After months of work, two logo redesigns for Alexandria City Public Schools were sent back to the drawing board.
Last Thursday night (June 16), the School Board voted 7-2 against staff’s preferred option. Only Board Members Willie Bailey and Christopher Harris voted for the preferred logo option.
Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) is hoping to head into the next school year with a better way for families to provide feedback in languages other than English.
Alexandria’s School Board approved the formation of Spanish, Amharic and Arabic-speaking advisory committees for the upcoming 2022-2023 school year.
Alexandria Vice Mayor Amy Jackson took fire from one of her colleagues Tuesday night (June 14) against the appointment of former School Board Member Christopher Lewis to the Alexandria City Public Schools Law Enforcement Partnership (SLEP) Advisory Committee.
Jackson said that Lewis already serves on the city’s Community Policing Review Board and recommended Mike Mackey, the director of the Alexandria Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Service Unit.
Mayor Justin Wilson says its time to take a step back and reassess Alexandria’s approach to student safety.
In a joint City Council meeting with the School Board on Monday night (June 13), Wilson said that the community needs to be educated on how the city and school system plan to make schools safer.
In the wake of the fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Luis Mejia Hernandez, the Alexandria City Council is taking an active role in reducing violence in schools, according to a Council memo that will be discussed tonight (June 13).
Up for discussion is the creation of “a citywide, multi-year plan with clear objectives, activities, agency roles and contributions, and performance metrics” by this September, as well as a youth safety and violence prevention summit by the end of July.
Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr. resigned abruptly on Friday morning (June 10).
Hutchings’ resignation comes after a tumultuous few weeks for the school division, following a closed-door session asking the School Board to not talk with the media and about the fatal stabbing death of a student.
The Alexandria School Board conducted a closed-door meeting on Tuesday night (June 7) on changes to their operating procedures including a new rule on talking to the media.
In the two-hour-long session, the Board went over proposed changes to its operating procedures, as well as “Eight Characteristics of Effective School Boards,” a report from the Center for Public Education. The meeting was attended by Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr., Board Chair Meagan Alderton, Vice Chair Jacinta Greene, as well as Members Chris Harris, Willie Bailey, Michelle Rief, Tammy Ignacio, Kelly Carmichael Booz and Ashley Simpson Baird.
The Scholarship Fund of Alexandria gave away a record $600,000 to 205 graduating seniors from Alexandria City High School.
“We are so very proud of the next generation of nurses, doctors, business leaders, computer scientists, recording artists, biologists, and professors who are heading off to college this fall thanks to the generosity of this community. Scholarships really do make dreams come true,” SFA Board Chair Priscilla Goodwin said in a statement.
Alexandria City High School seniors will celebrate their graduation in-person this Saturday (June 4) at George Mason University’s EagleBank Arena.
Due to the pandemic, last year’s graduation was held outdoors in Chinquapin Park — right next door to ACHS. In 2020, the ceremony was completely virtual. The graduation has otherwise been held at GMU.
Updated at 3:30 p.m. — A 16-year-old Alexandria City High School student has been arrested in connection to last week’s fatal stabbing of 18-year-old Luis Mejia Hernandez, Alexandria Police tweeted.
The juvenile, who was not named, was arrested more than a week after the May 24 incident, and has been charged with murder. He was arrested sometime Wednesday morning (June 1) and is being held at the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center.
In the wake of last week’s fatal stabbing of Alexandria City High School student Luis Mejia Hernandez, Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr. has advised School Board members to not talk with the media.
No arrests have yet been made after the May 24 incident, which resulted from an afternoon brawl with 30-to-50 Alexandria City High School students in the McDonald’s parking lot of the Bradlee Shopping Center.
