As students begin returning to Arlington Public Schools this coming Monday, Aug. 26, new initiatives are meant to encourage safer driving around schools this year.

Variable message boards sharing safety messaging and raising awareness about the start of the school year will appear along roads in Arlington in coming days. Ten new speed cameras have also been installed near select schools, operating when school zone lights are flashing at the beginning and end of the school day.


New mobile phone policies are going into effect in Arlington Public Schools for the upcoming school year.

After a unanimous Arlington School Board vote yesterday (Thursday), high school students will be required to turn off their cellphones during class and elementary and middle school students will have to keep them off for the entire day.


Three Arlington high school students presented research at one of the world’s largest data visualization conventions this month.

Rising Washington-Liberty High School seniors Karin Anderson and Annie Trucano, along with recent graduate Kaitlyn Fado, traveled to San Diego to present at a conference attended by about 17,000 industry professionals. Their presentations at the 2024 Esri User Conference showcased the effects of climate change, invasive insect species and urban planning challenges in the DC area.


Arlington students could be getting an additional five-day weekend this November.

Proposed changes to the 2024-25 calendar would give Arlington Public Schools students off between Nov. 1 and Nov. 5, shortly before another five-day weekend for Thanksgiving the last week of November.


Impassioned discussion surrounded a split Arlington School Board vote on Thursday to approve a $570 million Capital Improvement Plan for the next decade.

At issue in the 3-2 vote on the 2025-2034 CIP were disagreements over Arlington Public Schools debt service as well as a plan to relocate the Montessori Public School of Arlington (MPSA) to the current Career Center building.


An Arlington parents group is pushing for more stringent rules around cellphones in the classroom.

Arlington Parents for Education argued in a letter to Superintendent Francisco Durán that a countywide policy of having students stow phones in lockers during the day would improve learning and mental health during the 2024-2025 school year.


An Arlington elementary school celebrated a major upgrade to its basketball court this week thanks to a local dad and some pro sports teams.

Mascots from the Washington Wizards and Mystics joined a crowd of third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students on Monday to mark the installation of four new basketball hoops at Barcroft Elementary School. The hoops, courtesy of the Monumental Sports & Entertainment Foundation, replaced deteriorating equipment that dated back to the 1960s.


The Arlington School Board has unanimously passed an $826 million budget that, in the view of several board members, fails to accomplish key goals.

“This is a budget of status quos,” Chair Cristina Diaz-Torres said prior to a Thursday vote. “I said this the day that [Superintendent Francisco Durán] announced the budget. This is a budget of maintaining the status quo at a bare minimum.”


After narrowly missing out on an undefeated season, the Yorktown High School girls lacrosse team can claim a higher title: state champions.

The team defeated Fairfax County’s Robinson Secondary School in Richmond on Saturday, earning the school’s second title in three seasons.


Arlington Public Schools is set to add several new all-electric school buses to its fleet next year.

Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that Arlington is among 18 Virginia school districts awarded the 2023 Clean School Bus rebate to purchase five new all-electric (or low-emission) buses.


The new facility set to replace the Arlington Career Center will be named after a noted Navy admiral and computer scientist who lived in Arlington.

Grace Hopper Center will be the campus’s new name following a 4-0 Arlington School Board vote last night.


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