Alexandria School Superintendent To Resign In August

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Alexandria City Public Schools' superintendent will resign after the start of the 2022-2023 school year.

Superintendent Gregory Hutchings Jr. announced Friday he plans to resign effective Aug. 31. Hutchings has been the head of the school district since July 2018.

The Alexandria School Board accepted Hutchings's resignation. School Board Chair Meagan Alderton indicated an interim superintendent will be appointed while a search for a permanent superintendent happens. Hutchings will work with the Alexandria School Board over the summer to transition leadership at the start of the next school year.

Hutchings indicated he plans to work on racial equity on a broader scale after leaving the superintendent position.

"This decision did not come lightly and was prompted by my life’s work to advocate for antiracism in education," Hutchings said in a message to families. "I have been proud of what we have accomplished together in bringing forth the very first ACPS strategic plan, Equity For All, that places racial equity at the heart of all our work. This courageous and bold roadmap compelled me to consider how I can help expand and establish similar initiatives in school systems across the country."

Hutchings is a 1995 graduate of T.C. Williams High School, now Alexandria City High School. He previously worked in other positions at ACPS, including director of pre-K-12 initiatives and director of middle school programs and has been a teacher, assistant principal and principal in middle and high school levels in Virginia and Tennessee. Before becoming superintendent, he was superintendent of Shaker Heights Schools in Ohio from 2013 to 2018.

During his time as superintendent, Hutchings led ACPS amid the switch to virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and back to in-person learning. The school system also grappled with incidents of violence both on campus and at the Bradlee Shopping Center near Alexandria City High School as in-person learning returned in fall 2021. The latest incident involved the death of Luis Mejia Hernandez, a senior at Alexandria City High School, during an off-campus fight at the Bradlee Shopping Center in late May.

After school resource officers were removed before the start of the last school year, Hutchings had asked City Council to consider bringing back the officers. While school resource officers were brought back in October, a School Law Enforcement Partnership Advisory Group has been created to discuss the future partnership between ACPS and Alexandria Police, according to the Washington Post.

Hutchings also oversaw ACPS when it achieved its highest graduation rate and lowest dropout rate — 91 percent and 5 percent, respectively, since Virginia began reporting this data in 2008. In 2019, all ACPS schools were fully accredited for the first time in 20 years.

On the equity front, Hutchings sought an equity policy audit of all ACPS policies to identify systemic racial inequities, launched an equity climate survey to hear from students, staff and families, and created an online equity dashboard to share metrics.

"In my four years at ACPS, we have worked collaboratively with our School Board and our ACPSteam to realize many significant accomplishments," Hutchings said in a message to families. "While I will no longer stand at the helm ofACPS to lead our team, I will continue to support the work and care deeply for our students,staff and families."

Alderton responded to Hutchings's resignation in a statement saying, "He has led our school division during extremely tumultuous times and, in doing so, has modeled for all of us what it means to lead with vision, integrity, and passion. Alexandria City Public Schools has benefited tremendously from his leadership. As a board, we are sad to see him go, but we wish him the very best in his future endeavors. I have no doubt that we will see him doing great things that will impact public education beyond the boundaries of Alexandria City Public Schools."