e-news: August 29, 2023
In This Edition:
1. Welcome Back: The 2023-2024 School Year Begins
2. 2023 Survey Results: APS
3. 2023 Survey Results: APE
3. APE 2023-2024 Priorities
4. 8/17 School Board Recap
5. Happening Soon
6. Make Your Voice Heard - APS Policy Changes
Welcome Back to School!
APS started the school year Monday, Aug 28th. We hope your students had a great first day! Here are some things we've noticed about the start to this school year:
Increased focus on reducing students' personal device usage at APS middle schools and high schools: we applaud APS schools for taking this step and encourage all parents and caregivers to reinforce this rule with your students.
Change in APS communications: Adding Parent Square for communication and ThoughtExchange for feedback from families, as well as an increased use of visuals and user-friendly bullet-pointed outlines in the Friday 5, are all noticeable improvements that will hopefully result in more engagement.
A publicized "new focus on literacy and student wellness" with a "systemwide approach to secondary literacy." Read our letter on this here.
Read on to see what Arlington Parents for Education has planned for the upcoming year, based on your feedback!
2023 Survey Results: Thank You For Your Feedback!
Thanks to the many of you who responded to our third annual survey! Below, we've highlighted the top-level, clearest takeaways from the survey.
What We Asked:
"Please rate the extent to which you agree with each of the following statements relating to APS."
For this question, we wanted to know how you feel APS is currently doing with regard to a variety of issues.
2023 Survey Results: What You Want APE To Focus On
What We Asked:
"We'd like to get your interest in advocacy work on the following issues facing APS over the 2023-2024 school year. For each, please indicate the level of appeal to you as a core tenet of an APE platform going forward."
For this question, we wanted to know what you want APE to focus on for you this school year, to allow us to prioritize our advocacy work:
What We Asked:
"Please tell us any other comments about how this school year was for your APS student."
What We Asked:
"How effective do you feel APE has been over the past school year on the advocacy issues we have been focused on with APS?"
For this, we wanted to know how well we've done with our advocacy this past year:
What We Asked:
"Please add any other comments."
This question offered you the opportunity to provide open-ended comments. A selection are below. We are so grateful for the kind feedback you shared!
"Great job to a wonderful team of really dedicated folks."
"Thanks for staying strong in the battle for better education and schools here in Arlington. Despite my concerns, I do believe there is massive talent at all levels of APS, and I believe APS's desire really is to provide high-quality instruction to all students. I remain hopeful that good changes will occur, albeit with some nudging."
"Thank you for all that you have done and continue to do on behalf of us all. I lost steam after COVID and commend you all for doubling down, rather than giving up on APS."
"A lot of people don’t know about APE but everyone I speak to share[s] the same priorities as APE."
"This group is fantastic — hard to believe it didn’t exist prior to Covid."
"APE has been amazing. Truly. I am not heavily involved with APE only because I work full-time outside of the home. Our family remains grateful for the work APE did to soften some of the lunacy of APS pandemic-era policies and how APE continues to bring attention and exert pressure on APS to simply do better for all APS students. Thank you!"
"THANK YOU for your organization. It is critically important."
Your input has been extremely valuable to us! Read on below for how we plan to continue our work this year!
2023-2024 APE Priorities
Based on the survey results, your priorities were clear. Using that information, APE has outlined the following six key priorities for our 2023-2024 advocacy work:
8/17 School Board Recap
Key takeaways from the August 17th School Board Meeting are:
98% of classrooms are fully staffed with teachers, but there are vacancies in high-need areas like special education. There are 20 vacancies for bus driver staffing, which will require bus drivers to do double runs.
Teacher speakers: implored Board to protect staff from superfluous training and investigate the summer school pay debacle. Concern that administrative staff is prioritized over school staff, highlighting the recent approval of additional office space in lieu of spending the funds on additional teachers.
Planned Academic Data Update was postponed.
Resource Adoption: Staff presented and Board approved resource (digital and physical books) adoption for Secondary Spanish, K-12 science, and secondary mathematics courses. Several Board members expressed discomfort with the information and action (i.e., vote) being presented at the same time.
2024 School Board Priorities: 1) Deepen focus on student well-being and academic progress for all students, 2) recruit, hire, retain, and invest in high-quality and diverse workforce, and 3) improve operational efficiency and continue efforts to realign all operational systems and infrastructure.
2023-2024 Calendar: Policy is to prioritize alignment with neighboring districts, ensure 180 school days, preserve existing religious holidays, provide cultural observance days, and discretion to end school year early.
Read the full recap.
Happening Soon
Wednesday, August 30, 8 AM: Policy Subcommittee Meeting. Syphax, Suite 260.
Thursday, August 31, 7-8 PM: New School Year, New Strategies: How to Plan, Persist and Achieve Academic Success This School Year. Register here for the online session.
Thursday, September 7, 7 PM: School Board Meeting. Sign up to speak. Syphax. Watch live.
Wednesday, September 13, 8 AM: Policy Subcommittee Meeting. Syphax. Watch live.
Tuesday, September 26: School Board Work Sessions. Syphax. Watch live.
9-10:30 AM: Instructional Vision
10:45-12:15 PM: School Climate and Culture: Disproportionality in Suspension
1-2:30 PM: Boundaries
Don't forget! You can subscribe to APS School Calendars here.
APS Seeks Feedback on the Following Policies.
Feedback on policies currently being considered by the School Board should be sent to engage@apsva.us.
