The final touches are being made to Alexandria City High School’s expansion of its Minnie Howard Campus.
The five-story, $174 million high school project is on-budget and on-track for “substantial completion this spring,” according to an Alexandria City Public School staff report that will be presented to the School Board on Thursday.
“Construction of the new Minnie Howard building has been ongoing since the spring of 2022 and is on track to be substantially completed this spring for occupancy in August 2024,” staff wrote.
The 1,600-student school, which nearly doubled in its capacity, will feature an aquatics facility and expanded career and technical education (CTE) lab spaces for “potential new offerings in game design/development, robotics, emergency medical sciences, cyber security, (and) firefighting,” according to ACPS.
Staff also reported that construction the gymnasium and auxiliary gym are complete, that furniture is being moved in and that interior finishing touches are being made.
Next steps for the project include inspection by the Health Department and getting a final occupancy permit.
After years in development, a new agreement was released between Alexandria City Public Schools and the Alexandria Police Department to provide school resource officers (SROs) at the city’s high school and middle schools.
The new memorandum of understanding between ACPS and APD has been a long time coming. SROs were defunded by the City Council in last year’s budget, and Alexandria City Public Schools spent the first few months of the 2021-2022 school year without the officers in its high school and middle schools. The officers were returned after ACPS pleaded with Council for their return in the wake of multiple incidents with weapons in schools.
“You will see that a lot of the MOU remains unchanged,” Alicia Hart, the ACPS chief of facilities and operations, told the School Board last Thursday night. “The areas where substantial updates and additions were added include the addition of the use of shared technology resources section, which speaks to the ways in which this partnership may transcend into the joint use of technology resources to support safety.”
Many updated are based on recommendations by the School Law Enforcement Partnership (SLEP) Advisory Group, which formed last fall.
Those changes include police providing quarterly statistical reports with metrics to measure the effectiveness of their work, that school administrators complete ACPS Law Enforcement Occurrence Report forms, and that the school system meet with police quarterly to review SRO performance and data.
With juvenile crime is on the rise, the school system also plans to roll out a metal detector program this month.
There were 188 incidents requiring a police response within Alexandria City Public Schools in the first two quarters of the current school year, according to a school safety report. Seventeen Alexandria City Public School students were arrested. There were also 15 weapons-related incidents, 41 students injured, 44 fights/assaults and a report of sexual misconduct.
In March, an Alexandria City High School teacher confiscated handgun from a student and in April a suspended student was arrested for allegedly firing a gun near a bus stop at the Bradlee Shopping Center.
The current MOU expires on June 30.
City Council will discuss the matter with the School Board on May 15 (Monday), and the School Board will hold a public hearing and vote on it on May 18 (Thursday). If approved, the MOU will go into effect on July 1 and be renewed in 2025.
According to the proposed MOU:
- Police will provide quarterly statistical reports with metrics to measure the effectiveness of the ACPS/APD partnership
- School administrators must fill out an ACPS Law Enforcement Occurrence Report form within 24 hours of a law enforcement action at a school. Those actions may include assisting administrators as requested, investigations, referrals, and arrests
- ACPS will participate in law enforcement sponsored/related educational activities and seminars
- ACPS will handle discipline within schools and SROs should not be involved with enforcement of school rules or disciplinary infractions that are not violations of the law
- APD must meet with APD in August, November, February and May of each school year to review SRO performance and discuss reporting data. The meetings will include daily SRO attendance, calls for assistance, incident reporting and educational activities with students
- Each principal with an SRO must complete quarterly assessment forms
- Principals will permit the SROs to complete an educational activity at their assigned school with a goal of one activity per quarter. Such an activity could include classroom briefings, student council briefings and other presentations
- SROs may intervene to de-escalate situations. However, an SRO should not be involved in the physical restraint of a stuent unless there is imminent danger of serious physical harm to self or others
Alexandria City High School’s Minnie Howard Campus has been taken off of “secure the building” mode after a handgun was confiscated from a student.
ACHS Executive Principal Peter Balas notified parents of the incident in an email. A teacher reported the weapon to school administrators at around 9 a.m., and the building was placed in “secure the building” mode at 9:15 a.m.
The full message is below.
Dear Minnie Howard Families,
At about 9:00 a.m. today, Alexandria City High School-Minnie Howard Campus administrators received a report from a teacher that a student was in possession of a weapon, and they quickly responded to this report. The school was placed in “secure the building” mode at 9:15 a.m. when, upon investigation, the presence of an unloaded handgun was confirmed, and the weapon was immediately secured. The Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) safety and security team worked with the Alexandria Police Department (APD) on site to conduct an investigation with the student involved. The “secure the building” status was lifted at 10:29 a.m. once the on-site investigation was completed, and normal operations resumed.
“Secure the building” means that the school day continues on a normal schedule inside the school but no one is allowed to enter or leave the school while the building remains secured. An Alexandria City Public Schools video provides more information on what happens when a school is placed in “secure the building” mode. The class schedule and transitions may be adjusted as needed.
The safety and security of our students and staff are of utmost priority. We will continue to provide updates to families via our website and ParentSquare as more information becomes available.
Sincerely,
Peter Balas
Executive Principal
Alexandria City High School
King Street Campus
Minnie Howard Campus
Weapons in ACPS have been a serious issue, and the school system plans to roll out a metal detector program in May.
(Updated at 5 p.m.) Police responded to “student altercations” today at Alexandria City High School’s Minnie Howard campus but the incidents did not result in a lockdown, the school’s principal wrote in an email to parents on Monday afternoon.
Three juveniles were arrested for obstruction of justice. No students went to the hospital or were reported injured, police said.
Principal Peter Balas said that the regular school schedule was interrupted as police and school administrators “assured the safety of all students and staff in the building after the events.”
“This afternoon, there was additional police presence at the Alexandria City High School Minnie Howard campus resulting from student altercations,” Balas wrote. “The campus resumed a regular schedule at 1:15 p.m. once the situation was addressed.”
Balas continued, “As a precaution, the Alexandria Police Department (APD) was called for assistance in the event that additional support might be needed. Just to clarify, the building was not placed on lockdown or secure the building status which some members of the school community mistakenly posted on social media channels.”
ACHS is the largest high school in Virginia and began this year with new security upgrades for students and staff. There were 82 incidents in the 2021-2022 year at the school that required a police response, and 14 students were arrested.
Last month, after a visit to the school from Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, Mayor Justin Wilson and School Board Chair Jacinta Greene affirmed in a letter the “close partnership between our school division, Alexandria Police Department and other agencies that promote the well-being of children.”
Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) has filed a special use permit to allow it to extend the use of trailers at Alexandria City High School to 2024.
The specific temporary trailers being discussed in the special use permit are those built specifically to accommodate students displaced by the Minnie Howard campus renovation.
The special use permit also notes that, technically, ACPS’s permit to use those trailers has already expired.
“The proposed change is an extension of the August 31, 2022 expiration of the temporary trailers at [Alexandria] City High School until the Minnie Howard campus renovation is complete for adequate space between the Minnie Howard and King Street campuses,” the special use permit said. “The requested extension is for August 31, 2024.”
The Minnie Howard campus expansion — part of a plan to expand capacity at Alexandria City High School — broke ground this March.
The project is scheduled to be completed for the 2024-2025 school year, so there’s a fair chance ACPS will be back for another extension before the expansion is finished.
The long-discussed and debated Minnie Howard project — part of adapting Alexandria City High School to handle ever-increasing capacity — finally broke ground yeterday.
City and school officials gathered at the site to mark the beginning of construction on a new Minnie Howard campus. The project is scheduled to be constructed around the current school and open in the 2024-2025 school year.
Capacity at the project is planned to increase to 1,600 students and changed from just 9th-grade students to all high school grades. Some concerns still linger about transportation between the two campuses, which involves crossing the very busy three-way intersection at West Braddock Road, King Street and North Quaker Lane.
School Board Chair Meagan Alderton said the Minnie Howard project is a new standard for Alexandria school development.
“This project isn’t just an example of space for kids,” Alderton said. “We started this project thinking about: what type of educational community do we want our high school to be? This is one small part of a bigger project that is ongoing. When this building opens, we will have a high school that is designed to meet the needs of each and every kid.”
Alderton said future school development will also need to incorporate educational program elements into the school design.
Emily Milton, a student representative on the School Board and a junior at Alexandria City High School, reflected fondly on her experience at Minnie Howard, though like many students Milton’s time at the school was cut short by Covid.
“Both my parents attended T.C. Williams High School,” Milton said. “[My friends and I] were so excited to be high schoolers. I was only at Minnie Howard for half the time I was supposed to, due to Covid, but I still had some of the best months of my life here. We got to attend homecoming, winter formal, and all the sports games as real high school students.”
Photo via Canek Aguirre/Twitter
Alexandria voted in 2019 to stick with one high school across two campuses, but how exactly students get from one location to the other remains a topic of some consternation.
The City Council was supportive of plans for the Minnie Howard campus of Alexandria City High School presented at the meeting on Saturday — with the Council voting unanimously in favor and Mayor Justin Wilson calling it an example of positive collaboration in an occasionally fraught relationship. But getting students from Minnie Howard to the King Street campus and vice-versa is still a nagging cause for concern.
“This would be an ideal bicycle environment,” said City Council member Sarah Bagley. “Connectivity between the two campuses is an ideal bike trip and an absolutely unideal car trip. Turning the car on and off to go half a mile — we want to do everything we can to induce bike connectivity between the two campuses. We have a large population capable of making that trip between these two parcels.”
City Councilman John Chapman asked city staff about long-term plans for the streets between the two campuses — particularly the busy intersection of West Braddock Road, King Street and North Quaker Lane. Megan Oleynik, an urban planner for the Department Transportation and Environmental Services, said there’s no major infrastructure improvements planned.
“In 2016 and 2017 there were a number of improvements made to signalization and crossing,” Oleynik said. “There were originally considerations for a comprehensive re-do of the intersection, but given the costs and benefits it was determined that smaller improvements were the best way forward.”
As Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) moves forward with development of the school, Oleynik said the city is hoping a walk audit can help with getting more grant funding for additional improvements.
“We’re looking to get some grant money to do a walk audit for these campuses and there might be some smaller improvements to help students walk more safely between the two campuses,” Oleynik said, “but there aren’t any major projects in the pipeline for realignment.”
There are shared lane markings on Braddock Road, Oleynik said, but the Council was divided over whether that was sufficient and the discussion, naturally, included a temporary revisiting of the Seminary Road bike lanes battle
“As someone who had a 9th grader that biked to that school every day and has another that will be doing the same next year, I think we do have an opportunity with that infrastructure,” said Mayor Justin Wilson.
Vice Mayor Amy Jackson said that if adding bike lanes are on the table, that conversation should happen before the city widens the sidewalk outside the school and not when the only option is a reduction in travel lanes.
“Seeing the emergency vehicles that use Braddock Road, that does still need to be a two lane road so I’d hate to see one of the lanes taken away for the use of a bike lane because the share roads are there,” Jackson said. “But if we’re going to do that, now would be the opportunity — while we’re putting in wider sidewalks. Saying ‘do we need wider sidewalks or do we use that land as part of a bicycle lane?'”
Jackson said crossing the streets near Alexandria City High School has long been an issue the city needs to do more to address.
“I know it was open campus for lunch when I went to T.C. and I can tell you we were all playing Frogger in the road,” Jackson said, “and that was 35 years ago because we didn’t have a way to get from the school over to the Bradlee Shopping Center to go to the Bagel Bakery or the Roy Rogers, instead of McDonalds.”
Three years after Alexandria’s School Board voted to stick with one high school, plans are headed to Alexandria’s City Council that could help shed light on what that one high school system looks like.
As a quick refresher: the Minnie Howard campus currently hosts 9th-grade classes but will be expanded to act as a larger satellite campus for Alexandria City High School with a total of 1,600 students.
The current school will remain in operation while the new school is built to the east in areas that are currently athletic fields. Once the new building is constructed, the current Minnie Howard building will be removed and replaced with new athletic and recreational facilities, along with a bus loop and parking.
“The DSUP submission seeks to provide additional classroom space for the growing high school population, as well as community meeting space, public recreation space and address site
circulation for pedestrians and motorists,” a staff report said. “The new five-story high school will be approximately 313,355 square feet and is designed for a capacity of approximately 1,600 students in grades 9th through 12th and 200 faculty.”
The report said the intention is for both campuses to function as one high school, with students in all four grades attending each campus.
“A typical student day will vary depending on course offerings at each campus and student’s course selection,” the report said. “Students may spend full or half days at one campus or travel back and forth. Both the Minnie Howard and King Street campuses will offer some of the same and some varying class options.”
A shuttle service will connect the two campuses, potentially running after each class period. Transportation for staff and teachers between campuses has not yet been determined, the report said.
Recreational fields at the new school will include a synthetic turf — with lighting baked into the approval — and tennis/pickleball courts, basketball/futsal courts and a grass practice area. After some contention, the final designs include two pools in a two-story aquatics facility. The pools at the school and gymnasium will be accessible to the public after school hours and on weekends.
Last April, the City Council approved a pinwheel concept for the school.
“The core of the pinwheel will consist of a three-story atrium topped by a two-story atrium space above,” staff explained in the report. “This will function as the heart of the school and center of circulation between the three wings and between the five different floor levels.”
The school will also have a fairly unique approach to student dining to break up Alexandria City High School’s notorious lunchtime crowds.
“The new high school will be introducing a new concept to student dining,” the report said. “In lieu of a single large cafeteria, smaller dining spaces will be provided on each floor so students will be able to dine in smaller groups and lunch hour capacity can be accommodated at the same time. Food will be prepared in a single kitchen and then delivered to each floor.”
The staff report recommends approval of the project’s request for a master plan amendment and other zoning requests.
Updated 1:15 p.m. — ACHS King Street Campus has returned to normal operating status and Alexandria Police have finished their sweep of the Minnie Howard campus.
12/10/21, 12:50 p.m. APD threat assessment completed & ACHS King St campus back to normal operating status & normal student schedule
— Alexandria City Public Schools (@ACPSk12) December 10, 2021
The Alexandria Police Department is sweeping through the Alexandria City High School Minnie Howard campus after a bomb threat to the school.
The school is being evacuated while the Alexandria Police Department searches the building. ACPS said Minnie Howad students will be released early. Fourteen buses are en-route on the campus to pick up students on Braddock Road. Some parents are being asked to park at the nearby shopping center and walk to the school to avoid crowding.
Both schools were on lockdown earlier today after threats, and Alexandria City High School’s King Street campus remains on “secure the building” status. ACPS said this means the school day is operating on normal status inside the building, but no one is allowed to enter or leave the school campus.
Image via Google Maps
Alexandria residents are being invited to weigh in Tuesday (August 10) on the design for the Alexandria City High School Minnie Howard campus.
The community will be provided a design update at 6 p.m. in a Zoom meeting with staff from the ACPS Office of Capital Programs, Planning and Design. The recently approved competition-sized swimming pool will also be discussed.
“We encourage you to read more about the history of the High School Project (PDF), and we look forward to hearing from you on August 10,” ACPS wrote to parents.
The School Board unanimously approved the $150 million “pinwheel” concept for Minnie Howard in April. A recent ACPS survey found that 77% of respondents like the pinwheel, a decision that took years in the making.
Minnie Howard will continue as a satellite campus for Alexandria City High School, and will accommodate 1,600 students in a new five-story facility. Construction is planned to start on open space on the property next June and wrap up in September 2024. During that time, physical activities and parking will need to be held off-site.
The meeting will include Spanish, Amharic and Arabic interpreters. The Superintendent’s Advisory Team will discuss the comments and recommendations on Wednesday, August 11, from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Photo via ACPS
