A police officer keeps watch during Walk and Bike to School Day 2012 at Oakridge Elementary School (staff photo)
Signs and stepped-up enforcement are part of the police plan for bringing Arlington students back to the classrooms safely.
In advance of the first day of school for Arlington Public Schools students on Monday, the Arlington County Police Department is encouraging drivers to be especially cautious on local roads.
“On Monday, August 29, 2022, there will soon be an increase in children walking, bicycling, and riding the bus to schools throughout Arlington,” ACPD said in a press release this week. “Transportation safety is a shared responsibility and it’s up to all of us to keep our students safe by following the rules of the road.”
The police department says it will “conduct a high-visibility transportation safety campaign in and around school zones and bus stops to ensure the trip to class is as safe as possible.” That includes enforcement and electronic signs “placed along roadways in Arlington to raise awareness about the start of the school year and to share important safety messaging.”
Police noted that last fall the Arlington County Board voted to establish 13 “School Slow Zones” around public and private schools in the county. The zones reduce the speed limit to 20 mph on roads within 600 feet of the school.
The department also reminded drivers that the law requires drivers to stop behind a school bus that is loading or unloading passengers, except when traveling in the opposite direction on a divided highway.
An ACPD press release with safety and traffic law reminders, along with a new “Back to School Safety PSA” video starring APS Superintendent Dr. Francisco Durán and Arlington police chief Andy Penn video, are below.
Arlington School Board at the Aug. 18 meeting (image via APS)
Arlington Public Schools will follow mostly the same Covid protocols as last year, including optional masks, free weekly testing, and five-day quarantines.
At last Thursday’s School Board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Francisco Durán reviewed the latest Covid protocols for the upcoming 2022-2023 school year, which starts this coming Monday, Aug. 29.
Much hasn’t changed from last year as APS continues to align guidelines with both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Virginia Department of Health (VDH).
Masks will continue to be optional for students and staff as long as local transmission continues to be low or moderate. Currently CDC says Arlington is in its “Medium” community level for Covid, though it appears possible that that may flip back to “Low” on Thursday. If cases do rise and hit the “High” threshold, APS says its requirements will change.
“If we ever get to the high community transmission, we will require masks,” said Durán. “Of course, we will have the opportunity for families to opt out but it will be required for staff.”
Students who have Covid-like symptoms will also continue to be sent home and only allowed back to school with either a physician’s note or a negative test. The change in this year’s policy, though, is that all tests will be accepted as proof, including at-home rapid tests. Previously, only PCR tests were accepted.
Like last year, all students who test positive must quarantine for five days and can return to school on the sixth day provided they are symptom-free. From day six to day ten, students and staff must wear a mask while at school.
If a student is unable or “unwilling” to wear a mask, a negative test must be provided to return to school. A student or a staff member who still feels ill or has symptoms after day five of quarantining should remain home.
“I want to put a plea out there to all of our parents and staff, monitor your symptoms. Do not come to school or work if you are not feeling well,” said Durán.
Another relative notable change from last year is that anyone who was directly exposed to a Covid-positive individual no longer needs to quarantine unless they have symptoms themselves, no matter their vaccination status.
Last year, the quarantine rules for those who were directly exposed but had no symptoms shifted. In early 2022, APS started allowing students who were vaccinated, willing to mask, and asymptomatic to return to school almost immediately.
Now, vaccinations and masking are no longer required.
Families and staff can also opt in for free weekly Covid testing provided by APS. A consent form was sent via email to all families, noted Durán.
“I highly encourage if you are concerned about making our schools safer to take advantage of this. It takes only a few minutes each week,” he said.
More information and a more complete list of guidelines is expected to be available on APS’s website and sent to parents, students and staff tomorrow (Wednesday).
The School Board meeting brought a few other updates with students returning next week.
Over the summer, APS invested more than $5 million in security upgrades, including a new visitor management system, door lock technology, and an alarm system.
A new mobile app is debuting that will allow parents to track where their student’s bus is and when will it arrive. A new virtual tutoring system for middle and high school students is set to be available, as well.
Plus, the first-ever “APS-wide dress code” is being instituted this year. Previously, dress codes were determined by schools. As School Board member Barbara Kanninen noted, a “more inclusive” system-wide dress code was prioritized by APS due to the ongoing efforts of one particular student who launched a campaign she dubbed “Free The Shoulders.”
Over the last three years, the nearly six-decade-old Arlington Education Center has undergone a complete overhaul to turn it into classrooms and school space for the burgeoning student body. This is the most significant renovation in the history of the building, which was completed in 1969 and previously used as the Arlington Public Schools headquarters. (The APS administrative offices are now located at Sequoia Plaza.)
We received an exclusive tour yesterday of the newly updated facility that is now updated classrooms, breakout areas, science labs, art studios, weight rooms, offices, and flex space. The project reached substantial completion back in June. With school less than two weeks away, it’s now all touch-ups, paneling, and inspections.
The annex is expected to open to students when the new school year starts later this month.
The goal of the project, APS’s director of design and construction Jeff Chambers told ARLnow while walking through the still-pristine hallways, was to turn an under-used office building into usable, updated school space.
“With this building, it’s set up so that it can be used for any type of classroom or for any grade,” Chambers said. “It’s going to be used by Washington-Liberty students when it opens, but it can be converted to be used for anything. The whole intent is that all of the classrooms can be modified and used for whatever program absolutely needs them.”
The five-floor, 55,000-square-foot facility can accommodate between 500 and 600 students. The building is shaped like a “quarter of a donut,” as described by project manager Robin Hodges, which allows nearly all of the classrooms a view of the outside while also facing inward towards the common areas.
Each level, with the exception of the ground floor, is similar in set-up, with the elevators moved back, large windows, and a common area with seating and furniture. The building’s footprint wasn’t expanded, though it might look that way.
“The ambient light into the classrooms and spaces has really made a huge improvement, opened up the building a lot more,” said Hodges. “Everyone that used to be here before and now walks the halls ask, ‘Did you make it bigger?’ No. We just have more daylight in the building.”
Chambers compared the old building’s lack of sunlight and darkness, particularly in the bathrooms, to walking into a famed Arlington landmark.
“It was like walking into The Broiler on Columbia [Pike] and you’re looking for your steak and cheese,” he said laughing, noting that they did a simulation of the sun’s movement and added window frits to help diffuse sunlight throughout the building.
Gift boxes prepared by Oakridge Elementary students for those aboard the USS Arlington (via Del. Patrick Hope)
Cards prepared by Oakridge Elementary students for those aboard the USS Arlington (via Del. Patrick Hope)
Cards prepared by Oakridge Elementary students for those aboard the USS Arlington (via Del. Patrick Hope)
Cards prepared by Oakridge Elementary students for those aboard the USS Arlington (via Del. Patrick Hope)
Cards prepared by Oakridge Elementary students for those aboard the USS Arlington (via Del. Patrick Hope)
USS Arlington commissioning ceremony in 2013 (photo courtesy U.S. Navy)
USS Arlington arrives at port in Norfolk (photo courtesy Frank O’Leary)
USS Arlington arrives at port in Norfolk (photo courtesy Frank O’Leary)
Hundreds of K-5 students at Oakridge Elementary School packed 200 gift boxes to seamen and Marines serving on the USS Arlington.
The boxes sent to those aboard the 684-foot-long amphibious transport ship, named after Arlington County in memory of those who lost their lives here on 9/11, included handwritten cards as well as candy, chips, crackers, chewing gum, toothbrushes, challenge coins, ear plugs and other items.
It’s part of an effort to ensure an ongoing relationship between the men and women who serve on the USS Arlington and the residents of the county for which it is named.
Spearheading that effort is the USS Arlington Community Alliance, headed by retired Arlington County Police Department captain Kevin Reardon, who is president, and Del. Patrick Hope (D-47), who is vice president.
Reardon, who happened to know Lynne Wright, the Oakridge principal, brought to her the idea of the gift packages.
“It’s the little things that keep us in contact with the ship,” says Reardon. “And this is one of those things.”
Donated goods came from Arlington-based firms, including Nestlé (200 bags of candy), and were sorted and packed by students at the end of the school year and transported to the ship.
Running their hands through hundreds of pounds of temptation must have been a challenge for the children, right? Oh, you’d be wrong.
“The students have been practicing the intentionality of being kind to each other and members of our community,” Wright says. “Creating care packages for individuals on the USS Arlington was a natural extension of being kind to others.”
“We have been fortunate to have partnered with the USS Arlington for several years,” she adds. “Additionally, we have many military families in our Oakridge community, and this year we became a [Virginia Department of Education] Purple Star-designated school and have focused on better serving the military-connected child.”
Honoring Arlington goes both ways. Reardon says the ship’s main passageway, traditionally called Broadway, is named Columbia Pike. Arlington street signs and Pentagon shapes abound.
“The sailors are constantly reminded of why the ship was named ‘Arlington,'” he says. Those same sailors often visit Oakridge Elementary when they are in the area for the annual 9/11 memorial 5K race — which is now in its 20th year.
Arlington is currently renovating the Bozman Government Center at Courthouse and the new lobby of county government headquarters, when it opens, will have an exhibit of USS Arlington artifacts and video displays, as well as a sizable model of the ship.
Reardon, for one, will be happy when the pandemic-delayed renovations are complete.
“There are not too many people with a six-and-half-foot ship model sitting in their parking spot in their garage,” he says with a laugh.
And this is not the last those aboard the Arlington will hear from Oakridge kids.
“Generously building care packages for the USS Arlington was an outstanding opportunity to bring everyone together through kindness and care for our community,” Principal Wright says. “When school reopens, I know the school community will be eager to build more care packages for the USS Arlington.”
The $1.6 billion vessel, commissioned in 2013, is one of three named for locations where citizens were killed on Sept. 11, 2001, along with the USS New York and the USS Somerset.
Ribbon cutting for Wakefield HIgh School’s new STEM-focused tech space (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Wakefield High School’s new STEM-focused tech space (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Arlington School Board chair Reid Goldstein at Wakefield High School for the opening of Amazon’s new STEM-focused tech space (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Wakefield High School’s new STEM-focused tech space (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Arlington County Board member Matt De Ferranti at Wakefield High School for the opening of Amazon’s new STEM-focused tech space (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Wakefield High School’s new STEM-focused tech space (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera gestures while delivering remarks at Wakefield High School for the opening of Amazon’s new STEM-focused tech space (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
The ribbon was cut Monday for Amazon’s new “AWS Think Big Space,” a STEM-focused tech lab, at Wakefield High School.
The lab is located on the ground floor of the school at 1325 S. Dinwiddie Street and is divided into several technology stations, including 3D printing, E-sports, cybersecurity, virtual reality, coding robots Sphero and robotics.
Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera, APS Superintendent Francisco Duran, School Board Chair Reid Goldstein and County Board member Matt de Ferranti all gave speeches at the opening ceremony and joined the lab tour.
Many of the officials believed that the new lab would better prepare students for future careers in STEM.
“We truly believe in the necessity and the importance of creating opportunities for our students,” Duran said in his speech.
“In Arlington County, there are many businesses and jobs that are available to students who leave our school system not prepared to enter into that workforce. It’s our duty, it’s our responsibility to create those skills and pathways for students to be able to access those jobs,” he added.
Wendy Maitland, a teacher at Wakefield High School, is set to become the manager of the lab. She planned to offer the space to teachers there to assist in their teaching.
“For example, if they want to do something in terms of astronomy, they can come down and use the program on the VR,” Maitland said.
She also is planning joint programs with the nearby Barcroft Elementary School at the lab. Other Arlington schools are also expected to use the space.
Maitland approached Amazon for funding to create a STEM lab two years ago. Donor and local apartment building owner Ralph Johnson joined her effort, she added.
“We created a presentation, they liked it and they came back to us and said, ‘Yes, work with our AWS team because they have the Think Big Spaces,'” Maitland said.
Amazon chose to build its Think Big Space at Wakefield because the high school is the “neighborhood high school” for employees working at Amazon HQ2, Arlington School Board Chair Reid Goldstein said.
“At Amazon, we’re proud to call Virginia home, we’re committed to making a positive impact in the communities where we’re located,” Amazon’s Vice President of Economic Development Holly Sullivan said in her speech.
Wakefield High School is also the most diverse high school in Arlington and the second most in Virginia, Guidera said, adding that she believed building the STEM lab there would be “a great opportunity” — especially for children from underrepresented communities — to access “innovative spaces like [the lab] that make learning comes alive and also expose students to the future of work.”
Although no concrete plans have been drawn up yet, Amazon is considering exchange programs for students engaged in the 35 Think Big Spaces across the world, including India and Ireland, Sullivan said.
The lab will operate as a public-private partnership, with financial support from large local employers like Amazon, Guidera said.
Amazon contributed $150,000 and Johnson gave $109,000 to build this lab. The School Board approved its construction last October, according to School Board documents.
A similar lab funded by Amazon was built at an elementary school in Prince William County is 2019, but Wakefield’s is the first to be built in a high school in the Americas, according to material from a School Board presentation.
Police outside of W-L High School during threat investigation in 2017 (file photo)
Arlington police made 75% fewer arrests of juvenile suspects during the recently-concluded school year compared to the last pre-pandemic school year.
That’s according to data supplied by the Arlington County Police Department, at ARLnow’s request. Arrests of adult suspects also declined, but only by 16%.
The data covers arrests between Sept. 1, 2018-June 15, 2019, compared to the same time period in 2021 and 2022. During the past school year, juvenile arrests only made up about 3% of ACPD’s total arrests, the data shows.
Arlington arrest stats from Sept. 1-June 15 (courtesy ACPD)
A number of factors may be behind the big drop in juvenile arrests, including — notably — changes to how the police department interacts with Arlington Public Schools. The school system voted to remove School Resource Officers from school buildings in June 2021 amid concerns about racial disparities in youth arrests and scrutiny of what advocates termed a “school-to-prison pipeline.”
“Contributing factors to the decline may include legislative changes, changes in crime trends during the COVID-19 pandemic, updated policies between ACPD and APS, and reduced police staffing,” said police spokeswoman Ashley Savage.
It’s unclear how many of the juvenile arrests are of local students. Savage noted that “while the request for juvenile arrest statistics was related to timeframes that encompass the school year, these statistics reflect all juvenile arrests at any location in the County and do not necessarily involve Arlington County students.”
The title page of the report published by Black Parents of Arlington
Black students in Arlington Public Schools still see lower passing rates and are more likely to be suspended than white students, an advocacy group found, as detailed in a new report.
Black Parents of Arlington, a local group founded in 2019 to advocate for the interests of Black students in the county, published “APS in Black: Measuring Educational Opportunities for Black Students” this past weekend.
The report highlighted “long standing inequities between Black and white students in APS,” according to a press release.
The organization claims that APS was “unable to dismantle the systemic racism within its foundation,” and failed to create an environment in which Black students can “thrive academically” or are given sufficient opportunities outside the classroom.
There was an approximately 20 percentage point difference in pass rates in Virginia’s Standard of Learning test between Black and white students in the 2018-2019 school year, according to the report. Black students had an around 70% pass rate in both math and reading, while white students had an around 90% pass rate across all APS schools.
Although the disparity in pass rates vary significantly in different elementary, middle and high schools, most schools showed more than a 10 percentage point gap between Black and white students in math and reading pass rates between 2017 and 2019.
Slide from BPA report (via Black Parents of Arlington)
While three-fourths of white students qualified for advanced courses such as AP and IB classes, only 26% of Black students did in the 2019-2020 school year, according to the group’s report.
Additionally, Black students only made up 20% or less of the population in APS middle and high schools, but were more likely than white students to be suspended in most schools, the report said.
One reason for these disparate outcomes was because of the mismatch between the demographics of teachers and that of the students, co-founder of the organization Whytni Kernodle asserted.
“Many of the African American workers in Arlington Public Schools are in central office, which means what they’re not is in front of children teaching them how to read, teaching them about algebra, teaching them about history,” she said.
As of September 2020, 44.8% of students in APS were white, while 10.2% were Black, 28.4% were Hispanic, and 8.8% were Asian, according to data from the school system.
APS needs to invest more in training and other resources to address the disparities, and to avoid entrenching the “status quo,” Kernodle said.
“If you need to change the culture of a situation or an organization, you have to use bold tactics and you have really look at who you have on the ground who’s there that should be there and who needs to be shown the door,” she said.
As of publication time APS has not offered a response to the report.
The full press release from Black Parents of Arlington is below.
The School Board reviews the Joint Facilities Advisory Committee report at a work session (screenshot via Arlington County)
(Updated at 4:15 p.m.) An advisory group meant to guide facilities planning has several concerns with Arlington Public Schools’ proposed capital spending plan, namely the cost of a new Arlington Career Center.
APS would only be able to construct the Career Center by nearly maxing out its debt capacity, according to a Joint Facilities Advisory Committee report published June 7.
The county and APS cap debt repayments at 10% of their projected budgets. Under the School Board’s proposed CIP budget, the debt service is expected to remain around 9.8% from fiscal year 2027 to fiscal year 2032, according to JFAC’s report, leaving little wiggle room for maintenance projects and unforeseen needs.
At the same time, the CIP contains “discrepancies in the accounting for available bonding capacity for APS,” JFAC says.
The group Arlington Parents for Education explained in a newsletter today:
APS shares bond capacity with the county. This week, it was revealed that the county has a very different idea of how much APS has available in bond capacity; the County’s CIP has only $78 million in available bond capacity for APS. This is a discrepancy of $242 million.
“The main concern of JFAC is this CIP in the broader context all the known facility and infrastructure needs of APS and ACG,” JFAC’s chair and vice chair wrote in a recent letter. “It presently does not transparently demonstrate long-term financial viability for short term projects and expenditures or demonstrate that long-range planning processes for land use or capital projects have been fully considered.”
The lack of transparency “makes it harder for the public to recognize the planning commitments APS is making in this CIP,” the committee report stated.
However, APS believes it is being fiscally prudent.
“I don’t think we have anyone on this School Board or anyone on the staff is recommending that in the out years, we bump our CIP up to the maximum 9.8% target that we used to come up with that bonding capacity. It was just to show that there is room available in the out years for other projects that will come in those next CIPs,” said Assistant Superintendent Leslie Peterson during a work session reviewing the committee report.
The proposed CIP was also vague on the details of how the capital projects would be funded, the JFAC report said. The proposed budget did not set a specific amount of funding for long-range plans to renovate existing facilities, nor did it account for their cost estimates in setting its desired bond capacity, according to the report.
The School Board and county government projections for bond capacity are also at odds, with the School Board budgeting $242 million more than the county.
School Board Chair Barbara Kanninen said bond capacity may open up if the county — and, by extension, APS — receives more revenue than what was projected, allowing the board to carry out all the identified projects. If that doesn’t happen, the School Board would then discuss how to best handle new capital spending needs.
“If that’s the way it is, we’re gonna have that conversation then, there’s no pre-having that conversation,” she said.
The proposed CIP estimates the new Career Center building, which would be the most expensive project the school system has ever undertaken, would cost around $174 million. It would be funded by about $136 million from a 2022 bond referendum, as well as $37.4 million in past bond funding.
The JFAC report expressed concern at this decision since the School Board would be asking for a large sum of money at “a time of high inflation and financial uncertainty.”
Police on scene at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in June 2022 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Police on scene at Thomas Jefferson Middle School (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Robbery at 7-Eleven store on S. Glebe Road (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Robbery at 7-Eleven store on S. Glebe Road (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
(Updated on 6/13/22) A robbery at a convenience store may have led to a panic about an active shooter at a nearby Arlington middle school.
It started at the 7-Eleven at 201 S. Glebe Road. Police were dispatched there shortly before 12:30 p.m. for a report of a man with a weapon robbing the store. They were initially told that someone was injured inside.
“At approximately 12:21, police were dispatched to the report of an assault with injury inside a business in the 200 block of S. Glebe Road,” said Arlington County Police Department spokeswoman Ashley Savage. “Preliminary investigation indicates the suspect entered the business, produced a hammer, smashed a display case, stole merchandise and attempted to assault an employee. The suspect resisted arrest but was successful taken into custody by officers. Charges are pending.”
In the end, no one was found to be injured. The suspect was initially held at gunpoint by arriving officers, then arrested, according to scanner traffic.
As officers were rushing to the scene, ACPD asked that nearby Thomas Jefferson Middle School be placed on “secure the school mode” — in other words, locked from the outside. Given the recent mass shooting at a Uvalde, Texas elementary school, the somewhat routine security precaution may have panicked some students and parents.
Around 1 p.m. police were dispatched to the school for a report of a man armed with a gun who was trying to get inside, apparently in an effort to stop a potential active shooter. By the time officers arrived, the man had left the school campus, but a glass door at the entrance was damaged.
(On June 13, a local man was charged with Destruction of Public Property after allegedly trying to break into the school, concerned that an act of violence was underway inside.)
Damaged door at TJ Middle School entrance (photo courtesy anonymous)
Savage said the initial indication is that “the report of an individual with the gun was someone picking up a student at the school.” No other details were immediately available.
“Police remain on scene investigating the circumstances of what occurred,” Savage said. She noted that there was “no threat to TJ Middle related to [the robbery].”
But parents, students and teachers were allegedly left in the dark as to why the school was secured.
“My daughter texted us and said they hadn’t been told why they were in lockdown,” a parent told ARLnow. “We did not hear from the school. Apparently teachers weren’t told why either.”
“There were a lot of scared students,” the parent added.
The H-B Woodlawn Gxrls Ultimate Frisbee team is going to a national tournament (via @HBVarsityGirls/Twitter)
The Washington-Liberty Open Ultimate Frisbee team announced on social media that they were invited to the national tournament (via @wlfrisbee/Instagram)
Both the boys and girls Ultimate Frisbee teams from H-B Woodlawn and Washington-Liberty High School are set to compete in the high school national tournament today and tomorrow (Saturday).
For this year’s tournament, 16 boys teams and 15 girls teams are set to attend, according to its website. Over the weekend, the four teams from Arlington are set to play against other high school teams from New Jersey, Utah and Oregon among other states.
Currently, Washington-Liberty Open and H-B Woodlawn Open — which were both formerly boys teams but are open to any players — were ranked 14th and 16th respectively by Ultiworld in the boys division, while H-B Woodlawn Gxrls and Washington-Liberty Gxrls were ranked 19th and 20th respectively in the girls division, according to the latest power ranking list published.
Among the four Arlington teams, only Washington-Liberty Gxrls has not been to previous national tournaments. MJ Muskovitz, a senior and the team’s captain, said the invite was “a huge surprise.”
Since almost half of her team was new, Muskovitz thought they were still “trying to build up the base of play and recruit more players” for this year, she told ARLnow.
“I got to read out the email [from the organizer] that we got to the rest of the team, it was a huge shock because we did not expect to be going to nationals,” Muskovitz said.
As her team was still focused on strengthening team bonds and developing the new players’ fundamental skills such as throwing, the members’ expectations weren’t “necessarily too high,” Muskovitz said.
“We hope to gain a new experience for our players,” she said. “We’re also looking to push our team more into a national spotlight.”
On the other hand, Coach Jay Boyle of H-B Woodlawn’s boys team hoped his squad could “make the upper bracket.” Although he was not the coach at the time, H-B Woodlawn Open participated in the national tournament in 2018.
In preparing for the tournament, Boyle’s team has been lifting weights, training three days a week over the winter, in addition to reviewing video footage of other teams, he added. Throughout the season, the team has held practices five days a week at times.
“It’s exciting, we think that we deserve the spot, we think of ourselves as a team that is competitive nationally,” Boyle said.
Gunston Middle School’s eighth grade dance, planned for tonight, has been cancelled due to threats.
In a message to families sent around 12:30 p.m. today, Gunston Principal Dr. Lori Wiggins said that the decision was made as a result of “possible messages circulating in the community referencing individuals interrupting and potentially causing violence” at the dance.
That comes after a two-week stretch that has seen a spate of mass shootings nationwide, including the shooting at a Texas elementary school that killed 19 students and 2 teachers.
The email to families is below.
Greetings Gunston Eighth-Grade Families:
The Arlington County Police Department received information regarding possible messages circulating in the community referencing individuals interrupting and potentially causing violence at tonight’s eighth-grade dance. Based on the information available to us at this time, the decision was made to cancel tonight’s dance out of an abundance of caution. I write this with a heavy heart, as I know that our students were looking forward to this event. While this is a difficult decision, the safety of our students and staff is my top priority.
At this time, the threat is isolated to the dance. APS continues to work with the ACPD to address the information pertaining to this threat and will put additional resources in place as needed. We will share more specifics with students on Monday about refunds for tickets purchased to the dance. I created a video message for students about the decision to cancel that was shared during TA. I know that students will be upset with this decision, but again, it was made out of an abundance of caution. I am upset with the situation. But your child’s safety is the priority.
I want to thank the individuals that shared this information. Please remind and stress the importance to your children that if they hear or see something to talk to a trusted adult.
