Zahra Rahimi spoke no English when she and her family moved from Afghanistan to Alexandria four years ago.
Fast forward to October, when First Lady Jill Biden recognized her at the White House as one of 15 “Girls Leading Change” around the country.
The Alexandria School Board’s preferred options to restructure itself are “dead” as-is, mostly due to a lack of engagement with the Alexandria City Council, City Council Member John Taylor Chapman told members of the School Board on Monday night.
“I think you’re losing Council by not really engaging with them right now,” Chapman told the City Council/School Board Subcommittee meeting Monday night. “Given the response I’ve seen from my colleagues, I think you have even more of an uphill battle than you had before, and that’s not a good thing if this is supposed to be a process that’s collaborative.”
Alexandria City High School seniors with a 3.25 cumulative grade point average or higher are now eligible for automatic admission to George Mason University.
The deal for the pilot program between Alexandria City Public Schools and GMU was struck earlier this month, and 428 ACHS seniors have since been informed that they have earned a guaranteed admission to the university. The agreement expires in August 2026.
Community champions were honored as Living Legends of Alexandria on Wednesday night.
The prestigious annual honor was given to a dozen well-known former lawmakers, city employees, activists and business owners.
Alexandria parents are up in arms over a staffing crisis within Alexandria City Public Schools.
Kelly Organek says that her ninth-grade son at Alexandria City High School’s Minnie Howard campus hasn’t had a geometry teacher since school started in August and that he only recently got a new biology teacher.
(Updated at 1:45 p.m. on Oct. 12) Alexandria City Public Schools has aligned with Virginia law in its stance against marijuana.
Students who possess, use or distribute marijuana within 1,000 feet of an ACPS school, bus stop or bus can now be expelled, according to policy revisions reviewed last week by the School Board. Marijuana was not previously listed as a banned substance.
(Updated at 2:55 p.m.) A School Board work session on restructuring the makeup of the Board stopped short late last night after one member, Willie Bailey, walked out of the meeting.
Board Members were hammering out whether to expand terms from three to four years, stagger elections and switch from districts to at-large elections. The work session was held after a two-hour Board meeting and ended after 11 p.m. because the Board no longer had an in-person quorum after Bailey left.
Is the Alexandria School Board too big? Should their elections be staggered and three-year terms increased?
The entire structure of the Alexandria School Board could soon be upended, as these and a number of other big questions are up for discussion Thursday night.
Alexandria City Public Schools saw a 26% increase in student arrests last school year, and a disproportionate number of arrested students are Black males.
There were 58 ACPS students arrested last school year, according to a school safety report to be presented to the School Board on Thursday. There were also 32 weapons-related incidents, 100 students injured, 112 fights/assaults and five reports of sexual misconduct.
School is back in session, and this year Alexandria City Public Schools wants to make sure kids go to class.
That was the message from outside George Mason Elementary School (2601 Cameron Mills Road) this morning, where Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt and School Board Chair Michelle Rief joined teachers and staff in welcoming back students. Kay-Wyatt said her priorities this year are on improving the welcoming culture within ACPS, academic achievement and absenteeism.
(Updated 8/11) After years in development, City and Alexandria City Public Schools leaders will cut the ribbon of the refurbished Douglas MacArthur Elementary School next Friday (August 18).
The project took three years of planning and two years of construction, and the 154,000-square-foot school at 1101 Janneys Lane will open for the first day of classes on August 21.
