Can someone explain Jefferson Houston conversion to me?

[Anonymous]

Our kids are not yet elementary school age, but I have posted before looking for help navigating the challenges of public school in Alexandria.

I just happened to be looking at homes for sale in my neighborhood and noticed that the homes including ours, which were previously listed as GW Middle School on listings now all say Jefferson Houston K-8 (or whatever the full name is).

Was there some kind of redistricting? Where is that information? JH is a not insignificant distance further from our home and I want to say I remember reading it has significant issues.

Thank you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our kids are not yet elementary school age, but I have posted before looking for help navigating the challenges of public school in Alexandria.

I just happened to be looking at homes for sale in my neighborhood and noticed that the homes including ours, which were previously listed as GW Middle School on listings now all say Jefferson Houston K-8 (or whatever the full name is).

Was there some kind of redistricting? Where is that information? JH is a not insignificant distance further from our home and I want to say I remember reading it has significant issues.

Thank you!

Only trust the school district’s boundaries which might be able to be accessed on the web, not those on real estate websites or printouts. They are sometimes wrong.

[Anonymous]

The redistricting process isn’t complete-so no boundaries have changed yet. I think the earliest changes would be in the 2026 school year.

I thought the middle school changes were slated to be later than that, but I find that part of the presentations confusing so I may be wrong.

This is the website. https://www.acps.k12.va.us/school-board/acps-redistricting

[Anonymous]

Update to what I just posted about the middle school timeline: in the short term it looks like they will move part of the McArthur zone from GW to Hammond. Longer term they want to make JH a middle school, but that won’t happen until 2030.

[Anonymous]

Don’t go just off of listings, they are regularly wrong.

Use this page to figure out what you are zoned for. If you are zoned for J-H, then you have access to that for all of K-8 (until/if it converts).

https://www.acps.k12.va.us/about-us/schools

Up until now, ACPS has allowed programmatic transfers out of K-8 schools, which allowed people to go to GWMS instead. Note that as part of the redistricting process, the school board is also looking at related policies. One of them is to restrict these transfers going forward, which would mean people zoned for J-H stay at J-H the whole time. So the option would be gone to transfer out. But it hasn’t been decided yet.

[Anonymous]

I would not sendf my child to JH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The redistricting process isn’t complete-so no boundaries have changed yet. I think the earliest changes would be in the 2026 school year.

I thought the middle school changes were slated to be later than that, but I find that part of the presentations confusing so I may be wrong.

This is the website. https://www.acps.k12.va.us/school-board/acps-redistricting

Thanks, but I can’t find anything on here about middle school changes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The redistricting process isn’t complete-so no boundaries have changed yet. I think the earliest changes would be in the 2026 school year.

I thought the middle school changes were slated to be later than that, but I find that part of the presentations confusing so I may be wrong.

This is the website. https://www.acps.k12.va.us/school-board/acps-redistricting

Thanks, but I can’t find anything on here about middle school changes.

The Indigo plan has the proposed middle school boundaries, but this may still change.

[Anonymous]

We are still right in the middle of the redistricting process, and also it's still unclear whether Jefferson Houston is going to be K-8 or converted to be only a middle school.

You can follow the details of the redistricting process on the website above, and final votes are expected in June. But middle school in particular is very hard to follow since there's still a disconnect between the school board and the city council about the future of JH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are still right in the middle of the redistricting process, and also it's still unclear whether Jefferson Houston is going to be K-8 or converted to be only a middle school.

You can follow the details of the redistricting process on the website above, and final votes are expected in June. But middle school in particular is very hard to follow since there's still a disconnect between the school board and the city council about the future of JH.

True, but if they change the programmatic transfer policy now to prevent transferring out for grades 6-8, then OP will be in J-H for middle school whether it converts to a standalone middle school or stays a K-8 (barring another boundary change that puts them elsewhere).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are still right in the middle of the redistricting process, and also it's still unclear whether Jefferson Houston is going to be K-8 or converted to be only a middle school.

You can follow the details of the redistricting process on the website above, and final votes are expected in June. But middle school in particular is very hard to follow since there's still a disconnect between the school board and the city council about the future of JH.

True, but if they change the programmatic transfer policy now to prevent transferring out for grades 6-8, then OP will be in J-H for middle school whether it converts to a standalone middle school or stays a K-8 (barring another boundary change that puts them elsewhere).

Yes very true - OP you would need to be following both the middle school maps and the policy discussions to fully understand what your future options will be.

Also I expect more maps - right now on the one Middle School map we have, GW middle school isn't even in the GW district, meaning if you lived next door, you wouldn't be zoned for it - It's true insanity and there's no way that will stand up to the most basic scrutiny.

[Anonymous]

Note that new maps were released this evening: https://go.boarddocs.com/va/acps/Board.nsf/Public

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Note that new maps were released this evening: https://go.boarddocs.com/va/acps/Board.nsf/Public

Sorry, link didn’t work the way I thought it would. Look under “Redistricting Community Engagement Meeting” and then View the Agenda. There should be a pdf presentation there.