By Karina Elwood WashingtonPost August 22nd
Nell O’Brien, 5, walked up to George Mason Elementary School in Alexandria, with her blond hair neatly clipped to the side with a bow. She stood quietly by her mother in a collared dress, meeting teachers and administrators along the path leading to the front doors of the new school.F
It was the first day of kindergarten for Nell, and she was ready to take on the day in the same dress her mother wore for her first day of school.Susana O’Brien, Nell’s mother, said she held on to the dress — which she first wore in 1987 — in case she had a daughter who could repurpose it.
“It’s a little nostalgic. It’s a bittersweet moment. I have a fifth-grader here, and a third-grader here as well, and it’s my last baby going into kindergarten,” O’Brien said. “It’s exciting. It’s an exciting day.”
Alexandria City and Fairfax County public schools kicked off the return to school Monday by welcoming nearly 200,000 students across the two districts. Fairfax, Virginia’s largest public school system, serves more than 181,000 students at nearly 200 schools.
Other state school systems — including Prince William County Public Schools, the state’s second-largest school system with more than 89,000 students, andManassas Park City Schools — also started the school year Monday. Students enrolled in Loudoun County Public Schools return to the classroom Thursday, and students in the rest of the region — Arlington Public Schools, District of Columbia Public Schools, Montgomery County Public Schools, Prince George’s County Public Schools — start Aug. 28.
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The first day brings excitement and nerves for students and educators as they start the new year. This school year also marks more than three years since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic closed classrooms across the United States. Although they are back in full swing, schools around the region are still trying to recover from a number of lingering effects, including lagging enrollment numbers, staffing shortages, falling test scores and significant learning loss.
O’Brien said she’s mostly optimistic heading into the school year, but worries about growing class sizes and student-to-teacher ratios if the school district can’t retain or hire enough teachers.Advertisement
“We’re hoping that ACPS hears parents’ concerns about that and will work to improve teacher retention in the coming year,” she said. “I think it’s an excellent school district, obviously, I’m sending all my children here. So, I’m really excited about the new school year and I think that we have a lot to do.”Share this articleNo subscription required to readShare
Staffing in schools has been a concern for parents and educators around the country as schools have faced teacher shortages nationwide. In most D.C.-area districts, more teachers resigned during the 2022-23 school year than in the term prior, data shows. Alexandria saw 325 teachers leave last year, compared with 212 in 2021-22.
Melanie Kay-Wyatt, who is starting her first school year as Alexandria City Public Schools superintendent after leading the division on an interim basis, said priorities for this yearare improving school culture, academic achievement and closing gaps around absenteeism — another key concern for school leaders in the region.Advertisement
“It’s really around supporting and making sure that our students are coming to school, and putting in programs and initiatives to support families so that our students can come to school each and every day and want to be engaged in the work and the programs that we have to offer them,” Kay-Wyatt said.P
Students and educators headed back to classrooms will also have to manage a spike in school violence and rising issues surrounding mental health, particularly among teens. Students in Alexandria City and Prince William County will have weapons detectors in their middle and high schools in an effort to prohibit guns in schools. Prince George’s County Public Schools, Maryland’s second-largest school system, will also install weapons detectors at every high school and some middle schools, and it will require clear backpacks for every high-schooler.
Educators are also still working to recover academic progress lost during the pandemic. National test scores in reading and math plunged during the pandemic, with the most recent data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress showing the single largest drop in math scores among 13-year-olds in 50 years. And according to federal survey data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics, about half of public school students across the country started last school year below grade level in at least one subject.
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Renae Graves needed a bit more convincing before heading into her first day of kindergarten. The girl sat on a bench outside the school with Kay-Wyatt talking her up for the day.
Her dad, Kelvin Graves, had hoped Renae’s older brother would guide his little sister into the school. But he was too eager to reconnect with friends.
With one last pep talk from dad, Renae mustered up the courage and headed inside with a teacher, her Princess Ariel backpack waving behind her with the tag still attached.
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