True to the legacy of the titan Prometheus, Alexandria City High School’s Titan Robotics team is celebrating ten years on the cutting edge of discovery and innovation.
Titan Robotics kicked off its tenth season earlier this month.
Titan Robotics is a student-led organization that started at ACHS in 2014. The group participates in the FIRST Robotics Competition and participates in various science and mathematics-focused outreach programs.
The team consists of around 40 ACHS students working, over eight weeks, to design, manufacture, build and program a robot. This year, the teams are working on creating a robot capable of moving foam rings across a field the width of a full-size basketball court and shooting them into goals before time runs out.
The competitions are as much about collaborating and strategizing as a team as testing the team’s scientific know-how.
According to a release from the team:
Teams plan and practice individually or collaboratively, and then at the tournaments, teams compete in random alliances with other teams for qualification matches. Each match sets three teams against three others. For qualification matches, teams often end up playing against their former alliance partners. As the tournament progresses, 30 teams form eight alliances to move from qualification matches to the elimination rounds.
Titan Robotics will take their creations to a district competition on March 2 and March 3 in Ashland, then in a second competition on March 23 and March 24 in Falls Church.
Photo via Titan Robotics/Facebook
Louis Kokonis, an Alexandria City High School math teacher who worked in the school division for over 60 years, died yesterday.
Kokonis, 91, was renowned for his devotion to the students. A CBS article last year noted that Kokonis, who had no wife or children, offered free tutoring on Saturdays and was often the first to arrive at the school each day.
“Mr. Kokonis’ passing on Jan. 4, 2024, is not only a difficult loss for the Titan community but also a significant loss for the City of Alexandria,” said Principal Alexander Duncan in a letter to the school community. “Indeed, he was loved by all who were fortunate enough to know him and will be sorely missed.”
Kokonis was the longest-serving teacher in the history of ACPS. He taught all levels of math, but primarily taught AP Calculus AB and BC, DE Calculus III and Differential Equations.
According to the letter from Duncan:
Mr. Kokonis’ service in ACPS was nothing short of legendary and was recognized beyond our immediate community. For his many accomplishments, he was celebrated in 2019 by the Virginia General Assembly in Joint House Resolution #727. To honor him, this resolution stated, “Louis Kokonis has imparted his passion for lifelong learning to his students, many of whom went on to become physicists, engineers, doctors and professors.” Additionally, Mr. Kokonis was featured last year in a CBS News story that highlighted his extensive career and commitment to serving his students and the ACHS school community.
The Louis Kokonis Teaching Legend Scholarship, offered through the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria, honors Kokonis’ work and the family asked for expressions of condolences to be shared through his scholarship. Holy Cow Del Ray’s ‘Burger of the Moment‘ is also ‘The Mr. Kokonis” in honor of the teacher.
A minor male Alexandria City High School student suffered a suspected non-fatal overdose at the King Street campus on Thursday, according to Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt.
Kay-Wyatt notified parents and staff of the incident in an email at 8:41 p.m. The Alexandria Fire Department responded to a call for a possible overdose at the school a little before 9:15 a.m., according to AFD. The student was transported to the hospital.
Kay-Wyatt wrote:
In accordance with Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Order 28, which requires a divisionwide notification for all school-connected overdoses, I am writing to make you aware of a suspected school-connected, non-fatal student overdose that happened today at Alexandria City High School – King St. Campus.
An ACHS student also experienced a suspected overdose inside the High School earlier this year.
Kay-Wyatt included a fentanyl fact sheet in English, Spanish, Amharic and Arabic in her email, as well as a link to the ACPS webpage on substance abuse education and prevention. She also said ACHS students can talk to counselors and administrators if they need help, and can reach out to CrisisText and Crisis Link by texting CONNECT to 85511 or calling 703-527-4077.
It’s the end of an era for Alexandria City High School’s drama program. After 20 years directing and producing dozens of theatrical performances, the partnership between co-teachers Hope Bachman and Leslie Jones will come to a close at the end of this school year.
Known informally as “Bach and Jones” to students, parents and staff, the pair were honored in a gala at ACHS last week. Bachman says that deciding to partner with Jones was one of the best decisions she ever made.
“Partnering up with Leslie was the second smartest decision of my life, with the first smartest being my marriage,” Bachman said.
Bachman is a 1998 graduate of Alexandria City High School (back when it was named T.C. Williams High School), and was hired in 2003 after she graduated from the University of Mary Washington. When hired to replace a retiring drama teacher, she was also put in charge of the drama program’s extracurricular activities.
“I was a brand new green baby teacher,” Bachman said. “I was drowning my first year. First year teaching is hard for everybody, but I had all the responsibilities of a first year teacher plus this entire program of afterschool things, which is incredibly time consuming to run.”
Jones, at that point, had been working at the school for eight years as an English teacher and cheerleading coach, and felt that she’d been passed over. It ended up taking a full year for the pair to come together, with Bachman swallowing her pride by asking Jones for help.
Jones said that once they started working together on the fall and spring productions that their relationship was no longer competitive.
“The nature of theater is collaborative,” Jones said. “At the end of the day, it’s about the production and about the product… because all along we want to teach our kids how to be good theater people, period.”
The pair say a secret to their success has been presenting a unified front.
“It’s a sisterhood,” Jones said. “Believe me, we have been through it all. We don’t always agree. Who does? But we work it out. We always have a mantra between the two of us — ‘Hey, we’ll duke it out behind closed doors and then when we walk out the door we’re a united front.”
ACHS Executive Principal Alexander Duncan III thanked the duo for their work.
“How many teachers can say they regularly bring an auditorium full of people to their feet, either in tears or cheers, as well as having affected the lives and aspirations of countless students?” Duncan said. “We are so appreciative of the unwavering commitment that Leslie Jones and Hope Bachman have shown in their two decades of service to Alexandria City High School students and our school community.”
After a 33-year career teaching, Jones said she’s looking forward to retiring. She and Bachman are now prepping, their final work together, the 2024 spring musical Bring It On.
“This is our swan song,” Jones said. “Once the final curtain (falls) and we’re at the cast party, we’ll be sobbing.”
Bachman said someone will have to step in to help fill Jones’ shoes.
“Just just like Leslie and I had to at the beginning, I will have to learn her successor’s strengths and weaknesses,” Bachman said. “And that person will have to learn mine, and we’ll figure we’ll figure it out as we go.”
(Updated at 4:45 p.m.) By the time this story is published, candidates will have just an hour-and-a-half to file the necessary paperwork to run in the Jan. 9 special election to fill the vacant seat on the Alexandria School Board.
The deadline is 5 p.m. to file the following with the city’s Office of Voter Registration & Elections:
- Declaration of Candidacy
- Candidate Petitions (with 125 signatures of qualified voters from School Board, District A)
- Certificate of Candidate Qualification
- Statement of Economic Interests
- Statement of Organization
So far, Gina Baum and Tim Beaty have filed paperwork to run for the open seat, according to Angie Turner, the city’s registrar of voters.
Baum is a managing broker with Keller Williams Metro Center, according to her LinkedIn page. As part of her filing, she submitted 150 signatures, a campaign email address and a campaign website, the latter of which hasn’t yet been set up.
Last month, District A School Board Member Willie Bailey abruptly resigned, prompting the Alexandria Circuit Court to order a special election for Jan. 9. The winner of the election will serve out the remaining 11 months of Bailey’s term before the next School Board is sworn into office in January 2025, following the November 2024 general election.
There are at least two other interested candidates collecting signatures — former School Board Member Bill Campbell and retired labor leader Tim Beaty.
Campbell was elected to the School Board in 2012 and reelected in 2015, but lost his reelection bid in 2018. He also lost a 2021 City Council bid, and while he said that he has collected enough signatures to run, Campbell told ALXnow that he’s weighing family obligations before taking the plunge and running for office again.
“I have a few hours left to make that decision,” Campbell said.
Beaty, the former global strategies director for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, addressed the Alexandria Democratic Committee at its monthly meeting on Monday night. He said that he’s been a city resident for nine years, and has been a precinct captain at Cora Kelly School, and that his main goal would be to help ACPS in its collective bargaining efforts with staff.
“I think the process of collective bargaining should be able to help us with retention of too many teachers that are leaving the system because the workers will be represented in the collective bargaining negotiation,” Beaty said, “And to be able to attract more folks with hopefully through collective bargaining process better wages, benefits and working conditions.”
Afghan students living in Alexandria will premiere an eight-minute documentary this Friday on their experiences during the 2021 evacuation from Afghanistan.
The eight-minute documentary “Desperate” was produced and directed by Zahra Rahimi, an Alexandria City High School senior who has gained notoriety over the past six months for her work helping her fellow Afghan students learn English. It will premiere this Friday at 6 p.m. at the Del Pepper Community Resource Center (4850 Mark Center Drive).
The documentary chronicles the story of three Afghan girls who fled their home country in the summer of 2021, as well as their challenges arriving in the U.S. Rahimi also tells viewers at the end of the documentary that special immigrant visas need to be processed faster by the U.S. State Department.
“My intention with this documentary is to be a voice for women and girls in Afghanistan who are not here right now,” Rahimi said. “Their rights are taken away from them and they are sitting at home every day. My other intention is for the visas to be processed faster, because there’s thousands of immigrants in other countries such as Pakistan or in refugee camps, still waiting for their visas to come to the United States.”
The film was also produced by Northern Virginia Resettling Afghan Families Together (NOVA RAFT), a nonprofit where Rahimi teaches English to dozens of children. Her work teaching English and founding an Afghan club at ACHS led to her being recognized earlier this year by First Lady Jill Biden as one of 15 “Girls Leading Change” around the country.
NOVA RAFT has helped hundreds of families transition to the U.S.
“Over the past two years, Alexandria has gained several thousand new residents who have made the city home after the tragic fall of their country to the Taliban,” NOVA RAFT founder Dan Altman told ALXnow. “The documentary and the presentation after is also a tribute to all those that incredible people who helped welcome them here; especially their teachers.”
Retired Alexandria Sheriff Dana Lawhorne and former Alexandria City High School principal John Porter have been named the grand marshals of the 48th annual Alexandria Turkey Trot.
Lawhorne retired last year after a 43-year career in law enforcement in the city, and Porter was a teacher for Alexandria City Public Schools for more than 20 years and the principal at ACHS (back when it was named T.C. Williams High School) for 22 years.
“It is an honor to announce that two of Alexandria’s most loved community members, Dana Lawhorne and John Porter, are this year’s grand marshals,” said Del Ray Business Association board member Gayle Reuter. “Both are lifelong Alexandrians who have dedicated their lives to public service.”
The five-mile race on Nov. 23 through the heart of Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood is expected to draw upward of 6,000 participants. It will start at 9 a.m. outside George Washington Middle School (1005 Mount Vernon Avenue).
On race day, the doors at GW Middle School will open at 7:30 a.m., followed by the invocation and announcements at 8:45 a.m. The race will start at 9 a.m., followed by an awards ceremony at 10 a.m.
Participants are asked to register and pick up their racing materials before the race.
Participants and spectators are also asked this year to donate two non-perishable food items on race day to support ALIVE!
“Most needed items include rice, dry beans, boxed mac and cheese, canned vegetables, canned soup, canned fruit, canned tuna and/or chicken, or boxed/bag baking mixes,” DRBA said in a release. “Last year, ALIVE! received 1,168 pounds of food and a $6,000 check from the Del Ray Business Association to support their food program.”
Students walked out of classes at Alexandria City High School’s King Street campus this morning to support a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.
Hundreds of students at the school, which has an enrollment of approximately 4,000 students, engaged in a walk-out protest — joining international protests against Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.
“There are Palestinian Jews dying every day,” one student speaker said. “We came here for peace. We are not spreading hate today. We are here to help stop a genocide.”
Chants of “No more hiding, no more fear, genocide is crystal clear” were heard from across King Street. Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) said news media would not be allowed on school grounds during the walkout.
Most of the students returned to the school after the protest, though some left the campus.
“The protest was great,” one senior in a group of four told ALXnow. “We’re not going back today. We’re ditching school.”
Rabbi David Spinrad from the Beth El Hebrew Congregation stood across from the school with an Israeli flag.
“I’m an American and a Jew, and as an American, I respect the first amendment and people’s freedom of expression,” Spinrad said, “but that freedom of expression doesn’t extend to hate speech, it doesn’t include anti-semitism, which is far more nuanced, particularly in this situation than the vast majority of them have ever been educated around.”
Spinrad said he wants ACPS to ensure the protection of Jewish students at the school during the protests and would be interested to hear about the specifics of a ceasefire.
“If every one of the 248 hostages were immediately returned, if Hamas surrendered unconditionally, then I think a ceasefire is absolutely something that’s appropriate,” Spinrad. “But as long as Israel is fighting a state-sponsored terrorist organization that abuts the state of Israel, their responsibility is first and foremost to their citizens, including those 248 hostages.”
ACHS Executive Principal Alexander Duncan III notified parents via email on Wednesday afternoon that school staff have planned for a “peaceful and safe environment for our students.”
Duncan’s message is below:
It is our understanding that tomorrow (Thurs., Nov. 9, 2023) is a national day of protest related to current events in the Middle East. We have learned that there will be at least one student walkout at Alexandria City High School (ACHS) – King Street Campus that is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. We want to assure you that plans are in place as we work to ensure a peaceful and safe environment for our students.
As students exercise their right to free speech during the school day tomorrow, ACHS administrators and staff, in addition to Central Office staff, will be prepared and positioned to ensure that this walkout is conducted in a safe and respectful manner, with as little disruption to normal operations as possible. As stated in our Student Code of Conduct, we ask students to be kind, respectful and cooperative to prevent problems and solve problems in a peaceful and collaborative way.
For any student who has concerns about these ongoing events and wants to talk to a counselor or another trusted adult, there are resources in place. At ACHS, students can always reach out to a counselor or another Student Support Team (SST) member, administrator, or any trusted adult in the school if they are in need of help. Our students can also reach out to CrisisText and Crisis Link at any time, 24/7, through the contacts below:
- Text: CONNECT to 85511
- Call CrisisLink: 703-527-4077
We have collaborated with our Safety and Security Team to ensure that we have adequate security supports in place. The safety and security of our students and staff are of utmost priority.
Students also staged a walk-out protest earlier this year over the cancellation of lunchtime activities.
James Cullum and Vernon Miles contributed to this story
Alexandria City High School students will conduct a walkout in support of a ceasefire in the war between Israel and Hamas.
ACHS Executive Principal Alexander Duncan III notified parents via email on Wednesday afternoon that Thursday, Nov. 9, is a national day of protest against the conflict, and that school staff have planned for a “peaceful and safe environment for our students.”
Duncan’s message is below:
It is our understanding that tomorrow (Thurs., Nov. 9, 2023) is a national day of protest related to current events in the Middle East. We have learned that there will be at least one student walkout at Alexandria City High School (ACHS) – King Street Campus that is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. tomorrow. We want to assure you that plans are in place as we work to ensure a peaceful and safe environment for our students.
As students exercise their right to free speech during the school day tomorrow, ACHS administrators and staff, in addition to Central Office staff, will be prepared and positioned to ensure that this walkout is conducted in a safe and respectful manner, with as little disruption to normal operations as possible. As stated in our Student Code of Conduct, we ask students to be kind, respectful and cooperative to prevent problems and solve problems in a peaceful and collaborative way.
For any student who has concerns about these ongoing events and wants to talk to a counselor or another trusted adult, there are resources in place. At ACHS, students can always reach out to a counselor or another Student Support Team (SST) member, administrator, or any trusted adult in the school if they are in need of help. Our students can also reach out to CrisisText and Crisis Link at any time, 24/7, through the contacts below:
- Text: CONNECT to 85511
- Call CrisisLink: 703-527-4077
We have collaborated with our Safety and Security Team to ensure that we have adequate security supports in place. The safety and security of our students and staff are of utmost priority.
News media will not be allowed on school grounds during the walkout, according to Alexandria City Public Schools.
Zahra Rahimi spoke no English when she and her family moved from Afghanistan to Alexandria four years ago.
Fast forward to October, when First Lady Jill Biden recognized her at the White House as one of 15 “Girls Leading Change” around the country.
The 17-year-old Rahimi, who one day wants to run for Congress, recently sat down with ALXnow to discuss the honor and her journey. The Alexandria City High School senior is the eldest of six siblings and moved with her family to Alexandria in 2019, where she first enrolled in the International Academy at Francis C. Hammond Middle School.
“That’s the goal,” Rahimi said, when asked of a future Congressional run. “Since childhood, my goal has always been to be a voice for others, and share other people’s voices, because I know how it feels to not have the power, or to be unheard.”
After the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Rahimi founded a club for Afghan students and helped create an English literacy program teaching dozens of refugee children with Northern Virginia Resettling Afghan Families Together. It was NoVA RAFT founder Dan Altman who nominated Rahimi for the Girls Leading Change award.
Last year, Rahimi was also named as a student representative on the School Board. She says that her work with the Board allows international students to have a seat at the table.
With an eye on becoming a politician, Rahimi is an advocate for women’s rights and, while automatically accepted to George Mason University, is still applying to and waiting to hear back from colleges.
ALXnow: What do you miss the most from Afghanistan?
Rahimi: Aside from my family, I miss Afghanistan. That’s the place where I was born, where I grew up, where I have memories — not one, not two, I have thousands of memories that I made there. It’s just my country. I was born there. I belong there. It’s the place that I will never forget.
ALXnow: How long did it take for you to feel comfortable speaking English?
Rahimi: I’m still learning English, and I still have some difficulties. But after six months, I could communicate or ask questions in English, even though I was still learning.
ALXnow: What’s the best part of attending all of those School Board meetings? Aren’t they boring?
Rahimi: I think it not only gives me but also other students, especially students at the International Academy… someone to be a voice for them or share their opinions in the board meetings. It’s made me aware of how people are thinking, how everything is going on in the community.
Something else that really, really taught me over these past two years is that believing in myself, that I cannot only advocate for myself and for my rights, I also have the ability and opportunity to do it for others.
ALXnow: When you were nominated, you had to do a Zoom call with the White House. What was that like?
Rahimi: I spoke with a group from the White House and they asked about my background and the things that I was doing and what I thought about America. Then I sent an email to Mr. Altman and told him that I just finished the interview, and he told me that he got an email from [the White House] because they were connected and he said that I made them cry.
ALXnow: What was the story you told that made the people cry at the White House?
Rahimi: I told them about my story, that even though I was very young in Afghanistan, I had a supportive family and my dad and my mom really supported me. But there were people in the community who weren’t really supportive of girls doing anything, and I really wanted to ride bikes.
I was seeing my brothers riding bikes every day, and the only place I could ride a bike was in our yard at home. And it really broke me because I wanted to have that experience of going outside or to the parks, riding a bike, and I couldn’t. And that was something that not only me, but also other girls weren’t having that opportunity.
