Stressful relations with former colleagues and the challenges of spring campaigning are among the reasons the Arlington School Board’s chair says she isn’t seeking another term.

“If I didn’t love the work so much, then the toxicity aimed at me, personally, from some of my former colleagues would have driven me out the door already,” Kadera told members of the Arlington County Democratic Committee on Wednesday (Dec. 8) as she announced she won’t be running for re-election this year.


Arlington Public Schools students will enjoy their third snow day in a row Wednesday.

APS parents, meanwhile, will have their kids at home for yet another day. They’ve been off since Dec. 20, the last day of classes before winter break.


It’s been the practice for some years, but now peanuts and their derivatives are formally banished from food served in Arlington public-school cafeterias.

Cafeterias now must “provide exclusively peanut-free food,” an Arlington Public Schools policy implementation procedure (PIP) mandates.


County school leaders, both elected and staff, will be presenting a united front as the fiscal 2026 budget season fast approaches.

In a change from typical practice, the Arlington School Board and superintendent will present a joint budget in mid-March, Board members decided Dec. 12.


Falls Church school leaders are planning to add a modest number of items to the system’s updated 2026-31 capital-improvement program.

And nearly already have funding sources available, School Board members were told on Dec. 10.


Dec. 12 was a graduation day of sorts for Arlington’s two departing School Board members.

“Your work has made a real difference,” Board chair Mary Kadera told Cristina Diaz-Torres and David Priddy at the meeting, the body’s final one of the year.


Arlington School Board members Thursday night (Dec. 12) voted unanimously to implement a bell-to-bell ban on student use of phones in county schools starting Jan. 6.

“Our schools are places of learning,” Superintendent Francisco Durán said just before the vote, saying his recommendation was “a policy that will protect that instructional space.”


A bullet was found in an elementary school classroom yesterday afternoon and it’s unclear how it got there.

Police were called to Arlington Traditional School, at 1030 N. McKinley Road, around 12:45 p.m. Monday after a student reportedly found a bullet in a fourth-grade classroom. So far, the investigation has not revealed where the bullet came from.


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