During October’s Bullying Prevention Month, students will learn strategies to Recognize, Refuse and Report bullying. Unity Day will be recognized on Wed, Oct. 19 to celebrate kindness, acceptance, and inclusion in our schools. Everyone is encouraged to wear orange that day to send a visible message that no child should ever experience bullying. Here’s how to report incidents of bullying:

If you are concerned that your student is being bullied, share your concerns with your student’s counselor or administrator.

Any student, parent/guardian, or school staff may initiate a complaint for themselves or another party by completing the Bully Harassment Incident Form.

APS is seeking input from students, staff, families, and community members related to the development of the 2023-24 School Year Calendar. The calendar survey will be available to be completed between October 25 – November 8. There will be three calendar options available for the community to review and all calendar options have a school start date prior to Labor Day. Based on feedback received from the community, one of the calendar options aligns with the school year calendars of neighboring school divisions.

An email will be sent as a reminder on Tuesday, October 25 when the survey becomes available for the community to complete. The School Board will act on the 2023-24 School Year Calendar at the School Board Meeting scheduled for December 15, 2022. For additional information on the 2023-24 school year calendar and to view the school year calendar options, visit the Development of the 2023-24 School Year Calendar webpage.

On Election Day, Nov. 8, Arlington voters will vote on $165.01 million in school bonds to improve and upgrade existing school infrastructure. The school bonds support projects to maintain and update APS school facilities to meet the changing needs of students and the community. The projects included in the 2022 School Bond Referendum are:

- Major infrastructure projects that include the Escuela Key roof replacement, Hoffman-Boston HVAC replacement, and LED lighting upgrades at various sites.

- Entrance security vestibules and kitchen renovations at 24 school buildings.

- The modernization of the Arlington Career Center to construct a modern facility to support student learning for full-time Arlington Career Center (ACC) students and students from all APS high schools who are enrolled in Career and Technical Education (CTE) courses at ACC.

For additional information visit the 2022 School Bond Referendum webpage.

Arlington Public Schools students are invited to take part in the annual “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Literary and Visual Arts Contest.” The prompt this year is to “describe a time where you saw someone treated unfairly because of what they looked like or who they were; OR an event in history where people were treated unfairly because of what they looked like or who they were.”

Entries are due by 5 p.m. Fri, Nov. 18.

AOVP is the opportunity for families to review and update student, parent and emergency contact information. It also contains important policies and information. All families must complete this process by Oct. 31, 2022. Support is available in a variety of ways: Families can access the AOVP through their ParentVUE account online or on the app.

The 2023 Best Schools Report by Niche is out, and APS again ranked #1 Best Place to Teach and #2 Best Public School Division in Virginia. Niche publishes the report annually and specializes in K-12 school analysis and ranking. Arlington earned an A+ overall and high marks for schools, teachers, academics, health and safety, diversity and other categories. Niche also rated APS #9 among 132 Virginia school divisions for having the best teachers. Read the full Report Card and learn more. 

NEW Academic Support for Middle and High School Students: the new academic support available for secondary students called PAPER. PAPER provides 24/7 on-demand virtual tutors available to students for assistance with homework, essay review and other academic support in multiple subjects and languages. Teachers have been promoting this service directly to students. Details online. It is a great resource!

COVID Testing Continues—Opt In Now: Our in-school weekly COVID testing program is available to all students. This testing helps with early detection of positive COVID cases at school, and is available to returning and new students whose parents/guardians either reaffirm their initial consent or complete a new consent form online. Complete information and opt in forms are online. View the updated COVID-19 Protocols and FAQ online.