School Board members are giving themselves extra time before making final decisions on rearranging the locations of some non-traditional secondary programs.
Rather than being taken up the first week of February, as would be the typical cycle following its Jan. 22 presentation as an information item, final discussion and vote will be taken two weeks later.
County school leaders have announced growth plans for the Arlington Tech program, which will include a doubling of the student body by the 2029-30 school year.
At the same time, Arlington Public Schools confirmed Friday, Jan. 16 at 4 p.m. as the application deadline for county students interested in vying for spots at the Arlington Tech program — and other option schools and programs — to have their applications submitted.
Arlington Public Schools aims to build on the success of a coding competition for students that launched last year.
The second annual High School Programming Competition — which is open to both middle and high schoolers — will be held on Saturday, Feb. 7 from 10:45 a.m.-4 p.m. at the Arlington Career Center.
The School Board’s policy subcommittee will open 2026 with consideration of new policies to combat waste, fraud and abuse while protecting those on staff who report it.
At its Wednesday, Jan. 7 meeting, subcommittee members will consider two separate but interconnected draft policy documents:
The new home of the Arlington Career Center is still on track to be ready for the start of the 2026-27 school year, but the margin of error is getting increasingly narrow.
School Board members are preparing to discuss a staff request to appropriate $670,000 in contingency funds on Thursday, aiming to meet the most recent challenges for the new Grace Hopper Center at 816 S. Walter Reed Drive.
Civic association presidents along the Columbia Pike corridor are urging Arlington Public Schools to hold firm to development plans for the Arlington Career Center site.
In a letter to School Board members and Superintendent Francisco Durán, members of the Pike Presidents Group say they want APS to confirm its three-step plan for the parcel, located just north of the Pike along S. Walter Reed Drive:
Construction is continuing at full tilt at Arlington Career Center’s new home, with a planned opening date at the start of the 2026-27 school year.
The forthcoming Grace Hopper Center, located adjacent to the existing Career Center building at 816 S. Walter Reed Drive, has been rapidly taking shape since the project broke ground in May 2024.
The estimated cost of building a new career center on S. Walter Reed Drive is ratcheting up again because of unforeseen conditions at the project’s construction site.
School Board members will receive a presentation on Thursday on appropriating another $1.18 million in contingency funds for the project.
Protected bike lanes, a new stop light and improved bus stops along S. Walter Reed Drive are included in a proposed $7 million county contract.
The transportation improvement contract, slated for County Board consideration on Saturday, is for part of the “Complete Streets” project on Walter Reed between 5th Street S. and Columbia Pike.
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.
About 60 students took part in the debut of a youth-led coding competition at the Arlington Career Center this weekend.
“We had to communicate with many people — it was quite an effort,” said Nate Levin, a senior at Yorktown High School who, along with Brayden Zee of Yorktown and Sheel Shah of Arlington Tech, organized the 4.5-hour event.
An Arlington educator has received the nation’s highest honor for teachers of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Geraldine “Gerri” Maskelony, a statistics teacher at Arlington Tech, has earned the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching, the White House announced this week. With the award, she received $10,000 from the National Science Foundation and a certificate signed by President Joe Biden.
