3 Redistricting Draft Options For Alexandria City Public Schools Proposed

ALEXANDRIA, VA — After releasing draft options for adjusting boundaries of public elementary schools and K-8 schools, Alexandria City Public Schools held a community meeting Tuesday to provide an update about the process.

Three draft options for new school boundaries, released on March 12, were shared at Tuesday's community meeting. The three options are drafts and are not final boundary maps for consideration. According to the tentative timeline for redistricting, updated school boundaries and policies could be adopted in June. New boundaries would take effect in August 2026.

ACPS says the school board will make redistricting decisions based on student enrollment projections, capacity and facility utilization, geographic and transportation considerations, legal and policy guidelines, and equity and community impact.

The draft green plan seeks to address school utilization while putting a focus on neighborhood schools, according to ACPS. While the plan would provide capacity relief from Samuel Tucker Elementary to Patrick Henry School attendance areas, ACPS says it would split neighborhoods from the William Ramsay Elementary attendance area and put a western part of the Patrick Henry attendance area to the Douglas MacArthur area.

The proposed blue plan would move some students farther from their neighborhood schools. ACPS says pros of this plan are assigning Samuel Tucker neighborhoods to closer schools and providing relief to the Patrick Henry and Samuel Tucker attendance areas. However, it would move the Ferdinand T. Day Elementary attendance area more west and have it be bisected by Interstate 395. Another con identified by ACPS is moving Seminary Towers farther to the Douglas MacArthur attendance area.

The draft purple plan differs by providing relief to the Naomi L. Brooks Elementary attendance area and considers the future reconfiguration of Jefferson-Houston to turn from a K-8 school to a middle school. Like the blue plan, the purple plan assigns Samuel Tucker neighborhoods to closer schools and provides relief to the Patrick Henry and Samuel Tucker attendance areas.

However, ACPS said it would move the Ferdinand T. Day Elementary attendance area more west, move the Seminary Towers to Douglas MacArthur attendance zone, create a non-connected area of the Lyle Crouch attendance zone, and likely increase transportation demands.

Cons of all three plans identified by ACPS are keeping a non-connected area of the George Mason Elementary boundary and keeping imbalances of school utilization on the east end.

Redistricting Background

The ACPS redistricting process started in June 2023 with a boundary analysis. A former school board policy called for a boundary analysis every five years, or when a new school opens. The school board has since adopted a new policy to support the latest redistricting process. The last redistricting process was in 2018, but ACPS opened its renovated Douglas MacArthur Elementary School in fall 2023.

The boundary analysis found that more ACPS schools have capacities above an ideal range. It concluded that ACPS had to be proactive to plan for future developments in school boundaries already over capacity and that modernized schools with upgraded capacity should be utilized to address the issue.

According to the March 18 community presentation, schools with enrollment above 100 percent capacity are Charles Barrett Elementary, James K. Polk Elementary, Mount Vernon Community School, Patrick Henry K-8 School and Samuel W. Tucker Elementary. Several schools have enrollment at less than 80 percent of capacity — Cora Kelly School, Douglas MacArthur Elementary, George Mason Elementary, Jefferson-Houston Pre K-8 School, John Adams Elementary, and William Ramsay Elementary.

The school board will have a redistricting work session on Thursday at 6 p.m. and another update at its April 3 meeting. Another community meeting on redistricting will be held April 22 from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Alexandria City High School King Street campus.