New figures show efforts to reduce absenteeism in Arlington public schools may be bearing fruit.
When Arlington School Board members approved the system’s fiscal 2025 budget in the spring, they set a goal of ultimately reducing chronic absenteeism from the then-current level of 13.5% to less than 8%. In recently updated data, there was a bit of progress on that front.
Gerald Ford was in the White House the last time Arlington voters rejected a school bond in a local referendum.
But the two local residents tasked with making sure such ancient history doesn’t repeat itself are taking no chances as they make the case for passage of the 2024 school bond.
Amid ongoing construction delays, plans have changed for Arlington Community High School’s (ACHS) relocation in 2026.
The high school — currently located in an office building in Ballston — was originally set to relocate to PenPlace, the planned second phase of Amazon’s HQ2 campus in Pentagon City.
Three of four candidates for two open Arlington School Board seats have come out forcefully in favor of an “away-for-the-day” policy for student phone use, with exceptions available in narrow instances.
“School should be phone-free,” Paul Weiss, a retired county educator, said at a Thursday (Oct. 10) candidate forum sponsored by the Arlington Parents for Education (APE) advocacy organizations.
The best public schools in Virginia are in Arlington and Falls Church, according to new 2025 rankings.
Arlington Public Schools rank No. 2, right behind Falls Church City Public Schools at No. 1, the education research firm Niche found. Only one other school district in the state received an overall A+ rating.
Today’s pop quiz: What do kangaroos, wombats, koalas and students at a number of Arlington schools all have that others do not?
The answer: pouches.
Arlington Public Schools is proposing to significantly increase its budget next year to support more staffing and a pay raise for personnel.
The proposal, which Superintendent Francisco Durán and the Arlington School Board discussed at a work session yesterday (Tuesday), calls for gradually adding 252 new full-time positions and a 3% cost-of-living increase over the next three years.
Tests of three new weather sirens near Arlington high schools will be taking place this Friday.
The sirens — located at athletic fields at Wakefield, Washington-Liberty and Yorktown high schools — will sound a 15-second, one-horn blast and flash strobe lights. Under ordinary circumstances, this means that lightning has been detected within a 10-mile radius and people should shelter indoors for 30 minutes.
A series of recent internal audits at Arlington Public Schools have revealed inconsistencies in the school system’s financial management practices.
The audits, which reviewed spending from 2022 to 2024, found that APS lacks clear policies for managing purchasing card usage, fuel expenses and school activity funds. They also highlighted limited training for employees overseeing these areas and weaknesses in oversight systems.
As the 2024-25 school year starts today, Arlington Public Schools is launching several new initiatives to tackle student safety and enrichment.
Approved changes for this year include a new attendance policy for high school athletic events, a new after-school program pilot, and an extra five-day weekend in November.
Four Arlington schools will be distributing cellphone storage pouches to students this year as part of an effort to restrict mobile phone use on campus.
The pilot program will kick off in mid-September at Wakefield High School, H-B Woodlawn (middle school only), Swanson Middle School and Thomas Jefferson Middle School, APS announced in an email to parents Thursday.
As students begin returning to Arlington Public Schools this coming Monday, Aug. 26, new initiatives are meant to encourage safer driving around schools this year.
Variable message boards sharing safety messaging and raising awareness about the start of the school year will appear along roads in Arlington in coming days. Ten new speed cameras have also been installed near select schools, operating when school zone lights are flashing at the beginning and end of the school day.
