New Elementary Principals, School Board Leaders Announced

ALEXANDRIA, VA — New leadership will be in place for the new school year at Alexandria City Public Schools as Alexandria School Board leaders were announced along with several elementary school principals.

On Thursday night, the School Board voted to choose Michelle Rief as the new chair and Kelly Carmichael Booz as the vice chair. Rief was the only nominee for chair, while vice chair nominations included Booz and Christopher Harris. Booz won the vice chair role with a 5-4 School Board vote.

The vote comes after the School Board changed leadership elections to July — the start of the new fiscal year. The chair and vice chair were previously chosen in January. Chair and vice chair terms run one year.

Rief was nominated by fellow School Board member Abdel-Rahman Elnoubi. He said while the School Board lacked "robust onboarding" for new members, Rief helped mentor him when he first joined the School Board.

"Dr. Rief puts a lot of effort always and is always well prepared for meetings and always has valuable and positive contributions," said Elnoubi. "As a parent of three ACPS students, Dr. Rief will bring valuable insight to leadership. I believe that she is a collaborative leader and has genuine commitment to finding middle ground, especially with those she disagrees with."

Rief thanked former Chair Meagan Alderton for serving two and a half years, including during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Serving on the Alexandria School Board for the last four and a half years has really been one of my greatest honors, and that's because our mission is to educate and support every young person in our community. That's my why pure and simple," said Rief. "And I really look forward to continuing to partner with each one of my colleagues, with Dr. [Melanie] Kay Wyatt, with all of our ACPS administrators, our teachers and our support staff, and all of our ACPS families to continue this important shared work in the year ahead."

Booz was nominated by School Board member Tammy Ignacio. Ignacio said Booz has both experience and personal investment as a parent of two ACPS students.

"While it is acknowledged that Miss Booz and I may not always see eye to eye, I believe that this diversity of opinions will only make our team stronger," said Ignacio. "By working together and focusing on the best interest of students and staff, we can ensure that the Alexandria city school division continues to thrive and progress as it has."

Harris had been nominated by fellow School Board member Willie Bailey but fell short of winning vice chair by one vote.

School Board members serve three-year terms and are all elected at the same time. The nine-member board includes three members from each of three School Board districts. While the School Board was discussing possible staggered terms for members, further discussions have been postponed until the new school year.

In other leadership news, ACPS announced Jennifer Hamilton as the new principal of Mount Vernon Community School and Christopher Finan as principal of George Mason Elementary School starting July 31.

Mount Vernon Community School's Principal Liza Burrell-Aldana, who was named Washington Post's 2023 principal of the year, resigned effective at the end of June, ALX Now reported. That led Alexandria City Public Schools to start a process to select a new principal in time for the new school year. Hamilton, the dual language coordinator for ACPS, was one of two finalists along with Eneida Thomas, the assistant principal at Fairfax County's Braddock Elementary.

Hamilton joined ACPS in 2012 as an English learner instructional specialist and was Mount Vernon Community School's assistant principal from 2018 to 2022. She previously taught English language learners at Prince William County Public Schools and Arlington Public Schools. She will now lead a school that has a dual language program, which means classes are split between English and Spanish.

Finan comes from Albequeque Public Schools in Mexico as an elementary school principal since July 2021. He was previously a principal at Community Day Charter Public Schools in Massachusetts and was part of Teach for America.

Other appointments at ACPS include Pierrette Finney as ACPS chief academic officer and Donita Muse as sixth grade academic principal at George Washington Middle School.