February is the Teen Dating Violence Awareness Month, a worldwide effort to raise awareness for those who suffer dating abuse in relationships, both physically and emotionally.

According to survey conducted in 2016, only 19 percent of ACPS youth reported feeling valued by adults in the community. A new Youth Empowerment Work Group aims to combat this issue, and other problems involving youth in the Alexandria community.

Early Childhood Education teacher Kimberly Wilson was named Career and Technical Education (CTE) Virginia Teacher of the Year for 2018.

After a successful production of the comedy play Noises Off last fall, for the cold season T.C. Williams High School Drama Department presents their 2019 Winter One-Act Play Festival, a Virginia High School League (VHSL) competition that let drama students from TC showcase their talent through student-selected plays.

“It’s one thing to know the Constitution. It’s another to know the Constitution and look at how they [lawmakers] have neglected to follow their own laws,” explained Ra Alim Shabazz, the coach and sponsor of the We the People team.

“There shouldn’t be one culinary arts kitchen for 5,000 students,” said Principal Peter Balas during his December Principal’s Chat. Every month, Balas hosts a breakfast discussion for parents to come and learn about upcoming plans for T.C. and offer their input on various matters.

The WOW Bus (Wellness on Wheels) provides dental services to ACPS students. In past years, the bus has only been servicing elementary students from seven schools across the district. “For the first time it’s providing dental care for the high school kids,” said International Academy Social Worker Josefina Rodrigo.

Koko, The Dustbuster, Louie the Legend. All of these are names that people remember 86 year-old TC legend Louis Kokonis by in his 60 years of teaching math in ACPS, but now he’ll also be remembered for his new groundbreaking scholarship: The Louis Kokonis Teaching Legend Scholarship.

The history department has added a few new faces this year. One being Taryn Edwards, who has had teaching experience and currently teaches on-level VA-US History and Psychology/Sociology. Edwards has spoken on the difficulties of adapting to the curriculum difference, although she attests the history department to an easy transition. With lighter student-per-class loads, Edwards continues to implement her addition online techniques, such as Nearpod, Edpuzzle, and ActivelyLearn to help her students.