School Officials Make Case for Community Partnerships

Alexandria City Public Schools officials pressed community members to get involved in local schools, even if they have no children, during a meeting Tuesday night of the Brookville-Seminary Valley Civic Association.

The evening featured a panel discussion on the interdependence between the ACPS and the community. Panelists were Bob Bazzle, a Realtor with Weichert, Realtors; Ronnie Campbell, a West End school board member; Tammy Ignacio, ACPS chief administrative officer; Rosario Casiano, principal of William Ramsay Elementary School; and Rosalyn Rice-Harris, principal of Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 School.

Campbell told local residents that anyone can be a mentor to a child, or even gifted gardeners can volunteer their time to help beautify school grounds.

“Get involved with your school,” Campbell said. “Get to know your community school. We’re there — we want to have that partnership.”

Too often, Alexandria students lack proper role models at home. That’s where mentors fill the need, she said.

Ignacio stressed the importance of including teenagers in mentorship programs, as well as educating parents. “I have a passion for educating children, and I really have a passion for educating teenagers,” she said. “… I love teenagers, because parents aren’t really sure what to do with them, and I found out any advice I gave them was good, because they didn’t know what to do.”

Casiano said it takes a community to help lift up and provide for students.

“When I think about the children of Alexandria, I really believe they are all our children,” she said. “ … Know that what you do, whether is is the tax money you pay, the time you volunteer, the notebook you give at the supermarket so a child can write, we are so aware of all of that.”

Rice-Harris called Jefferson-Houston a “school on the rise” that serves a segment of the population that has often been left improve performance, she said. 

Partners can help students not only be better students, but also become better citizens. “We know that our children will further support the community the more you support us,” Rice-Harris said.

Ignacio said ACPS, despite a sometimes negative reputation, is headed in a positive direction. Test scores at T.C. Williams High School have increased, and advance placement scores are higher even though the number of students taking them has doubled, she said.

“We tend to always hear the negative, but if we really look at where we’re going and look at the children we’re serving, we’re doing a significant amount of work,” she said.

Panelists also took questions from the audience. Several community members questioned how well ACPS provides for gifted students and asked about school overcrowding. School offficials acknowledged challenges exist but said schools are improving and encouraged local residents to visit schools to see the positive activities going on.

Bazzle noted that real estate agents, who aren’t allowed to coach homebuyers as to what schools have better reputations than others, know clients do their own research and seek out the best-performing school districts in which to buy a house, as well as other factors.

“As an agent and a professional, I feel they’re buying one thing only, and that’s location,” he said.