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Parents Planning Protest, Lobbying Effort to Reverse School Board’s Career Center Plans

Published June 7, 2018 at 4:15PM

A protest of the School Board's Career Center plans at a May 17 meeting (courtesy of Kristi Sawert)

A group of parents who could someday send their kids to a new high school program at the Arlington Career Center remain frustrated by the school system’s plans for the site, and they’re planning a new effort to make their voices heard.

Concerned parents, largely hailing from the Arlington Heights neighborhood around Columbia Pike, are banding together to form a new nonprofit called “Citizens for Arlington School Equality.” The organization, which will lobby the School Board to include a broader range of amenities at the school site, is planning to kick off its efforts with a march from Patrick Henry Elementary School to the Board’s meeting tonight (June 7) at the Syphax Education Center (2110 Washington Blvd), with a rally to follow.

APS Opts to Let Stratford Families Choose Between Reed, Yorktown for Temporary Move

By Alex Koma

Published June 5, 2018 at 1:45PM | Updated June 5, 2018 at 2:17PM

Current Reed School building (photo via APS)

With Arlington Public Schools’ Stratford Program getting ready for a big move, school leaders are giving students (and their parents) a choice about where they’ll spend the next year learning.

The program, which serves secondary-level special education students, is set to relocate into a new building in Rosslyn for the 2019-2020 school year. But its current space on Vacation Lane, which it shares with the H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program, will soon be renovated to become a new middle school, forcing Stratford students to temporarily find a new home.

County Police Investigating Series of Thefts at Arlington Elementary Schools

By Alex Koma

Published June 5, 2018 at 10:45AM

Police at Yorktown High School (file photo)

Arlington County Police and school officials are working to track down the people responsible for a series of thefts from local schools over the last few months.

ACPD spokeswoman Ashley Savage says her department has received 10 reports of larcenies of credits cards or wallets from Arlington schools since May 2017, with the most recent coming last Thursday (May 31).

School Board Looking for County Help on New Construction, But Funding Squeeze Complicates Debate

By Alex Koma

Published June 1, 2018 at 3:45PM | Updated June 1, 2018 at 4:40PM

A joint meeting of the County Board and School Board on May 29. (photo via Arlington County)

(Updated at 4:40 p.m.) Arlington school leaders believe they’ll need plenty of help from the County Board to build enough schools to keep pace with a rapidly growing student body over the next decade — but the county’s own financial pressures will likely limit just how much it can lend a hand.

The School Board and County Board convened for a joint meeting on Tuesday (May 29) as officials pull together their respective capital improvement plans, documents outlining construction spending over the next 10 years, in order to better coordinate the process.

APS: ‘Incident’ Involving Substitute Teacher at Swanson Middle School

By ARLnow.com

Published May 30, 2018 at 4:05PM

Swanson Middle School (photo via APS)

An email sent to parents said that a “conversation escalated” between the sub and school officials, prompting a response from the Arlington Public Schools human resources department and a school resource officer.

An APS spokesman declined to provide additional detail about what happened beyond what was written in the email, saying that it was a “personnel issue.”

School Board Nears Agreement on Plan to Add Some, But Not All, Amenities to Career Center Site

By Alex Koma

Published May 25, 2018 at 10:45AM | Updated May 25, 2018 at 1:47PM

(Updated at 1:45 p.m.) The Arlington School Board is nearing consensus on a plan to build 1,050 new seats for high schoolers at the county’s Career Center by 2024, with some, but not all, of the features community members want to see at the site.

At a May 22 work session, the Board expressed broad agreement on changes to Superintendent Patrick Murphy’s proposed 10-year construction plan, known as the capital improvement plan. School leaders have yet to finalize these decisions, but Board members signaled an increased willingness to embrace a plan that costs roughly $64 million more than the one Murphy proposed.

School Board Weighs Options to Beef Up Amenities for Career Center High School Plan

By Alex Koma

Published May 18, 2018 at 1:45PM | Updated May 18, 2018 at 2:13PM

Arlington Public Schools is set to add seats for 850 high schoolers by 2021, but the key question for school leaders now is how, exactly, that construction might proceed.

The School Board is gearing up to award a $2.4 million contract for design work at the “Education Center” site adjacent to Washington-Lee High School (1426 N. Quincy Street), where the school system has planned to add space for up to 600 high school students three years from now. Rather than building a fourth comprehensive high school, the Board agreed last summer on a plan to split new seats between the Education Center and the Arlington Career Center just off Columbia Pike (816 S. Walter Reed Drive).

APS: Stratford Program May Temporarily Move to Yorktown HS

By ARLnow.com

Published May 11, 2018 at 1:55PM

Arlington Public Schools is shooting down rumors that the Stratford Program is going to be “dismantled” while also announcing that a new, temporary location is under consideration.

Stratford serves secondary-level special education students and is currently co-located with the H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program on Vacation Lane. Both programs are set to move to a new facility in Rosslyn for the 2019-2020 school year, but Stratford will be moving to a temporary home during the next school year to facilitate the renovation of its current building into a neighborhood middle school.

Arlington Schools See Racial Disparity in Suspension Rates, Police Referrals

By Anna Merod

Published May 9, 2018 at 10:45AM | Updated May 9, 2018 at 12:38PM

(Updated at 12:40 p.m.) Following a national trend, data shows that Arlington Public Schools are disproportionately suspending black and Hispanic students compared to their white classmates.

The recently released stats from the U.S. Department of Education indicate that among the total 25,149 APS students, 10.6 percent were black, 28.4 percent were Hispanic and 46.1 percent were white. Meanwhile, the makeup of students serving in-school suspensions in APS was 29.1 percent black, 40.6 percent Hispanic and 19.4 percent white students. For students serving out-of-school suspensions, 29.5 percent were black, 33.3 percent were Hispanic and 27.6 percent were white.

Internet and Email Outage at Arlington Public Schools

By ARLnow.com

Published May 7, 2018 at 2:30PM

Internet connections are down across all Arlington Public Schools.

Both the internet and email systems are experiencing an extended outage, APS announced Monday afternoon. The outage is not expected to be resolved before the end of the school day, APS said.

Parents, Students Speak Out About APS Plan To Phase Out Japanese and German Language Classes

By Bridget Reed Morawski

Published May 7, 2018 at 9:45AM | Updated May 7, 2018 at 10:39AM

Arlington Public Schools will not offer high school students beginner’s level Japanese and German classes this fall, and some parents and students are speaking out about it.

Much of the loudest advocacy has been geared toward supporting up the Japanese classes. Public comments after a world languages presentation at last week’s School Board meeting (May 3) focused on the ways that the Japanese classes have made an impact on students.

School Board Avoids Class Size Increases in New Budget, But Warns of Trouble Ahead

By Alex Koma

Published May 4, 2018 at 3:45PM

The Arlington School Board managed to avoid class size increases in its new budget, but the county’s worsening financial outlook has school leaders warning that future spending plans could include additional painful cuts.

The School Board voted unanimously Thursday to approve a roughly $637 million budget for fiscal year 2019, though board members expressed plenty of trepidation about the document.