A Message from Superintendent of Schools Dr. Gregory C. Hutchings, Jr.:
Hello and happy New Year to all our ACPS families and members of the Alexandria community!
I hope you all are having a restful winter break and enjoying a little time away from ACPS. There are many things to do out there at this time of the year — many of which are completely free, so make the most of some quality time with your children before we see them again on Thursday, January 3.
I am particularly excited about 2019 as this is when I get to delve into my work in earnest at Alexandria City Public Schools. This is not to say that a lot of work has not been done already in the six months since I started as superintendent of schools. After all, we will have opened three new schools by the end of January and launched an innovative look at the future of the high school, which is more than most superintendents get to do in a lifetime. But I promised not to introduce significant changes in my first 100 days and by and large I have kept to that.
On January 30 at 6 p.m. in T.C. Williams High School cafeteria, I will be holding a session to discuss the outcomes of what I have heard from you over my first 100 days and the steps I believe that ACPS needs to take to get us to the next level. We know that transparency and innovation will be essential, but perhaps the most critical ingredient will be collaboration. It will take commitment from all of us across our community to see every student succeed, and so I invite you to come out to join me in this discussion around Shaping the Future of ACPS, and to become an integral part of making ACPS the best it has ever been.
We also need to acknowledge our past in order to be able to move forward, and 2019 is particularly relevant as it marks 65 years since Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prohibited segregation in public schools.
We have come a long way since May 17, 1954, when the court stripped away the legitimacy of laws that segregated people by race, and instead made equal opportunity in education the law of the land. Since that date, Alexandria has had an African-American School Board Chair, an African-American Mayor and an African-American superintendent who are all products of this great school division — and most significantly are all Alexandrians. Our community of staff, students and their families is more diverse than it has ever been and there is not a day that goes by that I do not celebrate the fact that I am a product of this great school division that I now have the privilege to serve as superintendent.
None of these things could have happened in 1954. In 2019, I am excited to take this to the next level and beyond. Just as it took a unified voice to overcome segregation in 1954, it will take a unified voice emboldened with Titan pride to create a future of which we are proud for all our students and Alexandria.
I invite you to join me as a champion for each and every one of our students in 2019.
And so, from my Titan family to yours, happy New Year!
Dr. Gregory C. Hutchings, Jr.
Superintendent of Schools