Alexandria City Public Schools has some big projects on its plate, but at a School Board meeting last Thursday, many of the smaller projects discussed could have a big impact on the schools.
The meeting discussed the top priorities for non-capacity improvements next year. While several schools are slated for sweeping modernization projects over the next ten years, the Capital Improvement Program upgrades could provide some stop-gap improvements in the meantime.
Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) officials have laid out their ten-year plan to modernize the schools, and the work has already started on easing the sticker-shock that comes with it.
At a meeting on Thursday, Nov. 7, Superintendent Gregory Hutchings walked the School Board through the Capital Improvement Program (CIP). The CIP includes plans to spend $530 million over the next ten years on capital improvement projects, primarily focused on modernization and additions for schools.
School officials are trying to ensure that early plans to expand T.C. Williams High School don’t result in increasing the inequities the plan was designed to thwart.
On Sept. 26, the School Board voted not to build a second high school, but to transform T.C. Williams High School as a campus with an expanded Minnie Howard satellite location a few blocks away. As the schools move into the earliest phases of developing what that expansion looks like, School Board members and school officials at a meeting last week expressed concerns that the current plan to add new facilities to Minnie Howard campus could result in students receiving unequal access to better educational opportunities — one of the chief criticisms of the two high school plan.
(Updated 10/31/19) Alexandria City Public Schools are moving forward with plans to use Patrick Henry Elementary School as swing space with some new aspects that aim to ease concerns about traffic
By September 2020, ACPS plans to have to schools open on the lot where the former Patrick Henry Elementary School currently sits (4643 Taney Lane). The plan use the former Patrick Henry building for Douglas MacArthur students while the Douglas MacArthur school is under construction, with the new temporary school called Douglas MacArthur on Taney Avenue. The school will remain there until the new Douglas MacArthur opens in 2023.
Gone are the days when the Alexandria City Council and School Board’s joint meetings were bloody affairs where both sides would haggle over monumental budget gaps. But under the surface, members of the City Council were dubious at last night’s (Wednesday) joint session that enough is being done to align city and school interests when it comes to new development.
One of the most-discussed goals of the collaboration between the city and schools is co-locating facilities — moving away from new developments being single-use and towards projects that might include a school along with recreational facilities or housing.
It’s no secret that there is a lack of equity in Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) and school staff are working to identify where staff and students say disparities are the most prevalent.
While the school system recently celebrated all ACPS schools being fully accredited, the announcement noted that achievement gaps continue to exist “particularly in math and English among Hispanic students, black students, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities.” Test scores over recent years have shown a narrowing gap among different groups but with room to improve.
The School Board has shot down a plan to add a second high school in Alexandria and is sticking with — as several members of the audience chanted throughout the night — “One T.C.”
After a long debate at its Sept. 26 meeting that dredged up Alexandria’s history of segregation in schools and the ongoing achievement gap, the School Board voted 6-3 in favor of expanding the current high school into a “campus.”
