What You Need to Know for a Successful Start to the 2018-19 School Year

- News and Announcements

Connect with ACPS

  • Subscribe to ACPS Express – the parent and community newsletter that goes out weekly – and other school newsletters that may be of interest. As a staff member, you will automatically receive ACPS Insider on a Monday at 5 a.m. However, we suggest you may wish to subscribe to your school and/or the division newsletter, ACPS Express too!

  • Engage with us on social media:
  • Tune in to ACPS-TV on cable channel 71 in the City of Alexandria or view ACPS-TV online 24/7 on the ACPS website to catch updates. You can also watch School Board meetings live!

Emergency Communications

Be sure to review ACPS emergency communications procedures so that you’re informed in case of a weather event or emergency situation. We do not have the ability to send text notifications to staff. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you sign up for the city’s eNews alerts for ACPS weather emergency notifications (sent out by our ACPS team) or sign up for the ACPS app.
In the event of an emergency, please remember that as a staff member you should not create your own emergency posts or messaging. You are free, however, to retweet/repost any message that has originated with ACPS and/or the Office of Communications.

Update Your Email Signature

Whether you are new to ACPS or a long-time employee, the start of the school year is a great time to update your email signature to ensure consistent usage division-wide.

Your email signature should include:
  • Your full name
  • Department and/or role
  • Location and address (ACPS Central Office, school or other location)
  • Phone number(s)
  • Every Student Succeeds Logo (follow these directions to add in Zimbra)

ACPS Lanyards

laynard strapsHas your lanyard seen its better days? Don’t have an ACPS 2020 lanyard?

We encourage all ACPS employees to wear our lanyards to help reinforce our commitment to ACPS 2020 Every Student Succeeds. Get the full scoop on why it’s important to wear your lanyard.

If you need one, please stop by the sixth floor at Central Office to request one for yourself and for others on your team. We can also send some to your location upon request. Just email news@acps.k12.va.us.

ACPS Social Media Usage

We’re all ambassadors for ACPS and we encourage you to help in spreading the good word about our schools to friends, family members, neighbors, community members, and through your social media channels. When sharing about ACPS on social media, be sure you are up-to-date on the ACPS social media policies and regulations: GAC – Employee Use of Social Media,  GAC-R – ACPS Social Media Regulations.

Get a primer on getting started on social media with ACPS.

Parent Contact Information Collection Campaign

We also want to make you aware of a campaign to collect contact information from our families. This will be rolled out as students head back to school.

A top priority for ACPS is ensuring that we have critical contact information — a current cell phone number and email address, at a minimum — in PowerSchool for each and every student in our school division.

There will be efforts on the first day of school, at open houses and at back-to-school nights to share the importance of having current and accurate contact information in PowerSchool and to encourage parents to return the Student Information Update Form (PDF) from the Welcome Packet to their school as soon as possible in the new school year.

You’ll also see posters in school lobbies and staff wearing buttons to help raise awareness. If you’re a teacher or administrator, we appreciate your support in encouraging students to get their forms completed and returned to ACPS as soon as possible. Please keep this in mind as you interact with students and greet families, and draft your teacher and school newsletters and engage on your social media channels. Thank you in advance!

We hope you are as excited as we are to launch the new school year!