The Alexandria City School Board on Thursday (July 9) unanimously elected new leadership for the next year.
Without opposition, School Board Member Christopher Harris was elected as chair, and Alexander Crider Scioscia was elected vice chair. Both are graduates of Alexandria City High School (when it was T.C. Williams High School), and the one-year appointments went into effect in the beginning of Thursday night’s meeting.
Along with new school boundaries, newly drawn school walk zones went into effect in Alexandria on July 1.
The new walk zone maps show where students walking to school will find hazardous road crossings, bridge crossings and areas without sidewalks. Outside Alexandria City High School’s King Street and Minnie Howard campuses, for instance, there are dozens of hazardous crossing points identified by the school system.
With the start of the school year around the corner, Alexandria City Public Schools is asking for donations of backpacks and school supplies.
For the second year in a row, the school system has set a goal of filling 3,500 backpacks in its annual backpack and school supply drive between now and Aug. 10.
After failing to secure 50% of votes from members, the top two candidates running for president of the Alexandria teachers union are headed to a runoff.
The election was overseen by the Virginia Education Association after it invalidated the results of the Education Association of Alexandria’s officer elections in May. Votes for union officers and building representatives were collected online on June 29 and 30. EAA presidential candidate David Paladin-Fernandez got 190 votes (47%), followed by 115 votes (29%) for Christina Bohringer and 96 votes for Madeline Wingate Alfonso (24%).
As outgoing Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt takes an unexpected leave, the School Board has designated three administrators to handle her duties.
School Board Chair Michelle Rief announced in an email to ACPS families and staff that Kay-Wyatt is going on leave due “to a matter that arose unexpectedly.” On Tuesday night (June 23), the School Board appointed ACPS Chief of Staff Grace Taylor, Chief Accountability Officer Clinton Page and Chief Academic Officer Pierrette Finney as designees of the division superintendent.
Public safety leaders and their counterparts from around the region reaffirmed a commitment to mutual aid today (Thursday) at the Alexandria Police Department’s Public Safety Summit.
The three-hour event was held at Virginia Theological Seminary, and attended by Mayor Alyia Gaskins, Sheriff Sean Casey, Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter, City Manager Jim Parajon, Fire Chief Felipe Hernandez, Jr, as well as officials from Alexandria City Public Schools and other city departments. Speakers included Arlington County Police Chief Andy Penn, Prince William County Police Chief Peter Newsham, and Stanley Meador, the Virginia Secretary of Public Safety and Homeland Security.
After invalidating the officer elections for the local Alexandria teachers union, the Virginia Education Association has set a timeline for new elections that it will oversee later this month.
VEA President Carol Bauer informed Education Association of Alexandria (EAA) members of the new election timeline in an email on June 12. VEA’s decision to reject EAA’s union officer elections came after the elections were postponed from May 18 to May 21, and candidate for EAA president David Paladin-Fernandez was disqualified less than 12 hours before the elections.
Eleven residents at the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center in Alexandria’s West End marked a significant milestone as they were presented with their high school diplomas today (Wednesday).
The graduation event was attended by family members, NVJDC residents and staff, as well as City Councilwoman Sandy Marks and Alexandria City School Board Chair Michelle Rief. The jail’s state-operated school is managed by Alexandria City Public Schools, which provides licensed staff to teach 10-to-18-year-old children brought in from across Alexandria, Arlington County and the city of Falls Church.
Alexandria City Public Schools will continue providing free meals to students this summer.
The school system is giving away free breakfast and lunch for children and teens 18 and under as part of its 2026 Summer Food Service Program. The program runs Mondays through Thursdays, from June 22 to July 16, at six schools across the city. School-age kids can get free meals at any of the sites and do not need to register in advance.
The Alexandria City School Board held a work session yesterday (June 9) to decide adds and deletes from the budget before final approval, but the state budget impasse leaves future funding for compensation and other items unresolved.
Several of the 38 add/delete proposals that had at least four co-sponsors received support to be added into the Alexandria City Public Schools budget. The School Board will vote on the final budget tomorrow (June 11).
One of Alexandria City High School’s largest graduating classes walked the stage at George Mason University’s EagleBank Arena to get their diplomas on Saturday (June 6).
Outgoing Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt said that the 962 graduates are walking into an increasingly complex world.
