ACPS is a joke. At the middle school level there is zero concern regarding education because behavior is out of control. Just this past year a student lit a fire in the back of a classroom, another brought drugs in with intent to sell, there was a knife brought, countless fist fights, a teacher physically assaulted, and the teachers withstand constant verbal harassment. Clearly ACPS can not control their schools because several are accredited with warning. Richmond needs to come in and see what's actually going on inside these buildings.

"It violates the principle of local control of education," he said. "Jefferson-Houston has its problems but they are more likely to be solved in Alexandria than in Richmond."

In general Mr. Lovain is correct, but in this case we locals have done a lousy job and invoking the principle of local control will be no comfort to the children who, at great expense to taxpayers, have NOT been educated, and who, as usual, come from families with the fewest resources. And by the way, this legislation applies to the entire commonwealth. Will they also work to deny state help to other communities that have shown they cannot provide an education to their students? And just how many chances does a community get? I'd be more impressed with our legislators if they worked not to gut but to improve the legislation, if in fact it needs improving.

If Alexandia's public school bureaucracy COULD solve J-H's problem, it would have done so by now. ACPS is unwilling to innovate or challenge the status quo. Alexandrians pour massive resources into schools and get unacceptable results. Thank you, Gov McDonnell.

This legislation may be a blessing as Dr. Sherman is not doing a very good job to improve our schools, or education at Jefferson-Houston. JH was once a wonderful school many many years ago, then they went through years of principals and teachers changing, then they got a good principal who was willing to go the length, thank you Dr. Sherman for removing someone that was actually making a difference for our school. Since she was taken from our school we have had quite a change in overseers with no improvement in the achievements of our students. A $44M building is not going to teach the children, we need consistent good teachers and good staff, staff that wants to teach our students. Stop the new building now without improvement of education there is no need to build a new building. If improvement does not come soon, there is no reason to spend all that money when a new school will be coming to Potomac Yards. JH has a current total of 334 students in a pre-k to 8th grade school, that is about 50 students per grade, place these students in schools that are doing well, let our children get the best education they deserve.

Alexandria has turned around a number of struggling schools over the years. Lyles Crouch, Maury, Cora Kelly and others. Few places in the Country can boast that kind of track record. Jefferson Houston has some of the best teachers in the city and is showing improvements in reading and other fundamentals. That said, ACPS and other school districts need to be accountable. And state oversight to be sure schools are performing can help. But we should all be worried about giving complete control of our school and our tax dollars to a new state agency that is accountable to nobody. A proposal to include local parent and community input into school that were taken over was turned down. Under this proposed bill, there is no oversight for the new agency that takes over schools. It can mandate the how a local community spends its tax dollars on a school. And it can hold on to a school indefinitely, regardless of whether the school is doing well or not. And to Sandy's last comment, I have given the administration a list of potential changes to the bill that would make it more effective and balanced. I will keep working on that and I'm hopeful we'll make progress in that regard. Right now this legislation impacts about 6 schools in VA. Over the next two years that number will likely grow to over 120 schools. And as academic standards get higher, that number may grow even more. Getting it right now is important for the entire State.

What is ironic to me is that no one sees or has been given a glimpse of what this new entity will look like. With so many hands scratching backs in the political arena, I am amazed that no one has mentioned the fact that this new board will be made up of the same individuals who have sat or currently sit on the state board of education. This new board will have long standing ties to old school board members who will undoubtedly be forming new "consulting" firms that specialize in turning schools around. If you are interested in the real story, follow the money and you will see what really interests the proponents of such bills. I understand the outrage over poor performing schools in Alexandria. Did they become poor performing overnight? Or was it acceptable for certain segments of our population to underachieve? Richmond will only take over a school if it is financially rewarding to do so. Alexandria and Norfolk have the financial resources to pay for an outside company so they are attractive targets. What about the rural school divisions in the Southwestern portion of he state and poor inner city school divisions like Petersburg that has not had more than one of its schools meet the state standards since the start of the high stakes testing era?

Leadership should be held accountable at all levels!

Mr. Krupicka makes it sound as though the schools listed turned around due to the work of the recently removed school board and current ACPS leadership. Nothing could be further from the truth. Lyles-Crouch and Maury saw their turn around occur due to strong leadership put in place by the former Superintendent, Rebecca Perry. Lyles-Crouch and Maury also have strong and involved PTAs which led to a change in behavior, academics, and the growth of the school community. Jefferson Houston has been neglected by ACPS leadership for over a decade. Current ACPS leadership has allowed the decline to continue to abysmal levels. https://p1pe.doe.virginia.gov/reportcard/report.do?division=101&schoolName=537
Overall science scores have decreased from 80% in 2010/2011 to 49% now. Math scores have plummeted from 82% in 2010/2011 to 38% now. Mr. Krupicka brings up his concern about accountability. Five years into the current leadership of ACPS and these are the results we have seen for the children of Jefferson Houston. Who is being held accountable for these poor results? How? Getting it right is important for ACPS and under present leadership ACPS is getting it wrong.

Mr. Krupicka, would you send your children to Jefferson-Houston? Can you honestly say that you are confident that the leadership currently in charge can make a difference to this long-time failing school? As one of your concerns about the Opportunity Educational Institution is the lack of oversight, what is your opinion on the blatant and appalling lack of oversight that has allowed Jefferson-Houston to get to this position? The ACPS has clearly failed this school and you think it is this state bill that is going to cause trouble for Jefferson-Houston??

Considering the problems with Jefferson-Houston, I'm sure that neither Rob Krupicka, Tim Lovain or Justin Wilson would even dare think about sending their kids to go to school there. It's amazing, that all of a sudden, it's like someone has had an epiphany and just discovered how bad that the Alexandria City Public School system really is. And how odd that is, considering that City of Alexandria schools have dreadfully lagged in rankings for so many years. It's time for the Commonwealth of Virginia to seize the operation of all of the City of Alexandria schools, for a new fresh approach, with a new set of eyes and a completely new perspective of how best to fix Alexandria public schools. Shame on all the glad-handing politicians who have now seemingly made fixing ACPS a 'high priority' when they've been an embarrassment to the City of Alexandria for so many years.