The Alexandria City Public Schools Board voted Thursday night to keep one high school in the City (instead of building a second one) and make the high school experience a connected network of sites and programs.
In an effort to solve capacity issues at the high school level in Alexandria City Public Schools and reevaluate how high school education is delivered to students, the School Board undertook a major exercise to determined whether Alexandria should stick with one high school on multiple campuses, or build a second school.
"This decision ensures all students across Alexandria will continue to have access to the wide variety of opportunities T.C. offers now and in the future. The T.C. experience is a gift for our young people that can’t be replicated. We know with one high school, we will be able to ensure all students have access and are fully engaged in a high quality learning environment,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Gregory C. Hutchings, Jr.
To accommodate a growing population of students and increase programming opportunities, Minnie Howard, which currently (mostly) houses 9th grade students, will be renovated and added onto.
The vote on Thursday followed a multi-year debate on the future of high school education in Alexandria. Underlying the vote were discussions about the best way to “create a high-quality, meaningful and applicable education for every student in our community,” according to the official ACPS information on the project.
The next steps are for an Education Design Team to work on developing new programming alongside an industry advisory board and the Career and Technical Education Advisory Committee.
