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Tag: arlington public schools

  • How Arlington PTAs are helping address student food insecurity – WTOP News

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    PTAs in Arlington have been getting creative to meet the needs of students in Arlington Public Schools who are experiencing food insecurity.

    There’s apple sauce and pasta in a tiny cabinet on the side of Hoffman-Boston Elementary in Arlington, Virginia.

    The food cabinet remains unlocked 24/7 and is available to students, with the goal of making sure no child goes hungry.

    The school’s PTA is also working with a food rescue group, with the goal of procuring leftover items from bakeries or farmers’ markets.

    PTAs and parent teacher student organizations across Arlington have long considered ways to help students who might be experiencing food insecurity. But in recent months, in the aftermath of the government shutdown and uncertainty surrounding Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, they’ve stepped in to address the increased need.

    “What we found is that schools were coming to PTAs, realizing there’s a lot more need right now,” said Claire Noakes, president of the Arlington County Council of PTAs. “It’s really increased, and so PTAs have tried to almost be a triage in the situation, to rapidly respond in creative ways.”

    The responses have varied, but Noakes said at least 20 PTAs and parent teacher student organizations have stepped in to help.

    Since November, Long Branch Elementary’s PTA has been giving food bags to families in need. It has also partnered with Troy’s Kitchen to connect families with hot meals for the weekend.

    Discovery Elementary’s PTA has organized a gift card drive to assist families. And Claremont Elementary’s PTA has prioritized covering meals during school breaks.

    “Many of our PTAs have been doing food distribution for years,” Noakes said. “It’s just part of understanding that there is a large and unmet need. Because of grocery prices, because of uncertainty with SNAP benefits, what we saw is there was just such a broad-based need more recently. Within the last month or so, people have been turning up the dial quite high.”

    In some cases, that’s meant requesting donations, working canned foods drives, collecting donated gift cards and collaborating with school social workers. The groups also work alongside community organizations, such as the Capital Area Food Bank, too.

    “The impact right now is triage,” Noakes said. “It’s just to try to address the immediate needs.”

    Before the pandemic, Noakes said Arlington Public Schools distributed what she described as “student-friendly food” to kids. But the program paused during COVID closures, Noakes said, “and it didn’t really restart.”

    Noakes said many distribution sites are at or near schools, so it’s easy for kids and their families to access.

    There’s also an emphasis on “student-friendly food,” which she described as “food that even young children can eat and consume and prepare without much work. You could maybe have a single-serving item, mac and cheese, you pour some hot water, you microwave it, a young child can prepare and get food in their stomachs.”

    Community members can help address student hunger and food insecurity by volunteering with or donating to a PTA, Noakes said.

    “Reach out to the elected officials and to the superintendent and let them know that child hunger is a really critical issue to them, and that more needs to be done,” Noakes said.

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    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Scott Gelman

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  • Arlington students calling for upgrades to 2 middle schools – WTOP News

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    Students at two Arlington middle schools are urging school board members in the Northern Virginia county to fund and expedite renovation plans.

    Students at two Arlington middle schools are urging school board members in the Northern Virginia county to fund and expedite renovation plans.

    At a school board meeting earlier this month, students at Swanson and Thomas Jefferson middle schools said hallways are overcrowded, sprinkler systems and sinks are broken and major upgrades are needed.

    Board members approved the direction for the Capital Improvement Plan covering fiscal years 2027-2036. Part of the plan includes tasking Superintendent Francisco Durán with presenting renovation plans for the two middle schools.

    ARL Now first reported details of the vote.

    The total budget to upgrade both campuses would be in the range of $150 million, according to school board documents, and school leaders would have to prioritize infrastructure, safety and accessibility needs.

    It’s unclear, though, when exactly renovations would occur and how much work would be done at the schools.

    “We have stated a range of $150 million for the middle school projects,” School Board Chair Bethany Zecher Sutton said during the meeting. “We do not intend that to be a cap. We do not intend that to be a limit. We’ve had a great deal of discussion about this among the board over the past two months; I think that what it reflects is that we would like to see what is possible for that amount of money.”

    Board Member Kathleen Clark said, with “the amount of money for TJ and Swanson, it’s not an either-or, folks. There is a lot of work that needs to happen in those two buildings.”

    Renovations at Swanson, Clark said, require extra planning because of the school’s historic designation.

    Meanwhile, Board Member Mary Kadera voted against the draft guidance for the Capital Improvement Plan, explaining the school system has almost $600 million in “major infrastructure needs in the next decade.”

    “We simply don’t have enough money for all this work,” Kadera said. “So how we spend our limited capital funding matters enormously.”

    During public comments, one student who attends Thomas Jefferson said the school’s bathroom and hallway setup makes it difficult to navigate for people with disabilities.

    “Right when I get off the bus, it’s hard to get into the front door because it’s so narrow,” the student said. “I wish I wouldn’t have to get stuck in the door when I go into the school.”

    Another TJ student said the school doesn’t have a sprinkler system.

    And a different one said their science teacher said one out of six sinks in the building “actually worked, so when we are done with our labs, it’s 27 kids pouring chemicals down a drain that we’re not sure even works, and that makes me feel unsafe.”

    Meanwhile, at Swanson, one student said there are leaky pipes, cracked paint and classrooms that lack natural light.

    Another expressed frustration about the lack of a functioning auditorium, “because there was mold found in the vents, seats and carpets. It’s very important to have an available auditorium, because we use the space to hold our school’s plays and musicals, drama class, safety assemblies and so much more.”

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    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Scott Gelman

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  • Arlington schools to roll out bullying prevention lessons next week – WTOP News

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    Students in Arlington will start learning about how to prevent bullying and harassment next month, a step the Northern Virginia district is taking in response to recent survey results and a request for parents.

    Students who attend Arlington Public Schools will start learning about how to prevent bullying and harassment next month, a step the Northern Virginia district is taking in response to recent survey results and a request from parents.

    At a recent school board meeting, Superintendent Francisco Durán said students in kindergarten through 12th grade will participate in the lessons. Counselors, school psychologists and social workers will deliver the lessons starting Wednesday.

    October, Durán said, is National Bullying Prevention Month.

    The rollout comes in response to findings from the 2025 Your Voice Matters survey and calls for increased awareness during community conversations. According to the survey results, 63% of the 2,930 students who responded said when they saw bullying at their school, they told an adult. But only 49% of 3,448 responses indicated the respondent reported the incident if another student bullied them.

    Local news site ARLNow was the first to report details of the bullying prevention lessons.

    “This is a reflection and opportunity, as we heard from parents and students that this is a need, for us to provide more instruction and more resources,” Durán said. “Here’s something that was developed.”

    The lessons, Durán said, will be organized into three sections: understanding bullying behavior, understanding identity and practicing upstanding behavior. Students will learn about the types of bullying and the impact of it, according to a message sent to Arlington families. They’ll also learn how to report bullying and how to stand up for others in a supportive and respectful way.

    As part of the lessons, students will talk about what makes each of them unique and what similarities and differences there are within their school communities.

    The bullying instruction is in alignment with the Virginia Department of Education’s Social and Emotional Learning standards, Durán said.

    The student services department “really put time over the summer to develop and create these lessons, and they’ll now be delivering them over the month of October,” Durán said.

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    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Scott Gelman

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  • Arlington testing pilot program to get kids excited about reading – WTOP News

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    Arlington Public Schools is searching for volunteers to read to elementary-aged kids for an hour each week, as part of a push to improve literacy skills and get kids excited about reading.

    Arlington Public Schools is searching for volunteers to read to elementary-aged kids for an hour each week, as part of a push to improve literacy skills and get kids excited about reading.

    The pilot program, called “Readers Rise: Empowering Young Minds Through Reading,” is scheduled to start in mid-October. Volunteers will get trained and then read to K-2 students at Barrett, Hoffman-Boston or Long Branch elementary schools. The district said those schools were picked based on a “diversity of needs.”

    “We’re seeing positive trends in our K-2 data,” APS Chief Academic Officer Gerald Mann said. “But we also know, until every student is reading on grade level, we want to provide them the opportunity to continue to practice their reading and also gain a mentor.”

    The pilot schools are in the process of identifying students who will participate and searching for volunteers. Ideally, Mann said the sessions will be one-on-one, giving students the chance to build a new relationship with an adult from the community.

    “A lot of times when kids get to work directly with somebody that is not a well-known figure in the school, that gets them even more jazzed about the special thing that they’ve been invited to,” said Jessica DaSilva, the principal at Long Branch Elementary.

    The district is planning to review the results of the program mid-year to determine if it can expand to other schools.

    “It is going to help continue to get kids excited about reading,” DaSilva said. “It is going to help them see that it’s not just teachers that can teach them things.”

    Many times, DaSilva said, community members want to help students but think it’s out of their area of expertise.

    “Now this is a targeted, explicit way that they can support, and I think that’s exciting,” DaSilva said. “And I think that will hopefully encourage people to come in, because they’re going to get some training.”

    Mann, meanwhile, is hoping the effort could also motivate more students to read for fun.

    “It is concerning when you see, just as a population, that we’re not interested in this,” Mann said. “But if we can get them excited about that, and that’s one of our hopes, is the excitement to see the joy in reading, to go to the library, whether at the school, public library; to have a book in your hand and experience that joy that so many of us do daily.”

    In a statement posted on X, the group Arlington Parents for Education, which has been advocating for a volunteer reading program, said the pilot “is a huge step forward for student literacy and a win for everyone who spoke up for more investment in reading support.”

    The application to volunteer is scheduled to close Sept. 26. Mann said 48 people signed up on the first day it was open.

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    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Scott Gelman

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  • Judge won’t rule on Fairfax, Arlington schools lawsuit to prevent federal funding freeze – WTOP News

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    A federal judge on Friday decided not to rule in the case of two Northern Virginia school systems suing to prevent the Department of Education from freezing federal funding because the districts haven’t changed their policies for intimate spaces.

    A federal judge on Friday decided not to rule in the case of two Northern Virginia school systems suing to prevent the Department of Education from freezing federal funding because the districts haven’t changed their policies for intimate spaces.

    In a 13-page filing, Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia said that because Fairfax and Arlington Public Schools’ complaints are about requests “to order the payment of money,” the court lacks subject matter jurisdiction.

    The filing stated that jurisdiction lies with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims.

    The decision comes days after the divisions first filed the lawsuit, hoping to stop the department from freezing federal funds. The two districts, as well as Loudoun, Prince William and the City of Alexandria school systems, have been scrutinized by the agency because of their bathroom policies.

    The Education Department has said policies that let students use bathrooms based on gender identity violate Title IX, and that schools should adopt policies that allow kids to use bathrooms based on biological sex.

    “We are considering our next steps in the courts as we strongly believe the Department of Education’s classification of FCPS as a ‘high-risk’ entity effectively holds the division hostage and violates binding precedent from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals,” Fairfax County Public Schools said in a statement. “This designation unfairly harms tens of thousands of our most vulnerable students who depend on these federal dollars.”

    WTOP has contacted Arlington Public Schools and the Department of Education for comment.

    Last month, the Education Department announced it had placed five Northern Virginia districts on “high risk” status and would scrutinize their federal reimbursement requests, because they didn’t change their policies. While Fairfax and Prince William counties have said they don’t get federal funding through Title IX, they do receive federal dollars as a small fraction of their budgets.

    “These critical federal dollars are used to support food and nutrition services, as well as the staffing of cafeterias,” the Fairfax County schools’ statement said. “Other funding is used for services and instruction for students with disabilities and students from low-income families, to increase student achievement, support technical education, promote teacher development, and fund community education programs.”

    Arlington, meanwhile, previously said the Education Department’s move resulted in freezing $23 million in funding. In a post on the division’s website announcing the lawsuit, Superintendent Francisco Durán said that money pays for free breakfast and lunch for thousands of low-income students and support for special education students.

    The Education Department gave the five Northern Virginia school systems a deadline to comply with the request to change their policies. All of them told the agency they believe their current practices are in compliance with the law.

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    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Scott Gelman

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  • Arlington, Fairfax school systems sue Education Department over funding freeze tied to gender policies – WTOP News

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    The lawsuits come after the Education Department requested Arlington Public Schools, Fairfax County Public Schools, and three other Northern Virginia school districts to change their policies that allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity, rather than their biological sex.

    Arlington and Fairfax counties’ public school districts are suing the Department of Education in an effort to protect their federal funding from being frozen in retaliation for the school systems’ gender policies surrounding the use of bathrooms and locker rooms.

    The lawsuits come after the Education Department requested Arlington Public Schools, Fairfax County Public Schools, and three other Northern Virginia school districts to change their policies that allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity, rather than their biological sex.

    The school systems refused, and the Education Department responded by placing them on “high-risk” status, meaning the department will scrutinize their federal reimbursement requests.

    In their complaints, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Arlington and Fairfax county schools are seeking to have that status reversed. The school districts say tens of millions of dollars for critical services for students are on the line.

    “These federal funds are not abstract numbers on a spreadsheet; they represent vital support for our most vulnerable children. This funding supports our food and nutrition services, services for our students with disabilities, students from low-income families, and programs that promote teacher development and student achievement across the division,” Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid said in a letter addressed to staff and families.

    “The DOE’s ‘high-risk’ designation unfairly harms tens of thousands of our students by threatening these essential services,” Reid continued.

    FCPS said in a statement up to $167 million in federal funding has been essentially frozen.

    In his letter to the Arlington Public Schools community, Superintendent Francisco Durán said the Education Department’s “high-risk” designation effectively halts $23 million in funding that the school district relies on.

    That funding, Durán said, is mainly used to provide more than 8,000 low-income students with free meals and thousands of special needs students with counseling and other educational support.

    In its complaint filed Friday, Arlington Public Schools asserts the Education Department’s funding freeze violates Title IX, the Administrative Procedures Act and the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The school system also said the department is incorrectly interpreting Title IX.

    Fairfax County schools state, in its complaint also filed Friday, that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit’s ruling in Grimm v. Gloucester County School board binds the school system. In that decision, FCPS wrote, the Fourth Circuit ruled that the Equal Protection Clause and Title IX compel local school boards to provide students with access to facilities that correspond with their gender identity.

    This week, Reid said in her letter that her school system reached out to the Education Department, “to address the impossible position that the DOE has placed on our school division — whether to violate a federal court ruling regarding the support of our transgender students or risk this critical funding. The DOE did not respond.”

    Durán said he expects a judge to hear the case quickly and issue an order that will preserve federal funding.

    WTOP has reached out to the Department of Education for comment.

    The Washington Post first reported the lawsuit.

    WTOP’s Scott Gelman contributed to this report.

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    © 2025 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Thomas Robertson

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  • Arlington reports success in recruiting substitute teachers using updated approach – WTOP News

    Arlington reports success in recruiting substitute teachers using updated approach – WTOP News

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    Increasing pay and earlier recruitment has helped Arlington Public Schools improve its substitute teacher hiring efforts, school system leaders said at a board meeting last week.

    Increasing pay and earlier recruitment has helped Arlington Public Schools improve its substitute teacher hiring efforts, school system leaders said at a board meeting last week.

    The school system ended the first week of school with an 89% substitute fill rate, chief academic officer Gerald Mann said. In previous years, around the same time, the fill rate has ranged from 60% to 80%.

    “We’re looking pretty good right now,” Mann told school board members.

    Arlington changed its approach to recruiting substitutes by increasing pay so that it’s more competitive with other school systems, Superintendent Francisco Duran said. It also altered how long-term substitutes are paid. Instead of having to wait until the 11th work day to get extra pay, long-term substitutes will receive the long-term substitute rate on the first day.

    “This year, we did start a lot earlier with reaching out to substitutes for those vacant positions that we had available,” Mann said. “I believe on day one we had 38 vacancies, and 37 positions were filled with substitutes at that particular time.”

    The county has about 1,000 active substitutes, Mann said, and has rebuilt its pool of potential substitutes, scrubbing candidates who “are no longer coming in for jobs.”

    Nearby Fairfax County Public Schools, the state’s largest school district, has similarly offered bonuses and other incentives as part of a plan to improve its substitute teacher recruiting efforts.

    Last fall, Joanne Jackson, project administrator in Fairfax County’s Office of Substitute Employment, said principals called the incentive program a “game changer.”

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    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Scott Gelman

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  • Arlington Public Schools’ Extended Day employee accused of showing porn to children – WTOP News

    Arlington Public Schools’ Extended Day employee accused of showing porn to children – WTOP News

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    An 18-year-old employee of Arlington County Public Schools’ Extended Day program has been arrested and charged with two counts of possession of child pornography, as well as assault and battery.

    An 18-year-old employee of Arlington County Public Schools’ Extended Day program has been arrested and charged with two counts of possession of child pornography, as well as assault and battery, according to the county police department’s special victims unit.

    A criminal investigation was initiated on April 19 for Matthew Pineda, of Fairfax County, Virginia, who was assigned to Abingdon Elementary School, after police received information he had shown pornography to three juveniles.

    Pineda is being held without bond in the Arlington County Detention Facility, and the police department’s SVU said it is seeking possible additional victims.

    Anyone with information related to this investigation or past inappropriate encounters with Pineda is asked to contact Detective R. Munizza at rmunizza@arlingtonva.us or 703-228-4171, or provide information anonymously through the Arlington County Crime Solvers hotline at 1-866-411-TIPS (8477).

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    © 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

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    Dana Sukontarak

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