ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Alexandria City Public Schools officials told the School Board on Thursday that the team that worked with the city to set this year’s walk zones did not include educators who could judge what young children can safely handle.
“We had operations staff, we had city staff, but we didn’t have educators who are developmentally aware of, can a 5-year-old walk to school? Can a 7-year-old? Can a 12-year-old?” said Marcia Jackson, the division’s chief of student services and equity, who described it as what she would have done differently. She also noted that the chief operating officer’s job was vacant at the time.
Acting Superintendent Grace Taylor said staff and the city “did their very, very best” on a tight timeline with only a couple of people at the table, and called it “a huge lesson learned.”…