Alexandria School Board and City Council In Disagreement Over School Safety

[Anonymous]

https://www.alxnow.com/2023/02/28/alexandrias-school-board-and-city-council-butt-heads-over-school-safety/?fbclid=IwAR3y1eU90uMjOjOW_qZJ12rsAhXy_J6hzqjMrfveUpUa_A2KGETqxeI67wI

Bottom line is School Board is open to safety measures. Mayor and City Council are not. School Board will have to cave or at least go back on some safety plans. City Council holds the purse strings and this School Board is not tough enough to take the pressure.

But Canek is right that the SLEP committee moved at a snail's pace. Looks like Chapman is still passionately anti-SRO.

[Anonymous]

Chapman and Canek should listen to what the school board recommends. . Do they have children in the public schools?

[Anonymous]

Neither has kids in the schools.

Chapman carries the water for Wilson on the SRO issue along with others that the DelRay/Rosemont crowd don't support. I'm sure he wants SROs out too but he allows Wilson to get what he wants (no SROs) without getting his hands dirty and risking his "mom mob" that quietly supports SROs. Wilson is mayor for life and Chapman never gets to achieve his goal of becoming mayor even though he's the one who grew up here and owns a business in the city.

[Anonymous]

I'm not convinced that more SROs are the answer. When you have an enormous high school that has cut sports teams and does not offer intramurals, you are going to wind up with a situation where kids don't find something else that they want to be involved in, and get sucked into negative activity. Academics are not everyone's thing, so kids need other options of reasons to want to participate positively in a school community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not convinced that more SROs are the answer. When you have an enormous high school that has cut sports teams and does not offer intramurals, you are going to wind up with a situation where kids don't find something else that they want to be involved in, and get sucked into negative activity. Academics are not everyone's thing, so kids need other options of reasons to want to participate positively in a school community.

There are no more sports after school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not convinced that more SROs are the answer. When you have an enormous high school that has cut sports teams and does not offer intramurals, you are going to wind up with a situation where kids don't find something else that they want to be involved in, and get sucked into negative activity. Academics are not everyone's thing, so kids need other options of reasons to want to participate positively in a school community.

could you elaborate on what sports teams have been cut?

Also, why not both? ACPS is in crisis - it should be all hands on deck. SROs, more mental health resources, sports, activities, outreach to families.

While I think your ideas are thoughtful...cultural change like that happens over time. ACPS and specifically the high school are pretty far gone in terms of drugs (obviously), violence including rapes and sexual violence, gang activity. It's nice to think that sports will solve everything but that's very naive if you know what is happening in the schools all the way down to elementary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not convinced that more SROs are the answer. When you have an enormous high school that has cut sports teams and does not offer intramurals, you are going to wind up with a situation where kids don't find something else that they want to be involved in, and get sucked into negative activity. Academics are not everyone's thing, so kids need other options of reasons to want to participate positively in a school community.

There are no more sports after school?

there definitely are, I see many ACHS teams practicing at Witter (boys lacrosse, girls soccer, girls softball).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.alxnow.com/2023/02/28/alexandrias-school-board-and-city-council-butt-heads-over-school-safety/?fbclid=IwAR3y1eU90uMjOjOW_qZJ12rsAhXy_J6hzqjMrfveUpUa_A2KGETqxeI67wI

Bottom line is School Board is open to safety measures. Mayor and City Council are not. School Board will have to cave or at least go back on some safety plans. City Council holds the purse strings and this School Board is not tough enough to take the pressure.

But Canek is right that the SLEP committee moved at a snail's pace. Looks like Chapman is still passionately anti-SRO.

Well one member of the school board is directly responsible for how out of hand things have become over the years at ACHS, so I’ll take that person’s opinion with a grain of salt.

[Anonymous]

Likely that the School Board members are all anti-policing in schools but they also see the reality of the situation. Hutchings is a great example of this. While he was super he was a very strong proponent of policing in schools. But in order to sell his book and his high dollar consulting fees...he's strongly anti policing in schools.

I know that ACPS, the School Board and the PTAs prefer that students and parents don't talk about what is happening inside of ACHS and GW but it's a constant topic. Things are really bad.

Also, sure sports can be a great deterrent to criminal behavior but sports are also very cost prohibitive. It's very privileged to not acknowledge that or even see it.

[Anonymous]

Since this is such a mousy and cowardly school board (to be fair, exactly like previous school boards), it's nice to see them push back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not convinced that more SROs are the answer. When you have an enormous high school that has cut sports teams and does not offer intramurals, you are going to wind up with a situation where kids don't find something else that they want to be involved in, and get sucked into negative activity. Academics are not everyone's thing, so kids need other options of reasons to want to participate positively in a school community.

There are no more sports after school?

I think they mean that there are cuts to the team, not everyone who wants to can play

[Anonymous]

I'm not convinced that more SROs are the answer. When you have an enormous high school that has cut sports teams and does not offer intramurals, you are going to wind up with a situation where kids don't find something else that they want to be involved in, and get sucked into negative activity. Academics are not everyone's thing, so kids need other options of reasons to want to participate positively in a school community.


could you elaborate on what sports teams have been cut?

I can see the way I wrote this is unclear, and I apologize. The school has many sports teams that cut players (meaning that many people who try out cannot get a spot). For example, almost 80 people tried out for JV soccer (I think the team size is slightly over 20). The school was not able to field a JV/developmental tennis team this year, due to lack of a coach.

There are certainly some no-cut sports (track, cross country), but there are many more where kids who want to participate cannot. Also, even for no-cut sports, if you cannot come to 5 day per week practices, you can be removed from the team. But coming 5 days per week may not work for kids who have afterschool family responsibilities or jobs.

And there is not intramural soccer etc. offered for kids who might like to play at a less competitive level (I acknowledge that intramurals may not work as well for beginner tennis players, where one really needs lessons to develop a skill). I don't see how this would be cost-prohibitive, as someone claimed. When my son was at GW, there was intramural soccer, and parents donated money or cleats for kids who cannot afford them.

[Anonymous]

Clubs and sports are certainly affected by the decision to have one gigantic high school. There is only one soccer team, tennis team, basketball team, drama club, etc... Even with JV, opportunities are much more limited. One team for a school of 2000 is going to provide more opportunity than one team for a school of 4500.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Chapman and Canek should listen to what the school board recommends. . Do they have children in the public schools?

No and there are a few members of the school board that don't have children either. Is that a problem?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I'm not convinced that more SROs are the answer. When you have an enormous high school that has cut sports teams and does not offer intramurals, you are going to wind up with a situation where kids don't find something else that they want to be involved in, and get sucked into negative activity. Academics are not everyone's thing, so kids need other options of reasons to want to participate positively in a school community.


could you elaborate on what sports teams have been cut?

I can see the way I wrote this is unclear, and I apologize. The school has many sports teams that cut players (meaning that many people who try out cannot get a spot). For example, almost 80 people tried out for JV soccer (I think the team size is slightly over 20). The school was not able to field a JV/developmental tennis team this year, due to lack of a coach.

There are certainly some no-cut sports (track, cross country), but there are many more where kids who want to participate cannot. Also, even for no-cut sports, if you cannot come to 5 day per week practices, you can be removed from the team. But coming 5 days per week may not work for kids who have afterschool family responsibilities or jobs.

And there is not intramural soccer etc. offered for kids who might like to play at a less competitive level (I acknowledge that intramurals may not work as well for beginner tennis players, where one really needs lessons to develop a skill). I don't see how this would be cost-prohibitive, as someone claimed. When my son was at GW, there was intramural soccer, and parents donated money or cleats for kids who cannot afford them.

Way to double down on the privilege. It's clear you don't get it and god bless.