Given our schools’ laser-like focus on standardized testing and meeting ever-more stringent benchmarks, it’s only natural to believe that public education has become a giant assembly line and students are just a commodity. Michael Alison Chandler’s article in The Washington Post a week ago, “Driven to Their Diplomas,” shows why that doesn’t have to be the case. She writes about the extraordinary lengths that the staff at T.C. Williams High […]
The first phase of the Chinquapin Swim Center feasibility study—to determine if a 50-meter competition pool can be accommodated on the Chinquapin site—has been completed by the consulting group and the answer is “Yes!” In fact, in the Task 1A Report, the consultants present six different schemes that have varying sets of pros and cons. Moreover, based on the preliminary analysis, the consultants indicated that the project can be done […]
Parents are heading into that time of the school-year when calendars are chock full of plays, concerts, games, matches, meets, meetings, programs, SOLs, AP exams and so on. Let me throw a couple more dates into the mix: On Wednesday, May 14, Delegate Rob Krupicka will be the guest speaker at the Alexandria PTA Council meeting in the Media Center at the Minnie Howard campus of T.C. Williams High School […]
Alexandria has now taken the crucial first step in the process to build a 50-meter competition pool at Chinquapin. In early March, a contract was awarded to the Hughes Group Architects to assess the feasibility of a 50-meter pool on the Chinquapin site. Hughes will notify the city by late March or early April whether or not a 50-meter pool is feasible there. If the answer is yes, the firm […]
In addition to selecting a new superintendent and implementing a significant change in middle-school structure, the school board is also in the middle of their annual budget process. In early March the board approved a budget that would increase the cost to the city by $7.4 million for the 2014-2015 school year, bringing the total ACPS budget to $235 million. By contrast, in his submission to the city council, the […]
On February 20, the Alexandria School Board voted to restructure the middle schools, consolidating the three schools at Francis Hammond and the two schools at George Washington into one school on each campus beginning with the 2014-2015 school year. A work-group made up of teachers, administrators, parents, students and community members had recommended in December that Hammond (FCH) be recombined into one middle school but that George Washington (GW) remain […]
Developments during the past two weeks regarding our schools have been fast and furious, and will have important ramifications for our students and families. I’ll be providing my take on four issues that have been in play lately, starting in this post with the appointment of a new school superintendent, and followed in subsequent posts by the change in middle-school structure, the debate over the program for the new Jefferson-Houston […]
