Melanie Kay-Wyatt, the Superintendent of the Alexandria City Public Schools, has a lot on her mind.
Kay-Wyatt, a parent of two adult children, joined ACPS in 2021. She became ACPS’ Superintendent in July 2023.
Kay-Wyatt described the path that took her from the position of ACPS’ Chief of Human Resources to Superintendent. “We’re seeing it [Human Resources experience as a precursor to becoming a superintendent] more now than probably in previous years when the role of the Superintendent was different,” she said. “I think every experience you have in life prepares you for what’s coming next.”
“I have had many roles,” Kay-Wyatt said. She said her experience in Human Resources prepared her for managing personnel and staffing, but, “Probably what I use the most is being a school-level administrator because I always wanted to stay really connected to the schools. That lens helps you to operate and make sure that students are managed and receive the services that they need.”
Kay-Wyatt has worked in the Alexandria, Spotsylvania County, and Fredericksburg City school systems, but she resists comparing them. “They are very different communities, they [the schools] are serving very different populations,” she said. For example, according to Kay-Wyatt, ACPS has the third highest percentage of English language learners of any school division in Virginia.
There is no comparison, and no one should ever compare their district or division to another, because they are not the same…the people in the community have different experiences, and that’s what you have to make sure you lean in to.
“We all serve the same purpose of wanting the best for our children,” Kay-Wyatt said. “We see a lot of our population as transient, so the experience is changing, the perspective is changing. I think what we need to do is to learn the community at the time that we are making a decision, or being asked a question.”
Referring to the effects of the federal government shutdown, “We are always willing to help, but what do those services look like, because they are very different now than they were last year.”
Kay-Wyatt joined ACPS in 2021 as students were returning to the schools, so she was not part of ACPS’ pandemic-driven implementation of online learning which she describes as “not for everyone.”
On the use of artificial intelligence in the schools, she said, “It’s just another resource; it doesn’t replace quality education. It doesn’t replace sitting down over an essay.”
She said, “Nothing can replace a high quality teacher…someone has to provide you that experience and connect you to the school itself, and what better person than a teacher?”
Kay-Wyatt described her decision-making style as expansive, describing the decision to close schools in inclement weather as an example. “I think about the student driver who has less experience in driving” in bad weather, she said. “I have to think about every road and every street and I work closely with the City Manager—we have a great relationship—in trying to make good decisions about the safety of our staff, and many of our staff live outside the city.”
“I have to think holistically about every school, and the impact my one decision is going to have,” she said. “Every time I make a decision I think about our staff and our students.”
The last two executive principals at Alexandria City High School resigned to become high school principals at Wakefield High School and Washington-Liberty High School in Arlington County. Kay-Wyatt admired them.
“I would ask anyone in this city to walk in their shoes for a day—that is a very large high school. It is like managing a school division in itself…and it is hard to turn off when you care about the work. It can be exhausting,” she said.
Kay-Wyatt has announced that an external consultant had been retained to assess the ACHS executive principal position and leadership structure with the goal of, as she said at the meeting, “aligning the leadership model with our strategic priorities.”
Kay-Wyatt said, “Turnover and change is a normal process, especially for people who select [ACPS] for work.”
“In an area like this, we do see teachers who go between divisions,” she said. “It’s just the nature of the work. Turnover and change is okay. Families leave for personal reasons, [especially] military families, so some of that is just a natural way of life.”
As to superintendent turnover, Kay-Wyatt said, “Traditionally, if you think back, it used to be that superintendents were community members that went through the system, they lived there, their kids were there—you don’t see that [now.] You do see movement, across the nation.” She said that Millennials and recent generations “are about change” in employment.
Kay-Wyatt described the challenges of finding space to build new schools in Alexandria. For example, the design of Minnie Howard involved a very different concept than the design of the King Street campus. She said that the new ACHS Minnie Howard Campus is, “very open, very airy. The design lends itself to having collaborative spaces.”
Kay-Wyatt’s priorities are school capacity, improved instruction, making sense of the Virginia Department of Education’s initiatives, and trying to build instructional leaders to support the ACPS staff.
Kay-Wyatt has told the School Board that, “We need to get out of operational mode,” meaning that the pandemic and other factors demanded attention to how the schools operate. Kay-Wyatt said that the emphasis needs to shift to instruction.
Kay-Wyatt said that the way the Department of Education has rolled out programs has caused concerns. Kay-Wyatt believes that the delayed release of a new accountability system has placed a heavy weight on classroom teachers. “We’re building the plane as we’re flying it,” she said. “That doesn’t work for educators.”
“I’m all for accountability, just like every other superintendent,” she said.
“If everyone doesn’t own the data of the school, then that’s a challenge. As a science teacher, you have to own the reading, you have got to own it all.”
Kay-Wyatt said, “There are students who don’t test well. It is one snapshot at a moment in time. And, then, if you look at the seniors and how competitive and successful they are, those previous year SOL [scores] do not show the growth, the achievement of the school division.”
Kay-Wyatt’s message to Alexandrians is, “We continue to build culture, and I need them to help me build culture. Putting a positive [outlook] out there also helps build culture. We know we have challenges, we are not saying we are 100% perfect—we are always about continuous improvement,” she said.
Kay-Wyatt sees “the citizens of Alexandria, the parents, the alumni, in helping us build this culture” as recruiters for ACPS. She pointed to improved employee retention and a decline to “a handful of vacancies” as evidence of a better ACPS culture.
“I’m okay with the hard questions, I’m okay if we don’t agree,” Kay-Wyatt said. “But, respect that we are making the best decisions based on the information that we have and that we are going to care for your student and for the division as a whole.”
I’m glad you had an interview with her. But it would be nice to see her answer some hard questions about mismanagement of central office, why we need a consultant to hire a high school principal, not exactly a unique job, why there has been so much turnover (and not because Millenials, blah blah), and continued poor performance among our most vulnerable students. Not to mention the mess that is the ACPS proposed budget, which refuses to cut a bloated central office staff, and yet does not get student facing positions funded.