Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be a virtual workday for students and teachers at Alexandria City Public Schools.
ACPS facilities will remain closed for all activities for a third consecutive day due to inclement weather, Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt announced this afternoon. Students, teachers and staff will instead move to synchronous virtual learning plans.
All Alexandria City Public Schools and offices will be closed tomorrow (Monday) due to the ongoing winter storm.
Monday was previously scheduled as a teacher work day, per ACPS’ calendar. The new cancellation affects all in-person afternoon and evening activities scheduled on school grounds, including programming provided by community organizations or the City of Alexandria.
Potential collective bargaining agreements and redrawn school boundaries were factored into the latest budget proposal presented to the Alexandria City School Board last night (Thursday).
Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt proposed the $406.5 million combined funds budget for fiscal year 2027, a 3.7% increase from the last approved budget. The bulk of funds are in the $374.5 million operating budget, but it also includes school nutrition funds as well as grants and a special projects fund.
After a now-fired Alexandria City Public Schools administrator was found with a second job, the Alexandria City School Board is considering updates to its second job policy.
On Thursday, the School Board will review a policy update for employees' additional jobs beyond their school district employment. The proposed addition calls for no second jobs for ACPS chiefs, executive directors or directors unless the superintendent gives approval. It would apply for second jobs with an average of 10 hours per week for at least a month.
After a contentious discussion, the Alexandria City School Board last night (Thursday) approved its $282.3 million Capital Improvement Program budget for fiscal years 2027-36.
The 5-4 approval of Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt’s proposed budget comes in at $3.5 million below the recommended amount from City Manager Jim Parajon’s office. The CIP includes $23 million in funding for non-capacity projects next year, including $1.8 million in school bus/vehicle replacements, $1.8 million for emergency repairs and $1.3 million in curriculum and instruction materials. It also accounts for the $2 million development of the Alexandria City High School’s Chance for Change Academy.
An updated $282 million budget proposal would defer renovations at an Alexandria elementary school while securing funding for two contentious K-8 conversion plans in 2030.
The new Capital Improvement Program (CIP) budget from Alexandria City Public Schools comes in at $58 million less than the Alexandria City School Board’s original proposal and remains under the city’s guidance of $285.8 million, following weeks of workshopping by school and city leaders to trim it down.
There’s something different, a little more polished, about the morning announcements at Alexandria City High School these days.
Students and Alexandria City Public Schools leadership were on-hand last Friday for the opening of the newly renovated television studio for ACHS’ TV and Media Production class. With top notch equipment to boot, the new studio looks like something out of CNN, offering students real-world experience in television production, including directing, operating cameras and creating educational content.
Several community members braved the cold yesterday evening (Thursday) to voice their support for a petition to rename The Fields at Alexandria City High School after former Mayor Kerry Donley.
Eight out of thirteen speakers yesterday spoke in support of the measure during a public hearing on Alexandria City Public Schools’ considerations to rename four facilities across the district. Among them were Gayle Reuter, former U.S. Rep. Jim Moran and Kaitlin Donley, one of Donley’s daughters.
Student achievement across Alexandria City Public Schools appears to be hovering steady compared to last year, according to new state data, but the district’s numbers still linger behind the commonwealth.
In the 2024-2025 school year, 62% percent of ACPS students passed state reading tests, up one percentage point from the year prior, according to Virginia Department of Education’s accountability system, the School Performance and Support Framework.
The Alexandria City School Board voted unanimously last night (Thursday) to extend its contract with the Alexandria Police Department through June 30.
The extended memorandum of understanding (MOU) will give the School Board’s Governance Committee more time to draft a new contract proposal that fully addresses its concerns, Division Counsel Robert Falconi said at last night’s meeting.
In an effort to increase transparency and inform the public, the Alexandria City School Board wants to launch its own website.
The School Board will discuss the development at its meeting tomorrow (Thursday). According to a draft proposal, Board Chair Michelle Rief would designate two board members to be co-editors to manage content, and that all content not republished from the Alexandria City Public Schools website would have to be approved by the school system’s attorney before publication.
