Alexandria City Public Schools

Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) officials have laid out their ten-year plan to modernize the schools, and the work has already started on easing the sticker-shock that comes with it.

At a meeting on Thursday, Nov. 7, Superintendent Gregory Hutchings walked the School Board through the Capital Improvement Program (CIP). The CIP includes plans to spend $530 million over the next ten years on capital improvement projects, primarily focused on modernization and additions for schools.

School officials are trying to ensure that early plans to expand T.C. Williams High School don’t result in increasing the inequities the plan was designed to thwart.

On Sept. 26, the School Board voted not to build a second high school, but to transform T.C. Williams High School as a campus with an expanded Minnie Howard satellite location a few blocks away. As the schools move into the earliest phases of developing what that expansion looks like, School Board members and school officials at a meeting last week expressed concerns that the current plan to add new facilities to Minnie Howard campus could result in students receiving unequal access to better educational opportunities — one of the chief criticisms of the two high school plan.

It’s no secret that there is a lack of equity in Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) and school staff are working to identify where staff and students say disparities are the most prevalent.

While the school system recently celebrated all ACPS schools being fully accredited, the announcement noted that achievement gaps continue to exist “particularly in math and English among Hispanic students, black students, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities.” Test scores over recent years have shown a narrowing gap among different groups but with room to improve.