After the permanent closure of the 200 block of King Street to vehicular traffic was approved last year, Alexandria is making upgrades to the block.
The Alexandria Department of Transportation & Environmental Services announced plans to add permanent improvements to the pedestrian block. The last city budget allocated $350,000 to make improvements to the 200 block pedestrian zone.
An 11-year-old student at Hammond Middle School is behind a new resource covering everything from budget calculators to random password generators.
In July, Emmanuel Adu-Wadier launched CalcHub, a free website with more than 50 unique calculators covering finance and investment, mathematics, science, health and wellness, education and everyday tools. The rising seventh grader built the site using JavaScript, HTML, CSS and AI.
It’s been a busy summer so far for Visit Alexandria.
Fresh off the heels of Croatia’s national soccer team using the city as a base camp during the World Cup, America’s 250th celebration and the city’s birthday, Visit Alexandria’s CEO Todd O’Leary expects a sleepy August, followed by a busy fall full of parades, art festivals and holiday events.
Alexandria’s Freedom House Museum has received $1 million in Virginia’s approved two-year budget to support its continued renovations.
The $1 million in state funding provided in the 2027 fiscal year and matching city funds through the Office of Historic Alexandria will support interior rehabilitation and accessibility improvements at 1315 Duke Street. Historic Alexandria director Gretchen M. Bulova told ALXnow the upgrades will provide public access to the basement where enslaved men were held when it was home to one of the country’s largest slave trading companies.
The Alexandria City School Board gave the green light to its $401.18 million combined funds budget on Thursday night, capping months of public meetings and conversations during what Board Chair Michelle Rief described as “an extraordinarily difficult budget year.”
“This year’s budget development process occurred amid significant uncertainty,” Rief said before the budget’s passage, “including federal workforce reductions that disproportionately affect Alexandria, slowing City revenue growth, continued inflationary pressures, the complexity of negotiating our first collective bargaining agreement and the delayed adoption of the state budget.”
The Alexandria City School Board held a work session yesterday (June 9) to decide adds and deletes from the budget before final approval, but the state budget impasse leaves future funding for compensation and other items unresolved.
Several of the 38 add/delete proposals that had at least four co-sponsors received support to be added into the Alexandria City Public Schools budget. The School Board will vote on the final budget tomorrow (June 11).
Alexandria City Council took a step Tuesday (May 26) to consider changes to the School Board’s terms and the size of the nine-member board. The council is also considering using potential contingent funds that will be available in the new fiscal year to fund Community in Schools of Northern Virginia at Alexandria City Public Schools.
Mayor Alyia Gaskins received support from a majority of City Council members on the proposal to form an ad hoc committee on election reform. City Council’s request will direct City Manager Jim Parajon to prepare a resolution to create the committee that two City Council members would be in. Gaskins said the committee’s scope would allow it to look at staggered terms and other election reform items such as board size, timing of terms or representation. The two City Council members would work with two School Board members to bring forward election reform recommendations.
The Alexandria School Board is asking City Council to use emergency funds to help preserve a $350,000 program that supports high-needs students.
In a joint letter to City Council, Chair Michelle Rief said the School Board is navigating difficult choices between staff and programming cuts. The request comes after City Council approved its Fiscal Year 2027 Budget, leaving a $5.6 million gap for the school system’s proposed $12.7 million collective bargaining agreement. Proposed budget cuts to fill the gap include reducing the partnership with Communities In Schools of Northern Virginia (CIS NOVA), which provides 10 bilingual staffers at Alexandria City High School, Francis Hammond Middle School, Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School and Samuel Tucker, John Adams and William Ramsay Elementary Schools.
A bill allowing church-based by-right housing development and several other laws passed during the 2026 Virginia General Assembly will require or allow local action, according to a presentation to Alexandria City Council last week (May 12).
Wendy Ginsberg, the city’s legislative director, provided an update on key bills the city has been tracking or will be impacted by during City Council’s May 12 meeting. Virginia is a Dillon Rule state, which means localities can only use authority granted through state law.
Concerns about budget cuts focused on student-facing positions and health care premium increases were raised at an Alexandria City School Board public hearing Tuesday (May 12) as the board seeks ways to fill a $5.6 million gap.
City Council’s $979.1 million Fiscal Year 2027 budget, adopted April 29, did not fill the $5.6 million gap the school system needs to fund its proposed $12.7 million collective bargaining agreement. After City Council’s budget approval, ACPS Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt presented a revised budget to the School Board on May 7.
Alexandria City Public Schools staff are decrying the short notice given over an increase to their health insurance premiums, just a day before the month-long open enrollment period.
In an April 30 email, thousands of ACPS staff and retirees were told that health insurance premium rates will increase by 16% for UnitedHealthcare customers and by 8.9% for Kaiser Permanente customers, and that the changes will result in higher employee contributions. Employees who don’t go through the open enrollment process by 11:59 p.m. May 31 will lose their healthcare coverage.
