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Updated 1 hour ago
NBC Washington
The Alexandria School Board unanimously approved renaming two schools, Matthew Maury Elementary and T.C. Williams High School.
Matthew Maury Elementary School is currently named after a Naval officer who fought for the Confederacy. The school superintendent recommended it be renamed to Naomi L. Brooks Elementary School after an Alexandrian educator, leader, citizen, wife and mother who died last year. Download our NBC Washington app for iOS or Android to get alerts for local breaking news and weather.
T.C. Williams High School s name will change to Alexandria City High School. T.C. Williams was a man who supported segregation.
To the editor:
In November, the Alexandria City School Board voted to change the name of T.C. Williams High School. After a series of polls among students, staff and the public, Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Gregory Hutchings, Ed.D made the recommendation to the School Board to rename it Alexandria High School. The Board will vote on April 8 and the new name will be official on July 1.
Cost estimates by ACPS to implement the name change at T.C. Williams total about $325,000. Given the cost, choosing to name the school after the community and returning to the name of the city’s historic high school, until 1935, and not to name it for a person is a wise choice.
School from ‘Remember the Titans’ Could Be Renamed After Kamala Harris, George Floyd, or Ruth Bader Ginsberg
15 Jan 2021
T.C. Williams High School, which became nationally renowned as the high school in the 2000 Disney football film,
Remember The Titans, may be renamed “Kamala Harris High School,” according to reports.
The Alexandria City School Board, which administers T.C. Williams High, voted unanimously to delete the school’s name because Thomas Chambliss Williams, a local school superintendent for three decades starting in the 1930s, was also well-known as a Virginia segregationist.
According to
Alexandria Living, the school board insisted that Williams was a “staunch segregationist whose views could not have been more inconsistent with the vibrant, diverse, and inclusive place we know today.”
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This data is from the ACPS Department of Accountability and Research report: Academic Year 2020-21
Quarter 1 Secondary Course Grade Distribution Data.
By Allison Hageman |
At the Jan. 7 Alexandria School Board meeting, Erika Melman described why virtual learning does not work for her son, an elementary aged Alexandria City Public Schools student with disabilities.
He is hard of hearing and cannot always hear or lip read the sometimes delayed audio of his Virtual PLUS+ classes, Melman said. Her child’s school has tried various options, without success, and so it falls to her, a single mom and essential worker, to be her son’s instructional aide. The months of virtual learning have also caused her son to lose confidence, struggle to reach his goals and develop school avoidant behaviors, she said.