T.C. Seniors Lose Their “Last Dance” Hunter Langley Over the past eight months, nothing but uncertainty and disappointment has arisen from the coronavirus pandemic. Perhaps the biggest disappointment for a lot of seniors was the announcement from the athletic department that the school would not be participating in the winter sports season. The announcement comes at the heels of a letter written by the Alexandria Health Director (AHD) Stephen Hearing where he stated that the “AHD does not recommend conducting/participating in sports and activities in which there is close proximity to athletes.” The Virginia High School League (VHSL) the organization in charge of high school athletics has not yet canceled…
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Titan on the Rise: T.C. Senior Mia Humphrey Releases Debut EP
Titan senior Mia Humphrey is not just a singer; she is a storyteller, and her Project Red Notebook EP released November 14th is not just a collection of songs; it is a collection of journal entries. Eighteen minutes and 59 seconds of deeply personal, relatable accounts of love, loss, bliss, and remembrance.
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8 Fun Facts You May Not Have Known About Minnie Howard
Though there has been a load of coverage about the story behind T.C. Williams and the segregationist superintendent it is named after, there has been little coverage of Minnie Howard, the woman who the freshman campus of T.C. Williams is named after. So who was Minnie Howard, and why is she so important to Alexandria’s history?
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Twenty Years in Old Town
Following a wave of small business closures in Alexandria throughout the coronavirus pandemic, the beloved secondhand bookstore, Book Bank, closed its doors for good. Book Bank joins the list of small businesses that permanently closed during this time, including Aftertime Comics, The Christmas Attic, Blüprint Chocolatiers, and Nectar Coffee and Wine Bistro, among other independently-owned establishments in Old Town and Del Ray.
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Proposed Taylor Run Restoration Ignites Angered Opposition
Critics of the project are demanding the city reevalute the effects of the project before it is implemented. Mena Spencer, Nikki Harris, Hunter Langley Ever since Alexandria announced a planned restoration to Taylor Run Park earlier this year, residents have been quick to voice their opinions on the matter. “Save Taylor Run” signs have popped up on virtually every other street in the areas nearby, and Alexandria residents have assembled opposition to the implementation of the current plan. The proposed Taylor Run Restoration, which is set to be implemented around the fall of next year and will take about a year to complete, would raise the stream bed that sits…
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Where Do We Go From Here?
There is an end in sight to Virtual Plus+ learning for all Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) students, unfortunately, it appears to be at the end of a very long tunnel. Through a series of meetings with the School Board, ACPS recently proposed their plan to return to in-person learning starting as early as November. However, the plan to return does not include every grade in ACPS at the beginning.
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New TC Teachers Seeing ‘the Light in the Challenges’
Reagan Bradshaw It wasn’t until Kellie Yencer’s thirty first year of teaching that she met her greatest challenge as an educator: teaching virtually during a pandemic. Yencer, hired at the beginning of the 2020 school year, is a Spanish II and III teacher that should be teaching at the Minnie Howard Campus. Instead, she finds herself teaching classes from her home. Yencer isn’t alone. There are about two dozen new T.C. teachers that are adjusting to a new school and a new world, teaching in the virtual environment. One new teacher Cecelia Baggot has not even been inside her classroom. Baggot, an Earth Science teacher, has taken it in stride…
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To Act or Not to Act: T. C. Williams’ Theater Department During the Pandemic
There’s nothing quite like going to see a live theater production. Entering the grand venue, the cushioned seats slowly filling with eager viewers. The darkening of the lights, the pull of the curtain. The opening note reverberating through the auditorium as the live tableau begins on stage.
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ACPS Executive Chef Resigns, Shares Food for Thought
In the fall of 2019, Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) announced the hiring of Isaiah Ruffin, the first-ever executive chef in the school district. From the beginning of his employment with ACPS, Ruffin made it clear that he was not content with the standard quality level of cafeteria food.
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A Rundown of the First Principal’s Chat of the Year
“We are in the public engagement part of our process here,” said Principal Peter Balas who recently hosted his first Principal’s Chat of the school year over Zoom. Balas was referring to The Identity Project, whose members work to host engagement sessions about the renaming of T.C. Williams High School and Matthew Maury Elementary School.