Arlington Public Schools Superintendent Francisco Durán stands behind decisions to keep classrooms shuttered for more than a week after last month’s snowstorm, but acknowledges shortcomings in the school system’s approach.
Durán said he and other school leaders should have done a better job at keeping the community informed on the reasons behind their decisions.
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.
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:
School Board members have tasked Superintendent Francisco Durán and staff to come back in the spring with options for renovations to two aging middle schools.
Whether there will be enough money in the future to fund major upgrades to Thomas Jefferson and Swanson middle schools remains an open question, but Board members said they are committed to finding ways to make improvements.
Departing School Board member Mary Kadera is taking a different approach to assessing her four years in office.
Elected officials preparing to leave office often begin their end-of-term speeches rattling off a litany of real or perceived successes. But Kadera prefaced her comments at the Dec. 18 School Board meeting — her last after four years in office — by noting a series of regrets.
County education leaders are still evaluating new accountability ratings that showed a mix of success and shortcomings among Arlington schools.
Eight Arlington schools were categorized as “Needs Intensive Support” under new rating system and first results released earlier this month by the Virginia Department of Education, Superintendent Francisco Durán told School Board members at their Dec. 18 meeting.
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.
Planned program changes at the new home for the Arlington Career Center are prompting anger at a parent group supporting Arlington Tech.
Concerns are being raised that a shift in proposed programming at the forthcoming Grace Hopper Center, detailed by Superintendent Francisco Durán and staff to School Board members during a Nov. 18 work session, could dilute the specialty program and the opportunities it provides to students.
Arlington Democrats have approved rules for the party’s 2026 School Board caucus, though whether it will be held remains to be seen.
Arlington County Democratic Committee on Wednesday nearly unanimously set in place rules for a springtime caucus that will only be required if more than one candidate files for the lone position on the ballot next year.
Virginia’s attorney general and 20 of his counterparts in other states are weighing in on a lawsuit over Arlington Public Schools’ policies around transgender students.
Outgoing Attorney General Jason Miyares and other Republican officials jointly filed a brief last Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, arguing that the U.S. Department of Education was right to label APS and Fairfax County Public Schools as “high risk” and place restrictions on their funding.
Arlington Public Schools staff are proposing a new self-contained high school program for students who face recurring mental health challenges.
The proposed Flexible Learning Program would include dedicated clinical staff in addition to classroom teachers. It could serve up to 100 students at a time and would be located in the same Pentagon City office building that will house Arlington Community High School starting next fall.
The Arlington School Board is considering a possible change to the daily schedules at local high schools.
Staff laid out possible changes to the current “seven-period block schedule” at a School Board work session on Nov. 18. Options on the table, in addition to maintaining the status quo, include:
