Who, What, and Why?

Hello all, Welcome to Alexandria's Public Education News' website! If you found your way here I have a feeling you have a few questions, and I hope I can provide answers to some of the more general ones below. 1.) What is Alexandria Public Education News (APEN)? In our advocacy work we have found that one of the obstacles facing the Alexandria community is the lack of transparency and distribution of information. Our public education leaders have made it a habit to hide important pieces of data until the last possible moment, engage in closed door meetings, and, sometimes, neglect to release information at all. All of these realities make it difficult for you, the Alexandrian citizen, to get high quality, timely information about the institution meant to safeguard your children.

APEN is an organization whose mission is to combat these obstacles by keeping the citizens of Alexandria informed about their public institutions. We will accomplish this by periodically publishing articles to this platform. These articles will cover a wide range of topics, but, regardless of topic, will aim to provide you all with the quality, timely information you need. Not only will we report on this information, but we will provide our own analysis of these events based on our unique perspective. 2.) Who is writing for APEN?

I am Alex's Pen.

As of now I am the only writer for APEN. My specific identity is not important as my focus is 100% on changing our public schools for the better. However, what I can tell you is I have numerous years experience in advocating for Alexandria's public schools and students. Due to those years of advocacy, I have a unique perspective which will help inform the citizens of Alexandria about the realities facing our public schools. 3.) Why did you create this website now? Basically, I got tired of seeing the citizens of Alexandria left in the dark about their school system. For years our public education leaders have hidden behind closed doors and have not faced the accountability they need; and this lack of accountability has gotten us into the dire situation we are in now. The situation is dire because even though we had a historical exodus of educators and administrators, most of whom were award winning, our leaders are still doing the same things. This is creating an environment where Alexandria's educators do not feel valued or respected. Throw in the loyalty penalty for working for ACPS and you can see why our best want to go elsewhere. I feel that if we do not address this situation ACPS will be facing a staffing crisis the likes of which we have never seen, and I felt it was my duty to try and prevent that from happening. This site is my prevention attempt... I know not whether this will prove to be successful, but to not try would be unacceptable to me, our educators, and, most importantly, our students. Happy reading!