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March 1, 2021 at 3:50pm
(Updated at 11:30 a.m.) For his first budget as Superintendent of Arlington Public Schools, Francisco Durán said he is proposing a conservative budget “that reflects our most urgent needs.”
The 2022 budget for APS, which he presented to members of the School Board on Thursday, comes to $704.4 million in expenditures and $661.9 million in revenue. APS, which has expected budget gaps in years past, is expecting a $42.5 million shortfall for its next fiscal year.
“We are facing very unique challenges as our school division works through the pandemic and what is to come,” Durán said. “Over the past year, we have seen the impact that this has had on our local economy and significant losses in revenue in Arlington.”
January 21, 2021 at 10:40am
School Board Chair Monique O’Grady will not be seeking reelection after her term ends this December, according to an announcement on her website.
The chair said on Sunday that she will work for a better future for all students through her term, which ends on Dec. 31, 2021. In her announcement, she said she wrote “with a heavy heart” after “much thought, consultation with my family, and careful consideration.” She declined to comment for this story.
O’Grady joined the School Board in 2018 and became chair in July 2020. She said she needs to spend her last six months as chair and her last year on the board working to reopen schools.
Black and Hispanic students, English-language learning students, and students with disabilities are experiencing the deepest drops.
“We knew that we might see some degradation in scores, and this is helpful to understand exactly where we are seeing some deep drops,” School Board Chair Monique O’Grady said during the School Board meeting on Thursday night.
The new report builds on data released earlier this month, and follows on requests from School Board members for more precise data the impact distance learning is having on different groups of students. Fairfax County Public Schools released a similar report last month.
Overall, Es failing grades account for 2.1% of all middle school grades this year, up from 0.7% last year. This year, 5.4% of high school grades are Es, up from 4.3% last year.