Local primary elections would cause Arlington Public Schools students to lose a day of school next June, under a current plan.
Staff are seeking permission to cancel classes on Tuesday, June 15 if primaries are needed in races for County Board, state Senate, House of Delegates or offices of treasurer, commissioner of revenue, commonwealth’s attorney and sheriff, according to a presentation to School Board members yesterday (Thursday).
New federal data has knocked down the quality ratings of a number of Arlington’s schools, but county school leaders say the reductions are no cause for alarm.
“We’re very proud of what we see” in newly released Virginia Department of Education accountability rankings, Superintendent Francisco Durán told School Board members on Oct. 8. “We also recognize the support that’s needed for students who may not be performing at the level they potentially could be.”
A local parent-teacher association is continuing to push back against school leaders’ plans to end the Integration Station program for preschool-age youth with disabilities.
The result has been “a growing gap in the trust between Arlington Public Schools, the School Board and the families they serve,” said Alaina Clark, president of the Arlington Special Education Parent-Teacher Association (SEPTA).
Almost two dozen positions have been removed from the Arlington Public Schools budget after the school system’s enrollment hit its lowest point since 2021.
APS school enrollment is more than 600 students below a projection made just last spring, school leaders reported on Oct. 8. As a result, the school system has cut 23.5 full-time-equivalent positions from its fiscal 2027 budget, Superintendent Francisco Durán said.
The Arlington County Republican Committee has endorsed independent School Board candidate James “Vell” Rives IV.
Rives is facing incumbent Democrat Bethany Zecher Sutton in the Nov. 3 election. This is the second time Rives will carry the GOP endorsement after he secured it in 2025, as well.
Last year brought overall improvements to standardized test scores at Arlington Public Schools, but results throughout the school system remain uneven.
School Board members dissected results for 2025-26 Standards of Learning, or SOLs, by school and different racial, ethnic and socioeconomic categories. The data “tells two stories simultaneously,” School Board member Monique “Moe” Bryant said at the Sept. 24 School Board meeting.
Supporters of the Integration Station are again mobilizing against a plan to shut down the specialized program for young students with intellectual disabilities.
About 20 proponents of the program used the School Board’s Sept. 24 public-comment period to ask Board members to rescue the program from planned elimination. The mood among many speakers, most with direct connections to the program, was testy.
County school leaders are seeking parental feedback as new homework requirements are rolled out this school year.
“The goal is not just to give more homework and have more students be busy,” Superintendent Francisco Durán said at the Sept. 10 School Board meeting.
School Board candidates faced off this week on the question of whether front-line educators are getting enough support in Arlington.
“We are not supporting our teachers [and] they are burning out,” said James “Vell” Rives IV, a Forward Party-endorsed independent challenging Democratic incumbent Bethany Zecher Sutton.
Arlington Public Schools kicked off the school year with an enrollment of 27,173, down 1.6% from last year.
The figure, which counts students from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade, is down from 27,603 reported during the first week of the 2025-26 school year.
All 11 candidates running for local office in Arlington have agreed to appear at the Arlington County Civic Federation’s annual candidate forum.
The event will be held on Tuesday, Sep. 8 at 7 p.m. in the Hazel Conference Center at VHC Health (Virginia Hospital Center). It will also be livestreamed and archived for later viewing.
School Board members are expected to expand options for excused absences in the upcoming school year.
To comply with changes to state law, three new categories may be added to the existing 13 qualifying for excused absences at Arlington Public Schools:
