Alexandria School Board Member Tim Beaty just won his special election in January, and now he tells us that he’s running for reelection in November.
Beaty won a special election on Jan. 9 to fill the District A seat vacated by former School Board Member Willie Bailey. He was sworn in days later, and said he would spend the next several months learning the intricacies of Alexandria City Public Schools before deciding on whether to run for reelection on Nov. 5.
“I was just at the Alexandria Democratic Committee meeting asking people to sign my petitions, and more than one person said, ‘Didn’t I just sign this for you?'” Beaty said.
Beaty ran on a platform of helping ACPS navigate the new and complex collective bargaining process with licensed teachers and staff. The school system is currently experiencing a staffing crisis, and Beaty says that a strong collective bargaining agreement will improve retention.
Last month, the School Board unanimously approved a collective bargaining resolution, laying the groundwork for a future agreement. Beaty believes he was an important contributor to the process, and said that now the hard work begins.
“Over the last few months, I have enjoyed my interaction with my colleagues on the School Board and with the senior staff in the division,” Beaty said. “I feel like I made a useful contribution, particularly during the debate about the resolution that enables union recognition and collective bargaining.”
Beaty continued, “I believe that this is a process that is going to benefit us, that’s going to be a process in which our employees feel more engaged, more respected, more listened to, and in the end through this process and leading to a collective bargaining agreement, I think we’re going to have a much better labor management relationship going forward. We need that. We need our employees to feel like they’re being listened to, that they have a voice.”
Beaty retired two years as the global strategies director for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He and his wife moved to the city 10 years ago, and until he was elected was a substitute teacher at two ACPS elementary schools.
He also voted with the School Board to ask the City Council for a tax increase to restore steps and fund teacher raises.
“Our staff is working very hard, and they need a raise,” Beaty said. “We live in an area that is expensive to live in — housing and other things. For them to be able to live a good life and be able to focus on doing a good job every day, we need to compensate them well. So, I was happy to move for funds above the superintendent’s proposed budget.”
District A includes Old Town, Del Ray, Potomac Yard and Arlandria. Incidentally, the filing deadline for School Board candidates is June 18, which is the same day as the Democrat and Republican primaries. So far, only one School Board candidate has filed paperwork to run — Alexander Scioscia in District B.
The mother of the child who brought a gun to Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy in Old Town last month has been arrested and charged with allowing access of firearms to children.
The child went to school (530 S. St. Asaph Street) on March 1 with the wrong backpack and discovered the handgun in the bag and reported it to their teacher.
Police deemed the incident accidental on the part of the student, and said that the student’s parents fully cooperated. After a “comprehensive investigation,” the child’s mother, 31-year-old Alexa Dickens, was arrested and charged, according to an APD press release.
Allowing access of firearms to children is a Class 1 misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and/or a up to a $2,500 fine. Dickens’ court date has not been released.
Update to Investigation: The mother of the Lyles-Crouch student was charged and arrested today. pic.twitter.com/CPmhSecKZ0
— Alexandria Police (@AlexandriaVAPD) April 5, 2024
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.
(Updated at 4:30 p.m.) With a handful of schools exceeding 110% utilization, the Alexandria School Board is moving forward with a lengthy redistricting process to redraw elementary and middle school boundaries.
The School Board, which is now starting its redistricting process from scratch, wants any changes to go into effect at the beginning of the 2026-2027 school year, according to School Board Vice Chair Kelly Carmichael Booz.
On Tuesday, the ACPS Redistricting Steering Committee held a work session to map out its priorities, which include capacity reassignments in schools, as well as a balanced distribution of students riding on buses and participating in special programs.
“The new timeline right now is targeting the 2026-2027 school year, not 2025-2026,” Booz said at the meeting.
A number of elementary schools have more than 110% utilization, including John Adams, Mount Vernon, Patrick Henry, and Samuel W. Tucker Elementary Schools, according to a 2023 boundary analysis.
At the same time, enrollment at Cora Kelly, Douglas MacArthur, George Mason, and William Ramsay Elementary Schools is below 90%.
Alexandria City Public Schools is required by law to conduct a boundary analysis every five years or if a school opens. The analysis was initiated due to the opening of the new Douglas MacArthur Elementary School opened in August.
It’s been six years since the last shift of elementary school boundaries impacted approximately 1,351 students, according to ACPS. That 2018 redistricting was the result of a year-long process.
The Linder Academy, a private school that opened at 607 S. Washington Street in 2021, has applied to open a new location at Ross Dress for Less at 112 N. Washington Street.
The school, which currently has around 105 students at the existing location, is applying to have a maximum of 160 middle and high school students at the new location.
“Linder Academy is a private school in Alexandria and is looking to expand its footprint in Old Town with this location,” the application said. “The proposed floor plan shows 13 classrooms, as well as other associated learning, counseling and administrative spaces, including a multi-purpose room, a teaching kitchen, cafeteria, teachers’ lounge and library.”
The application said the new location will have small class sizes, with 12 students per teacher, and a focus on hands-on learning.
The application said the new school has three parking spaces on the property in a small alley, but they will lease 10 spaces in a parking garage at 515 King Street.
It’s the end of an era for Alexandria City High School’s drama program. After 20 years directing and producing dozens of theatrical performances, the partnership between co-teachers Hope Bachman and Leslie Jones will come to a close at the end of this school year.
Known informally as “Bach and Jones” to students, parents and staff, the pair were honored in a gala at ACHS last week. Bachman says that deciding to partner with Jones was one of the best decisions she ever made.
“Partnering up with Leslie was the second smartest decision of my life, with the first smartest being my marriage,” Bachman said.
Bachman is a 1998 graduate of Alexandria City High School (back when it was named T.C. Williams High School), and was hired in 2003 after she graduated from the University of Mary Washington. When hired to replace a retiring drama teacher, she was also put in charge of the drama program’s extracurricular activities.
“I was a brand new green baby teacher,” Bachman said. “I was drowning my first year. First year teaching is hard for everybody, but I had all the responsibilities of a first year teacher plus this entire program of afterschool things, which is incredibly time consuming to run.”
Jones, at that point, had been working at the school for eight years as an English teacher and cheerleading coach, and felt that she’d been passed over. It ended up taking a full year for the pair to come together, with Bachman swallowing her pride by asking Jones for help.
Jones said that once they started working together on the fall and spring productions that their relationship was no longer competitive.
“The nature of theater is collaborative,” Jones said. “At the end of the day, it’s about the production and about the product… because all along we want to teach our kids how to be good theater people, period.”
The pair say a secret to their success has been presenting a unified front.
“It’s a sisterhood,” Jones said. “Believe me, we have been through it all. We don’t always agree. Who does? But we work it out. We always have a mantra between the two of us — ‘Hey, we’ll duke it out behind closed doors and then when we walk out the door we’re a united front.”
ACHS Executive Principal Alexander Duncan III thanked the duo for their work.
“How many teachers can say they regularly bring an auditorium full of people to their feet, either in tears or cheers, as well as having affected the lives and aspirations of countless students?” Duncan said. “We are so appreciative of the unwavering commitment that Leslie Jones and Hope Bachman have shown in their two decades of service to Alexandria City High School students and our school community.”
After a 33-year career teaching, Jones said she’s looking forward to retiring. She and Bachman are now prepping, their final work together, the 2024 spring musical Bring It On.
“This is our swan song,” Jones said. “Once the final curtain (falls) and we’re at the cast party, we’ll be sobbing.”
Bachman said someone will have to step in to help fill Jones’ shoes.
“Just just like Leslie and I had to at the beginning, I will have to learn her successor’s strengths and weaknesses,” Bachman said. “And that person will have to learn mine, and we’ll figure we’ll figure it out as we go.”
An Alexandria middle school student allegedly admitted to her parents and police that she sent a threatening message to her school’s Instagram page last month, according to a recently released search warrant affidavit.
On Oct. 11 (Wednesday), at around 5 p.m., a now-unavailable Instagram account sent a direct message to an Alexandria middle school’s Instagram page and said, “Be prepared for October 12, 2023,” and then said that “11th and 12th grade upper school teachers” were targeted and that there were “many more who must suffer.”
“This message was then followed by 5 photos of what appeared to be stock images of firearms, (a) pipe bomb, and machetes,” police said in the search warrant affidavit.
There are only two middle schools in Alexandria — George Washington Middle School (1005 Mount Vernon Avenue) and Francis C. Hammond Middle School (4646 Seminary Road).
School staff alerted police of the threats, according to the search warrant affidavit.
Police contacted Meta, Inc., the parent company for Instagram, which provided a T-Mobile phone number. The number was matched with a home in Old Town, according to the search warrant affidavit. Police then interviewed the account holder, who said that the phone is used by her daughter, who is a student at an Alexandria middle school.
The student admitted to her mother and police that she sent the Instagram messages, according to the search warrant affidavit.
“(The juvenile) explained that she had utilized her black Google Android cellphone to send the threat and had used online sources in her cellphone to research the… photos,” according to the search warrant affidavit.
Alexandria City Public Schools would not say which middle school was targeted, or whether the student was disciplined.
“Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) does not comment on student matters,” Julia Burgos, the ACPS community relations chief, told ALXnow.
Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) says school modernization and upgrades are the big focal point of the upcoming Capital Improvement Program (CIP) Budget, particularly at George Mason Elementary School.
In a release, Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt said the priority of the FY 2025 CIP Budget is modernization projects to meet projected capacity needs.
“We have made a strong commitment to cultivating a bright instructional future for our community, and our learning environments and facilities are vital to this priority,” said Melanie Kay-Wyatt in the release. “This proposed budget, which is in line with our projected capacity needs for years to come, is a testament to our dedication to providing ample room and flexibility to support student growth, learning and opportunity.”
The ten-year CIP is $314 million.
The budget summary says the FY 2025 CIP includes:
- $67 million for the construction of George Mason Elementary School
- $10 million for replacement and capacity additions at Cora Kelly School for Math, Science and Technology
- $6 million for renovation of ACPS’ transportation facility
The lion’s share is for the George Mason project, but the budget item noted it was unclear if ACPS could afford new construction or only renovation of the school, which was built in 1939.
“GM has not had major systems updates due to its established timeline and place in previous CIP Budgets,” the budget said. “Reduction in scope directly impacts total capacity of school, square footage, area for amenities, potential for net zero, and introduces timing disruptions. [The] next step is to evaluate if new construction is feasible or if only a renovation is possible.”
A public hearing for the CIP Budget is scheduled for Monday, Nov. 13, at 6:30 p.m.
World War II was at its peak when Charles Barrett Elementary School first opened 80 years ago. In recognition of the anniversary, on Wednesday students and school officials gathered in front of the school, planted a baby oak tree and sang the school song.
The tree was donated by the North Ridge Citizens’ Association.
“There are so many people who have made our school community the awesome place for learning that is today,” said Principal Loren Brady, who has been at the school for four years. “Charles Barrett has the deep roots in the community that has helped to support us with useful energy.”
The school was built to accommodate the children living in the ParkFairfax development, which was built to relieve a wartime housing shortage, according to Alexandria City Public Schools. It opened with four teachers and 40 students.
“The school opened on Oct. 25, 1943, with desks and chairs borrowed from other schools,” according to ACPS. “Three weeks after classes began the Alexandria School Board voted unanimously to name the school after Major General Charles Dodson Barrett of the United States Marine Corps, an Alexandrian who was killed in the South Pacific on Oct. 8, 1943.”
The school expanded over the decades and now has 544 students.
“I’m so excited for you in your school community on this big moment,” School Board Member Ashley Simpson Baird said at the tree planting. “I know that Charles Barrett will be here for many, many more years to come and we look forward to all the great work you continue to do.”
Brady said that the school will celebrate the anniversary all year, and that school history is included in this year’s curriculum.
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.”
Earlier this month, the Board started evaluating restructuring options, including increasing term lengths from three to four years, reducing the number of School Board members — there are nine covering three districts — and whether there should be at-large seats.
The Board, in a work session, whittled down their preferred restructuring alternatives to three options, all of which increase terms to four years, maintain the nine-member structure and stagger their elections starting in 2027.
In order to enact these changes, the School Board must approve a resolution, followed by a City Council public hearing to revise the city charter. If the charter change is approved, the Virginia General Assembly will then vote on making the change official in the Virginia Charter.
Mayor Justin Wilson said Chapman summed up the Council’s feelings on the matter.
“I think Councilman Chapman read the tea leaves correctly about where we’re at right now,” Wilson said.
Chapman said that Board Members need to work one-on-one with their City Council counterparts to gain consensus before a plan is officially offered.
“I think that there are some overarching impacts to voters in our city,” he said. “And I think Council is keenly aware of that and we need to make sure that School Board is keenly aware of that as well. Unless those conversations happen one-on-one, I’m not sure everyone will feel comfortable that that is fully understood.”
School Board Chair Michelle Rief said that Chapman’s suggestion is “wonderful.”
“(The process) has been a little muddled, but here we are,” Rief said. “I think we do want to engage with you.”
The nine-member School Board has been elected in concurrent three-year cycles coinciding with City Council elections since 2012. The Board’s high turnover after the Nov. 2021 election saw six new members joining three incumbents, and members say school leadership suffers when more than half of the body spends upward of a year getting accustomed to their offices.
City Council Member Canek Aguirre didn’t mince words at a town hall meeting when he said that the School Board has too many members for a district with about 15,000 students.
“I’ve been very clear with my School Board colleagues that I am not supportive of changes unless they’re willing to reduce the number of members on their board,” Aguirre said.
Aguirre said other jurisdictions have either small boards with similar student populations or larger boards with larger numbers of students.
“Arlington County, which has about twice the size of our student population, has five members,” Aguirre said. “Loudoun County, which I believe has around nine members, has like three or four times the number of students that we have. To me, it’s absolutely ridiculous that we have nine people on there and this is part of what leads to so much discontinuity.”
The School Board members and their City Council liaisons are below.
District A
- Board Chair Michelle Rief — Mayor Justin Wilson
- Board Member Jacinta Greene — Council Member Canek Aguirre
- Board Member Willie Bailey — Council Member Canek Aguirre
District B
- Vice Chair Kelly Carmichael Booz — Vice Mayor Amy Jackson
- Board Member Tammy Ignacio — Council Member John Taylor Chapman
- Board Member Ashley Simpson Baird — Council Member Sarah Bagley
District C
- Board Member Meagan Alderton — Council Member Sarah Bagley
- Board Member Christopher Harris — Council Member Alyia Gaskins
- Board Member Abdel-Rahman Elnoubi — Council Member Kirk McPike
