ACPS targets intersections across Alexandria in rush to resolve bus dispute

By James Cullum
Front and side view of a yellow school bus with 'SCHOOL BUS' sign, parked on a street near a brick building; another bus is in the background.
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Alexandria City Public Schools staff are evaluating potential road hazards across the city this week as families await answers on how they can get school buses returned to their neighborhoods.

That was the message relayed at Monday night’s (Sept. 14) Joint City Council and School Board Subcommittee meeting. With a looming Sept. 30 deadline to respond to parent requests to reinstate bus service, city and ACPS staff laid out a process of evaluating public complaints.

The school system is under fire for its new walk zones associated with new school boundaries, with many parents complaining that the safe routes outlined by ACPS are anything but.

Mayor Alyia Gaskins referred to this as a “crisis period” for the school system and asked whether its citywide list of intersections will continue to be updated past Sept. 30.

“Once you get through this crisis period, is there going to be another look at here are the ones [other intersections] that maybe people didn’t complain about, but now that we know more about those conditions, we might proactively make a change?” Gaskins asked.

Acting Superintendent Grace Taylor said that ACPS staff are working hard on the problem.

“We’re going to go back and look at all of the documentation that has come in through Ask ACPS, 311, all the multiple channels, and do our due diligence to look at each of those through the lens of unusual safety hazards and make determinations,” Taylor said.

She added, “It’s our hope that we’ll be able to correct where we’re able to correct, and when we have questions or concerns that come up, that we’ll have a team ready to go out and take a look or reach out to our city partner and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got this spot.'”

ACPS is currently looking into a number of potentially hazardous intersections identified by parents, including:

ACPS provides bus transportation for students living more than one mile from their elementary schools and more than a mile and a half from Alexandria City High School. The school system may also grant exceptions in areas near hazardous intersections.

Parents will get updates on their transportation requests through a ParentSquare notification.

About the Author

  • Reporter James Cullum has spent nearly 20 years covering Northern Virginia. He began working with ALXnow in 2020, and has covered every story under the sun for the publication, from investigative stories to features and photo galleries. His work includes coverage of national and international situations, as well as from the White House, Capitol, Pentagon, Supreme Court and State Department. He's covered protests and riots throughout the U.S. (including the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol), in addition to earthquake-ridden Haiti, Western Sahara in North Africa and war-torn South Sudan. He has photographed presidents and other world leaders, celebrities and famous musicians, and excels under pressure.