On Thursday night, the School Board recognized our young artists, budding student School Board reps and our School Board advisory committee chairs. Thank you for your contributions.
The School Board also received updates on the Facilities and HR audits and approved the Final Budget and heard about ACPS plans to provide summer learning.
If you didn’t watch the June 6 meeting live, you can watch it online anytime from the comfort of your sofa, and take your time to view the presentations and memos.
Don’t forget that you can also watch all Board meetings live on ACPS-TV, local cable channel 71 and ACPS-TV online. You can also watch all meetings recorded online.
Thank you to Zoe Young, fourth-grade student at George Mason Elementary School, who took our lead photo of the George Mason Band! Great job!
Arts Showcase
We celebrated our young artists whose work has been selected to be displayed in the School Board room for the coming year.
Meet the New School Board Student Representatives
The School Board decided to move to a more representative model for the coming school year, selecting a middle school rep for each middle school as well as two high school Student Board reps. Congratulations to Amiya Chisolm (T.C. Williams High School); Wilmer Carranza (T.C. Williams High School); Taylor Frazier (Francis C. Hammond Middle School); Lilly Wagner (George Washington Middle School); Caleb Bonga (Patrick Henry School); and Giselle Hughes (Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 IB School).
Amiya Chisolm: School Board Rep:
Wilmer Carranza: School Board Rep:
Taylor Frazier: Middle School School Board Rep:
Caleb Bonga: Middle School School Board Rep:
Giselle Hughes: Middle School School Board Rep:
Advisory Committees
Thank you to all those who serve on our advisory committees. Your commitment is deeply appreciated.
Final Budget for 2019-20
Both the Final 2020-29 Capital Improvement Program Budget (PDF) and Final 2019-20 Combined Funds Budget (PDF) were approved by the Board.
View the full ACPS Express post
Update on the HR Audit
The ACPS Office of Human Resources is moving forward with work to recruit and retain exemplary staff for ACPS. The School Board heard the second in a series of staff reports about the Human Resources audit that was conducted last year. Twenty five recommendations were made and 15% have been implemented. The rest are in the process of being put in place.
Since February, ACPS has:
- Raised the profile of working at ACPS because of its location, diverse workplace, competitive salaries and growth options.
- Has used early contracts more often to hire teachers.
- Has upped recruitment efforts in high needs areas through advertising, social media, radio, online interviews and a marketing campaign.
- Has moved to provide a salary credit for licensed staff.
- Is using the Teach for America program to fill positions in high needs schools.
- Held a job fair and hired 22 teachers by May 21.
- Engaged a system-wide teacher, principal and assistant principal interview process.
- Held proactive interviews at Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 IB school to determine what motivates employees to stay with ACPS.
- Increased health care options and included access to a Health Savings Account.
- Began to further refine the Teacher Evaluation Rubric.
In the near future, ACPS will be:
- Expanding stay interviews across the system.
- Issuing customer service surveys to determine the effectiveness of our human resources department.
- Initiating a campaign to bring ACPS graduates back to work for our schools with a guaranteed contract at graduation for those who meet hiring requirements.
- Putting in place other recruitment and retention initiatives, such as recruiting and retaining support staff, offering flexible time and telework where possible, and continuing to train and put in place evaluation systems.
Update on the Facilities Audit
Progress continues in addressing the recommendations of the 2017 Gibson Facilities Audit. A long-term Facilities Management Maintenance Plan will be established once the five-year Facilities Condition Assessments are complete. A group of Targeted Condition Assessments are also underway to focus on in-depth multi-system evaluations for schools where consistently high poor building performance and multiple building system issues exist. These assessments will identify the root causes of complex building problems and highlight the specific features and failures of chronic conditions causing the standard of tempered, safe and dry conditions to be an increasingly difficult and significant challenge to fulfill on a consistent basis. The six facilities in the targeted assessment group include: George Washington Middle School, Cora Kelly School, George Mason Elementary School, Matthew Maury Elementary School, Francis C. Hammond Middle School and the ACPS Transportation Center. These studies will be complete and the final reports due on or before July 19, 2019.
Summer Learning Preview
For the last four summers, ACPS has provided summer learning opportunities for all students ranging from kindergarten through 12th grade. This summer, ACPS is offering summer learning opportunities that include high school programs, online courses, credit recovery, Advanced Placement (AP), Governor’s Health Sciences Academy Prep, middle school programs, middle school enrichment, drama, Algebra and transition to Algebra, music, Young Scholars, higher achievement elementary school programs, elementary school enrichment, band, Kindergarten Prep, English Learner summer enrichment, Extended School Year (ESY), Summer Language Academy, Title I, and the Primary Preparation Program.