Alexandria City Public Schools will honor 13 individuals and three athletic teams at its 2025 Athletic Hall of Fame induction ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 11, at Alexandria City High School.
The ceremony, scheduled from 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the King Street campus auditorium, will recognize 11 athletes, one coach, and one administrator who have made significant contributions to high school athletics in Alexandria.
Alexandria leaders will discuss the early childhood initiatives across the city in a first-ever series of conversations.
The Kids’ First Years (KFY) State of Early Childhood 2025 event will be held at First Baptist Church (2922 King Street) from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 7. Mayor Alyia Gaskins will kick off the free event with opening remarks, along with KFY CEO Michelle Smith Howard. The event is intended to bring together city leaders, educators, and advocates to “build a thriving early childhood system that fuels the city’s economy, strengthens the workforce and supports every family,” according to the nonprofit.
Following Tuesday’s story about DASH hiring policies not prohibiting sex offenders, the transit agency has placed two employees on the Virginia State Police registry on administrative leave to “assess the rigor of our recruitment standards and ensure we meet the highest standards in providing safe, fair, and accessible transit to our community.”
ALXnow looked into DASH’s hiring practices after the Alexandria School Board discussed safety concerns about a proposal to transport Alexandria City High School students on DASH buses starting next school year.
Lance Harrell has a big job, overseeing Alexandria City High School, the largest high school in Virginia.
Harrell says he’s working 10- to 16-hour days, with the longest days being Fridays, when there are football games. “I think the biggest change is just the added hours that I’ve been working,” Harrell told ALXnow in an interview on Wednesday.
UPDATE (Sept. 24, 2025): Following this reporting, DASH has placed both registered sex offenders on administrative leave. The transit agency said it is now assessing “the rigor of our recruitment standards” and confirmed that one of the employees is a bus driver, contradicting its initial statement Tuesday that no drivers were on the registry. DASH places 2 registered sex offenders on leave following ALXnow reporting
Following a discussion on the Alexandria School Board’s safety concerns about the proposal to transport Alexandria City High School students on DASH buses, ALXnow investigated the transit agency’s background check policies and discovered that it does not “expressly prohibit” sex offenders from employment.
Alexandria City Public Schools escalated its legal battle against the Trump administration Monday, filing a motion to intervene in Fairfax County’s appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit and requesting emergency injunctive relief to halt federal funding restrictions tied to the district’s transgender student policies.
The development was first reported by Josh Gerstein, senior legal affairs reporter for Politico, who shared the 101-page court filing on social media Monday evening.
September 30 is the deadline for parents of Alexandria City Public Schools students to turn in back-to-school forms.
The school system states that the forms assist administrators with updating health information, providing points of contact for students, and addressing other significant changes. ACPS has also released videos in English (see below), Spanish, Amharic, and Dari on the forms.
Alexandria City Public Schools presented an implementation update Thursday during the school board meeting for redistricting changes approved in June, detailing how students will transition to newly assigned schools beginning with the 2026-27 academic year.
The redistricting implementation update was listed as a monitoring item on the Sept. 18 school board meeting agenda, providing information on the initial implementation of boundary changes the board voted to approve on June 12.
Alexandria City Public Schools will present quarterly safety data to the School Board Thursday showing a dramatic decline in student arrests and court referrals, with 28 total cases during the 2024-25 school year compared to 69 the previous year.
The latest quarterly report covers 262 safety incidents between January and June, with 8 student court referrals and 6 arrests during the third and fourth quarters. This represents a 59% decrease from the 2023-24 school year.
The Alexandria School Board will consider Thursday whether to accept a $9,999 donation from McLean-based Proxyware to support a male mentoring initiative at two city schools.
Alexandria City Public Schools received the $9,999 donation on Sept. 2 for programs at Patrick Henry K-8 School and Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School. The board must approve any donations over $5,000.
Mount Vernon Community School students in Alexandria got a visit on Tuesday from Washington Commanders players, who gave away $5,000 worth of food, plush footballs, hats, and notebooks.
Commanders running back Christopher Rodriguez, Jr., wide receivers Jaylin Lane and Chris Moore, and mascot Major Tuddy visited the school in collaboration with the nonprofit Blessings in a Backpack. In addition to receiving signed team merchandise, students also got bags with yogurt, pretzels, fruit cups, cereal, soup, macaroni and cheese, and tuna.
