As the school year begins, we cannot help but scratch our heads at the flurry of seemingly unforced difficulties Alexandria City High School is facing. From the schedule release debacle, to the atrocious new lunch policy, to the fiasco that is intercampus transport, Alexandria City Public Schools’ strategy of belittling student and teacher feedback in policy decisions has yet again resulted in severe consequences for the student body. 

By far the biggest story of the year has been the opening of the new Minnie Howard campus and the transportation fiasco that has subsequently ensued. As we reported in Julia Gwin’s article, “Transportation Issues Plague School Year,” roughly 1,600 students transport between campuses. With a limited number of buses, our analysis found that several hundred students typically take the 0.6 mile walk between campuses, crossing — oftentimes into oncoming traffic — one of Alexandria’s most dangerous intersections. 

We find it ironic that Lunch & Learn, a program beloved by essentially every student, teacher and school-based administrator, was permanently canceled after months of advocacy, including the largest student and teacher walkout in ACHS history, for the reason that “too many students could leave campus.” The ACPS Central Office leadership team refused to engage in meaningful dialogue to fix the problem then, and now is nowhere to be found when the exact same issue is occuring due to their negligence — instead tasking school administrators to fix a problem they created with their unceasing, and frankly perplexing, promotion of the High School Project. Although the project yields shiny new academies and campuses, it is unnecessarily complicated and logistically difficult, particularly for a school that is already full to the brim.

What is most troubling about the transport situation is not that students are walking back and forth — as we believe that, with minor adjustments, such as the placement of crossing guards, walking may be the most realistic option to ensure student safety — but rather that ACPS seemingly took few steps to ensure transport ran smoothly. To make matters worse, Central Office and school administrators were in an apparent state of denial when confronted with the problem.

When asked by Theogony over the summer how ACPS planned to adapt for new intercampus transport, district Chief Academic Officer Pierette Finney said that “transport will occur as it always has.” District Chief of Staff Grace Taylor said, “I wouldn’t get caught up in the numbers.” More recently, school Lead Operations Administrator Michael Burch said “the number of students traveling … remains consistent,” as 35% of students at Minnie Howard both last year and this year switch campuses — a sly way to characterize a 400% increase.

This lack of planning and unwillingness to engage in sincere conversation with stakeholders has severely impacted students. We have missed hours of instructional time since the beginning of the year due to long wait-times for buses, crowded lines to enter the other campus and inconsistency in communication from administrators to teachers on how they should adapt. We are provided with roughly 15 minutes to eat lunch at the King St. campus (depending on which lunch block we are assigned), as busing takes up much of the lunch block. Two-hour delays are no longer a possibility, as there are not enough buses to account for elementary school dismissal and intercampus transport when following the two-hour delay schedule. 

Student and school-based staff expected these problems and have voiced concerns over intercampus transport for years. However, students and school-based staff aren’t involved in meaningful decision-making. Sure, a consultant-led focus group is a nice way to check off the “student feedback” checkbox, but it doesn’t actually give students any voice. 

Moreover, it is becoming increasingly clear that school leadership has little to no say in school decisions. Whenever Theogony inquires about new school policies, we are told to refer to Central Office. There has been a Central Office take-over of ACHS, and what little school autonomy existed in the era of former superintendent Greg Hutchings, Ed.D., is now gone.

We say this not to complain, but to drive action. We urge the school board to hold Central Office leadership accountable for their dismissal of stakeholder views. You serve as our elected officials and it is your duty to stand up for your constituents. Our opinions matter and, unlike those making the decisions, we live with the impacts. There is a reason students feel more unsafe at school than ever before. There is a reason ACHS is accredited with conditions. There is a reason we are experiencing a mass exodus of educators. And that reason has nothing to do with the teachers or students.

Editorials represent the opinion of the majority of the Editorial Board, which is comprised of Theogony’s editing team: James Libresco and Casey Donahue, co-editors in chief; Rozalia Finkelstein, opinion editor; Julia Gwin, news editor; Pablo Cruz Rivera, features editor; Max Carpenter, satire editor; Nadja Duss, Entertainment Editor; Maxwell Jones-Lachance, sports editor. Staff Adviser Kamilah Lawson was not involved in the writing or editing process of this editorial.

This story was originally published on Theogony on October 8, 2024.