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 will vote Thursday evening on whether the City of Alexandria should continue with one high school and create a connected network of sites and programs, or build a second school.
The vote on Thursday follows a multi-year debate on the future of high school education in Alexandria — whether one high school is enough with the addition of multiple sites and programs (a Connected High School Network) or if a second high school campus is needed.
Underlying the vote is 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.
Alexandria has a scarcity of land — building a complete second high school would be difficult at best. The “viable options” for a second high school are primarily on current school property with one exception: TC Williams’ current site, Minnie Howard, George Washington Middle School, Francis Hammond Middle School and somewhere in Potomac Yard. (More details about the land options are available on pages 5 – 7 of this PDF, where ACPS staff members answered questions from members of the School Board. See http://esbpublic.acps.k12.va.us/attachments/9cc9fd99-11b2-426d-b783-f78a99d5880a.pdf. ) The median cost to build a new high school right now is close to $200 million, with increases of 3.5% per year.
While the School Board considers a second high school, an Education Design Team with students, teachers and staff, are figuring out what educational programming options should exist for any possible outcome of Thursday’s vote.
More information on all options, costs and studies so far are available here.
“Industrial Advisory Boards made up of local business, government and organizations representing four major industries and 16 career clusters will work with the Education Design Team over time to ensure courses of study reflect real world current and future needs,” according to ACPS.
Residents who want to provide their feedback to school board members may do so through the ACPS School Board member contact webpage here.
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