ACPS to Consolidate Central Office Staff With Move to Braddock Place

Alexandria City Public Schools will consolidate its central office and relocate to 1340 Braddock Place in June 2014.

The Alexandria City School Board signed off on the move at a meeting last week, authorizing Acting Superintendent Margaret Walsh to execute a 15-year lease on the property.

ACPS will pay Washington Real Estate Investment Trust $1.94 million annually in rent for the space. WRIT purchased the entire Braddock Place complex for $101 million in 2011.

ACPS currently has its 220 Central Office employees spread out in three locations throughout the city—2000 N. Beauregard St., a section of Burke Branch Library on Seminary Road and on the third floor of George Washington Middle School.

In a memo to the board, ACPS Educational Facilities Director Bill Finn said the school system’s use of Burke Library “is not a permanent solution as the library could utilize the space currently utilized by ACPS for storage and programmatic support for the library.”

Finn noted that the third floor of George Washington will be needed for school use as enrollments rise.

“This important move will help immensely with the progress of the school division in centralizing staff and enhancing efficiencies and effectiveness throughout our schools,” Walsh said in a statement.

Schools staff is working with the city to obtain zoning approvals to allow the adult education program and T.C. Williams High School Satellite Campus to relocate to Braddock Place as well.

The T.C. Satellite Campus is currently located at Landmark Mall, which is slated for redevelopment into an outdoor, mixed-use town center. Demolition is expected to begin in spring 2014.

There is a plaque at Braddock Place recognizing the nearby former site of Parker-Gray High School, Alexandria's black high school during segregation. Parker-Gray was demolished in the 1980s.