Miranda Turner

04/18/2026

Celebrating Arbor Day! Great event, Jamestown Jaguars. Thanks for having me!

02/24/2026

Current county proposal: 1.5 cent tax increase but none shared with APS. These are hard budget times for both boards, but APS has real funding needs:
* We committed to a % increase in teacher comp through collective bargaining that is higher than what either the House or Senate budgets would provide.
* We are offsetting big healthcare premium increases for our staff.
* The state will likely pass a bonus per SOQ position that will cost APS millions if it opts in, which we should do in order to be competitive and fair to our teachers.

We worked hard over the past several years on sustainable budgets based on our share of county revenue. We hope to continue that work to benefit all our students!

02/20/2026

Last night we voted to approve changes to our non traditional programs, including adding new options to meet student need. I know our staff will work hard to make them a success!

Dr. Durán also reported on student progress last night. Check out our second quarterly briefing for more info! This approach to monitoring is new this year and something I’m really proud of. Find process data on central office work for our schools, very solid drops in chronic absenteeism, and other measures of student success and support.https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/sites/57/2026/02/Final-Quarter-2-report-as-of-2_10_26-002-4.pdf

02/13/2026

Happy Valentines party day to those schools that celebrate! I am BEARY glad to be your school board member 🧸

(Also, my youngest forgot her teacher’s gift but i caught her at the end of the block and now feel like mom of the year & a champion sprinter)

02/12/2026

We’re a little over a month away from the school board’s work session on educational technology and devices. As the liaison to this effort, I’ve been privileged to meet with teachers, principals, our Academics Office, and to hear from many parents.

Pls keep feedback coming! Good, bad, middle ground — let us know what you think. Work session is 3/24

02/02/2026

School Board review and engagement efforts around APS proposals for new / changed non-traditional programming are happening now! Reach out with input. We want to hear from you!

Vote scheduled for our 2/19 meeting.

School Board members are giving themselves extra time before making final decisions on rearranging the locations of some non-traditional secondary programs. Rather than being taken up the first week of February, as would be the typical cycle following its Jan. 22 presentation as an information item,...

01/19/2026

Make it a day on, not a day off to honor Dr. King! Thanks to Leadership Center of Arlington and Volunteer Arlington for such an inspiring start to today.

01/19/2026

Wonderful tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. this evening at Wakefield and thrilled to see our own Brian Stockton receive the Justice in Action award! So grateful to have Brian in Arlington Public Schools

01/15/2026

Extended Day During Spring Break!!!!

APS will offer families the opportunity to register for Extended Day during the week of Spring Break. During our pilot program over Winter Break, more than 300 families registered!

Spring Break registration opens on Tue, Jan. 20, at 8 a.m. through Tue, Feb. 3, at noon.

Locations and additional information will be shared when registration opens.

01/05/2026

Happy new year and happy return to school!

There was lots to reflect on at the end of 2025. We bade farewell to my dear colleague Mary for School Board. As I said during my remarks, Mary helped build our School Board into a better-functioning body that conducts robust oversight, including by setting us on a more sustainable budget path during her year as Chair, reinvigorating our audit function, and setting the gold standard for public engagement. We will miss her!

We also voted on the CIP direction at the end of the year. This direction guides the Superintendent and staff in what capital improvements to focus on over the next CIP cycle. There was widespread agreement that TJMS should be a priority, in addition to Swanson and existing major infrastructure projects identified through our Facilities Condition Assessment work. There was less agreement on how, when, and whether to proceed with the planned-for MPSA project, given markedly rising costs and a very large elementary seat surplus that is projected to continue. I continue to be concerned about those issues, but without Board support for consolidating school communities to relocate MPSA into an existing elementary building and redirect tens of millions of construction dollars -- I voted to proceed as planned.

Shifting gears from construction to instruction, in 2025 we took significant steps to advance our core mission to oversee student outcomes. During our summer retreat, the Board decided to adjust the monitoring schedule to align with the strategic plan and to add written quarterly briefings on student data and outcomes. This should broaden and deepen our monitoring function by evaluating progress more frequently than annually. I am committed to pushing us to identify and replicate what works and abandon what doesn't.

This year, I also became Chair of the School Board's audit subcommittee. Our audits are characterized by a genuine commitment to improvement, not blame, and rigorous and ongoing follow-up to ensure lasting change. I'm excited to continue to investigate our systems and practices in order to improve them for our entire community.

Finally, I made some resolutions for the new year! I plan to focus on student outcomes (see my current reading selection!), including ongoing investigation into the science of learning, our devices working group, and budget decisions to align resources with demonstrated success. I also plan to get back to posting more regularly, particularly after our meetings. I hope you'll continue to follow along -- 2026 should be a great year!

10/01/2025

What’s on your mind about devices in APS? We’d love to hear from you!