The Arlington County Board says it’s on the side of Arlington Public Schools in the battle with the state over mask mandates.
Arlington and six other Northern Virginia school systems filed a lawsuit Monday challenging Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s executive order on Jan. 15, his first day in office, prohibiting school systems from requiring students wear masks.
(Updated at 12:05 p.m. on 2/3/21) During the Arlington School Board meeting last night, public school administrators made the case for why the fledgling, controversial in-house virtual learning platform now deserves better grades.
Last fall, Arlington Public Schools launched its Virtual Learning Program for families with reservations about in-person school amid the pandemic or whose students preferred online classes.
School Board Chair Barbara Kanninen will not seek re-election after her term ends this December.
The chair said in an announcement on Sunday that she will “continue the hard work of serving our students, staff, and the Arlington community” for the rest of her term, which ends on Dec. 31, 2022.
(Updated at 7:40 p.m.) Students and parents are in the middle of a tug-of-war between Arlington Public Schools and newly-inaugurated Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.
One of the Republican’s first acts today (Saturday) after succeeding now-former Gov. Ralph Northam (D) was issuing eleven executive actions, including one that allows parents to “elect for their children not to be subject to any mask mandate in effect at the child’s school or educational program.”
(Updated at noon) Arlington Public Schools is bringing athletics back early and reducing quarantine periods, despite more than a thousand Covid cases reported among students and staff this past week.
Starting next week, the school system will adopt revised CDC guidance, Superintendent Francisco Durán wrote in an email to the school community Wednesday. The isolation period for staff members who test positive will be halved to five days. The new guidelines also reduced the quarantine period to five days for a student or staff member who is considered a close contact to someone who tested positive.
Snow this week has nearly wiped out Arlington Public Schools’ snow days for the winter.
Two months ago, APS modified its winter weather plans to include six traditional “snow days,” in which school is completely canceled, followed by distance-learning days.
Your kids and your trash will be staying at home until next week.
Arlington Public Schools just announced that it will be closed for the fifth school day in a row, in anticipation of 2-4 inches of snow overnight. Students have not been in class since before the winter break.
(Updated at 8:55 p.m.) Arlington Public Schools will be closed tomorrow because, according to APS, other school systems are also closed.
In an email to families, APS said that local streets are clear of snow and school could open, but the already-announced closure of other Northern Virginia school systems — like Fairfax County, Alexandria and Prince William County — would have an impact on staffing.
For the third day in a row, Arlington Public Schools students — and those that follow APS closures, like local preschools — will get another snow day.
The school system announced the closure shortly after 5 p.m., with the possibility of freezing rain in the forecast and with many neighborhood streets still covered in snow and ice.
(Updated 2:35 p.m.) Some parents and students are pushing Arlington Public Schools to reverse its decision to temporarily halt sports and other extracurricular activities due to COVID-19.
After the snow clears, the majority of APS students will return to their classrooms for in-person learning, but their sports practices and games, band and choir classes and club meetings will be “paused” until Friday, Jan. 14.
A tweet correcting the grammar and style of a press release from the Arlington teachers union has gotten some national media attention.
A local homeschooling mom tweeted pictures of the corrections she says she and her children made to a press release sent by the Arlington Education Association, which represents educators and staff in Arlington Public Schools.
(Updated at 6 p.m.) Arlington Public Schools will be closed Monday, the school system announced Sunday evening.
The closure decision was made as Arlington is under a Winter Storm Warning, with heavy snow expected to start falling early Monday morning. Some 3-7 inches of accumulation is possible, according to the National Weather Service
