School Board | ALXnow

Last year’s Alexandria City High School class had the highest graduation rate and the lowest student dropout rate ever

Published October 1, 2021 at 10:06AM | Updated October 1, 2021 at 10:45AM

The Alexandria City High School marquee (staff photo by James Cullum)

(Updated at 10:40 a.m. Alexandria City High School’s rates increased to their highest levels ever, not the highest in Virginia) Alexandria City High School has a lot more than just a new name to be proud of. This week, the school system announced that its recent graduating class saw the highest on-time graduation rate and the lowest student dropout rate in the school’s history.

“ACPS saw a nine-percentage point increase in the on-time graduation rate, from 82% in 2020 to 91% in 2021, and a nine-percentage point decrease in the overall student dropout rate, from 14% in 2020 to 5% in 2021,” ACPS reported. “The previous highest on-time graduation rate for ACPS was 86% in 2013 and the previous lowest dropout rate was 8% in 2019.”

News

Upcoming Alexandria City Council and School Board election forums announced

By Vernon Miles

Published September 29, 2021 at 3:45PM | Updated September 30, 2021 at 2:20PM

Voters line up to vote early in Old Town (Staff Photo by Jay Westcott)

(Updated 9/30) Alexandria’s incumbents running for re-election managed to hold on through the Democratic primary, but they face Republican and Independent challengers in the upcoming November election.

The Seminary Ridge Civic Association recently announced that it will be hosting two election forums throughout October, one for the City Council candidates and one for Mayoral candidates.

News

School Board Chair Meagan Alderton says ACPS leadership will be challenged by high Board turnover

By James Cullum

Published September 28, 2021 at 3:55PM | Updated September 29, 2021 at 2:10PM

Facing no electoral opposition in her November reelection, Alexandria School Board Chair Meagan Alderton says the next three years will be full of challenges. For one thing, the incoming nine-member board will have six new faces who will be challenged to lead a school system beset by controversy.

“I am definitely concerned about the turnover of the board,” Alderton told ALXnow. “One of the greatest challenges in today’s public schools in general is what I call the revolving door. We really reached a critical juncture in which we can’t even expect and plan to our support personnel — teachers, principals, leadership, superintendents… To not stick around for at least five years is devastating to our potential for progress.”

News

ALXnow’s top stories this week in Alexandria

By James Cullum

Published September 24, 2021 at 3:35PM

Police outside the McDonalds where a shooting occurred, staff photo by James Cullum

What a busy week in Alexandria.

Our top story this week was on a juvenile who was shot outside the McDonald’s at the Bradlee Shopping Center on Tuesday, Sept. 21. There have also been a number of concerning incidents at Alexandria City Public Schools, including a juvenile who was arrested for trespassing and assault and battery at Alexandria City High School.

News

School Board to vote on transgender revisions in Alexandria City Public Schools

By James Cullum

Published September 22, 2021 at 2:20PM

The Alexandria City High School marquee (staff photo by James Cullum)

The Alexandria School Board on Thursday (September 23) will vote Thursday on a number of policy and regulatory revisions on the treatment of transgender students.

Among the changes are proposals to not segregate extracurricular activities by gender and allowing students to dress according to their gender identity or gender expression. Student athletes would still, sometimes, be segregated.

Opinion

Interview: Port City Publius opens up about Alexandria

By James Cullum

Published September 21, 2021 at 3:30PM

For five years Port City Publius has let fly. The anonymous blogger won’t shy from criticizing the superintendent, or blasting “NIMBY” residents who favor changing the leadership of City Council.

Who is this writer? Is Port City Publius more than one person?

News

Police dispatched three times for fighting at Alexandria City Public Schools in less than a month

By James Cullum

Published September 17, 2021 at 1:00PM | Updated September 17, 2021 at 3:03PM

Alexandria Police lights (staff photo by James Cullum)

Alexandria Police have been dispatched to Alexandria City Public Schools three times to respond to students fighting since school started on August 24.

The most recent incident occurred on Tuesday, September 14, just before 1 p.m. at the Alexandria City High School Minnie Howard campus at 3801 West Braddock Road. The student victim was not transported to the hospital.

News

Alexandria School Board candidate wants cameras in classrooms and ‘examples’ made of misbehaving kids

By Vernon Miles

Published September 14, 2021 at 3:45PM | Updated September 14, 2021 at 11:33PM

(Updated 6:20 p.m.) Ricardo Roberts is, to say the least, an outlier in the 2021 School Board District B race.

Roberts has had multiple run-ins with school officials, including one charge of trespassing at an Alexandria City Public School that ended in acquittal in court last year. While other candidates include incumbent School Board members and others generally supportive of the direction Alexandria City Public Schools have taken over the last few years, Roberts’ policy suggestions mark a sharp and potentially controversial departure from many other candidates.

News

School Board says vaccination will be required for staff

By Vernon Miles

Published September 13, 2021 at 11:00AM

News of over a dozen school deaths from COVID in Miami has led ACPS to reconsider it’s earlier position of allowing staff to decide whether to be vaccinated or not.

At a School Board meeting last week, the board voted to make it clear that in the coming weeks a plan will be put together on requiring all staff to be vaccinated — unless that falls into the broad category of claiming a medical or religious exemption.

News

ACPS Superintendent Hutchings asks community to hit the brakes on email campaigns

By Vernon Miles

Published August 30, 2021 at 3:40PM

Superintendent Gregory Hutchings, Jr. has one request for the community at large: Lay off the email campaigns.

Rather than individual emails with a question or a comment, Hutchings said his office and others in ACPS staff have been bombarded recently with copy-and-pasted emails. It’s become enough of an issue that Hutchings said at a School Board work session last week that the level of crowding in school staff emails has sometimes caused issues with missed communications.

News

BREAKING: Video shows brawl at Alexandria City High School cafeteria just two days after school starts

By James Cullum

Published August 27, 2021 at 1:20PM | Updated August 27, 2021 at 5:16PM

A video has surfaced of a brawl Thursday (August 26) in the cafeteria of Alexandria City High School (ACHS). While the police weren’t called, it was one of two fights broken up that day, according to sources.

Caution: The following video contains disturbing behavior.