(Updated at 1 p.m.) Someone phoned in a bomb threat at Swanson Middle School this morning.
The caller claimed that bombs were planted in the middle school, in the Westover area. The school was quickly placed in lockdown, an Arlington Public Schools spokesman confirmed to ARLnow.
Gunston Middle School students returned to class today after a police investigation yesterday afternoon.
Arlington County police were dispatched to the school around 3:30 p.m. Thursday for a report of threatening graffiti. A subsequent email to families from the school’s principal said someone wrote “Im going to shoot up the dumb ass school” in a girls’ bathroom stall.
Arlington Public Schools is mulling support for legislation that would allow localities to prevent vape shops from opening up near schools.
This is the first time the idea for such a bill has been considered as part of the School Board’s annual legislative package, according to Frank Bellavia, a spokesman for the school system. The package has not yet been approved by the Board.
After some Swanson Middle School students reportedly egged customers and employees at The Italian Store, management at the popular Westover grocer discontinued a student special.
Italian Store Director of Operations Mike Tramonte tells ARLnow he is also trying to identify the students who lobbed the eggs, who also allegedly stole the eggs from Walgreens. He says store employees and patrons were struck three days in a row last week and that when he went onto the patio to deter the egging, he was targeted, too.
Arlington Public Schools says it is closing a math achievement gap worsened by Covid.
But a School Board watchdog group says the school system’s new progress report is missing pre-Covid data and paints a misleading picture of how far APS still has to go.
Nottingham Elementary School will not become a swing space for other schools slated for renovations, according to Arlington Public Schools.
The administration came to this conclusion last night in a “Committee of the Whole” meeting during a preview of a forthcoming report outlining the schools in need of extensive renovations.
Graffiti resembling a swastika was found Monday at Key Elementary School, according to the school’s principal.
A staff member noticed the swastika-like drawing inside a bathroom stall in the second-grade trailer, Principal Marleny Perdomo said in an email to families last night, shared with ARLnow.
Next month, Arlington Public Schools is set to roll out a new, electronic campus management platform at a number of middle and high schools.
The goal is to improve building security and provide better oversight of students as they come and go from classrooms.
Over the course of an hour last night, Arlington Public Schools teachers excoriated the School Board and central administration for how they are handling what some call a healthcare catastrophe.
On Dec. 31, APS staff will lose the healthcare they receive from Kaiser Permanente and Cigna through APS, to be replaced in January by CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield.
Arlington Public Schools has a new internal social media platform for families but its anonymous commenting policy prompted a tense discussion among some School Board members.
This year, the school system launched ThoughtExchange, which allows people to comment on topics or proposals administrators bring to the community for public comment. Users can also rank the comments others make 1-5 stars.
For the last decade, Arlington Public Schools has tried to increase the time students with disabilities spend with their typically abled peers.
Creating a more inclusive environment can benefit students with disabilities and their peers, according to some studies — though not all — as well as new APS academic data. But it is easier said than done.
Arlington Public Schools is pausing an impending middle school boundary process, citing stable enrollment this fall.
Earlier this year, APS was bracing for overcrowding at a few middle schools. It proposed busing some students from Dorothy Hamm and Swanson to under-capacity Williamsburg Middle School. It also floated moving the Spanish language immersion program from overcrowded Gunston to Kenmore Middle School.
