The newly installed School Board has an opportunity to begin its term by doing the right thing.
The old Minnie Howard building has been demolished. The grading and other site work for the new athletic fields west of the new school has begun. The new Board can create a lasting and fitting memorial to former Alexandria Mayor Kerry Donley by naming the athletic fields at Alexandria City High School’s Minnie Howard Campus in his honor.
A petition bearing more than 450 signatures urging that the new Minnie Howard fields be named after Donley was submitted in 2024. Last month, the outgoing Board directed Superintendent Melanie Kay-Wyatt, Ed.D. to begin a public engagement process for the naming of Minnie Howard’s fields.
Donley, a City Councilor from 1988 to 1996, Vice Mayor from 1994 to 1996 and 2009 to 2012, and Mayor from 1996 to 2003, died tragically in July 2022 of a heart attack at 66. Donley’s community service involved dedicated work for numerous charitable organizations including Senior Services, Carpenter’s Shelter, the Alexandria United Way, and the Alexandria Campaign on Adolescent Pregnancy.
Donley, more than any political leader in Alexandria’s history, was familiar with athletic competitions at Minnie Howard. He faithfully watched his daughters compete in soccer and field hockey for the then-T.C. Williams High School on the Minnie Howard fields. I heard Donley confidently explain field hockey’s arcane rules, which are nothing like ice hockey’s rules, to befuddled parents and others at his daughters’ games.
Donley, an avid sportsman, was a regular attendee at T.C. Williams basketball games, an environment in which he had many friends. He took a three-year timeout from his banking career to serve a successful stint as the Alexandria City Public Schools Athletic Director.
Political scientists classify Alexandria as having a “weak mayor” system of local government, meaning that the mayor heads the city’s policy-making body, the City Council, while executive and managerial authority is vested primarily in a professional City Manager and his or her appointees.
The city also seems to have an “omnipresent mayor” system: The mayor is expected to be everywhere, all the time. Donley came as close to anyone to fulfilling this expectation by being relentlessly present in public.
As Mayor in the late 1990’s, Donley presciently said that Alexandria was, “…entering an era of bricks and mortar.” He was proven correct around 2002 when City Council-School Board discussions about a proposed $38 million HVAC retrofit to the mid-1960’s T.C. Williams High School building shifted suddenly and dramatically to planning for the largest public works project to that point in the city’s history, a new high school building.
ACHS’ King Street Campus opened in the fall of 2007 to criticism from some Alexandrians who said that it was too large or “overbuilt,” a concern that was eliminated by surging enrollments in the following years.
Donley was a steadfast supporter of Alexandria’s public schools, often describing himself as a “satisfied customer.” He had an upbeat sense of humor and a glad handing political style that could obscure the seriousness of his public service in Alexandria.
He was devoted to his family and his city, and never more so than when he was at the Minnie Howard athletic fields cheering on his daughters and their Titan teammates.
The new School Board should name the new Minnie Howard fields in his honor.
The writer is a former lawyer, member of the Alexandria School Board from 1997 to 2006, and English teacher from 2007 to 2021 at T.C. Williams High School, now Alexandria City High School. He can be reached at aboutalexandria@gmail.com and free subscriptions to his newsletter are available at https://aboutalexandria.substack.com.
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Yes of course we should.
A lovely tribute to a distinguished member of our community.