The Swanson Admirals had smooth sailing in the 2026 Arlington middle-school swimming championships, held April 16 at Wakefield High School’s pool.
With 1,219.5 total points, Swanson edged out Dorothy Hamm Middle School (1,190.5) in the overall standings, counting both girls and boys competition.
At least one local high school will use artificial intelligence to provide clearer and faster name pronunciation during its graduation ceremony in June.
In an online letter to the school community, Washington-Liberty High School principal Alexander Duncan III said the school has partnered with Tassel to provide better announcements of graduates’ names as they cross the stage to collect diplomas.
A local advocacy group is pressing Arlington Public Schools’ leaders to have students in class five days per week on a more frequent basis.
“APS’ own attendance policy highlights that ‘missing just two days a month can negatively impact learning,’ yet the district’s calendars routinely miss multiple days of instruction per month,” Arlington Parents for Education (APE) said in a recent newsletter.
School leaders are projecting a gradual decline in student enrollment over the next decade — but they don’t believe it will translate to lower costs.
In total, Arlington Public Schools now projects a 3.7% decrease in enrollment by 2035, even as the number of students in high-risk categories is showing signs of increasing.
An Arlington eighth grader brought the fight for boys volleyball to last week’s School Board meeting.
Sam Luchessi, a student at Kenmore Middle School, pressed Board members to include funding in their fiscal year 2027 budget so the sport could be added at the high-school level. The Arlington school system already funds girls volleyball, with competition in the fall.
The grumblings from Northern Virginia public school parents are getting louder.
Last week, the discontent broke out into the open, when 106.7 The Fan host Danny Rouhier went on a rant that ended up going viral on social media and prompting some news coverage. His message: kids are getting too many days off of school.
Danny is sick and tried of Fairfax County Schools consistenly having days off school. pic.twitter.com/pba4ZT1Zba
— 106.7 The Fan (@1067theFan) April 6, 2026
Arlington and Fairfax schools have added more student holidays in recent years.
Starting with the 2021-2022, Arlington Public Schools added several religious holidays to its calendar, including Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Diwali and Eid al-Fitr. This year Eid al-Adha was added, after a divided school board decided against a last-minute addition to the calendar last year.
Both Arlington and Fairfax, meanwhile, added next Tuesday — special election day for the state redistricting amendment — as an off day and APS is off today (Monday) for a grade prep day. (Over the past month, APS has been off March 13, 20, 30-31 and April 1-3, 10, and 13.)
FCPS has even more off days on its calendar than APS and the Fairfax school board has been considering removing some federal holidays next year to strike a better balance. From an April 8 FFXnow article:
As the current school year enters its final stretch, the Fairfax County School Board is considering tweaking the calendar for the next year in response to mounting complaints about disruptions to class schedules.
At the board’s meeting tomorrow (Thursday), members led by governance committee chair Melanie Meren will propose nixing Indigenous Peoples’ Day and Veterans Day as official student holidays and limiting the number of scheduled early release days to four per year.
“Partial school weeks function as an informal ‘childcare tax’ that falls hardest on our hourly-wage and most vulnerable households,” said Meren, whose committee has been discussing a new calendar policy. “My goal is to adjust the 2026-27 calendar to increase the number of five-day school weeks.”
If the motions are approved, Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which will fall on Oct. 12 this year, and Veterans Day — observed annually on Nov. 11 — would become standard instructional days for both students and staff going forward. Fairfax County Public Schools would implement a curriculum to teach students about the groups that the occasions are intended to recognize.
After an April 9 vote, only Veterans Day will be eliminated as a school holiday, FFXnow reported today.
While Arlington has fewer off days than FCPS, some parents are nonetheless feeling the burden of frequently having to find childcare for myriad off days and early release days.
Do you think APS should also consider removing some off days next year? Weigh in below.
Arlington Public Schools’ region high per-student spending came under scrutiny as County Board and School Board members last month sat down for budget discussions.
“We’re spending significant money,” County Board member Julius “JD” Spain, Sr., said at the March 12 discussion between the two elected bodies.
A panel discussion on AI in the classroom and beyond is coming to Arlington Public Schools, supporting efforts to keep pace with the developing technology.
Superintendent Francisco Durán will moderate the community conversation next Tuesday, April 7. Educators, students and leaders in higher education and the workplace will “talk candidly about what AI means for teaching and learning right now,” Chief Academic Officer Gerald Mann said in an email to teachers.
Advocates for permanent local funding for after-school programs received support, but not necessarily promises, from county leaders at a March 27 rally.
Hundreds turned out for the evening program at Kenmore Middle School, urging county leaders to see the value in safety-net programs for students.
The Arlington School Board’s proposed fiscal year 2027 budget makes no immediate revisions to a nearly $860 million spending package presented by the superintendent.
The School Board package lining up with that of Superintendent Francisco Durán “is not unusual” at this stage of the budget process, School Board Chair Bethany Zecher Sutton said at the March 26 Board meeting.
Arlington Public Schools students will have off during a statewide redistricting referendum following a divided School Board vote last week.
In a 3-2 vote last Thursday, School Board members voted to give students the day off on Tuesday, April 21. The decision represented a split between a majority who saw logistical and safety concerns in keeping students in class, and those who did not wish to lose another instructional day and force parents to scramble for daycare options.
A busload of middle schoolers had a rollercoaster of a morning earlier this week after a charter bus took a wrong turn onto a bike path next to Arlington Blvd.
The students from Kenmore Middle School and Thomas Jefferson Middle School were on their way to a music assessment on Tuesday morning when their bus driver, who was trying to follow GPS directions, ended up turning onto a paved pathway that runs alongside Arlington Blvd, police spokesperson Kiyah Daniell told ARLnow.
