Alexandria City Public Schools

Alexandria City Council approves $839 million budget

Published May 5, 2022 at 1:00PM | Updated May 5, 2022 at 1:54PM

Alexandria City Hall (staff Photo by Jay Westcott)

(Updated at 1:45 p.m.) The Alexandria City Council unanimously adopted City Manager Jim Parajon’s $839.2 million fiscal year 2023 budget on Wednesday night (May 4), and despite giving all city employees raises, Mayor Justin Wilson says inflation will likely mean more raises in future budgets.

“We’re staring into a significant inflationary environment that pinches our employees very hard, just like it pinches everyone hard,” Wilson said. “We’re going to have to continue to have this conversation every year about how we make sure we invest in the level of compensation and benefits required to not only attract but retain the best and the brightest in the city.”

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School Board considering adding Narcan to schools to combat opioid overdoses

By James Cullum

Published May 3, 2022 at 10:50AM

Alexandria City Public Schools will likely soon begin carrying Nalaxone, or Narcan, as an emergency medication to be given to students if they are overdosing on opiates.

If approved by the School Board on May 5 (Thursday), school nurses or anyone “acting on behalf of the School Board who has completed a training program may possess and administer naloxone or other opioid antagonist for overdose reversal,” according to a staff report.

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Superintendent scolds majority of School Board over School Law Enforcement Advisory Group proposal

By James Cullum

Published April 29, 2022 at 2:35PM

Alexandria Police at Alexandria City High School’s Minnie Howard Campus. (staff photo by James Cullum)

“Extremely problematic,” “inappropriate,” and “disrespectful” was how Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr. said School Board members handled edits of his plan to create a School Law Enforcement Advisory Group.

In a March 9 email, Hutchings scolded a majority of School Board Members — Michelle Rief, Ashley Simpson-Baird, Adbel Elnoubi, Kelly Carmichael Booz and Chris Harris — for editing his SLEP proposal. He said that such “behind the scenes” operations raised transparency issues by violating the Virginia Freedom Of Information Act.

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Amid transparency concerns, School Board forms school law enforcement partnership advisory group

By James Cullum

Published April 22, 2022 at 2:45PM | Updated April 22, 2022 at 3:55PM

Alexandria Police at Alexandria City High School’s Minnie Howard Campus. (staff photo by James Cullum)

The Alexandria School Board gave its blessing to Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr. on Thursday night (April 21) to form an advisory group to make recommendations on the controversial school resource officer program within Alexandria City Public Schools.

The 16-person school law enforcement partnership (SLEP) advisory group will be made up of students, ACPS administrators, Alexandria Police and members of the community. The group will evaluate the partnership between ACPS and police for the school resource officer program, and also on school safety initiatives, and deliver a report in December.

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Alexandria City High School goes to ‘secure the building’ status after threat

By Vernon Miles

Published April 19, 2022 at 10:15AM

The Alexandria City High School marquee (staff photo by James Cullum)

All Alexandria City High School (ACHS) campuses have gone into a “secure the building” status while the Alexandria Police Department (APD) investigates a threat to the school.

According to a release from ACPS:

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Alexandria’s uptick in new Covid cases could reach February levels

By James Cullum

Published April 11, 2022 at 3:45PM | Updated April 11, 2022 at 11:19PM

(Updated at 11:15 p.m.) Just as the spring weather blooms, Covid cases are on the rise in Alexandria.

As of Monday (April 11), the number of reported Covid cases in Alexandria reached 30,566, and the seven-day average of cases is 40.9 — nearly double what it was at this point last month. There have also been 415 cases so far this month, putting Alexandria on track to eclipse the number of 593 reported cases in March and reach the 1,227 cases reported in February.

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ACPS says parent FOIA request on sexual assault investigations would cost $84,300

By James Cullum

Published April 11, 2022 at 2:15PM

School buses on W. Braddock Road on Dec. 10, 2021 (staff photo by James Cullum)

Soon after allegations of a sexual assault surfaced at Alexandria High School’s Minnie Howard Campus, a parent filed a Freedom Of Information Act request to find out more. Two weeks after filing her request, the parent was told that it could be fulfilled, but it would cost $84,300.

On March 21, Devon Runyan Wells, a parent of five ACPS students, requested all email communications over the last two years regarding Title IX complaints and investigations between Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr., School Board Members and staff. Wells also asked for any emails that contained the words rape, harassment, assault, sexual abuse, weapon, police, law enforcement, gang and gang violence.

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ACPS Superintendent Hutchings defends critical race theory, says schools should abolish policing

By James Cullum

Published April 8, 2022 at 2:30PM | Updated April 8, 2022 at 4:56PM

Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Gregory Hutchings is making a case for critical race theory (CRT) and abolishing policing practices, although not within the school system he manages.

In an opinion piece published by EducationWeek on April 6 (Wednesday), Hutchings said that school systems need to employ six steps if they want to “embrace” building an anti-racist school or school system. In “The Anti-Racist Counternarrative Public Education Needs Now: Six steps for escaping the trap of attacks on ‘critical race theory’“, Hutchings wrote that most public school educators never heard of the term before it became politicized during the 2020 election cycle.

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Alexandria breaks ground on new Minnie Howard campus expansion

By Vernon Miles

Published March 30, 2022 at 10:45AM

Minnie Howard groundbreaking, photo via Canek Aguirre/Twitter

The long-discussed and debated Minnie Howard project — part of adapting Alexandria City High School to handle ever-increasing capacity — finally broke ground yeterday.

City and school officials gathered at the site to mark the beginning of construction on a new Minnie Howard campus. The project is scheduled to be constructed around the current school and open in the 2024-2025 school year.

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Extension of school resource officers program will give ACPS time to map out future, says superintendent

By James Cullum

Published March 25, 2022 at 3:00PM

Alexandria Police cruiser (staff photo by James Cullum)

Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr. wants another year of funding for the school resource officer program — time he says that will allow Alexandria City Public Schools to map out its future without a rush.

Hutchings says the extension will allow for the formation of a School Law Enforcement Advisory Group next month, which will closely study the SRO program and hammer out a proposal for a new bi-annual memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Alexandria Police Department in December.

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Suspect breaks into Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy through roof

By James Cullum

Published March 21, 2022 at 1:00PM | Updated March 22, 2022 at 11:38AM

Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy at 530 S. St. Asaph Street in Old Town. (via Facebook)

(Updated at 11:30 a.m. on March 22) Not much was taken in an overnight break-in at Lyle’s Crouch Traditional Academy earlier this month, although the suspect gained entry through the roof and no alarms went off.

On Wednesday morning, March 9, staff at the elementary school at 530 S. St. Asaph Street in Old Town called police after finding classrooms vandalized. Parents were not notified of the incident since there is no threat to school safety.