Update at 7:45 p.m. — Arlington School Board Chair Abby Raphael has responded, in writing, to the PTA letter.
The Jamestown Elementary School PTA has fired off an angry letter to county officials after new relocatable classroom trailers were placed in a field near the school’s playground.
Arlington Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Pat Murphy presented his proposed Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for Fiscal Years 2013-2022 at a meeting last week. The plan totals nearly $538 million and includes funding for two new elementary schools and additions to three others in order to help address the school system’s capacity issues.
“I believe these changes will enable APS to provide much needed instructional space while continuing to maintain existing facilities that meet the needs of our students and teachers,” Murphy said.
The President will be focusing on the need to prevent interest rates on federally subsidized student loans from doubling. If Congress does not act, the loan rate will double on July 1, from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent. Both he and Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney have said that action needs to be taken to prevent that from happening.
President Obama is scheduled to hold a roundtable discussion on the issue with graduating W-L seniors and their parents. He will then deliver prepared remarks to the junior and senior classes on “the importance of their having a fair shot at an affordable higher education and the skills they need to find a good job,” according to the White House.
At a press conference this morning, Moran was joined by officials from Arlington Public Schools, along with several Arlington parents of autistic children. The bill — the “AUTISM Educators Act” — could specifically benefit Arlington schools, where more than 10 percent of the special education population has been diagnosed with ASD, according to Moran’s office.
From a press release:
Todd McCracken, the President and CEO of the National Small Business Association, will serve on the School Board until a new board member — to be elected in November — is sworn in. McCracken has not indicated that he’s interested in running for the seat.
In a press release, school officials hailed McCracken’s expertise in school capacity issues.
Some 150 students took to the streets outside Bishop O’Connell High School yesterday to protest the firing of John Harrison, a beloved social studies teacher.
In February, Fishtahler announced his interest in receiving an endorsement from the Arlington County Democratic Committee (ACDC). Now that Fishtahler has dropped out, candidate Noah Simon and incumbent Emma Violand-Sanchez are the presumptive Democratic endorsees for the two open positions in November’s election.
(One of the open positions is the School Board seat formerly held by now-County Board member Libby Garvey.)
In a letter sent to the Arlington School Board yesterday, the Glencarlyn Citizens’ Association asks the board to consider alternative sites for the proposed 600 students capacity magnet elementary school. The association cites concerns about “traffic, safety, parking and loss of [an] important recreational area” as reasons why the school shouldn’t be built or, at the very least, should be built in a way that minimizes negative impacts.
Along with the letter to the school board, Glencarlyn Citizens’ Association president Peter Olivere sent a letter to the editors of ARLnow.com, the Arlington Mercury and the Sun Gazette.
Students told police a male suspect approached them, carrying a gun with an orange tip. Police radio traffic reported that while displaying the weapon, which was at first thought to be real, the suspect asked the children if they were ready to die.
The suspect and children all left the scene. However, when police arrived, some of the children returned to describe the suspect and incident.
As part of its ongoing capacity planning process, APS has been narrowing down its options for keeping up with rising enrollment at schools countywide. The options for adding capacity include building new schools and making additions to existing schools.
Montessori advocates have seized upon an APS proposal to build a new PreK-8 countywide magnet school between Carlin Springs Elementary and Kenmore Middle School. AMAC says the school would be ideal for a central Montessori “choice” program, hosting between 600 and 750 Montessori students either from PreK-5 or PreK-8. Currently, there are almost 600 PreK-8 students in 31 Montessori classrooms at schools across Arlington, with hundreds more on waiting lists, according to AMAC.
Per Virginia law, anybody interested in replacing Garvey on the School Board must be a qualified Arlington voter and must not be a School Board employee. Interested parties are asked to submit a resume and a letter of interest to the School Board by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 11.
A public hearing on the School Board vacancy will be held on the evening of April 17. The appointment itself is scheduled to take place during the School Board meeting on April 26. The appointee won’t be in the unelected office for very long — Garvey’s term is up at the end of December and the seat will be up for grabs in November’s general election.
The theft happened between 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, March 7 and 7:00 a.m. on Thursday, March 8, according to police. A suspect broke into the school trailer by forcing open a window, and then made off with a laptop, a microscope and keys.
Police do not have a description of the suspect, who remains at large.
