School Board members have voted to extend Superintendent Francisco Durán’s contract by four years, to June 30, 2030.
“Thank you for your trust, your partnership and your steadfast commitment to our students,” Durán said in remarks directed to School Board members yesterday (Tuesday). “Public education is built on that collaboration.”‘
Arlington’s new School Board chair is promising to work toward increasing academic outcomes and fiscal responsibility.
School Board members unanimously selected Miranda Turner as Board chair for 2026-27, succeeding Bethany Zecher Sutton.
Arlington school leaders have more work to do in sketching out how they might use public-private partnerships to construct new facilities in an era of fiscal constraints.
Superintendent Francisco Durán’s proposed fiscal 2027-36 capital improvement plan, unveiled May 14, makes reference to potential future partnerships to help defray costs of constructing and maintaining new facilities.
Arlington Public Schools’ proposed fiscal year 2027 budget reflects challenging economic conditions and uncertainty over state and federal education funding commitments.
Superintendent Francisco Durán’s $856 million proposal represents an increase of 1.3% from the current budget, one of the smallest year-over-year rates of growth in recent years.
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.
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.
Arlington Public Schools leaders have set their plans in place for deciding when to close schools for wintry weather.
The school system has 12 snow days built into the calendar for elementary school, 15 for middle and high school. Should those numbers be exceeded, leaders plan to move to virtual learning — a staple of the pandemic era — rather than lengthen the school year to meet the state minimum of 180 days or 990 hours of instructional time.
The Arlington School Board is once again seeking state authorization to administer standardized tests in languages other than English.
The School Board’s 2026 General Assembly legislative package, which went to a vote yesterday (Thursday), carries over the Board’s request from the 2025 legislative session.
Start-of-school enrollment in Arlington is down from a year before and below springtime projections, but could move higher by the time a final tally is compiled at the end of the month.
Arlington Public Schools counted 27,603 students in pre-kindergarten to 12th-grade classes on Sept. 4, Superintendent Francisco Durán reported to School Board members that evening.
Arlington Public Schools opens the 2025-26 school year with a 99.3% staffing rate, one of the highest in recent memory.
Only 34 staff positions out of more than 3,000 positions are unfilled, Superintendent Francisco Durán told School Board members on Aug. 21.
An Arlington School Board meeting yesterday evening (Thursday) attracted Republican governor candidate Winsome Earle-Sears and a large crowd of activists, most advocating for transgender rights.
This was the School Board members’ first meeting since they announced that they would be maintaining their current policy of letting transgender students use bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity, despite the U.S. Department of Education’s threats to withhold federal funding.
