At a School Board meeting tonight (Thursday), parents and other community members from Jefferson-Houston voiced strong opposition to plans to convert Jefferson-Houston and Patrick Henry, both K-8 schools, into a middle school and elementary school respectively.
The goal of the plan is to relieve overcrowding at Alexandria’s middle schools, though the conversions aren’t expected to take place until 2030 and 2032.
Despite mixed community reaction, the Alexandria School Board voted to convert Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 IB School into a middle school and Patrick Henry K-8 School into an elementary school.
Alexandria’s two middle schools are both well over 100% capacity, and as budgeted, the conversion of Jefferson-Houston won’t start for a few years. That means that the strain at George Washington Middle School and Francis C. Hammond Middle School won’t be eased unless the Board takes an immediate action.
It’s a new era for middle school sports in Alexandria, and the girls started it.
On Tuesday (Dec. 3), the George Washington Middle School girls basketball team defeated Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 IB School 22-14 in Alexandria’s first-ever middle school championship basketball game.
Despite mixed community reaction, Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt included the conversion of Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 IB School into a middle school and Patrick Henry K-8 School into an elementary school in her proposed 10-year Capital Improvement Program budget.
The Patrick Henry and Jefferson-Houston school communities largely want their schools to remain as-is, but Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) said analysis showed they might need to convert to an elementary and middle school to help with division-wide capacity problems.
Currently, Patrick Henry and Jefferson-Houston are Pre-K through 8th-grade schools, but ACPS is considering converting one or both schools into elementary schools (Pre-K through 5th grade) or middle schools (6th through 8th grade).
The head of school and academic principal at Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School are returning to work after four months of forced leave after an autistic four-year-old student walked away from the school and was found walking barefoot in the middle of the street near the King St. Metro station.
In a letter this week to Jefferson-Houston parents and staff, head of school John McCain thanked administrators PreeAnn Johnson and Julia Neufer for “serving as the acting leadership team and providing consistency for our community.”
Nine new townhomes and four semi-detached dwellings are being proposed for a half-acre property used for an office building and warehouse in the Old Town Historic District.
The Alexandria Planning Commission will be presented with the proposal to build on the two parcels at 107 and 125 N. West Street. The location is about a half-block from King Street, and is near Jefferson Houston Elementary School and the King St. Metro station.
It was quite a week in Alexandria.
It seems that nearly all of Monday’s news was overshadowed by the eclipse. Hundreds of bespectacled residents turned out at Ben Brenaman Park to witness the cosmic event.
A four-year-old student with autism walked away from Jefferson-Houston Elementary School in Old Town last month and was found barefoot in the middle the street by a school bus driver near the King Street Metro station.
A number of school officials were consequently placed on administrative leave by Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt.
A 28-year-old Alexandria man was released on bond after allegedly firing a handgun in Old Town on New Year’s Eve, according to the Alexandria Police Department.
No injuries were reported. The incident occurred at around 8:55 a.m. in the 1500 block of Princess Street, near Jefferson-Houston Elementary School.
After City Council approved a plan to install lights on athletic fields at several schools, new plans show Jefferson Houston PreK-8 School (1501 Cameron Street) could be the first to get the upgrade.
Plans for the new lights are headed to the Board of Architectural Review on Wednesday, Jan. 4.
