Impassioned discussion surrounded a split Arlington School Board vote on Thursday to approve a $570 million Capital Improvement Plan for the next decade.
At issue in the 3-2 vote on the 2025-2034 CIP were disagreements over Arlington Public Schools debt service as well as a plan to relocate the Montessori Public School of Arlington (MPSA) to the current Career Center building.
The new facility set to replace the Arlington Career Center will be named after a noted Navy admiral and computer scientist who lived in Arlington.
Grace Hopper Center will be the campus’s new name following a 4-0 Arlington School Board vote last night.
A high school student from Arlington was recently awarded a 2024 Princeton Prize in Race Relations for her work in helping to advance racial equity within her school community.
Marlene Reyes, a junior attending Arlington Tech at the Arlington Career Center, is among 28 high school students nationwide recognized by the university for their contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion in their schools and communities. The prizes are awarded by region.
The Arlington School Board has approved construction of a new Arlington Career Center building without a guarantee of paying workers a prevailing wage.
Seeking to avoid rebidding the project and causing at least a year of delays, Board members voted 4-0 last night (Thursday) to finalize a $132 million contract that has drawn criticism from Arlington state representatives, labor groups and the local NAACP chapter.
Arlington unions and state representatives are doubling down on calls for more labor protections in the construction of the new Arlington Career Center.
A $132 million construction contract is up for consideration at an Arlington School Board meeting on Thursday. At least a year of delays would likely result if the School Board seeks a prevailing wage agreement for the project, guaranteeing that workers get paid wages comparable to market rates, Arlington Public Schools staff said at a meeting last month.
Arlington’s state legislators are calling on school officials to provide more labor protections for workers building the multimillion-dollar Arlington Career Center.
Sens. Adam Ebbin and Barbara Favola, along with Delegates Patrick Hope, Alfonso Lopez and Adele McClure, sent a letter to the Arlington School Board last month requesting a prevailing wage requirement. This would require workers to receive wages comparable to market rates when constructing the roughly $180 million project at 816 S. Walter Reed Drive.
One meeting down and two more to go before recommendations could emerge for a new name to adorn the forthcoming Arlington Career Center building.
Arlington Public Schools last month created a naming committee to discuss potential names for the new building, which will house the Arlington Career Center and the handful of programs within it, including Arlington Tech. As the committee has just starting meeting, no contenders have yet emerged for the building on S. Walter Reed Drive, slated for completion in the fall of 2026.
(Updated at 12 p.m.) An elementary school has become the next flashpoint in discussions of how Arlington Public Schools should use its existing buildings.
Last year, the Nottingham Elementary School community was roiled by a potential plan to close the school and turn the building into a “swing space” to accommodate students whose home schools were under renovation.
Arlington Public Schools is poised to tie planned S. Walter Reed Drive upgrades into its $180 million Arlington Career Center project.
This past Saturday, the Arlington County Board approved a memorandum of agreement permitting APS to appoint the same contractor for the Career Center’s construction to handle the road improvements — part of the county’s Neighborhood Complete Streets program — from 5th Street S. to Columbia Pike.
On Saturday, the Arlington County Board approved plans to redevelop the Arlington Career Center on Columbia Pike.
Arlington Public Schools will be building a new 5-story Career Center building at 816 S. Walter Reed Drive to house students in vocational courses, such as veterinary sciences. Also set to be built: a standalone 4-story parking garage.
(Updated at 4:15 p.m.) An advisory group meant to guide facilities planning has several concerns with Arlington Public Schools’ proposed capital spending plan, namely the cost of a new Arlington Career Center.
APS would only be able to construct the Career Center by nearly maxing out its debt capacity, according to a Joint Facilities Advisory Committee report published June 7.
(Updated at 5:10 p.m.) The Arlington County Board today called for action to stem the tide of gun violence, while groups of students around the county held walkouts in response to the elementary school shooting in Texas.
The Board condemned gun violence and urged state legislators to tighten gun control in a statement issued this afternoon.
