Tuesday, October 30, 2012
More than 5,800 city residents remain without power following Hurricane Sandy.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Drew Hansen
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Tuesday, October 30, 2012
City of Alexandria government offices and facilities, including courts, will open on time on Wednesday as the city continues to recover from Hurricane Sandy. A Coastal Flood Warning remains in effect through 8 a.m. Wednesday. Any flooding is “expected to be minor,” according to a release from the city. Forecasts call for potential flooding in the 100 block of King Street early Thursday morning, but no flooding is expected in the city’s streams. More than 5,800 Alexandria residents were without power shortly after 4 p.m. Tuesday, according to Dominion Virginia Power. Crews were focusing their efforts at 16 work sites in the city on Tuesday. While city announced its offices would reopen Wednesday, the status of Alexandria City Public …
Friday, October 26, 2012
City's public high school shows good progress in all categories except for special education students, a category showing a drop from 2011.
T.C. Williams High School showed strong improvement in on-time graduation rates from 2011 to 2012 in almost every category except for students who receive special education services, which showed a decline. Additionally, the data show an approximately 3 percent decline in the school’s dropout rate, according to the Virginia Department of Education. It was 11.9 percent in 2012 and 15 percent in 2011. “This accomplishment shows the rigorous programs we have instituted within the division are working,” Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Morton Sherman said in a statement. "We’re certainly moving in the right direction, and we’re confident that our improvements will continue to benefit our students.” The VDOE publishes annual state-…
Thursday, October 18, 2012
The Taylor Run Citizens Association hosted an Alexandria school board candidate debate Wednesday night at MacArthur Elementary.
Alexandria School Board candidates in District B debated for the second time Wednesday night, with differences emerging in their opinions of teacher morale and the relationship between the board and City Council. The event was held in the Douglas MacArthur Elementary School cafeteria and hosted by the Taylor Run Citizens Association. The event came a week after the candidates met for a debate in North Ridge that offered more agreement than disagreement. That wasn’t the case on Wednesday. When asked about teacher retention and morale, Justin Keating said there’s a “systemic morale problem” despite Alexandria’s teachers being among the best compensated in the region. Keating said teachers have been frustrated by the swift integration of new …
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
The new learning center has space for 100 students in a non-traditional environment.
Andrew, a senior at T.C. Williams High School, struggled with the traditional school schedule but was hesitant to attend the school’s new T.C. Satellite Campus at Landmark Mall because there wasn’t a teacher leading the class and he was afraid he couldn’t handle the workload on his own. “But from day one, if I had any questions, there was always someone there to answer them,” Andrew told school officials and others at a ribbon-cutting for the new campus Tuesday morning. “Satellite has been a big help for managing time, which helps in the real world. Satellite is a dream come true.” School officials and local dignitaries gathered at the mall Tuesday to mark the official opening of the new campus, which serves up to 100 students and already …
Friday, September 28, 2012
Underperforming school will see longer learning day for students and more professional learning time for teachers.
Alexandria’s Jefferson-Houston School will begin a longer school day for students in November following a 6-2 vote of approval from the School Board on Thursday night. The approximately $600,000 cost of extending the school day is funded through Title I funds, which are regulated by federal legislation. On Mondays, students at the K-8 school would receive instruction from 8 a.m. to 2:35 p.m. while staff would receive professional development from the end of the student day until 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, students would receive instruction from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The initiative lasts for the remainder of the school year and takes effect for teachers Oct. 1 and for students Nov. 7. School Principal Rosalyn Rice-Harris told the School …
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-77.05457
Jefferson Houston School
1501 Cameron St, Alexandria, VA
/articles/board-oks-plan-for-extended-day-at-jefferson-houston
2004718
/locations/7929977
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Members of the School Board also will join the tour to usher in the more than 13,000 students beginning the 2012-13 school year with ACPS.
Members of the School Board for Alexandria City Public Schools, the school system’s superintendent and Alexandria’s mayor will be touring a handful of schools on Tuesday morning, the first day of school for many families in the area. ACPS Superintendent Morton Sherman and Mayor Bill Euille and other officials will begin the first day of school at T.C. Williams High School by welcoming the more than 3,000 students there. Officials also will tour T.C. Williams’ Minnie Howard campus, which houses T.C. Williams’ freshman class of 697 students, as well as Cora Kelly School for Math, Science and Technology, Francis Hammond campus, William Ramsay Elementary School and Patrick Henry Elementary School. ACPS rings in the new year with, 13,000 …
Thursday, August 16, 2012
The school division, like other divisions across the state, fell deeply in math as was expected due to new, more rigorous assessments.
Virginia’s Department of Education released the results of the state Standards of Learning tests and Alexandria City Public Schools did not perform strongly although showed some consistency and a few areas of progress. ACPS Superintendent Morton Sherman said that last year the division committed to making reading a focus area for the 2011-12 school year to stop the downward trend in SOL reading scores from the previous three years. That strategy paid off on some levels. There were some bright spots in English reading scores, with fourth-graders overall edging up to a pass rate of 81 percent over last year’s 79 percent. However, seventh-graders fell in English reading from 83 percent to 79 percent. “Out of the seven grade levels tested in …
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
School system says capacity issues will also make it difficult to place some children at their home schools.
Approximately 95 requests for students wishing to attend an Alexandria public school outside their home district have been put on hold because of overcapacity, especially at the kindergarten level. In addition to putting the brakes on transfers, the school system says it also will have trouble even placing some new students in the schools they're supposed to go to in the first place. “The capacity issues will make it difficult to place children new to Alexandria in their home schools,” Alexandria City Public Schools announced in a statement released Friday evening. As parents continue to register students during summer, Superintendent Morton Sherman has put on hold the placement of any additional administrative transfer requests. This …
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Sheryl Gorsuch will serve as Alexandria School Board chairman until the end of her term.
The Alexandria School Board voted Monday to re-elect Sheryl Gorsuch as its chairman and Helen Morris as vice chairman. Gorsuch and Morris will hold these posts through Dec. 31, when the terms end for current school board members. Morris is seeking re-election while Gorsuch is not. Members elected by voters in the Nov. 6 general election will take office on Jan. 1. “I am honored to continue to serve as the board's leader during the remainder of my term," Gorsuch said in a statement released by ACPS. "We will move forward, working together as we have in the past, to ensure success for all Alexandria City Public Schools students." Morris was selected as the board's delegate to the Virginia School Boards Association. Gorsuch will serve as …
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Stacey Johnson had served as interim CFO since January.
Stacey Johnson was appointed chief financial officer of Alexandria City Public Schools on Monday. Johnson, an ACPS employee since 2009, had served as interim CFO since January. "I am so pleased that Stacey will be a member of our executive staff," said ACPS Superintendent Morton Sherman in a statement. "Her service as interim CFO has been exceptional during the past several months as ACPS underwent a necessary and impressive transition in our financial services." Sherman added that Johnson helped guide ACPS through the recent review of its Capital Improvement Projects. Johnson previously served as the school system’s budget director and managed the implementation of the division’s new enterprise resource planning system. Before arriving …
Mark Williams
11:51 am on Sunday, October 28, 2012
So (1) graduation rates are up for nearly all measured population groups, (2) the drop-out rate (which is not a supplementary statistic) is down, materially, (3) the graduation rate for girls has been continuously moving towards 90%+, (4) for ELL students (a statistically significant slice of the ACPS student body), graduation rates are up, and are materially higher than the state-wide rates. I … more ›