The Alexandria City School Board will tentatively announce the city school system’s new superintendent at its upcoming meeting Thursday, Oct. 22.
School Board Chair Chris Harris told the Alexandria City Public Schools community in an email today (Oct. 1) that the board has completed its interviews with candidates and has “moved into the contract negotiation process” with the selected candidate.
Alexandria City Public Schools started responding to families wanting school buses to return to their neighborhoods last week, and any eligible students will be able to ride on a bus starting by Monday, Oct. 5.
That was the message relayed to the Alexandria City School Board last Thursday night (Sept. 24) by Clinton Page, the school system’s chief accountability and research officer. Page said that ACPS started sending out their decisions on walk zone requests on Wednesday, Sept. 23 and will respond to all families by Wednesday, Sept. 30.
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.
Amid a surge of complaints, Alexandria City Public Schools says it will respond to requests to reinstate bus routes by the end of the month.
The school system is under fire for its new walk zones associated with new school boundaries. In the city’s heavily Latino neighborhood of Arlandria, a number of parents complained to the Alexandria City School Board on Thursday night (Sept. 10) that the changes have left kids without school buses in unsafe areas.
Alexandria City Public Schools carried out the third of four facility namings Tuesday (Sept. 8) — this time in honor of a longtime educator.
The Jean B. Reid Media Center at Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School was dedicated in honor of the educator who worked for the school system for 30 years. Reid was a reading specialist from 1971 until her 2001 retirement and held leadership positions at various schools.
Residents will unofficially bid farewell to the summer season during Labor Day weekend, which will also bring some closures and schedule changes to services in Alexandria.
Labor Day falls on Monday, Sept. 7, resulting in an extended holiday weekend for many employees and students. All City of Alexandria government offices will be closed for the Labor Day observance on Sept. 7.
Alexandria officials gathered yesterday (Sept. 2) to mark the topping out of the reconstructed George Mason Elementary School, the latest of Alexandria City Public Schools’ modernization projects.
Monday’s topping out ceremony represented the installation of the final structural steel beam on the school. The school at 2601 Cameron Mills Road in the North Ridge neighborhood is being rebuilt to address capacity needs and replace an aging facility, according to ACPS. Built in 1939, the school was renovated before in 1949 and 1977.
Current and former city leaders met Tuesday (Sept. 1) to officially name the athletic field complex after former Mayor Kerry Donley.
Donley died unexpectedly in 2022 at the age of 66. He was on City Council for 18 years, and was mayor from 1996 to 2003. After a two-year stint as the chair of the Democratic Party of Virginia, he was hired as the athletic director at ACHS, a position he held from 2005 to 2008.
The superintendent search remains on track as the Alexandria City School Board discusses candidates.
On Thursday (Aug. 27), the School Board held a closed session to discuss prospective candidates and their “qualifications, experience, references, suitability, potential appointment, compensation, and other terms and conditions of employment.”
Families are decrying new walk zones for Alexandria City Public Schools, saying the changes force their children off school buses to walk along unsafe roadways.
A number of parents denounced the walk zones during the public comment period at the Alexandria City School Board meeting on Thursday night (Aug. 27). ACPS provides bus transportation for students living more than a mile from their elementary schools and more than a mile-and-a-half from Alexandria City High School.
The Alexandria City School Board unanimously accepted $240,100 in donations to the city’s school system on Thursday night (Aug. 27).
Along with school supplies and donations for meal debt, the gifts include a $158,000 donation to buy phone pouches with magnetic locks for every student at Alexandria City High School. With more than 4,500 students getting accustomed to a new bell-to-bell phone ban, Principal Michael Burch told ALXnow that the donation will buy enough pouches to last the school for several years.
