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 Alexandria School Board unanimously approved a collective bargaining resolution Thursday night, setting the ground rules for how the school system will negotiate with staff on wages and benefits.

Dawn Lucas, president of the Education Association of Alexandria, was pleased with a number of changes that she recommended the Board make to the proposed resolution.

“I feel like we’re in a good place,” Lucas said. “Our teachers and staff are going to have seats at the table, and their voices will be heard.”

School Board Chair Michelle Rief said that Alexandria City Public Schools wants to come to a collective bargaining agreement by the end of 2024.

“I think it’s a milestone moment for our school division,” Rief said. ” I want to thank the Education Association of Alexandria, our ACPS staff and community members who were engaged in this process. We heard your feedback, we incorporated your feedback and I’m very pleased with where we landed with this final collective bargaining resolution.”

The school system is currently experiencing a staffing crisis. Last October, EAA sent the Board an employee certification on behalf of licensed teachers. That submission gave the Board 120 days to adopt a framework for the resolution.

Among the changes to the draft document was Board Member Abdel Elnoubi’s recommendation to remove a 30% voting threshold for employees to establish two unions for bargaining. Those units can now be chosen with a simple majority of staff.

Elnoubi said that the Board’s work on the resolution was the best experience he’s had throughout his single term.

“I got to roll my sleeves and do work and get involved in the work from the beginning and be part of the process,” Elnoubi said. “I don’t think as board members we get to do that a lot, so that was a really good experience, to feel that we are actually solving problems and working hands-on.”

The Board also increased the number of yet-to-be-determined bargaining topics from four to six, and left the door open for more topics if voted on by the bargaining units. Additionally, after the first agreement expires after three years, collective bargaining to administrative staff.

ACPS middle school teacher David Paladin Fernandez was also pleased with the resolution. Fernandez is running against Lucas for EAA president in a union election this summer.

“I do appreciate the immense amount of work that the Board has done to improve this document from where it was last week when it was first released,” Fernandez said. “The fact that they struck out the voter participation threshold is a tremendous win for not just employees here in ACPS, but for Democracy itself.”

Alexandria School Board Members went all-in Wednesday night in asking City Council to fund its budget by approving a massive tax increase.

Mayor Justin Wilson told the Board at a budget work session on Wednesday night that its fiscal year 2025 $384.4 million combined funds budget request would result in a historic tax increase. The Board, in turn, said that the funding could stem the school system’s staffing crisis.

“To be candid, the combination of the operating requests and the capital requests is probably about a 6 cent tax increase, which is not viable,” Wilson said, adding that it would be the largest tax increase since the 5.7 cent tax increase of 2017 raised the average residential property tax bill by more than $300.

The Board’s proposed budget, which was approved last month, surprised Wilson and other Council Members, who said they were left in the dark with its development.

“I’ve heard nothing around a strategic look at how we pay folks,” City Council Member John Taylor Chapman told the Board. “I know many of you personally. I know you care about what you do. I know you are professionals. So, when I say ‘Hey, I expect you to bring a great budget to Council and Council is going to fund it,’ I don’t expect you to be just willy nilly. I expect you to be focused and I think that’s who you are.”

School Board Chair Michelle Rief countered that the Board has been strategic in its thinking, and that she prioritizes the 2% market rate adjustment for staff as the most important addition that needs funding.

“In my opinion, to sort of go out publicly and tell us to fight for the thing that we need and then come here and tell us that we’re we’re asking for too much, I think might be a political strategy on your part,” Rief said.

Vice Mayor Amy Jackson, who is running for mayor, said that the city should raise taxes to fully fund the school system’s budget request.

“I know it’s a sacrifice for all of us,” Jackson said. “I mean, we all live here in the city, and raising taxes would be a sacrifice.”

Jackson was the only Council member to not criticize the school system’s budget during the meeting.

“I just feel like we need to get close to what they’re asking for, if not fully funded,” Jackson said. “I think raising taxes also will mean that hopefully we’re not cutting our services and that our services are remaining at the optimum level for our residents and our businesses, but also making sure that our schools are remaining competitive and keeping our community stronger.”

School Board Member Tammy Ignacio was brought to tears while recounting the stresses that staff and students are experiencing.

“We have got to be able to compete with our surrounding jurisdictions,” Ignacio said. “In my 32 years in education, I have never seen it this bad. I have never seen the level of kids in a classroom without a teacher in front of them.”

City Council will set a maximum tax rate next week, allowing the City Manager to pursue some of the Board’s proposed additions, which include $4.2 million for staffers who did not get step increases in fiscal year 2021 and a $5.4 million (2%) market rate adjustment for all eligible staff.

Council Member Alyia Gaskins, who is running against Jackson in the Democratic mayoral primary, said she is in favor of advertising a higher tax rate to consider the additions.

“We have to deliver a balanced budget that responds to the needs of our community and that means doing right by our teachers and students,” Gaskins said. “If in the end we decide an increase is necessary, then I will be leading the charge to figure out relief for those who cannot keep affording these increases, like seniors on fixed incomes or others who are one tax increase away from not being able to afford to live here.”

School Board Member Abdel Elnoubi, who is running for City Council, said that he’s asking them to make an unpopular decision during an election year.

“It’s your decision to decide whether you want to raise taxes or not,” Elnoubi said. “If you do that, if you decide to raise taxes, I’m 100% with you… Let me just address the elephant in the room. It is an election year and as a School Board Member I’m in a less tough position.”

Four City Council Members are seeking reelection, and two members are running for mayor. Elnoubi and School Board Member Jacinta Greene are also running in the June 18 Democratic City Council primary.

Elnoubi said that from Council’s perspective, the Board gets to take credit for the increased funding while City Council has to deal with the consequences of raising taxes.

“That’s very viable, that is the political reality of things,” Elnoubi said. “What I will tell you is we are doing what we think is right for the school system… I would be derelict in my duty if I don’t ask you for what we need, understanding full well you may not be able to give it to us, which is fine.”

Wilson said that the Board needs to work closer with Council to craft not only this budget, but future budgets.

“It is impossible for us to resolve the gap on both the capital and operating side,” he said. “So we are going to pick a number and to come to some conclusion to our process, and it’s going to be challenging to arrive at that number without some really good input from the School Board as to what that should be.”

School Board Member Tim Beaty said that living in the city is becoming more expensive, and that the additions are focused on teacher retention.

“We were doing what we thought was best in order to keep the quality of what we’ve got,” Beaty said. “I’m frustrated that this leads to this huge difference between what we need and what’s available in the budget.”

City Council will adopt its final budget on May 1.

The Alexandria School Board approved its fiscal year 2025 $384.4 million combined funds budget on Thursday night and it is asking City Council for $21 million more than the previous budget. If it goes forward, Mayor Justin Wilson says that the request could mean a reduction in city services.

School Board Members tacked on more than $10 million in additions to Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt’s proposed budget, a move that prompted Board Members Meagan Alderton and Chris Harris to vote in opposition to it.

Alderton said that the budget is difficult for the Board to defend.

“For our add/delete session, the board essentially doubled the superintendent’s proposed increase, shifting our ask to an 8.1% city appropriation,” she said at the Board meeting. “City appropriations for the operating budget are not one-time asks when you’re asking for an additional appropriation in any fiscal year. You’re also asking for a promise that this level of funding can be sustained every fiscal year thereafter. So, an additional $10 million dollar promise is one thing, but the additional $21 million promise changes the game entirely.”

City Manager Jim Parajon’s draft FY 2025 budget will be unveiled next Tuesday.

Wilson said that he has not yet reviewed the ACPS budget, but said that the city must be clear about the details of this year’s budget process.

“The School Board’s recent budget decisions more than doubled the superintendent’s request for additional City appropriation, without any offsetting spending reductions in other areas of the budget,” Wilson said. “Funding that increase will require deep spending reductions to other critical services (public safety, human services, transportation or infrastructure), significant tax increases, or both. I look forward to dialogue with the School Board about the details of their request, and the options available for the two bodies as we begin our budget process next week.”

School Board Chair Michelle Rief said that the budget underscores the Board’s commitment to students and staff.

“This budget is a testament to our collective vision for growing a thriving educational community that supports staff and prepares our students for the future,” Rief said.

Wilson said that in the fall, City staff was projecting that Alexandria’s real estate tax base would increase 2.4%, which would have resulted in a $20 million budget shortfall if the School Board had approved what the Superintendent’s budget proposal included. But instead, the real estate tax base grew by 0.33%, the smallest rate of increase in 15 years.

“So, that gap of $20 million is in fact, much larger,” Wilson said.

Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt thanked the Board for their approval, and said that her proposed budget focuses on retention, with a full step increase and a 2% market rate adjustment for eligible staff. The school system is experiencing a staffing crisis, and the budget increases bus driver salaries to $24 an hour for new drivers and more than $47 per hour for senior drivers with more than a decade experience with the school system.

“I truly value the collaboration between the division and the Alexandria City School Board, and would like to thank them for their approval of the FY 2025 Combined Funds budget,” Kay-Wyatt said in a statement. “I also want to express my appreciation for our dedicated Financial Services team for continuing to work to find innovative solutions to the complex budget challenges the division faces. Together we will continue to advocate and work to produce a budget that best supports our students and staff until it is fully adopted in the spring.”

City Council Member John Taylor Chapman said that he wants to see how the Board has prioritized its allocations.

“Conversation is key for our school system, and getting good teachers,” Chapman said. “Past School Boards have been able to turn in a budget that is able to compete with getting good school teachers, balancing priorities and understanding the greater stake in the city’s financial picture. I would assume that is happening this year as well.”

Additions to the budget include:

• $4.2 million for staffers who did not get step increases in fiscal year 2021 (sponsored by Member Abdel Elnoubi)
• $307,000 for two deans of students at George Washington and Francis C. Hammond Middle Schools (sponsored by Tammy Ignacio)
• $125,000 for a college and career counselor at ACHS (sponsored by Member Jacinta Greene)
• $125,000 for a psychologist at ACHS Minnie Howard Campus (sponsored by Member Abdel Elnoubi)
• $115,000 for an athletic trainer at ACHS (sponsored by Member Chris Harris)
• $65,000 for a Dari/Pashto/English fluent-speaking family liaison (sponsored by Harris)

The Alexandria School Board unanimously authorized starting the collective bargaining process with its teachers and licensed staff Thursday night, kickstarting an extensive period of negotiation on employee rights, wages and benefits.

A number of Alexandria teachers an union representatives voiced their displeasure, however, with stipulations in the ACPS draft collective bargaining resolution.

The 17-page document states ACPS will bargain with an employee organization if 30% of those bargaining employees (also known in groups as “units”) endorse it. The draft resolution also outlines rules for a three-year agreement that would cover four yet-to-be-identified topics. After the agreement expires three years later, two additional topics could be added for negotiation. Topics covered could include wages, benefits and terms and conditions of employment.

“We want a normal, democratic election without an election participation threshold,” said Dawn Lucas, president of the Education Association of Alexandria (EAA).

Last October, EAA started the collective bargaining process by sending the Board an employee certification submission on behalf of all licensed teachers. That submission gave the Board 120 days to authorize the collective bargaining process by Feb. 13. A full board action on the resolution is anticipated to occur on Thursday, March 21.

School Board Chair Michelle Rief said that she anticipates a future public hearing dedicated to the collective bargaining resolution.

“This has been a long time coming, for sure,” Rief said. “At the end of the day we really want our teachers to know that we value you.”

ACPS is currently experiencing a staffing crisis, and James Rutigliano, a second grade teacher at Jefferson-Houston K-8 School, said that without an agreement that he and other teachers will quit.

“Talented teachers will not come to ACPs if they feel their labor, ideas, and work product will be exploited,” Rutigliano told the Board. “We must negotiate in good faith, and an election participation threshold is simply undemocratic. It tells our students and our community that the voice will only matter if and only if they hold power.”

The draft resolution also says that there will be two bargaining units, one made of licensed personnel (teachers, school counselors, specialists, librarians, school psychologists, social workers, speech pathologists, department chairs, and 10-month, 11-month, and 12-month Licensed Personnel) and a second unit made up of “education support professionals.” Administrative employees are not included in the draft agreement. They include principals, assistant principals and supervisors.

Rief said last month that the school system wants to reach a collective bargaining agreement by the end of this calendar year. Such a deadline means that any major changes to staff benefits and compensation could be realized with next year’s passage of the Fiscal Year 2026 budget.

School Board Member Tim Beaty, a former leader with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, won a recent special election by mostly campaigning on the importance of collective bargaining. He said that it might be helpful for EAA and the School Board to discuss the school system’s needs in a meeting.

“I’m persuaded by the arguments that were made that it would be helpful to have a direct conversation between the Board and the EAA about the draft resolution,” Beaty said.

Lucas said that it feels as if the needs and desires of her members were not considered when ACPS created the draft resolution. She said that the association wants bargaining rights for all employees, including licensed staff, support staff, and administrators.

“All employees deserve bargaining rights,” Lucas said. “We want the right to bargain over the many topics related to our working and learning conditions, including current policies, regulations, procedures and practices. If we are unable to bargain over the terms and conditions of employment, there is very little, if anything, left to bargain.”

Alexandria approved collective bargaining in 2021, after former Governor Ralph Northam announced the law in 2020. It took the city nearly two years to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement with police and firefighters.

Louis Kokonis, an Alexandria City High School math teacher who worked in the school division for over 60 years, died yesterday.

Kokonis, 91, was renowned for his devotion to the students. A CBS article last year noted that Kokonis, who had no wife or children, offered free tutoring on Saturdays and was often the first to arrive at the school each day.

“Mr. Kokonis’ passing on Jan. 4, 2024, is not only a difficult loss for the Titan community but also a significant loss for the City of Alexandria,” said Principal Alexander Duncan in a letter to the school community. “Indeed, he was loved by all who were fortunate enough to know him and will be sorely missed.”

Kokonis was the longest-serving teacher in the history of ACPS. He taught all levels of math, but primarily taught AP Calculus AB and BC, DE Calculus III and Differential Equations.

According to the letter from Duncan:

Mr. Kokonis’ service in ACPS was nothing short of legendary and was recognized beyond our immediate community. For his many accomplishments, he was celebrated in 2019 by the Virginia General Assembly in Joint House Resolution #727. To honor him, this resolution stated, “Louis Kokonis has imparted his passion for lifelong learning to his students, many of whom went on to become physicists, engineers, doctors and professors.” Additionally, Mr. Kokonis was featured last year in a CBS News story that highlighted his extensive career and commitment to serving his students and the ACHS school community.

The Louis Kokonis Teaching Legend Scholarship, offered through the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria, honors Kokonis’ work and the family asked for expressions of condolences to be shared through his scholarship. Holy Cow Del Ray’s ‘Burger of the Moment‘ is also ‘The Mr. Kokonis” in honor of the teacher.

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.”

A longtime city commissioner and a retired labor leader are facing off in the special election for Alexandria’s School Board District A seat, and both want to improve teacher retention and board transparency.

Candidates Gina Baum and Tim Beaty have vastly different backgrounds and strengths.

Baum is a managing broker with Keller Williams Metro Center, and until 2022 served 13 years as a commissioner (five years as chair) on the city’s Park and Recreation Commission. More than a decade ago, she was also a founding member of the Waterfront4All group, supporting the city’s plan to redevelop the waterfront and later spent 10 years on the Waterfront Commission. She has a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Clark University.

“I know how the city and the system work,” Baum told ALXnow. “I think one of the reasons why I want to run is because I’ve been highly involved with the school system with my children. Plus, I’ve been taking an active role in watching school board meetings and seeing what’s happening. And I really think I can contribute in a way that would be helpful to both the school board or community and ACPS teachers and administrators. I mean, that’s really the bottom line.”

Beaty retired two years ago as the global strategies director for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, after which he became a substitute teacher at two Alexandria elementary schools. He’s got an economics degree from the University of Notre Dame, is the father of three grown children and says the school system can benefit from his decades of experience hammering out collective bargaining agreements with the Teamsters.

“I do think that if we complete that process and we get a good collective bargaining agreement that we’re likely to attract new employees,” Beaty said. “I think I can help with that. I’ll be an advocate for that. It’s what I’ve been doing for the last 40 years in my professional life, so I think I could assist in making that happen.”

Last month, District A School Board Member Willie Bailey abruptly resigned, prompting the Alexandria Circuit Court to order a special election for Jan. 9. The winner of the election will serve out the remaining 11 months of Bailey’s term before the next School Board is sworn into office in January 2025, following the November 2024 general election.

A third likely candidate, Bill Campbell, opted to not file his candidacy by the filing deadline on Tuesday, and said that he’s finished running for office. Campbell was elected to the School Board in 2012, got reelected in 2015, but lost reelection in 2018 and a City Council bid in 2021.

“I’m out of the political game completely,” Campbell said. “But this next year, this board has a number of important things they gotta look at, like redistricting, collective bargaining, looking at the way that we’ve set up the CIP (Capital Improvement Program) in terms of refurbishing schools, and then the programming at the new high school building — all difficult decisions that they’re gonna have to deal with in the next next year. It will be really interesting to watch.”

On School Board transparency

Baum says that the Alexandria School Board seems paralyzed and a lack of public discourse and systematic efforts to not speak to the media have led to a lack of transparency.

“I’m sure you recall this, but everyone on the Board was asked not to speak to the media,” she said. “For whatever reason, I feel like that really translated into not speaking at all. I feel like there’s some sort of odd paralysis happening, where the School Board members are hesitant to actually speak out about their concerns or their opinions.”

Baum continued, “It’s very weird to me because I was part of that Waterfront Plan and on the Waterfront Commission, and there were times we fought like cats and dogs, but we got the job done. So, when I see a School Board not talking, I understand why that concerns the public, and I’m really hoping that I can close that divide. The school board really needs to focus more on working for the public and not for the administration.”

Beaty also said that he would talk to members of the media as a School Board member.

“It’s voters that decide who’s going to be on the School Board,” Beaty said. “School Board members need to be accountable to the people that then elect them. To the extent that it’s an issue, and I think it’s an issue a little bit, I do think that school board members need to have the freedom to be able to get out and communicate with the voters that elected them, with the whole education community and with the media.”

On staffing and test scores

ACPS is also undergoing a staffing crisis with more than 100 vacant positions systemwide.

Baum said Alexandria teachers should get paid the highest in the region.

“We are entrusting them with the most valuable resource of our children,” Baum said. “If we are not compensating them properly, it’s just a disgrace to me. One of the things that is very important to me is teacher retention and making sure we’re paying them well. I want to be the highest in the area for teacher salaries and I think given the budget that we have at ACPS, certainly we should be able to do that.”

Beaty said that teachers need to understand their situations at the collective bargaining table.

“What’s going on with these step increases?” he said. “There needs to be a fair grievance procedure so that if people feel like they’ve been wronged, that there’s a transparent, clear and honest process to address people’s concerns in a real way… We’ve got to have a real clear understanding about what the limitations of the budget are. And the school board is also got to have a good understanding about why it is that we’re losing teachers.”

Baum said that the school system needs new programs to improve the school systems underperforming standardized test scores.

“We’ve all heard that our scores are down, and that there’s a huge gap from COVID in learning,” she said. “I think we have to put achievement at the top of our concerns. And hopefully find some programs that will help close that gap. Ones that that have measurable results that we could implement quickly.”

Beaty said that it’s important educators feel valued.

“I’m amazed at what a strong, well-trained teacher can do to get a group of rowdy kids to calm down and get focused on a task and begin to learn,” he said. “I just find it amazing to watch good teachers do what they do.”

District A includes the following precincts:

• 101 — Old Town North, formerly Ladrey
• 102  — City Hall
• 103 — Lyles Crouuch School
• 104 — Durant Center
• 105 — Nannie J. Lee Recreation Center
• 106 — Cora Kelly — Leonard “Chick” Armstrong Recreation Center
• 107 — Mount Vernon Recreation Center
• 108 — George Washington Middle School
• 109 — Alexandria Fire Department headquarters
• 110 — Charles Houston Recreation Center
• 111 — Potomac Yard

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.

“We are in a staffing crisis that is not okay for our children,” Organek testified to the School Board last Thursday night (Oct 5). “Since August 21, my son has had to teach himself biology and geometry. We have no way to know if he’s learning the material.”

ACPS staff also provided an update on staffing woes. The school system currently has 55 central office vacancies, as well as more than 100 licensed and non-licensed school-based positions. Just how many teachers are needed is not clear, and ALXnow is awaiting a more comprehensive breakdown of ACPS staffing needs.

“We’re at a point now where people are just looking for bodies to put in classrooms and that makes me so sad,” said Board Member Meagan Alderton. “I think the people on the ground, the HR (human resources) folks, have got to do the work.”

The ACPS employment page lists dozens of vacant positions, including high school science, math and history teacher jobs.

“We do know that the last couple of years have been very challenging for all of our staff,” Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt said.

Margaret Browne, the ACPS director of recruitment and retention, said she is working on streamlining the onboarding process so that applicants can start work faster. She also said that ACPS advertised positions on radio stations, television, newspapers and online media, and that she and her staff conducted 13 job fairs in-house and traveled to 40 career fairs around the country last school year, including to Puerto Rico.

“I anticipated that we were going to do a large number of events last year and I’m ready to set a new record (for job fairs),” Browne said. “We’ll go down the Eastern Seaboard. This time we are going west and we’ll also do Puerto Rico again.”

The school system is also short 15 bus drivers and is offering an additional 5% raise for drivers over the course of the next three years.

Browne said that ACPS will also focus on marketing to people switching careers within associations and military organizations.

David Paladin Fernandez has been an ACPS 6th and 8th grade general education teacher for eight years. He said that his salary has been frozen half that time, and that due to an impasse over collective bargaining that the school system is running short on special education teachers, bus drivers, paraprofessionals, guidance counselors, therapists, audiologists and more positions.

He also brought a red velvet cake to the School Board meeting.

“Our district is facing a staffing crisis like we’ve never seen, and our management would rather spin stories than face the reality that their recruiting and retention efforts are simply not enough,” Fernandez said. “School Board members, tonight you have heard and will hear from a number of Alexandria citizens who have been personally impacted by the decisions ACPS management has made under your watch. These citizens come to you asking, nay demanding that you start holding management accountable because the things that they are saying to the public do not match the actions we see. It’s as ridiculous as offering cake at a School Board meeting.”

Rene Pascal, the acting head of human resources for ACPS, said that teachers should feel incentivized to work for ACPS by paying smaller premiums on their health plans (see graph in above gallery).

Alexandria City High School parent Sarah Schultz said that ACPS is not being transparent on staffing woes.

“We’re asking our children to receive instruction without teachers,” ACPS parent Sarah Schultz told the Board. “We feel strongly that ACPS should not take the stance that online classes are a reasonable substitute for in-person instruction, especially for required courses and question the equity of moving groups of students to online while the rest of the students receive in-person instruction.”

Two ACPS recruitment videos made earlier this year are below.

With the new school year underway, teachers in Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) are crowdfunding everything from iPads to basic teaching supplies.

Non-profit organization DonorsChoose gives teachers in ACPS a platform to discuss their specific material needs. One teacher led an effort to help students make better social media content, but many of the requests are for basic needs like whiteboards and construction paper.

In total, ACPS teachers have raised $986,601 in funding through DonorsChoose.

“DonorsChoose invited Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) teachers to create their own classroom wish lists, with all supplies designed to benefit student learning in the 2023-24 school year,” ACPS said in a release.

So far, 1,913 projects have been fully funded from 6,480 donors. The projects have benefitted 19 schools across ACPS.

According to Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt:

We are excited to be a District Partner with DonorsChoose. ACPS seeks to empower all students to thrive in a diverse and ever-changing world, and ensure they graduate ready for college, careers and life. Our partnership with DonorsChoose allows for broader support in our work to serve our students and redefine PreK-12 education as a deliberately inclusive and supportive experience where all succeed.