Alexandria City Public Schools have acknowledged that Thomas Chambliss Williams was a racist and segregationist, and on Friday the School Board will decide on moving forward with the renaming process for T.C. Williams High School.
On the table is a proposal to begin the renaming process by directing Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr. to initiate a public engagement process this fall, followed by a report with recommendations next spring.
Alexandria City Public Schools will not comment on assertions made by the former ACPS Chief Operating Officer Mignon Anthony, who lambasted the school system and the leadership of Superintendent Gregory Huthings, Jr. in a scathing opinion letter published by the Alexandria Times.
Anthony apologized for not fulfilling promises made when she started her job in January 2018, and said that the tide turned against her after raising concerns over de-escalating transportation employee complaints. She also that ACPS leadership is unstable and that it “does not serve our students or educators well.”
Free food distributions will be disrupted by the July 4 weekend in Alexandria, but food is still available.
Most notably there will not be any Alexandria City Public Schools distributions from Friday, July 3, until operations resume on Monday, July 6.
Alexandria African American activists and leaders virtually came out in force on Sunday to demand that T.C. Williams High School be renamed.
“When I first learned that the high school that I graduated from was named after a segregationist and a racist, I was appalled,” said Lindsey Woodson Vick, a T.C. grad, who organized and led Zoom chat with advocates for changing the school name. “We owe better to the people who came before us and the people who will come after us.”
It was a busy week in Alexandria, and there is plenty to talk about.
The city is moving forward with phase three of reopening its economy on July 1, and the news comes as the death toll from the coronavirus moved up to 50 and the number of cases steadily rise.
A summer learning program all Alexandria City Public Schools students will be expected to attend is scheduled to start on July 6 and will continue throughout that month.
According to ACPS, summer learning will be offered Monday through Thursday from July 6 to July 31. Pre-K through 8th-grade classes are scheduled to run from 9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. while high school classes are scheduled to run from 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. Class sizes are expected to be around 25-30 students together in a Zoom call.
The Alexandria School Board has received a petition from the community, and the topic of renaming T.C. Williams High School will be addressed this fall, according to Board Chair Cindy Anderson.
The school system will also be looking at the names of all of its facilities, however no future date has been set in stone as ACPS is focusing on its reopening plan, Anderson said.
Samuel Tucker Elementary’s proud year-round school program is being cut back this year due to coronavirus, but School Board members offered reassurances to the community that the change is only temporary.
At a School Board meeting last Friday, school principal Rene Paschal said the questions about how coronavirus would impact the school’s calendar started in the parent community and conversations with school staff continued until the school administration was putting together a plan for what a temporary change away from the year-round program would look like.
With summer officially in full swing, Alexandria City Public Schools is working to reopen its playgrounds to the public.
On Monday, the playgrounds at Patrick Henry Elementary School, Samuel W. Tucker Elementary School and Jefferson Houston School reopened, according to an email that was sent to parents.
Beyer Criticizes Pence Over Second Wave Comments — “Over 116,000 Americans have died. Over 2,000,000 have gotten sick. The person appointed by the President to lead the response (you) flout basic safety precautions recommended by the CDC to prevent spread of the virus as more people get sick.” [Twitter]
Alexandria DMV Opening June 22 by Appointment Only — “The validity of driver’s licenses and identification cards expiring on or before July 31, 2020, is extended for 90 days, not to exceed August 31, 2020. This means that a customer whose credential expired between March 15 and May 31 will have 90 days beyond the expiration date to renew, and credentials with an expiration date from June 1 to July 31 must be renewed no later than August 31, 2020. Vehicle registrations that expire in March, April, and May are extended for 90 days; those expiring in June are extended for 60 days; and those expiring in July are extended for 30 days. In addition, the federal enforcement date for REAL IDs was moved to October 1, 2021.” [DMV]
T.C. Williams High School held a graduation ceremony like no other on Saturday, with world champion sprinter Noah Lyles, members of the student body, the superintendent and principal — while most of the school’s 865 graduates never left the comfort of their homes.
The virtual ceremony was the first of its kind in the history of the Alexandria City Public School system, as all schools throughout Virginia were shut down in March for the remainder of a school year that would also be defined by the state of race relations in the country. The graduating class of 2020 was also the largest in T.C. history, according to ACPS.
