Alexandria City Public Schools is ramping up efforts to make sure its more than 15,000 students getting free education actually live in the city.
The School Board and City Council, on Monday (Nov. 25), received a report from ACPS staff on the plan.
Alexandria City Public Schools
Washington Commanders wide receiver Terry McLaurin dedicated a fully-stocked laundry room at Mount Vernon Community School on Friday.
McLaurin launched the nonprofit “Terry’s Locker” earlier this year with the goal of helping kids not worry about wearing dirty clothes.
Despite mixed community reaction, Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt included the conversion of Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 IB School into a middle school and Patrick Henry K-8 School into an elementary school in her proposed 10-year Capital Improvement Program budget.
“That was fun,” a Patrick Henry seventh grader said this afternoon (Nov. 12) after virtually installing solar panels on the roof of a building.
The student wore an Oculus II headset, and got a chance to see what kind of work she could get paid to do in the real world of the future. It’s the first year of the new Career Investigation course for middle schoolers, and today’s class was observed by Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction Lisa Coons and Alexandria City Public Schools leadership.
Be aware that the School Zone speed limits will now be in effect during the day at Alexandria City High School starting next month.
The City of Alexandria announced an “expanded enforcement of school zone speed limits” beginning on Monday, Nov. 4. The release said school zone speed limits will be active at the King Street and Minnie Howard campuses during the school day, in addition to morning arrival and afternoon dismissals.
The Patrick Henry and Jefferson-Houston school communities largely want their schools to remain as-is, but Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) said analysis showed they might need to convert to an elementary and middle school to help with division-wide capacity problems.
Currently, Patrick Henry and Jefferson-Houston are Pre-K through 8th-grade schools, but ACPS is considering converting one or both schools into elementary schools (Pre-K through 5th grade) or middle schools (6th through 8th grade).
Alexandria City Public Schools has taken a step forward in crafting school policy around artificial intelligence.
The district formed an “AI Impact team” earlier this summer, taking a proactive approach to determine how AI can be used to the benefit of the schools, a report said.
Alexandria City Public Schools wants to fully revamp its website over the course of the next several months.
The School Board will get a primer on a “comprehensive review and refresh” of the website at their meeting this Thursday night.
After an editorial from Alexandria City High School student newspaper Theogony said students walk between classes because buses are not available, Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) leadership has responded that bus availability isn’t an issue and it could be cracking down soon on students walking between campuses.
Theogony reported that roughly 1,600 students travel between the King Street and Minnie Howard campuses of Alexandria City High School every day and hundreds of students say they’re unable to rely on bus transportation for that trip. Those students walk the 0.6 mile distance between campuses across the busy and dangerous Quaker-King-Braddock intersection.
|
The staffing crisis at Alexandria City Public Schools has simmered, according to a recent presentation to the School Board.
The school system was significantly challenged by a shortfall of more than 150 positions in the 2023/2024 school year. Now ACPS is short 12 .75 teachers, 12 bus drivers and 23 central office staffers.
|
The Alexandria School Board approved the “Option A – Open Heart” concept for the modernization of George Mason Elementary School.
While the Board voted 7-2 for Option A, it was a contentious vote that saw two abstentions from Members Jacinta Greene and Abdel Elnoubi, who both said that the Board and ACPS staff did not do their “due diligence” in finding the best options to replace the 85-year-old school. They are also both running for City Council in November.