Alexandria City Public Schools

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With school resource officers back, ACPS and Alexandria Police are hammering out a new memorandum of understanding

By James Cullum
Alexandria police (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Alexandria City Public Schools staff and the Police Department are hammering out a revised memorandum of understanding (MOU), and while few details have been released, the school system says that the school resource officer (SRO) program will change next year.

It’s been more than a month since City Council reversed its decision and brought back SROs. The initial decision to defund the officers redirected $800,000 in SRO funding toward mental health resources for students. It created a rift between City Council and the School Board, but after numerous violent incidents with weapons in schools, School Board Chair Meagan Alderton and Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr. pleaded for their return.

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Morning Notes

By Vernon Miles
Leaves along the sidewalk in Old Town (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Alexandria School Capacity The Focus Of Proposed Capital Budget — “The latest Capital Improvement Plan proposal includes funding for a newly acquired office building that will become a school.” [Patch]

The Happy Cat Hotel and Spa to open next weekend — “It’s time for dogs to move over, because there’s a new cat in town – or a cat hotel and spa, rather.” [Alexandria Living Magazine]

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District A School Board candidate Ish Boyle says ACPS needs leaders who can handle a crisis

By James Cullum

District A School Board candidate Aloysius “Ish” Boyle says he’s a proven leader, and that Alexandria City Public Schools is still in crisis mode.

Boyle, a retired Marine Corps captain with combat tours in Iraq, has two young children in ACPS and gives the school system a four out of 10 for its COVID-19 response. He says students should have gone back to full-time in-person learning sooner than the beginning of this school year, and criticized Superintendent Gregory Hutchings for putting his own kids in private school.

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ACPS superintendent says staffing shortages are due to last year’s hybrid learning

By James Cullum
A student behind her desk at Mount Vernon Community School on Tuesday, March 2, 2021 (Staff photo by James Cullum)

Alexandria City Public Schools is seeing a shortage of classroom monitors, bus monitors and substitute teachers.

Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr. told the School Board last week that ACPS’ Human Resources Department is working to hire more, and that staffing levels were impacted by hybrid learning last year.

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Metal detectors not under consideration within Alexandria City Public Schools

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

Metal detectors are not being considered at Alexandria City Public Schools.

After a rocky start to the school year with multiple students caught bringing weapons to Alexandria City High School, the issue has been publicly raised more than a few times in recent weeks.

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Morning Notes

By Vernon Miles
A fall wreath on a door in Old Town (staff photo by James Cullum)

Second Alexandria early voting site opens for November election — “An additional in-person early voting site for Virginia’s general election in November opened in the City of Alexandria on Friday and will remain open through Oct. 30.” [Patch]

Nominate Alexandria schools staff for teacher and principal of the year awards — “It’s that time of year again. Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) is once more participating in The Washington Post’s Principal of the Year and Teacher of the Year Awards.” [Zebra]

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Alexandria School Board Candidate Bridget Shea Westfall says son was her hero during pandemic

By James Cullum

Bridget Shea Westfall says she’s not a status quo kind of person. Westfall, the parent of a second grader at Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School, also calls her son her hero.

“My son was my hero during the pandemic, and he just had to do a lot of adult things,” Westfall told ALXnow, fighting back tears. “He had to be very resilient, brave and strong and use executive functioning skills that most adults haven’t mastered in their professional and personal lives. But my son said to me, ‘Mom, you should do it. You should. You should run.'”

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ALXnow’s top stories this week in Alexandria

By Vernon Miles

This week saw possibly the most contentious meeting between the City Council and School Board in years for a debate over School Resources Officers that ultimately culminated in the Council voting to temporarily restore the program. The reversal has been advocated by school officials and some parents, but was lamented by advocacy group Tenants and Workers United that saw it as a step-backward for racial justice.

The following day, ACPS was also hit with lockdowns at Alexandria City High School’s King Street and Minnie Howard campuses and Hammond Middle School, though police later said initial calls about a school shooting were unfounded. At the same time, a gas leak near Potomac Yard led to two homes being evacuated and the temporary closure of Richmond Highway.

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New scholarship named for recently retired Alexandria school teacher

By Rick Horner
Alexandria School Board member Kelly Carmichael Booz (left), Beverly Vick (center), Gregory Hutchings (right), photo via Scholarship Fund of Alexandria/Facebook

The Scholarship Fund of Alexandria has raised enough funding to establish a new scholarship that will be named after a beloved former teacher.

The recently retired Beverly Vick was a highly regarded teacher at Douglas MacArthur Elementary School for 38 years and received the Excellence in Education award in 2009. Vick also worked with children through the American Girl Literature Club.

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Tenants and Workers United upset by City Council restoration of school resource officer program

By Rick Horner

The Alexandria City Council’s reversal on a decision to reallocate funds meant for school resource officers toward mental health programs has upset those who fought for the move.

The council voted four to three to temporarily restore the program after several complaints by parents about violent encounters involving their children in Alexandria City Public Schools since the beginning of the 2021-22 school year. This move was a reversal of the decision made by the council in May 2021 to end the SRO program in favor of school-based mental health programs.

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