The Alexandria City Council unanimously adopted its $770.7 million fiscal year 2022 budget on Wednesday night, and it includes the first tax real estate tax reduction in 15 years.
Retiring Councilwoman Del Pepper made the motion to pass the budget, her last after 35 years on Council.
ACPS could be adjusting its grading scale in recognition of the additional challenges posed for students by COVID-19.
In a report to the Alexandria City School Board scheduled for the meeting tomorrow (Thursday), staff is recommending that some exam grades be dropped and students be given additional changes to repeat assignments for a higher grade.
(Updated at 4:30 p.m.) Only three sitting members of the Alexandria School Board have filed to run for reelection, and four newcomers have entered the race.
The last three years have been a contentious period, and the school system has been under intense scrutiny throughout the pandemic.
The Alexandria City Council on Monday night effectively put an end to the School Resource Office program between the police department at Alexandria City Public Schools.
School resources officers (SROs), police officers stationed inside T.C. Williams High School, Francis Hammond Middle School and George Washington Middle School, will no longer have offices in those schools.
The Alexandria City Council will finalize their additions and deletions to the fiscal year 2022 budget tonight (May 3), and the future of school resource officers at Alexandria City Public Schools remains in question.
Last week, a majority of City Council was in favor of discontinuing the SRO program and diverting nearly $800,000 to “add mental health resources for school aged children, support staff to the Teen Wellness Center, an additional Behavioral Health Specialist to the ACORP (Alexandria Crisis Intervention Co-Responding Program) Pilot, and other similar needs identified by staff.”
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam was in Alexandria Wednesday, and with Mayor Justin Wilson welcomed U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to Ferdinand T. Day Elementary School.
Northam stopped by Pacers Running at 1301 King Street before the event with Cardona, where he met Wilson and spoke with employees about raising the minimum wage. Pacers has been paying its employees $15 an hour since last year.
Surrounded by about 100 other protestors outside of Alexandria City Public Schools’ Central Office, Kathryn Grassmeyer started to cry.
The mother of three wants schools to reopen to four or five days a week, and got emotional when talking about some of the difficult choices she and her husband have made regarding their children’s education.
The day has finally come for Douglas MacArthur Elementary School.
On Monday, members of the community and Alexandria City Public Schools leadership watched as a demolition crew started tearing down the World War II-era building.
It was another week full of news in Alexandria. Here are the top headlines of the week.
Our top story was on the 34-year-old Arlington man charged with distributing methamphetamine after reporting to police that he was the victim of an armed robbery in his fifth floor room at the Embassy Suites in Old Town. The investigating officer asked if there was anything illegal in the man’s room, and he reportedly said, “There is some meth in the room, but it’s for personal use.”
Residents from the local citizen group Open ACPS! are planning to rally outside Central Office of Alexandria City Public Schools on Monday.
The rally will coincide with the joint City Council/School Board Subcommittee Meeting.
Alexandria City Public Schools will open to four days of in-person instruction starting the first week of May, according to ACPS staff.
There are 1,700+ special needs students in ACPS, and only a fraction of those students who require services in specialized citywide programs will return four days a week, according to ACPS.
