Both contenders in Arlington’s Democrat School Board primary argue that leaders should rethink a plan to close a program for preschoolers with disabilities.
At a Wednesday candidate forum, June Prakash and Monique “Moe” Bryant contended that Arlington Public Schools leadership should have engaged more with affected families before introducing the proposal to close the Integration Station and disperse its students to other classrooms.
Supporters of the Arlington Outdoor Lab program at times have had to fight to maintain funding in Arlington Public Schools’ annual budget process.
This year, however, there are smiles all around.
An auditor’s report on extensive human resources shortcomings at Arlington Public Schools has leaders promising corrective action.
“There’s a lot of issues — training is desperately needed,” said auditor Alice Blount-Fenney, whose report laid less fault at the feet of front-line HR staff and more on broader institutional failings.
The proposed $845 million fiscal 2026 budget to fund Arlington Public Schools (APS) for the 2025-26 school year has again brought up concerns over how much funding should go into classrooms and how much is needed to provide central-office oversight.
Given fiscal challenges faced by the county government and school system, and the ongoing uncertainty over the region’s economic future, those concerns may be more pronounced this year.
Excess capacity at elementary schools might someday lead Arlington Public Schools to close facilities — but there aren’t any immediate plans to do this, officials say.
“We are not projecting a need to close any schools at this time,” Board Chair Mary Kadera said in response to a question at last week’s Arlington County Civic Federation meeting.
A proposed $845.4 million budget unveiled last night will not please everyone, Arlington Public Schools leaders acknowledged.
The Fiscal Year 2026 budget package represents a spending increase of 2.3% from the current budget, and anticipates $650 million in revenue coming from Arlington County. Nevertheless, “we had to make hard decisions,” Superintendent Francisco Durán said in detailing the spending package Thursday evening.
Arlington’s proposed FY 2026 budget continues after-school programs kicked off last year aimed at curbing substance abuse among local teens.
Data shows that Arlington overdoses did, indeed, decline last year among juveniles and in the general population. However, it’s somewhat unclear how much of a role the new Arlington Public Schools programming played in this.
Arlington County Board members have a lighter-than-usual agenda as they plan to gather for their monthly meeting on Saturday (March 15).
But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some items worth watching. Among them:
A trial date has been set for a former Washington-Liberty High School substitute teacher accused of taking indecent liberties with a high school student.
The trial of Timothy McGhee, 47, is scheduled to begin in Arlington’s Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on April 23.
A popular drop-off event for electronics and hazardous household materials has been canceled, due to high expected attendance at an Arlington Public Schools job fair.
Arlington County announced on Friday that its spring E-CARE event, originally scheduled to happen this Saturday at Wakefield High School, was being canceled due to an APS recuitment event set to happen around the same time.
Arlington Public Schools’ recent decision to stop posting on the social-media platform X is getting some scrutiny from a School Board member.
Miranda Turner at the Feb. 27 Board meeting sought clarification of the reasons behind leaving the platform — formerly Twitter — and the 21,000 people who followed APS’s main X account (among smaller school-level accounts).
A new policy limiting state and federal law enforcement’s access to Arlington Public Schools facilities is going into effect.
The Arlington School Board has approved a policy revision that restricts access for law enforcement agencies other than the Arlington County Police Department.
