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Former City Council member Willie Bailey announces bid for School Board

By Vernon Miles

(Updated 6/3) In an election where former School Board member Bill Campbell is hoping to move to the City Council, former City Council member Willie Bailey is hoping to make the move in the other direction.

Bailey, an Army veteran and Deputy Chief of the Office of the Fire Marshal for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, was elected to the Alexandria City Council in 2015. Over the next three years, Bailey was one of the Council’s prominent advocates for greater emphasis on affordable housing and supporter of a controversial 1% increase to the city’s meals tax, and lost reelection in 2018.

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School Board says swimming pool colocation a form of ‘reparations’ for Alexandria

By Vernon Miles
Athlete on the T.C. Williams Swim and Dive Team (photo via T.C. Williams High School/Facebook)

School Board chair Meagan Alderton is pushing for the last-minute addition of an aquatics facility to the planned Alexandria City High School expansion, noting that the addition would help toward rectifying a longstanding racial disparity.

Alderton said Alexandria is guilty of the same nationwide disparity in swimming proficiency, with lack of access to pools for Black Americans creating disproportionately white aquatics sports teams. It’s a disparity Alderton said the city can start to push back against with a new pool at the Minnie Howard expansion planned as part of the high school overhaul.

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Morning Notes

By James Cullum
Dining in Old Town. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

School Board vice chair condemns City Council elimination of School Resource Office program — “Without surveying the larger community, they made a decision that frankly their backgrounds don’t qualify them to understand the ramifications of their actions. It’s still puzzling, even after a 2.5-hour exchange by council, what problem council was trying to solve, as the SRO program has not only been highlighted to be a successful partnership, but also there was no evidence to suggest otherwise.” [Alex Times]

Investigative journalist Nick Horrock dies — “Perhaps the best example of his courage came in 1968 when he was trying to expose problems in the prison system. His head shaved, he went undercover as an inmate at the Maryland State Penitentiary. With only the warden and the governor aware of why he was truly there, there was no special protection from either the inmates or the guards. He survived unscathed, he wrote, he won accolades and prizes but he was awash in fear when he was doing it.” [Gazette]

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NEW: Alexandria School Board shakeup looms as few incumbents have filed to run for reelection

By James Cullum

(Updated at 4:30 p.m.) Only three sitting members of the Alexandria School Board have filed to run for reelection, and four newcomers have entered the race.

The last three years have been a contentious period, and the school system has been under intense scrutiny throughout the pandemic.

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Alexandria City Council to end School Resource Officer program at Alexandria City Public Schools

By James Cullum
Alexandria City Hall sign (staff Photo by Jay Westcott)

The Alexandria City Council on Monday night effectively put an end to the School Resource Office program between the police department at Alexandria City Public Schools.

School resources officers (SROs), police officers stationed inside T.C. Williams High School, Francis Hammond Middle School and George Washington Middle School, will no longer have offices in those schools.

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Governor Northam and U.S. Secretary of Education Cardona visit Alexandria

By James Cullum
Governor Ralph Northam (center) with First Lady Pamela Northam (in blue), Mayor Justin Wilson (far left) with staff of Pacers Running at 1301 King Street in Old Town, April 28, 2021. (Photo by Jason Taylor)

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam was in Alexandria Wednesday, and with Mayor Justin Wilson welcomed U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona to Ferdinand T. Day Elementary School.

Northam stopped by Pacers Running at 1301 King Street before the event with Cardona, where he met Wilson and spoke with employees about raising the minimum wage. Pacers has been paying its employees $15 an hour since last year.

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Parents and students protest for expanded in-person instruction outside ACPS Central Office

By ALXnow.com
Protesting outside of ACPS Central Office on Monday, April 26, 2021. (Staff photo by James Cullum)

Surrounded by about 100 other protestors outside of Alexandria City Public Schools’ Central Office, Kathryn Grassmeyer started to cry.

The mother of three wants schools to reopen to four or five days a week, and got emotional when talking about some of the difficult choices she and her husband have made regarding their children’s education.

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ALXnow’s top stories this week in Alexandria

By James Cullum

It was another week full of news in Alexandria. Here are the top headlines of the week.

Our top story was on the 34-year-old Arlington man charged with distributing methamphetamine after reporting to police that he was the victim of an armed robbery in his fifth floor room at the Embassy Suites in Old Town. The investigating officer asked if there was anything illegal in the man’s room, and he reportedly said, “There is some meth in the room, but it’s for personal use.”

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ACPS looking for more space this fall, opening 4-day instruction for special needs students in early May

By James Cullum

Alexandria City Public Schools will open to four days of in-person instruction starting the first week of May, according to ACPS staff.

There are 1,700+ special needs students in ACPS, and only a fraction of those students who require services in specialized citywide programs will return four days a week, according to ACPS.

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