He has used the phrase “dual pandemic” in at least one other setting but without linking it to the school closing. I think the most likely explanation here is carelessness by Hutchings or the PR staff. I would love for someone to try to get him to articulate how systemic racism kept the schools physically closed for so long.

What I find the bigger joke is his comment at the end about ACPS trying to enable every student the “best opportunity” to succeed. ACPS first goal is to do what is most convenient to them and they show so little interest in any particular student’s needs.

Anonymous wrote:This is woke lunacy. He should be fired immediately.

+1 And I consider myself a woke liberal.

This is woke lunacy. He should be fired immediately.

I usually don’t think that the superintendent actually has that much influence over individual student experiences, but this guy is awful and has really damaged ACPS. There is more to equity than racism. As a parent of a special needs child who attends one of the high FARMS rate schools (with low AA representation compared to the rest of the city), I can tell you he doesn’t give a $41+ about how the pandemic and extended school closures have affected and continue to affect those populations.

Any school board member who has supported this guy should be fired. Won’t happen though.

I don't recall any school board meeting, vote or resolution that declared they were closing the schools due to systemic racism. The current school board needs to be asked about this. This is a serious statement. It should be treated as such. Where is the record on this? Do they agree that this is (partially) why schools were closed? If so, there should be a vote on the record to that end. Where is it?

They all decided to renew his contract early. Why? Why move it up five months?

This board has a lot to questions to answer.

Can you imagine the Pfizer CEO electing to take Moderna vaccine instead of his own company’s? What signal would that send about his faith in Pfizer’s vaccine? If they head of ACPS won’t send his own kids to ACPS public schools, then what does that say about ACPS?

He needs to go!!! Worst Superintendent ever!

Anonymous wrote:Is that why he pulled his daughter from TC and sent her to BI?

Well, he did say at a school board meeting last summer that she was getting Ds and had found out how to "work the system".

And apparently his son isn't enrolled in ACPS either.

That's his upcoming book's theme. It was all so dire that he took time out last year to write a book about it. And we're going to pay for the book tour. LOL!

Is that why he pulled his daughter from TC and sent her to BI?

This warrants an email to the board making fun of him

Couldn’t he have opened the schools to combat the racism he is detailing? The school board kept changing the metrics last year on reopening. I’m confused how he isn’t culpable in this argument.

What the actual f. This is so embarrassing.

The dude is a joke. No one respects him.

Yesterday ACPS released a back to school video welcoming back students and families in which Hutchings states that the schools had previously been closed due to the dual pandemics of 1) covid and 2) systemic racism.

So ACPS kept their schools closed because of systemic racism? I agree racism is a horrible problem and can be found in the school system but racism kept the schools CLOSED? He does not elaborate on what that means, whether it was racist to keep the schools closed for so long or it would have been racist to open the schools and to avoid that racism they kept them closed or that racism was the cause of keeping the schools closed and because of the racism they had no choice but to close the schools (same as covid). Hutchings basically drops this bomb pretty early in the video, around the 57 second mark.

I can’t understand what this means. This is the person who makes so many decisions for ACPS and people just follow whatever he says. He doesn’t even send his kids to public school, but instead to well known Alexandria catholic school which definitely has some connotations related to it.

http://www.acpsk12.org/news/?p=17598&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=superintendents-video-update-for-families-and-staff&fbclid=IwAR2T2y6zSsZGZK6Q80jRmWWhF1jzf4nzU3Ruam-onk7VwQL2oj2FE6QUtUc