(Updated at 11:05 a.m.) Arlington Public Schools Superintendent Francisco Durán has proposed a 2024-2025 budget that he says avoids new expenses in a lean fiscal year compounded by state funding uncertainty.
He presented an $824.7 million budget — which increases the current budget by $12.2 million, or 1.5% — to the Arlington School Board last week.
The superintendent said his budget includes a $29.5 million gap, in part because APS could lose some $5.7 million in state funding. These come from cuts Gov. Glenn Youngkin proposed in his budget for preschool, tutoring and compensation supplements.
“Here’s the bottom line: with everything I’ve shared, with the revenues that I have provided, the cuts that we have done, the expenditures that I’ve outlined [excepting staffing changes tied to enrollment, a part-time custodian and $100,000 for a new student safety software] are not new expenditures,” Durán said during his presentation on Thursday night. “Everything else is currently things that we’re maintaining and sustaining.”
In the best-case scenario, the nearly $30 million gap would drop to $5 million with a 2.5 cent tax rate increase and a competing state budget proposed in the Virginia senate that would send $11 million to APS. The Arlington County Board authorized hearings on a 2.5 cent tax rate increase in large part to address funding gaps if Youngkin’s budget is approved.
“This is not the budget that any of us want to be presenting,” said Board Vice-Chair David Priddy, who read comments from Chair Cristina Diaz-Torres, who could not attend the meeting. “At best, this maintains the status quo of APS, but we know the status quo is not sufficient for our students, for our staff or for our community.”
Youngkin’s conservative budget comes despite a recent report from the Joint Legislative Audit & Review Commission, which found Virginia gives less funding to schools than the national average, using outdated models from the Great Recession, Durán noted.
On top of this statewide deficiency, APS receives less funding from the state, says School Board member Mary Kadera. State funding accounts for 29% and 27%, respectively, of the budgets for the public school systems in Loudoun and Fairfax counties, compared to 15% for APS, she said.
To mitigate the gap, the budget includes some $21 million in cuts. Durán axed $15.7 million in Central Office expenses and reduced staffing by 38 full-time equivalent positions: 19 in the Central Office, of which four are vacant ($2.7 million) and 19.8 school-based art, music and PE positions ($2.15 million).
This change corrects outdated planning calculations without increasing class sizes or impacting classroom instruction, per Durán’s presentation.
“There may be ways in which we can do better with this year’s budget, even with the challenging numbers just presented,” School Board member Miranda Turner said. “I very much appreciate that you focus cuts on… Central Office and not within the schools, but we need to compare the proposed position cuts… We have essentially the same number of positions being cut in Central Office, several of which are vacant anyway.”
Durán says APS began the budget process with a much larger, $73.4 million gap, largely due to the use of $53.7 million in one-time funding in the current budget. Most of this sum was used to make salaries more competitive with surrounding jurisdictions.
For the 2024-2025 budget, Durán proposes $17 million in step increases and a cost-of-living adjustment, which could be augmented by the 3% compensation increase included in the state Senate’s proposed budget. (Youngkin’s plan includes a 2% salary increase for teachers, per the Virginia Mercury.)
The APS proposal disheartened June Prakash, the leader of the local teachers union, the Arlington Education Association.
A mini-baby boom could deliver Arlington Public Schools a slight enrollment bump through 2033, according to the latest 10-year projections.
The report says live births are predicted to increase by 13%, or about 300 babies, through 2028. This modest increase contrasts with a report last year predicting short-term increases followed by declines in the outer years due to declining births.
Now, APS projects incremental growth through 2033 that nudges enrollment just past peak levels last seen in 2019.
“Last year, the births forecast declined over time, whereas the latest birth forecast increases in its outer years,” the enrollment report says. “These changes in birth forecast over time are important since they are used to project incoming kindergarten students five years later.”
The projection is conservative but still has some risk, as not all babies will become students, APS planner Robert Ruiz said in a Joint Facilities Advisory Committee meeting this week. In addition, actual enrollment numbers in recent years have been difficult to interpret.
“Importantly, enrollment trends are not yet telling a consistent narrative,” Ruiz said. “Enrollment trends have been mixed with declines, growth and then, flattening.”
Enrollment has cooled since a baby boom between 2006-12 drove “unprecedented” growth and precipitated a hiring spree, new elementary and middle schools and expanded schools and even a discussion of a fourth comprehensive high school. Now, APS predicts maintaining peak enrollment levels, attained in 2019 and last seen in the 1960s, for the next decade.
Given short- and long-term fiscal constraints and excess capacity at several buildings, the school system likely will not turn to new construction for enrollment management. The status quo, however, is not working, according to some School Board candidates and School Board watchdog Arlington Parents for Education, who call attention to large class sizes at some buildings from third grade through high school.
“APS’ enrollment is leveling off,” Arlington Parents for Education said in a statement to ARLnow. “However, lower enrollment does not lead to lower class sizes. We must focus on planning factors if we want to manage class sizes within this new normal of flattening enrollment, budget constraints, and students who are still struggling with learning loss and widening achievement gaps, as confirmed by the midyear data out of APS this week.”
Class sizes
At the high school level, enrollment has surpassed 2019 levels, which may be the result of children born in the 2006-12 “baby boom” matriculating into high school.
At this level, School Board candidate Larry Fishtahler, who recently wrapped up a substitute physics gig at Wakefield High School, says class sizes can be unwieldy.
“I had 30 and 31 students in that class, with seating capacity of 28,” he said. “It is really hard to explain how hard that is. Even with a lot of hard work, you can not give each and every student the one-to-one attention that they need. This makes teachers’ stress and workload greater, but more importantly it has a significant negative impact on students’ engagement.”
“There are excessive and intolerable rates of overcrowded classrooms in our middle and high schools… especially at Wakefield and W-L,” parent Camille Galdes told the School Board in a letter shared with ARLnow.
There are also signs of overcrowding at some elementary schools.
The most recent class size report indicates Arlington Science Focus and Glebe elementary schools have kindergarten and first-grade classes with 25 students in them compared to class sizes of 18-22 at other schools.
Third grade classrooms at Claremont exceed recommendations, with 27 students, compared to other schools where third grade hovers around 21-24 students. These schools, per APS capacity charts, are either nearly full or above 100% capacity.
For School Board candidate Chen Ling, APS has to show parents how projections like this inform decisions like when to hire a new teacher, or add or remove a class or trailer — the kinds of practical questions parents have if enrollment rises or falls at their child’s school.
“The demographers obviously worked very hard on this, but it’s not enough to have data,” he said. “You need to have a plan to use that data effectively.”
ARLnow did not hear back from the other two candidates before deadline.
The Arlington County Board is considering a potential property tax hike that could be even higher than what County Manager Mark Schwartz proposed.
Board members yesterday (Tuesday) voted 5-0 to advertise hearings on a maximum property tax rate of $1.038 per $100 of assessed value, a 2.5 cent increase from 2023. That is 1 cent higher than the increase of 1.5 cents that Schwartz proposed in his $1.62 billion budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2025.
County Board Chair Libby Garvey said she hopes to whittle down the possible tax hike during upcoming budget discussions. She introduced the motion to add a penny because Arlington Public Schools still does not know how much state funding it will receive.
In the worst-case scenario, Garvey said APS could have a substantial budget shortfall in the upcoming fiscal year.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty this year when it comes to budgeting,” Garvey said in a statement. “I’m very concerned about our schools and whether the state will do the right thing and provide the level of expected funding — or if the state will leave APS short millions on top of the cuts already made. Hopefully, the state will come through, and this extra penny will not be needed.”
Schwartz’s proposed budget already includes $10 million in additional funding to APS to help close a projected $30-35 million budget gap. Superintendent Francisco Durán is scheduled to present APS’s proposed 2025 budget tomorrow (Thursday).
If adopted in April, a 2.5-cent increase would cause the typical Arlington homeowner to pay an additional $472 in taxes, based on the average home value of $824,700, per a county press release. That’s in addition to rising fees for stormwater management, waste collection and other services.
In total, the average Arlington homeowner would see their total fees and taxes increase by $582 if the Board adopts the 2.5-cent tax rate increase, the county says.
Arlington County held its property tax rate steady during the pandemic, though rising property assessments caused the average homeowner to pay some 4-5% more annually anyway.
Board members noted that a higher advertised tax rate will allow for more flexibility in discussions about funding for housing, mental health and public safety, with a focus on the county’s detention facility.
“I think there’s just too much unknown at this particular moment for us to box ourselves in,” said Board member Maureen Coffey.
The Board can still choose to adopt a lower rate, but not a higher one.
Rising taxes and property values are also expected to put upward pressure on rents, as apartment assessments are expected to increase by an average of 6.6%, or $215 per unit.
The proposed $1.62 billion budget would eliminate 33 county staff positions — many that are currently vacant — in various departments, saving about $10 million, according to Schwartz. The budget includes a 4.75% salary increase for all non-union county employees.
There is also additional funding for teen programs intended to help combat the teen opioid crisis, mental health and substance abuse programs, affordable housing and eviction prevention and environmental initiatives.
Arlington’s police and fire unions have called for further tax increases to fund raises for first responders and reverse staffing declines, particularly in the police department.
The Board will conduct a series of budget work sessions in March, followed by a pair of public hearings on the budget and the tax rate on April 2 and 4, respectively. The final budget adoption vote is scheduled for Saturday, April 20.
When Carrie Lombardi left her New York City finance job to teach at Burgundy Farm Country Day School, she was surprised to hear clucking from a colleague’s classroom one day.
The students, she learned, were raising chickens as part of their science curriculum.
After recovering from her initial shock, Lombardi engrossed herself in the subject. In August 2022, she brought her experience with hands-on science lessons to Arlington Public Schools as the system’s first part-time science coach. Today, she works with Barrett Elementary School teachers to supplement their science lessons with experiments.
Barrett students will not be raising poultry but last week, fifth-graders were learning the difference between insulators and conductors by testing whether paperclips, popsicle sticks or cotton balls could carry electricity between a power source and a light bulb.
“My role here is basically to support the teachers to take science where they want to take science,” Lombardi said. “Having a science coach who can run and get the materials, or support the willingness in the class, it’s really opening up possibilities.”
The approach can get lost in an era of videos and devices, she says. During Covid-era remote learning, videos replaced student-conducted experiments. Lacking the bandwidth to pick experiments, gather supplies and squeeze the lesson into a 40-minute window, some teachers still lean on videos post-pandemic.
This impacted how students viewed science.
“‘Science is boring,’” Lombardi recalled pupils telling her. “‘We hate it. All we do is watch videos.’”
The school system currently provides science professional learning to all elementary educators who teach some science but it is not a requirement, according to APS science supervisor Dat Le.
By contrast, Barrett clocked a 30-point increase in its science standardized test scores after hiring a part-time coach to support teachers throughout the year, according to Kristen Parsons, the chair of an APS science advisory committee.
Earlier this month, Parsons and Le made the pitch for 25 sciences coaches like Lombardi to address science performance gaps tied to historically inconsistent science instruction, which Covid-era remote learning exacerbated. Looking to address gaps that exist at any school, the committee requests one per elementary school.
Parsons told Superintendent Francisco Durán and the School Board that the coaches are the committee’s only recommendation this year, given the tight budget year ahead and the proven impact coaches can have. The committee took a firmer stance this year compared to the 2021-22 school year, when it suggested at least five to be sent to schools where the return-on-investment would be greatest, should funding for more coaches be unfeasible.
School Board Chair Cristina Diaz-Torres signaled coaches would not make the cut this year absent “a magic wand” or “pot of gold.” Board members requested more information on where the coaches should be sent if a few could be made available, more data substantiating their touted benefits and descriptions of the science training that elementary teachers receive today.
The coaching requests respond to the committee’s concerns about pass rates for elementary science state standardized tests, called Standards of Learning, which took a hit during Covid.
“During the height of the pandemic when students were engaged in virtual learning, it appears that elementary science instruction was impacted,” the committee said at the time. “Anecdotal information from parents and teachers consistently points to the limited or lack of science instruction.”
A newly formed committee says it aims to learn more about how Arlington Public Schools students use their school-provided devices both in and out of the classroom.
The Educational Technology Advisory Committee, which formed last year, consists of parents, technology specialists and APS personnel. One of their top priorities is determining the educational impacts of the iPads and MacBooks that APS provides all students.
“I think parents are really interested to know, how are they used, and how is it helping our children?” committee Chair Chris Woolfe told the Arlington School Board yesterday evening (Tuesday) during a work session.
Of particular interest, according to a committee progress report, is the degree to which devices are distracting students in class as well as any connection between device usage and academic performance.
“Our immediate goal is to gather student iPad & MacBook usage data,” the report says. “This would help inform all of our decisions moving forward and these kinds of analytics are standard in the industry now.”
Some parents have raised concerns about APS’s one-to-one device program, which previously only provided devices to students in grades 3-12 but expanded in 2020 to include K-2 students. School Board watchdog group Arlington Parents for Education in September 2022 called for a more thorough examination of how effectively iPads and MacBooks help children learn.
While a polarizing issue for parents, some students have pointed out that the devices can make it easier for them to organize their schoolwork and find information.
School Board member Mary Kadera argued on Tuesday that the school system has an obligation to provide parents with more information about school-issued technology.
“We have to. We just have to,” Kadera said. “As a parent, I am continually frustrated by the fact that I have so little visibility on what my kids are actually doing on their APS-issued devices.”
A 2019 study found that Arlington students were spending substantial portions of their school days using electronic devices: about 40% for elementary-aged students and 53% and 58%, respectively, for middle and high school students.
In addition to learning more about device usage, the Educational Technology Advisory Committee wants to reconsider the effects of accessories such as headphones. These are often necessary to avoid disrupting other students but they are one of the pricier items on school supply lists.
The advisory committee intends to make specific recommendations about school-issued devices only once it has collected and reviewed usage data.
Its February progress report notes that this is “a unique cultural moment,” with students learning in ways that are very different from how their parents were taught. Ultimately, the committee says it aims to represent the views of APS and parents, even when they may be at odds.
“This committee allows bidirectional communication between our school system and our parents,” the progress report says. “We aim to help parents better understand how tech is used at APS which hopefully may ease some anxiety. We also aim to help APS better understand how tech impacts students from a parents’ perspective, so that we can make necessary course corrections.”
One meeting down and two more to go before recommendations could emerge for a new name to adorn the forthcoming Arlington Career Center building.
Arlington Public Schools last month created a naming committee to discuss potential names for the new building, which will house the Arlington Career Center and the handful of programs within it, including Arlington Tech. As the committee has just starting meeting, no contenders have yet emerged for the building on S. Walter Reed Drive, slated for completion in the fall of 2026.
“It’s been a really great learning experience because we found out that there are clear criteria for how you name a new building in Arlington,” such as inclusive discussions with the community and a pick that reflects its values and the education happening inside, says Margaret Chung, the principal of the Arlington Career Center (ACC).
“Whether you’re within or without from outside, when you hear that name it’s like ‘Ah yeah, I get it, that’s who you are,” she continued.
Monica Caldera, the ACC diversity, equity and inclusion coordinator, says that starting this conversation has helped administrators “to see many perspectives about changing the name and what that means to people.”
The building name matters to ACC staff, who say the Career Center inside is set apart from Arlington’s comprehensive high schools by its name and function. While it offers more career-readiness programming than a typical high school, it is not a “vocational” school, per se.
“I think the term vocational gets into people’s minds of, ‘Oh ok, so you’re only going to go into a shop and you’re going to learn that skill and then you’re going to go out and do that skill, ” said Michelle Van Lare, the program coordinator for Arlington Tech. “And it’s really limiting to a high school student to be told that’s the track that you’re on.”
Instead, she says, ACC offers hands-on programs to students in grades 9-12 that teach skills necessary for their academic or professional goals.
“You can be in auto mechanics and in physics at the same time and learning the same material, but in one you’re actually doing it and in the other one, you’re sitting in the classroom writing about it,” said Van Lare. “That’s how we learn.”
In addition to its core curriculum, Arlington Public Schools offers Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses students either take at the Career Center or at their local high school. About half of all students in grades 9-12, or 4,000, take CTE courses, with 1,000 students either enrolled at the Career Center or traveling to and from there for a course, Career, Technical and Adult Education Director Kris Martini told the School Board last month. ACC students can also take dual-enrollment classes and graduate with an associate’s degree.
(Updated at 12 p.m.) An elementary school has become the next flashpoint in discussions of how Arlington Public Schools should use its existing buildings.
Last year, the Nottingham Elementary School community was roiled by a potential plan to close the school and turn the building into a “swing space” to accommodate students whose home schools were under renovation.
Directed to explore this option by School Board members, APS officials ultimately walked back the proposal: Middle schools needed the most attention and their student populations would not fit at Nottingham. Plus, parent opposition was fierce.
The focus has now shifted to the Montessori Public School of Arlington (MPSA) and plans to relocate it to the current Arlington Career Center site once the new building is finished next door.
Once located within Drew Model School, MPSA moved into the former Patrick Henry Elementary space in 2019 as that school community moved into a new neighborhood school, Fleet Elementary. The Patrick Henry building, meanwhile, is now showing its age at 50 years old.
“We have issues around physical space and with the HVAC system. We have had classrooms that are uninhabitable at various parts of the year but we don’t have anywhere else to go,” Jamey Borell, president of the PTA, tells ARLnow. “They are trying to make do with space heaters and fans… Our Montessori community is very good at making do.”
Of the 20-odd classrooms, 14 do not meet current educational specifications, according to School Board member Cristina Diaz-Torres, describing her recent visit to the school and discussing several issues, including corroding water heaters and a leaking roof.
“This building is falling apart at the seams. And if you walk through that building, it is very clear that… it was supposed to be temporary, and it should be temporary,” she said in a December School Board meeting.
Fellow parent Michael Bruno tells ARLnow the school community moved into Patrick Henry with this understanding, believing the MPSA would move into the legacy Arlington Career Center building after the new building is complete. Now, however, some attitudes have shifted.
Leaders from the County Council of PTAs and the Joint-Facility Advisory Committee, as well as two current and former School Board members, say this may not be the most financially sound course and more options should be explored. MPSA parents say APS should stick to its promise to move MPSA to the Career Center site and keep the program in South Arlington.
The diverging viewpoints emerged during public comments and a School Board discussion in December. In a rare split vote, members voted 3-2 to direct APS staff to explore and present low-, medium- and high-cost scenarios, not to exceed $45 million, for relocating MPSA into the Career Center building.
This means that staff will not explore other options off-campus as they develop the forthcoming 2025-34 Capital Improvement Plan, to be presented in May 2024. Building life span and use is top of mind for the School Board, which also directed Supt. Francisco Durán to include deep dive studies into how existing facilities should be renovated.
Current member Mary Kadera and now-former member Reid Goldstein voted against this direction.
“I really worry that our planning will be incomplete and short-sighted,” she said of the decision not to consider other locations for MPSA.
APS has to study additional scenarios, including how it could use some 1,000 open elementary seats around Arlington, if is going to be careful stewards of limited capital funds, she said. Current estimates put the cost of relocating MPSA to the Career Center at $39-45 million.
“[More study] might very well demonstrate that the best possible option is to house MPSA in the legacy building. I’m not arguing against that scenario,” Kadera said. “I am simply arguing that we owe it to the community to recognize our changing needs and circumstances and study the alternative.”
(Updated 2/19) Advocates are calling for Arlington County to invest $2 million in additional programs to stop students from dying of drug overdoses.
The mother of an Arlington ninth grader who died of an apparent fentanyl overdose in September joined over 250 others on Wednesday to demand additional funding for free after-school programs. Organizers say a scarcity of accessible, interesting programming makes students more likely to fall into drug addiction.
“We as parents and members of this community ask you to invest in after-school programs,” organizer Janeth Valenzuela, co-founder of the Arlington Schools Hispanic Parents Association (ASHPA), told officials in attendance at Kenmore Middle School. “It is an investment in life, in a better future, in a different destiny for our children. We know from experience that affordable programs at the schools will help.”
Luz Rodríguez, the mother of Jorge Rodríguez, pleaded with Arlington County Board Vice-Chair Takis Karantonis and member Maureen Coffey, who were in attendance, to work to ensure that her son is the last child in Arlington to die from drugs.
“We must all work together to stop this terrible disease that is killing our children,” Rodríguez said in Spanish, which was translated for English speakers.
Karantonis pledged to enter this year’s budget negotiations “with a $2 million mindset.”
“If the price is $2 million, this is the funding that’s needed? Then let’s do it,” said the Board member, who in November carried a motion to increase funding for programs combating teen substance abuse.
Coffey begged off on pledging a specific amount but said she would “fight for significant and ongoing funding.”
School Board members Mary Kadera and Bethany Sutton were also present at the event.
The County Board voted 3-2 in November to set aside $750,000 to build up initiatives relating to drug use among young people. So far, the county has used this money to expand teen programming on the weekends, enhance juvenile case management and increase outreach about existing programs.
Last month, County Manager Mark Schwartz said the Department of Human Services had also hired two additional counselors, one at Washington-Liberty High School and one at Wakefield High School. Jorge Rodríguez attended Wakefield and was the second student at that school to die last year.
Two additional counselors were being onboarded in January to work at Yorktown High School and the Arlington Career Center.
Virginians Organized for Interfaith Community Engagement (VOICE) hosted listening sessions with hundreds Arlington high school students and parents, most of whom were people of color, before making its $2 million recommendation, per a media packet. The funds would allow 200 young people in underserved communities to attend three hours of free programming every day after school.
Students and parents expressed interest in soccer options beyond recreation, travel and school teams. Other areas of interest included art, cooking, tennis, film, photography and podcasting.
Schwartz said in January that the county was “working on” an expanded soccer program, which he expected to go live by late February, in addition to a newly expanded basketball program.
VOICE, alongside ASHPA and the Arlington branch of the NAACP, says it supports more substance abuse education and access to behavioral health professionals. Its media packet says Arlington lacks widespread, relevant education initiatives on this topic, while many students said that accessing counselors and behavioral health professionals is difficult.
For a Wakefield senior named Marina, the need for a better response to the opioid crisis is personal.
School Board watchdog group Arlington Parents for Education (APE) is asking the auditor for Arlington Public Schools to dive into the potential impacts of an increase in paid holidays for year-round staff.
Two school years ago, new religious and cultural holidays were added to the calendar and Supt. Francisco Durán announced APS would fully close for winter and spring breaks. APE said in a new letter to the auditor that this decision could cost millions and may hurt morale of 10-month employees, who are not paid for these days off.
The letter, signed by APE Board members Alison Babb, Sheila Kelly, Sheila Leonard, Amy Rzepka and Katie Sunderland, concludes as follows:
We believe there is a strong rationale for either the School Board to add this to the work plan or for the auditor to initiate this audit. APS policy states that the internal auditor ‘shall prioritize’ audits based on risk to the division, and compliance with School Board policies, among other factors. This practice of providing 12-month staff with 26-32 paid holidays is now inconsistent with APS’ holiday policy, which still technically provides for only 13 paid holidays. Additionally, there is ample evidence… that this practice is adversely impacting APS operations and therefore presents a risk to the division.
The two changes made in 2021, by APE’s count, increased paid holidays that 12-month employees have from 13 to at least 26. Pointing to a 2020 estimate that furloughing 12-month staff for one day could save APS some $300,000, the board members say the additional paid holidays could cost $6 million annually. They do note, however, that APS has elsewhere said there is no financial cost to the changes in days off.
APS tells ARLnow the School Board decides what the auditor will take up and disputes APE’s holiday math. Over the last two years, not including annual leave, 12-month staff worked on average 234 days and received between 12-15 days off while 10-month staff worked an average of 189 days and have received 11 days off, per school system spokesman Frank Bellavia.
Arlington School Administrators, or ASA, the bargaining unit for principals, assistant principals, supervisors and some directors, likewise says the gains in paid holidays have been modest. Administrators gave up six days of annual leave in exchange for the spring and winter breaks, as part of collective bargaining negotiations last fiscal year, says Susan Robinson, who was the executive director of ASA for 13 years, overseeing the negotiations in question before stepping down recently.
APE contends that APS should have publicly discussed whether it would be fully operationally closed during winter and spring break before these were extended to 12-month staff. Durán at the time said the change did not require School Board approval because it involved “non-student days.”
“The decision to close during winter and spring breaks came out of Covid and aligns with some of our neighboring jurisdictions wherein 12-month employees are granted time off during these time periods,” Bellavia said. “Over the last two fiscal years, APS has communicated to stakeholders that offices and schools would be closed during these time periods.”
Arlington police have charged a former Washington-Liberty High School basketball coach with sexual offenses and are seeking possible additional victims.
George Porcha, 53, of Winterville, North Carolina, is charged with carnal knowledge of a minor and taking indecent liberties with children, per an Arlington County Police Department press release sent out this evening (Tuesday).
ACPD started its investigation in October 2022 after receiving information about possible offenses Porcha committed, involving minors, between 2000 and 2003, when he coached girls basketball coach at Washington-Liberty, then named Washington-Lee.
As a result of the investigation, warrants were issued this month for offenses involving two female victims who were juveniles and students at W-L at the time of the incidents, per the press release, which noted additional information is restricted following Virginia code.
During his tenure at W-L, he was the 2001 National District Coach of the Year, according to InsideNova. Porcha went on to be the head girls basketball coach at T.C. Williams High School, now Alexandria City High School, from 2004-07.
About a decade later, he coached the boys basketball team at Woodbridge High School from 2014-16 before leaving for Ole Miss, InsideNova reported at the time.
Porcha has also made the rounds coaching at colleges and universities, including Virginia Tech, West Virginia University, Ole Miss and Boston College. He was let go from Virginia Tech in the fall of 2022, per the Roanoke Times.
This remains an active criminal investigation, ACPD says. Anyone who has additional information related to this investigation or has had past inappropriate encounters with this suspect is asked to contact Detective P. Pena at 703-228-4183 or [email protected]. Information may also be provided anonymously through the Arlington County Crime Solvers hotline at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477).
(Updated at 3:20 p.m.) Starting this month, Arlington students can now get free Metrobus rides throughout Arlington.
This builds on a program in place since 2022 allowing students with iRide SmarTrip card to ride Arlington Transit (ART) buses for free. Students who live in Arlington and are enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade can obtain these cards from Commuter Stores in Arlington or, if they are APS students, through their schools.
Now, students with these cards will have free access to Metrobus’ greater range of service and hours, per a county press release. They will be able to travel to destinations that ART routes do not reach, including some schools, such as Swanson Middle School.
“APS is excited about the expansion of the Student iRide Fare Free Program to include Metrobus service within Arlington,” APS Director of Facilities and Operations Cathy Lin said in a statement. “This opportunity expands access for our students to travel in Arlington on public transit buses.”
The new program also responds to an increase in student ridership that the county ties to free ART travel for students. Arlington County reported that student ridership increased from 61,060 riders between January and September 2022 to 108,365 during the same period in 2023.
“We are encouraged to see that student ridership on ART bus has increased since the rollout of the student fare free program in 2022,” Dept. of Environmental Services spokeswoman Claudia Pors told ARLnow. “Our hope is that by expanding iRide to Metrobus, more young people will become comfortable and familiar using public transportation to get around Arlington safely and sustainably.”
Pors says there are currently no plans to expand the program to include Metrorail. Students can still access the Metro with an iRide SmarTrip card but they will have to pay the full fare amount.
The Arlington County Board approved the agreement with WMATA and the county in July 2023, the county press release says. The county allocated $360,000 in the 2024 fiscal year budget to reimburse Metrobus for the student rides.
Arlington County has taken other steps to make bus rides fare-free, including its free rush hour service on ART buses. Initially set to expire in December, the program was extended through this month.