Road to Redistricting: Policy Updates & Public Hearing Reminder for May 12, 2025

As the School Boundary Redistricting Process continues, there are updates this week about the introduction of two new proposed elementary school boundary maps, school boundary redistricting policy updates, and information about the upcoming Redistricting Public Hearing on May 12, 2025. 

Introduction of Two New Triangle Plan Elementary School Maps

During the May 8, 2025, School Board meeting, two new proposed boundary maps for elementary schools were introduced. These maps are labeled the Triangle Plan Two and Triangle Plan Three Elementary School Maps, each offering different approaches to balancing student enrollment, proximity and school capacity goals. 

The following is an overview of the maps:

• Triangle Plan Two Elementary School Map: Provides more demographic balance between Charles Barrett and George Mason and attempts to right size for the swing space.
• Triangle Plan Two Elementary School Map: Attempts to provide more demographic balance and increase utilization of the George Mason expansion.

Redistricting Policy Updates

Over the course of two School Board work sessions on April 18, 2025 and May 1, 2025, the School Board reached consensus on several major redistricting-related policy updates, including how deferrals, class sizes and student transfers will be handled.

While consensus from the School Board gives staff direction, these policies are not final yet. Each will go through a formal review process:

• Draft policy language will be reviewed in the Strategy and Accountability Committee.
• The School Board will reconvene on May 15, 2025, to review the draft policy language and consider additional redistricting policies that they did not reach consensus on. 
• Final versions of the policies will be presented to the full School Board on May 29, 2025.
• The School Board will vote on both policies and boundaries on June 12, 2025.

Community feedback is still welcome during this time, especially as the School Board works through the details of implementation.

The following is a summary of the current status of the policy review process. 

Deferrals (Formerly “Grandfathering”)

• Fifth Grade Students and Siblings: Rising fifth graders for the 2026-27 school year, which is when the school boundaries are implemented, will be allowed to stay at their current elementary school through fifth grade, and their siblings can only stay for one additional year.
• Dual-Language Programs: Students currently enrolled in the Mount Vernon Community School or John Adams Elementary School Dual-Language Programs can remain through the fifth grade. 
• Students Transition from Douglas MacArthur Elementary School to the George Mason Elementary School Swing Space: A small group of students, specifically current third graders, who are zoned to move from Douglass MacArthur to George Mason in 2026 and would otherwise face a third building transition, will be allowed to finish elementary school at Douglass MacArthur through the fifth grade.

*The School Board did not reach consensus yet on deferrals for middle school. 

Class Size and Capacity Transfers

• The School Board reached consensus to eliminate capacity transfers, a practice that reassigns students when their neighborhood school is full. ACPS is the only school division in the region that still has this practice, and it disproportionately affects English Learners and students who already experience mid-year moves.
• Instead, ACPS will maintain small, reasonable class sizes and replace hard “class caps” with targets, allowing schools some flexibility when enrollment changes unexpectedly.
• To support stability between redistricting cycles, the School Board will also be adding limited-scope redistricting and option areas as tools for future boundary adjustments.

Transportation and Walk Zones

• A new policy will allow students living in walk zones to ride buses if space is available, giving families more flexibility.

Other Policy Consensus Topics

• The sibling rule will now only apply while the older sibling is still enrolled to avoid multi-year rollovers.
• All student transfers will require central office approval to ensure consistency across the school division.
• The School Board is committed to regular monitoring and reporting to track how these policies are working after implementation.

Middle School Redistricting Changes

ACPS currently has two middle schools—Francis C. Hammond and George Washington—that serve students across the city, along with grades 6–8 at Patrick Henry and Jefferson-Houston, the two ACPS K–8 campuses. Each of the current draft maps includes middle school boundary scenarios, but across all of them, the same issue continues: there are not enough seats to fully address overutilization at the middle school level. Changing boundaries right now would not solve the capacity problem—it would likely just shift it from one school to another.

Because of that, the School Board has not made a decision yet on whether to adjust middle school lines in this redistricting cycle. If the School Board does not change the lines now, they will still need to address two important issues:

• Feeder Patterns: If elementary boundaries shift for schools like Douglas MacArthur Elementary School or George Mason Elementary School, the School Board will need to decide whether those students will continue to follow the current feeder pattern to George Washington Middle School. For example, if more students are added to Douglass MacArthur and George Mason with the current feeder pattern, that could further increase enrollment pressure at George Washington Middle School, which is already overutilized. Alternatively, if the School Board does away with feeder patterns and maintains the current middle school lines, that could mean some students newly zoned for Doouglass MacArthur would attend Hammond or Patrick Henry, and some students newly zoned for John Adams Elementary School from Douglass MacArthur would attend George Washington.
• Future Planning: When Jefferson-Houston PreK-8 IB School transitions to a dedicated middle school (currently projected for 2034), the School Board will have a new opportunity to revisit middle school boundaries with additional capacity available.

The Board did not reach consensus on deferrals for middle schools. Several Board members expressed support for allowing current fifth and sixth graders to remain through the eighth grade if reassigned, but the School Board agreed to revisit that policy at a future meeting, after they have more clarity on potential middle school boundary changes and enrollment impacts.

The School Board also discussed the walk zone policy for middle school students. They clarified that walk distances will be measured door-to-door, not property line to property line—bringing ACPS in line with common practice in other Northern Virginia school divisions. They are also considering changing the middle school walk zone distance from 1 mile to 1.5 miles, but have decided to allow a little more time prior to making that decision.

The transportation audit and walk zone analysis have now been completed, but the School Board agreed to take the upcoming year to better understand the impact of making any recommended changes. They want to be thoughtful about how any shift in walk zone policy would affect student eligibility for transportation, and whether it would reduce or increase service needs in different parts of the city. 

This is an area the School Board will return to in the coming weeks as they finalize decisions around redistricting maps and related policies.

Redistricting Public Hearing

As the School Boundary Redistricting Process continues, the Alexandria City School Board is providing opportunities for families and community members to share their input at an upcoming public hearing.

The first of two public hearings will be held on Mon., May 12, 2025, at 6 p.m. in the School Board Meeting Room at 1340 Braddock Place. A second public hearing will follow on June 5, 2025, at the same time and location.

These hearings are dedicated solely to public comments about the School Boundary Redistricting Process, and we encourage anyone with thoughts, concerns or suggestions to sign up and speak. This is your chance to have your voice heard before the School Board votes on the new school boundaries.

Sign up to speak by noon the day before the hearing: https://acpsweb.wufoo.com/forms/p35f39194hgpb/

The final School Board vote on the proposed school boundary changes is scheduled for June 12, 2025. The new boundaries will go into effect at the start of the 2026–27 school year.

To learn more about the process, view proposed maps, or watch past meeting recordings, visit the ACPS School Boundary Redistricting webpage.