Supporters of the Arlington Outdoor Lab program at times have had to fight to maintain funding in Arlington Public Schools’ annual budget process.
This year, however, there are smiles all around.
Schools
An auditor’s report on extensive human resources shortcomings at Arlington Public Schools has leaders promising corrective action.
“There’s a lot of issues — training is desperately needed,” said auditor Alice Blount-Fenney, whose report laid less fault at the feet of front-line HR staff and more on broader institutional failings.
A proposed $845.4 million budget unveiled last night will not please everyone, Arlington Public Schools leaders acknowledged.
The Fiscal Year 2026 budget package represents a spending increase of 2.3% from the current budget, and anticipates $650 million in revenue coming from Arlington County. Nevertheless, “we had to make hard decisions,” Superintendent Francisco Durán said in detailing the spending package Thursday evening.
Arlington Public Schools’ recent decision to stop posting on the social-media platform X is getting some scrutiny from a School Board member.
Miranda Turner at the Feb. 27 Board meeting sought clarification of the reasons behind leaving the platform — formerly Twitter — and the 21,000 people who followed APS’s main X account (among smaller school-level accounts).
Advocates are speaking out against potential cuts to programs and personnel as Arlington Public Schools staff finalize a budget draft.
“[Stop] all the wasteful spending. We’ve got to cut stuff, not staff,” said Melissa Hyatt, an instructional technology coordinator (ITC) at Innovation Elementary School, during the Thursday night (Feb. 27) School Board meeting.
Arlington Public Schools is abandoning X for Bluesky.
The school system announced Wednesday that it will no longer post updates on X — formerly Twitter — although its account will “remain open.”
An LGBTQ+ advocacy group is calling for Arlington Public Schools to take a more aggressive stance in support of transgender students.
Equality Arlington released a letter this week urging the school system to “stand up for the rights of transgender athletes and oppose all discriminatory policies from whatever source they come.”
Commercial advertising at Arlington Public Schools’ athletic facilities? It may be on the horizon.
The county school system currently bars advertising at its fields and stadiums, but a proposed policy revision could change that.
Arlington school leaders are making strides in reducing chronic student absenteeism, but the results have been uneven.
Twenty-eight county schools showed year-over-year declines in chronic-absentee rates in the second quarter of 2024-25. But 11 posted an increase, Superintendent Francisco Durán told School Board members last week.
For the first time in program history, a Wakefield High School robotics team has qualified for the VEX Robotics World Championship.
The team, named “Paragon,” secured its spot at Worlds following a standout performance at an international robotics tournament last weekend in Bristol, Tenn.
A major policy shift by the Virginia High School League (VHSL) could impact how Arlington Public Schools approaches transgender athletes.
VHSL announced this week that it will follow an executive order from President Donald Trump that attempts to ban students born male from competing on girls teams, threatening financial sanctions if schools don’t comply.
Arlington School Board members for six months have promised a new approach to tackling the school system’s budget-development process.
Those assurances are about to be put to the test.