As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the School Board will be taking the following steps to protect the community, staff, and Board members at this time:

In general, upcoming Board Meetings will not be open to public comment unless legally required. Alternative means will be available to view Board meetings and provide input to the Board. In-person public attendance will be strongly discouraged in order to comply with current health guidelines on social gathering limits. Most or all staff presentations at Board meetings will be presented by video, and the meetings will continue to be available online and broadcast on Comcast Cable Channel 70 and Verizon FiOS Channel 41.

For some specific meetings, such as public hearings on the budget, an opportunity for public comment is required by state code. For those meetings, the Board will allow public comment, but will be managing the scheduling of speakers by, for example, assigning time slots to speakers to encourage meeting attendance below the recommended of 10 or fewer attendees.

Updated Schedule for the week of March 23:

The March 25 Public Hearing will take place as scheduled at 7 p.m., and as noted above, speakers will be assigned time slots.  Speakers can sign up online at https://aps2016.apsva.us/school-board-meetings/sign-up-to-speak/ or by calling the School Board office at 703-228-6015. Electronic or phone sign-ups will be accepted up to 3 p.m. on the 25th.   The March 26 School Board meeting has been canceled and rescheduled for Wed, March 25 and will immediately follow the Public Hearing.

IF YOU ARE NOT ABLE OR PREFER NOT TO ATTEND THE PUBLIC HEARING IN PERSON, you may submit your comments in one of the following ways:

• Use the form at https://aps2016.apsva.us/submit-your-comment-for-public-hearing-on-the-superintendents-proposed-fy-2021-budget/ to submit your Public Hearing comments.
• Leave a voicemail message at 703-228-6015 with your name, phone number and comments. Be sure to state that you would like these comments entered into the public hearing record. Your comments will be transcribed and shared with the Board.
• Send an email to school.board@apsva.us with the subject line “Proposed FY 2021 Public Hearing Comments”
• Comments submitted through any of the ways above will be added to the Public Hearing record and are subject to the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.
• All Public Hearing comments received by 3 p.m. on March 25, via email or through the online form, will be made available to the Board prior to the Public Hearing.

Once the Public Hearing on March 25 is complete, the Board will take up the agenda items previously scheduled for March 26. The meeting agenda will be posted no later than close of business on Friday, March 20 and can be accessed on BoardDocs. We encourage you to share your thoughts and comments with the School Board by email at School.Board@apsva.us.

We ask that you minimize messages to individual board members, as they will be focused on communications about maintaining safe operations during the pandemic. The Board Office staff is teleworking and will be monitoring the School Board email account and voicemail during normal business hours. Board members will receive regular reports of emails and voicemails received and will have ready access to view all messages received.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation during this challenging time.