In This Edition

I'm proud to show my support for such a wonderful organization that does so much to ensure that our children are successful. 

Please attend and contribute if it fits in your schedule. I'll see you there! 

I had the opportunity to participate in this program a few years ago, and I can attest that it gives you an incredible opportunity to learn how our Alexandria Police Department keeps our community safe every day. 

You will be shoulder to shoulder with our first responders experiencing how they accomplish their important work. It is a great experience. 

This 8-week program is designed to educate residents about our government and improve engagement. 

The deadline is February 15th. 

Give it a try and let me know your thoughts! 

The City's Annual George Washington Birthday Parade will be held at 1 PM on Monday February 18th in Old Town Alexandria. 

I hope to see you there! 

If you have items that cannot be disposed of in the trash, please use the City's Hazardous Waste and Electronics Recycling at 3224 Colvin Street. 

The facility is open on Mondays and Saturdays from 7:30 AM to 3:30 PM. 

February 1, 2013 

In 2007 there were 10,332 students in the Alexandria City Public Schools. On October 1 of last year, we had 13,114 in the very same school system. 

In that short period of time, we added the equivalent of the enrollment of T. C. Williams High School to our school system.

Our current projections suggest that by the time school opens in six years, we will have anywhere from 15,000 students at the low-end to a high-end estimate of 17,500. 

While this is certainly a "good news" problem for our City to have, it is most definitely a problem nonetheless. We can discuss the reasons we have arrived at this point: improvements in our schools, the economy causing parents to forgo private schools, the economy causing parents to forgo moves to other jurisdictions, the opening of a new building at T. C. Williams,  faulty forecasting, etc.

  

We have then developed three trend-lines, a low-growth trend line that assumes that the large growth experienced in the last three years will subside, a current trend line that assumes we will continue our current patterns, and a high-growth trend line that assumes that our growth rates will accelerate. 

In any event, our challenge is steep. Even assuming the successful completion of the new Jefferson-Houston Elementary School building and the capacity expansions at George Mason and Maury Elementary, we face a deficit of 105 elementary classrooms within 6 years. This is essentially the equivalent of a little over 2 new elementary schools. 

Even if we were to increase elementary class size from the current average of 22 to a much larger 30, we would still have a deficit of 64 classrooms. There are no silver bullets to this problem. 

This example only demonstrates a portion of the problem--as we face similar challenges in our Middle Schools and High Schools. 

Every parent with a child eating lunch shortly after 10:00 AM due to a lack of space in the cafeteria can also attest that classroom space is not our only need. 

This is a problem that will demand creative thinking about how we can better use our existing buildings, what alternative environments can support learning in the future and how we can leverage the redevelopment around the City to obtain property for potential school construction. 

Whether we like it or not, this is a problem that will demand additional investment. 

With that in mind, the City Council adopted budget guidance for our City Manager that specifically requested that he include new resources in his proposed budget for addressing the substantial capital needs within our Schools. 

I believe this is the year to have this conversation. It is time for us to put every good idea on the table to ensure that we are capable of providing every child in our community with a high-quality education for decades to come. 

I look forward to your ideas! 

Instead of our existing structure, which provides a variety of different rates for different bags, trunks and other articles that might be handled in addition to a passenger, the City Council largely concurred with recommendations of our Traffic and Parking Board to simplify the rate structure and make it more understandable to passengers and drivers alike. 

Working with my colleagues, I was also pleased that we were able to advance a new requirement to mandate our taxi cabs to accept credit cards. While this change still requires one more procedural hurdle, I'm hopeful that by next month we will be adopting a new requirement. 

Credit cards are nearly ubiquitous in our society today, and our taxis should accept them as a form of payment.

You supply the living room and a bunch of your friends and neighbors. I will supply a member of the Alexandria City Council (me) with the answers to any of your questions about our City. 

Last month in this space, I wrote about the context in which the Council will begin this budget process--with an estimated shortfall of $18.6 million. 

Since that time, we have seen the release of the Superintendent's proposed budget for the Alexandria City Public Schools, which requests an additional $9.2 million (5.1%) from the City over and beyond the appropriation from last year. 

That now means our budget short-fall is $27.8 million--a significant challenge for the Council as we begin the process. 

As our custom, the City Council adopted guidance for our City Manager for his preparation of the budget. We encouraged the Manager to bring forward new revenue sources to assist in balancing our budget during this process--including new fees and tax changes.