Next year’s Arlington 8th-graders with a passion for geography won’t have the chance to take intensified coursework in the subject.
But those arriving after the 2025-26 school year likely will.
School Board
With the holiday season coming to a close, Arlington’s main political parties already are focusing on another election season.
And the cash that will be required to compete in it.
County school leaders, both elected and staff, will be presenting a united front as the fiscal 2026 budget season fast approaches.
In a change from typical practice, the Arlington School Board and superintendent will present a joint budget in mid-March, Board members decided Dec. 12.
Falls Church school leaders are planning to add a modest number of items to the system’s updated 2026-31 capital-improvement program.
And nearly already have funding sources available, School Board members were told on Dec. 10.
|
Distilling the essence of Libby Garvey’s 28 years in Arlington public life would have required far longer than the 75 minutes allotted at the Tuesday (Dec. 17) County Board meeting.
But a number of local civic and political leaders gave it their best shot.
Dec. 12 was a graduation day of sorts for Arlington’s two departing School Board members.
“Your work has made a real difference,” Board chair Mary Kadera told Cristina Diaz-Torres and David Priddy at the meeting, the body’s final one of the year.
Arlington School Board members Thursday night (Dec. 12) voted unanimously to implement a bell-to-bell ban on student use of phones in county schools starting Jan. 6.
“Our schools are places of learning,” Superintendent Francisco Durán said just before the vote, saying his recommendation was “a policy that will protect that instructional space.”
|
With the deadline for School Board action looming, two major advocacy groups are pressing for a blanket ban on student phone use during the instructional day in Arlington.
The Arlington Education Association (AEA) and Arlington Parents for Education (APE) have sent a joint letter to School Board members and Superintendent Francisco Durán, seeking the more restrictive of two options currently being considered.
Already nearly at a record high, student enrollment in Falls Church City Public Schools is expected to grow consistently in coming decades.
With 2,711 students as of Sept. 30, the five-school district is currently just 10 students shy of its record 2,721 students in 2016, according to a recent report to the Virginia Department of Education. The report predicts enrollment will pass the 3,000 mark in 2027, before growing to about 3,250 in 2040 and 3,430 in 2050.
A proposal to restrict access to cellphones at Arlington high schools remains up for debate as a School Board decision deadline approaches.
With the decision date set for Dec. 12, Board members have one major decision left to make related to high schools:
The fieldhouse at Meridian High School Stadium will receive a $600,000 refresh and upgrade under a proposal unanimously approved by Falls Church City School Board members on Nov. 12.
The appropriation was part of a series of one-time-funding requests approved by School Board members, totaling just under $1.5 million in school funds and $400,000 in city-government funds.
Falls Church’s two new elected officials are likely to be on the dais when their respective bodies next convene.
Both the City Council and School Board will meet Tuesday evening (Nov. 12). And if paperwork requirements are met, the two victors in special elections will be sworn in before those meetings begin.