Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) is a school division which is funded by the government of Alexandria, Virginia, United States.
Administration
Superintendent
The Alexandria City School Board has appointed Dr. Melanie Kay-Wyatt to serve as the new permanent superintendent for Alexandria City Public Schools, effective July 1, 2023.
Dr. Kay-Wyatt was selected from a pool of 35 applicants in a national search process, emerging as the best candidate to move our schools forward. She was ACPS chief of human resources before her appointment as interim superintendent in August 2022; previously, she had served as acting chief of human resources and executive director of human resources. She joined the school division in July 2021.
Prior to ACPS, Kay-Wyatt worked in Human Resources at Spotsylvania Public Schools, served as a principal and assistant principal at Fredericksburg City Public Schools, and was a special education teacher at both Culpeper County Schools and Fredericksburg City Public Schools.[4]
School Board
There are nine members of the Alexandria City Public School Board. All members of the board are elected by district, and the chair is appointed by the board. There are also two student representatives.[5]
Members
District A
- Jacinta Greene
- Michelle Rief
- Christopher A. Suarez
District B
- Cindy M. Anderson
- Margaret Lorber
- Veronica R. Nolan, Vice Chair
District C
- Meagan L. Alderton, Chair[6]
- Ramee Gentry
- Heather Thornton
Student Representatives
- Lorraine Jackson
- Ashley Sanchez-Viafara
History
The first school offering public education in Alexandria was founded in 1785, the Washington Free School, partly funded by George Washington.[7]
Although the desegregation process began in 1959 when nine black school children entered all-white Theodore Ficklin Elementary School after an NAACP lawsuit, it was not until 1974 that Superintendent John Albohm announced "This year, we have finally reorganized our elementary schools and, in a broad sense, have completed the desegregation of our school system kindergarten through grade 12".[7]
In November 2020, the school board unanimously voted to rename T. C. Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School, with name selection coming before the 2021–22 school year.[8] This follows years of community efforts to rename T. C. Williams because its namesake, a former superintendent of Alexandria City Public Schools, was a supporter of racial segregation in schools.
In March 2021, the superintendent put forward two final names after community input: "Alexandria High School" and "Naomi Brooks Elementary School", after a former teacher who died in 2020. The school board voted in April 2021 to change the school's names to Alexandria City High School and Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School.[9]
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