The McLean Community Center’s annual Holiday Art & Crafts Festival is officially virtual this season due to the coronavirus pandemic. The festival will be broadcast live at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 5 and Sunday, Dec. 6.
Admission to the festival is free. However, participants are required to register in advance, according to an MCC press release.
This year’s festival will feature traditional handcrafted works by established and seasoned artisans, alongside innovative exhibits by new artists. According to the release, pottery, glass, jewelry, holiday decorations, mixed media, fashion accessories, wood, fine art, artisanal foods and more will be on display and for sale.
According to the MCC Special Events Manager Catherine Nesbitt, the live show will also provide a behind-the-scenes look at how the participating artists craft their products.
“During our in-person event, we require the artists to be onsite, which allows attendees to meet them, but in some ways, the virtual show allows for an even more intimate experience of how these artists are inspired to create their masterpieces,” Nesbitt said. “In addition, the format will allow attendees to ask the artists questions in real time.”
The Northern Virginia Handcrafters Guild will help provide show management. NVHG is a non-profit community-based organization with a mission to help artists and craftspeople show and sell their work and promote the development and education of arts and crafts in the community, according to the release.
Image via McLean Community Center
COVID-19 is now more widespread in Fairfax County than it was when the pandemic’s first wave hit in the spring.
Reporting 262 new cases just today (Monday), the Fairfax Health District has recorded a total of 31,388 COVID-19 cases since the novel coronavirus first arrived in March. 2,561 people have been hospitalized, and 638 people have died from the disease.
Fairfax County officially surpassed the spring peak on Nov. 24 when it reported 308.3 cases on average over the previous seven days. The highest seven-day average recorded in the spring was 303 cases on May 31.
The weekly average caseload then hit an all-time high of 352.3 cases on Sunday (Nov. 29) before dipping down to a seven-day average of 324.9 cases today, according to Virginia Department of Health data.
Fairfax County also recorded its highest single-day case count of the pandemic this past weekend when it saw 496 new cases on Nov. 28. The previous record was 493 cases on May 25.
However, Fairfax County’s hospitalization and death rates remain well below where they were in the spring.
Currently, Fairfax County is averaging 7.86 hospitalizations over the past seven days, compared to the peak of 35.57 hospitalizations over seven days recorded on May 4. The county is seeing a seven-day average of 1.29 deaths right now, but the seven-day average was 14 deaths on May 4 after there was a single-day record of 31 deaths on May 3.
The surge in COVID-19 cases that Fairfax County is witnessing right now falls in line with the overall trend for Northern Virginia as a region, which recorded its highest seven-day moving average of 815.7 cases on Nov. 29.
By comparison, the pandemic’s spring surge peaked at a seven-day regional moving average of 685.3 cases on May 31.
The continued upward trajectory of COVID-19’s spread in Fairfax County comes after health officials warned that the traveling, intimate family gatherings, and in-person holiday shopping typically associated with Thanksgiving weekend could exacerbate the pandemic.
Given the lag time between when someone is exposed to the coronavirus and when a new case is actually reported, Fairfax County’s current COVID-19 data suggests the worst may still be on the horizon.
Images via CDC on Unsplash; graphs via Virginia Department of Health, Fairfax County Health Department
Nighttime travel on Interstate 66 might require some extra planning this week due to lane closures necessitated by construction on a new Gallows Road Bridge.
Starting tonight (Monday), I-66 East will be reduced to one travel lane approaching Gallows Road from 9:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. The Virginia Department of Transportation says that, between midnight and 4 a.m., drivers should expect periodic stoppages that could last up to 20 minutes.
In addition, the ramp from the Interstate 495 Express Lanes North to I-66 West will be closed from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Traffic will be detoured onto I-66 East, which will lead to Route 7. Once on Leesburg Pike, vehicles will stay to the left, turn left at the traffic signal, and then follow road signs to I-66 West.
The I-495 express lanes ramp and one-lane I-66 East closures will take place every night through Dec. 3.
On Dec. 2 and 3, VDOT will also reduce I-66 West to one travel lane approaching Gallows Road from 9:30 p.m. to 5 a.m.
“Drivers should expect delays if traveling in this area and are encouraged to use alternate routes,” VDOT says.
Overnight lane closures have been a recurring sight around Gallows Road since mid-November, when VDOT started reconstructing the bridge over I-66 for its Transform 66 Outside the Beltway project, which will add express lanes along 22.5 miles of road from I-495 in Vienna to Gainesville.
According to VDOT, the bridge is being lengthened, widened, raised, and shifted east to align with the new I-66 Express Lanes while making room for future Gallows Road improvements.
The new bridge will also include a five-foot bike lane in both directions, a seven-foot-wide sidewalk on the northbound side of the road, and improved pedestrian and bicycle facilities tied to the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro Station.
The new bridge is being constructed in two phases with an expected completion date of early 2021.
COVID-19 Results in More Subdued Black Friday — “It’s definitely not as busy as last year,” said Todd Putt, a spokesman for Tysons Corner Center in Virginia, one of the country’s busiest shopping malls. “A lot of sales have already been going on for a while so people don’t feel the same pressure to come out and shop on Black Friday.” [The Washington Post]
McLean High School Students Put on Virtual Concerts — “Students formed McLean Youth Harmony Club to put together virtual concerts to send to local hospitals, nursing and retirement homes.” [LocalDVM]
Founders Row Loses Prospective Movie Theater — “The Studio Movie Grill that promised to bring multiple movie theater screens to the project has declared bankruptcy and won’t be filling its much-anticipated role in the center of the Falls Church commercial district.” [Falls Church News-Press]
A flood warning is in effect until noon today (Monday) for central Fairfax County, including Tysons, Vienna, Dunn Loring, and Merrifield.
As of 8:43 a.m., over an inch of rain has fallen in the county since late last night, according to the National Weather Service.
Old Courthouse Road has been closed at Besley Road in Vienna due to high water from Wolftrap Creek, and drivers should expect delays. The NWS says that Beulah Road at Browns Mill Road by Wolftrap Creek could also be prone to flooding.
“Turn around, don’t drown when encountering flooded roads,” the NWS says. “Most flood deaths occur in vehicles.”
Here is more from the NWS flood warning alert:
…FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL NOON EST TODAY FOR CENTRAL
FAIRFAX COUNTY…At 843 AM EST, Over an inch of rain fell in central Fairfax County
late last night and early this morning. This resulted in Old
Courthouse Road in the area of Wolf Trap being closed. Stream gauges
in the area appeared to have crested and only minor additional
rainfall is expected through the remainder of this morning.
Santa will once again grace Falls Church City with his presence this December, but he will have a lighter sleigh in tow.
The City of Falls Church Volunteer Fire Department announced on Nov. 19 that its Santamobile – a fire truck festooned with colorful string lights and other decorations – will not distribute candy canes and safety literature when it tours the area this year due to the health risks presented by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Due to the current pandemic, our event coordinators have decided that although we will still have Santamobile this year, it will be modified to avoid in-person interaction, in order to protect the safety of our staff and the public,” the FCVFD said.
As in previous years, the Santamobile will first set out on Dec. 15 with stops in each of the city’s neighborhoods over the next four nights before venturing into neighboring Fairfax and Arlington counties. Each night will go from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., and the last day of the event will be Dec. 23.
Here is the Santamobile’s current schedule for its tour through Falls Church City:
- Dec. 15: South of W. Broad Street in the St. James Cemetery and Virginia Forest neighborhoods to Seaton Lane and S. Oak Street south of the Tripps Run bridge
- Dec. 16: North of W. Broad Street, including Little Falls Street
- Dec. 17: South of W. Broad Street from the Tyler Gardens and Virginia Forest neighborhoods south of Seaton Lane as well as streets north of the Tripps Run bridge
- Dec. 18: The Little Falls neighborhood and streets east of Washington Street, including the Madison Park and Whittier Park neighborhoods
- Dec. 19: Broadmont neighborhood and streets on the north side of Hillwood east of Cherry Street
A map of the vehicle’s planned routes can be found on the Falls Church Volunteer Fire Department’s website at fallschurchfire.org/santamobile.
“Please note that routes are subject to change based on road conditions including parking, traffic, and construction,” the FCVFD says.
Any changes to the Santamobile schedule will be posted to the FCVFD Facebook page, which will have a link to a SantaTracker. The department says questions about the Santamobile should be directed to [email protected], not its fire station.
The FCVFD says that the Santamobile will not be able to respond to requests for private drive-by visits.
In addition to bringing holiday cheer to families around the city, the annual Santamobile serves the function of raising awareness about fire safety, according to the FCVFD.
This year, the department’s public education team is asking community members to fill out an online survey about what safety presentations might be most useful to them. The survey can be found on the FCVFD website at fallschurchfire.org/public-education-survey.
Photo courtesy City of Falls Church
The Women’s Center in Vienna will be able to continue providing critical mental health services for the foreseeable future, thanks to a $50,000 donation from Major League Baseball.
Located on Park Street with a second facility in Washington, D.C., the nonprofit announced today (Wednesday) that it is one of 11 organizations to receive a Healthy Relationships Community Grant from MLB and the MLB Players Association as part of a philanthropic initiative that the professional sports league and players’ union launched at the beginning of 2020.
“We are very grateful to be partnering with MLB and MLBPA for the first time, especially during such a tumultuous time,” The Women’s Center CEO and Executive Director Rachna Singal Krishnan said.
Founded in 1974, The Women’s Center offers mental health counseling, supports for domestic violence and sexual assault survivors, clinical training, and education and career services to over 1,600 low-income, uninsured people in the D.C. metropolitan region annually.
On its website, The Center says it relies on philanthropic support in order to provide subsidized and free services to the community. Its mental health services are also partly funded by Fairfax County, and it is a co-founder and member of the Fairfax County Domestic Violence Action Center.
The MLB and MLBPA grant will help The Center make up for revenue lost from other funding areas, Singal Krishnan says.
“This $50,000 award has made it possible for us to continue to operate at full capacity this year and provide life-saving services to people who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic,” The Women’s Center communications specialist Rebecca Ballinger said.
MLB and the players’ association started the Healthy Relationships Community Grants initiative “to address positive relationship health” with a focus on nonprofit programs that address mental health resiliency among vulnerable populations, youth relationship skills, and domestic violence, according to MLB.
For the initiative, MLB and MLBPA have committed to allocating $3 million to U.S. nonprofits and global non-governmental organizations across 2020 and 2021. Grants are given out on a quarterly cycle with a maximum award of $50,000.
So far, the initiative has distributed a total of $1.5 million to 32 organizations around the U.S., according to a press release from The Women’s Center.
The 11 grant recipients for the third quarter of 2020 also includes the Oakton-based Northern Virginia Family Service, which provides assistance with basic needs like housing, food, and healthcare. NVFS specifically received the grant for its multicultural mental health services.
Photo via Google Maps
Fairfax County Public Schools may have to consider extending the school year into the summer of 2021 to help students who have fallen behind while trying to learn virtually this year.
FCPS Assistant Superintendent of Finance Leigh Burden raised the possibility during a joint Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Fairfax County School Board meeting on Tuesday (Nov. 24) that focused on projections for the county and school system’s Fiscal Year 2022 budgets.
While some have managed to adapt to online education, a report released by FCPS this week confirmed fears that many students have struggled to learn during a year of uncertainty and disruptions caused by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has largely kept school doors closed since March.
Conducted by the FCPS Office of Research and Strategic Improvement, the study found that failing grades increased by 83% from the first quarter of 2019-20 to the first quarter of the 2020-21 school year, making up 11% of all marks given to students since the year started on Sept. 8.
The uptick in “F” grades was especially pronounced for students with disabilities, who saw an 111% increase, and English-language learners, who saw a 106% increase.
“All groups showed increases in the percentage of F marks received during Q1 of the current year as compared to the prior year, indicating that more students were failing courses during the (primarily) virtual instruction period than had occurred when instruction was delivered in-person,” ORSI said in its report.
Members of both the school board and the Board of Supervisors expressed support for the idea of adding a fifth quarter to this school year to make up for lost learning, but given the current surge in COVID-19 cases in Fairfax County, exactly when FCPS will be able to provide in-person instruction to all students again is difficult to predict.
Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck says he will be advocating for an extended school year for in-person learning.
“I think there’s no other way to make up for what our students have lost over the past year,” Storck said. “…We need that time to help them recover their learning, and the educational needs are unmet, particularly of our neediest students. That student-teacher bond, we need to help reaffirm and build that back.”
Karen Corbett Sanders, who represents the Mount Vernon District on the school board, agreed that this option should be discussed now so the costs can be taken into account as the county prepares its budget for the next fiscal year.
“We cannot continue to surprise our community with new initiatives on how we’re addressing this pandemic. It would be better for us to upfront address this,” Corbett Sanders said.
FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand is scheduled to release a proposed FY 2022 budget on Jan. 7, though the county and school board will not adopt final budgets until May.
The possibility of a summer school expansion is among several potential expenses not incorporated in the fiscal forecast presented on Tuesday.
Other unfunded expenditures on the FCPS side include $5 million for 50 additional English Learner teachers, $3.5 million to add technology support specialist positions at 51 elementary schools, and $2.8 million to cover the final year of a three-year plan to raise instructional assistant salaries.
Several school board members emphasized that mental health services, employee compensation, improvements in technology access, and supports for students with disabilities and English-language learners should be priorities for funding.
“Supporting our children with learning losses due to COVID-19 and looking at creative ways to measure what those losses are and creative ways to alleviate that is going to take staff time and resources,” Dranesville District School Board Member Elaine Tholen said. “So, we need to pay attention to that.”
Photo via Fairfax County government
About 250 more people are using Fairfax County’s emergency homelessness services this November over last November, and there are enough beds for just over half of them.
That number could increase as the federal ban on evictions draws nearer.
“As we look at potential rising eviction numbers, we need to be aware of the capacity for the homelessness system,” Fairfax County Health, Housing and Human Services Chief Strategist Dean Klein told the Board of Supervisors during a Health and Human Services committee meeting on Tuesday (Nov. 24).
With COVID-19 cases rising, Fairfax County is dealing with increasing numbers of people experiencing homelessness as well as the threat of rising eviction rates. Klein says rent assistance and partnerships with landlords will be critical for preventing evictions and keeping people in homes this winter.
“Our ongoing efforts to reach out to vulnerable populations is increasingly critical,” he said.
One step Fairfax County has taken is to form an eviction prevention task force with representatives from various county agencies, the county sheriff’s office, and the nonprofit law firm Legal Services of Northern Virginia.
Klein says he hopes to receive financial support from the Board of Supervisors next month. His staff anticipates spending at the same level as it is right now, which is about $600,000 a week.
Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik said a board matter is in the works that would “give additional local support for our continuation of basic needs, which we know continues to be a concern for us.”
Although funding comes from a number of sources, some are set to run dry soon, adding to the sense of urgency.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency stepped in this year to pay for hotel rooms so that people experiencing homelessness could have a place to sleep safely during the pandemic. However, it is unclear how long FEMA will continue to provide funding, Klein says.
Fairfax County Office to Prevent and End Homelessness Deputy Director Tom Barnett said the FEMA commitments are on a month-to-month basis and will last through the middle of December.
“We will continue to request extensions every month as they will support most of these expenses,” he said. Read More
Fairfax County Public Schools will host a community meeting to discuss a potential boundary adjustment for McLean High School at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 7, Dranesville District School Board Representative Elaine Tholen said in a newsletter sent out on Tuesday (Nov. 24).
The proposed boundary adjustment is intended to address overcrowding at McLean High School, which currently has 2,292 students in a building designed for 1,993 students, according to FCPS.
With enrollment at McLean High projected to increase over the next five years, FCPS has been exploring the possibility of moving the school’s boundary to instead send some students to Langley High School, which increased its capacity to 2,370 students after being renovated in 2018.
As of this October, Langley High School has 2,004 enrolled students.
Plans to adjust McLean High’s boundaries have been in the works since at least early 2019. FCPS even held two boundary scope community meetings last December, but the process was put on hold as the Fairfax County School Board’s focus shifted to challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tholen says FCPS staff will use the upcoming community meeting to present information and options for the boundary adjustment to community members, who will then give feedback that will be shared with the school board.
Public input from the previous meetings convinced the school board to expand the study’s scope to include the boundaries for Longfellow Middle School and Cooper Middle School as well as McLean and Langley High, according to Tholen.
“If we move forward with a boundary adjustment, the plan will be for students to move from their elementary school to Cooper and then to Langley, or to Longfellow and then to McLean,” Tholen said.
In the meantime, FCPS hopes to “increase the comfort and efficiency of educational spaces” at McLean High School by replacing trailers on the school’s tennis courts with a modular unit that has 12 classrooms and restroom facilities.
Tholen says the unit has been placed at the school and will be ready for use in late December, though whether any students will be allowed to use it at that point remains to be seen.
FCPS staff has also been working with staff from Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust’s office, Providence District staff, and members of the McLean Citizens Association “to enhance data analysis for Tyson’s area development and the impact on schools.”
“We are fortunate to have John Foust as a member of that work group,” Tholen said. “I will be working with these groups to look at our next steps for further capacity work at McLean High School and the surrounding areas.”
Photo via McLean High School PTSA
