HOUSE BILL NO. 971 Offered January 11, 2006 Prefiled January 10, 2006 A BILL to authorize T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria to be opened before Labor Day in 2006; sunset. ---------- Patrons-- Ebbin, Englin and Moran; Senators: Saslaw and Ticer ---------- Referred to Committee on Education ----------

Whereas, T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, was opened in 1971 and, at a time of racial turmoil, became famous for the role the Titans football team played in bringing the community together; and

Whereas, T.C. Williams continues to serve a uniquely integrated and united community with a diverse student population having many talents and many needs; and

Whereas, in 2007, 35-year-old T.C. Williams High School will be replaced with a new state-of-the-art building designed as a sustainable structure to be user-friendly for high school reform initiatives that is being constructed on the same property as the existing school; and

Whereas, beginning with demolition of one wing and a parking lot in December 2004, construction of the new T.C. Williams High School is scheduled to be completed in precise phases that accommodate the continuing and safe operation of the present school until the summer of 2007 when the old school will be demolished and final construction, clean-up, and relocation to the new high school will be completed; and

Whereas, § 22.1-79.1 of the Code of Virginia requires local school boards to set the school calendar so that the first day students are required to attend school will be after Labor Day, with waivers authorized by the Board of Education under narrow circumstances that do not address school construction; and

Whereas, a smooth, seamless, and safe relocation of the T.C. Williams students and programs to the new high school by the fall of 2007 will require that the old T.C. Williams High School begin its first day of the 2006-2007 school year prior to Labor Day 2006 in order to close its doors forever by the end of May 2007; now, therefore,

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1.  § 1. Opening of the 2006 school year at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria.

Notwithstanding the provisions of § 22.1-79.1, the School Board of the City of Alexandria may set the 2006-2007 school calendar for the old T.C. Williams High School so that the first day students are required to attend the old T.C. Williams High School for the 2006-2007 school year shall be prior to Labor Day of 2006 and the last day students shall be required to attend the old T.C. Williams High Schools shall be at the end of May 2007. 

In setting its 2006-2007 school calendar for all other Alexandria schools, the School Board of the City of Alexandria shall comply with the provisions of § 22.1-79.1.

2.  That the provisions of this act shall expire on January 1, 2007.