Fairfax County’s planning staff recommends that the Arizona College of Nursing’s proposed expansion into Fairview Park be approved.
Staff says in a report released on Jan. 14 that it does not anticipate there to be significant impacts from the addition of a nursing school to an eight-story office building at 3130 Fairview Park Drive.
“The proposed nursing school will not significantly alter the existing office use or transportation conditions to and from the site,” the report said. “Therefore, staff is in support of this application and all issues have been resolved.”
Tysons Reporter first reported in August that the Phoenix-based Eduvision, Inc. is looking to expand its Arizona College of Nursing into Virginia by turning offices in the Fairview Park development into seven classrooms. If approved, this would be the first Virginia location for the nursing college, which currently has 10 campuses in Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Florida, and Utah.
Eduvision’s proposal requires Fairfax County to approve a college/university use on one floor of the office building in question, which occupies 6.29 acres in a mixed-use development located at the southeastern intersection of I-495 and Route 50 (Arlington Boulevard).
The proposed school would not involve new construction to the existing building or three-floor parking garage, and it would not alter the site’s open space, according to the application.
The county staff report states that allowing a college/university as a secondary use would be consistent with the county’s comprehensive plan and contribute “to the long-term vision of the Merrifield Suburban Center.”
While the college is expected to follow roughly the same operating hours as an office, Fairfax County staff estimate that a school would generate an additional 200 trips per day compared to a one-floor office.
“Staff believes that these trips can be accommodated by the surrounding transportation network,” the report said.
The Fairview Park building is approximately four miles south of the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station.
As part of the project, Eduvision has committed to providing space to accommodate the future construction of a pedestrian and bike bridge that would cross I-495 to connect Fairview Park with the Inova Fairfax Hospital campus, according to the report.
The Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan and Bicycle Master Plan both recommend having a publicly accessible, multiuse bridge across I-495, and the site at 3130 Fairview Park Drive had been identified as a possible landing location.
Eduvision has also agreed to improve curb cuts on the site for accessibility and install at least five bike racks “in close proximity to the entrances of the building and the parking garage,” the report says.
The Fairfax County Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on the proposal at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 27.
Image via Google Maps
Virginia Issues New Guidance to Support Schools Reopening — “A school division’s capacity to successfully implement mitigation strategies AND local community disease data should be factored into school operations plans…As local school and health leaders evaluate and adjust instructional offerings in 2021, they must carefully balance the risks associated with operating during a pandemic and the long-term effects of students not attending school in person.” [Virginia Department of Education]
Vienna Planning Commission Kicks Off Comprehensive Plan Review — Virginia law requires localities to review their comprehensive plan every five years. Planning commissioners don’t expect this new review to be as extensive as the Town of Vienna’s last update in 2016, but some sections, such as the chapter dealing with economic development, could be in need of revision. [Town of Vienna]
Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office Starts COVID-19 Vaccinations — “Today was the day! We are so very grateful to get the COVID-19 vaccine. @VDHgov @fairfaxhealth #FairfaxStrong” [Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office/Twitter]
Staff Photo by Jay Westcott
The Fairfax County School Board will hold a virtual public hearing at 7 p.m. today (Thursday) on the proposed fiscal year 2022-2026 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for Fairfax County Public Schools.
Released on Dec. 17, the proposed CIP – which sets short-term priorities for school renovations, capacity enhancements, and other infrastructure projects – remains largely the same as last year’s plan, as the uncertainty resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic made FCPS officials wary of making any significant new commitments.
“It is a daunting time,” FCPS Assistant Superintendent for Facilities and Transportation Services Jeff Platenberg said. “…We don’t want to do anything that’ll impact our facilities or our staffing, especially with the inoculation coming, the vaccines, and then, next year, [we want to] put ourselves in a position to get back to whatever the new normal might be.”
Because students have mostly been learning virtually, FCPS staff were unable to include data on the capacity utilization of individual facilities for this school year in the CIP. Fluctuating attendance also precluded staff from making five-year projections for future student enrollment.
According to a presentation that Platenberg gave to the school board on Tuesday (Jan. 5), FCPS shed 8,338 students between the 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 school years. The losses predominately came at the elementary school level, which saw a drop in membership of 7,729 students.
Because FCPS is not adding any new projects with the proposed CIP, the school system will be able to focus on the many needs that it has already identified, Platenberg says.
For the Tysons area, the CIP again proposes building an elementary school to relieve crowding around the Silver Line Metro. About $2 million from a school bond approved by voters in 2019 have been allocated to the project for planning, but the $37.5 million that FCPS estimates will be needed for construction is not yet funded. Read More
Fairfax County Public Schools students will not start returning to in-person learning next week as planned.
After getting an update on local COVID-19 trends last night (Tuesday), the Fairfax County School Board gave its support to FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand’s suggestion that the school system delay bringing students back into buildings until February at the earliest.
“We can take some of the feedback today…and take a pause right now and come back with some more information about vaccinations and a revised timeline with input from our principals and our teachers,” Brabrand said.
All students are currently learning virtually after a two-week winter break, but FCPS had hoped to restart in-person instruction for some students in special education and career and technical programs on Jan. 12.
Other students were scheduled to follow in phases over the next month, with the last group of middle and high school students starting hybrid in-person learning on Feb. 9.
However, with COVID-19 surging in Fairfax County and vaccines not yet rolling out to school employees, school board members, principals, and teachers’ unions expressed concern that it would be unsafe for both students and workers to restart in-person learning.
Virginia Department of Health data shows that Fairfax County has exceeded multiple thresholds established by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for determining the risk of COVID-19 transmission in schools.
As of today, the county is averaging 520.6 new cases per 100,000 people over the past 14 days, and the 14-day testing positivity rate is at 13%. The number of new cases per 100,000 people in the past week is up 26.2% compared with the previous week.
In addition, FCPS has recorded 649 COVID-19 cases among employees, students, and visitors since Sept. 8. Brabrand told the school board that there have been 20 outbreaks in school facilities, even though only 11,810 students and staff have participated in in-person instruction this school year.
The Fairfax County Federation of Teachers, which represents FCPS educators and staff, has pointed to those case rates as evidence that the school system has not adequately implemented mitigation measures like social distancing and face masks that would reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
“We are deeply concerned that FCPS is rushing to reopen schools while COVID-19 cases are surging like never before,” FCFT President Tina Williams said in a statement issued prior to last night’s school board meeting. “We all want nothing more than for students and staff to return to school for face-to-face instruction, but right now, it just is not safe.”
Brabrand told the school board that he will bring a presentation reevaluating how FCPS should proceed with its Return to School plan on Feb. 2.
Fairfax County Public Schools could start expanding in-person learning to more students again in January.
Under a draft timeline that FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand presented to the county school board last night (Thursday), all students will learn virtually for the first week after winter break, which lasts from Dec. 21 through Jan. 3.
Students who opt for hybrid in-person/virtual learning would then begin returning to school buildings on Jan. 12, starting with five cohorts that encompass pre-K and kindergarten students, as well as students in special education, English learners, and other specialized programs.
Elementary school students will be phased in, two grades at a time, between Jan. 19 and Feb. 2. Middle and high school students have been split in two groups, with seventh, ninth, and 12th graders returning on Jan. 26, and eighth, 10th, and 11th graders returning on Feb. 2.
“This plan is contingent on health and operational metrics being met,” Brabrand emphasized. “We’ll provide the board an update on this plan on Jan. 5 at our next monthly return-to-school work session and as needed as we get closer to the target dates for the groups.”
During the school board work session, Brabrand also laid out plans for a revised bell schedule to accommodate the increased time and reduced capacity needed to transport students to school by bus, a change that he acknowledged will present challenges for some families and employees.
“However, it is the only way we can return all of our grade levels back to in-person following health and safety guidance,” he said.
To address concerns about students falling behind academically while learning online, FCPS will loosen its grading policies and implement a system of interventions to give more individualized support to students who are struggling. English learners and special education students will also receive targeted support, including teacher-family conferences and regular check-ins.
Brabrand’s Dec. 10 presentation represents represent FCPS’s first concrete effort to resume a process that began on Oct. 5 but was suspended on Nov. 16 after Fairfax County’s COVID-19 caseload exceeded established thresholds for phasing students back into in-person learning.
Whether the new Return to School plan will actually come to fruition as proposed remains to be seen, as the Fairfax Health District continues to report record levels of COVID-19 transmission. Read More
Falls Church City Public Schools will revert to online-only classes for the shortened week leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, FCCPS Superintendent Peter Noonan announced on Monday (Nov. 16).
Students already attending in-person classes at Mount Daniel Elementary School and Thomas Jefferson Elementary School will continue doing so, but the one day of in-person learning that had been scheduled for next week will instead be virtual for all students.
Athletics and other activities at Henderson Middle School and George Mason High School have been suspended for the week of Nov. 23 to 27, which was already truncated since Thanksgiving is on Nov. 26. FCCPS will also not provide daycare in any of its buildings that week.
“Today’s data we received from the Virginia Department of Health and Fairfax County Health District is not moving in a good direction,” Noonan said in a letter to families. “While we remain in the moderate category overall, we are continuing to see a rise in the NOVA region data and our home community.”
The five-school system joins its much larger Fairfax County counterpart in reevaluating its plans to provide in-person classes for students after seeing a steady rise in COVID-19 case rates both locally and statewide.
The City of Falls Church has not reported any new COVID-19 cases since it saw four on Nov. 11, but school officials are concerned by trends in Northern Virginia, including an average 7.6% test positivity rate across the region’s four health districts and a rate of 17.6 new cases per 100,000 people as of Nov. 16.
After closing its campuses on Mar. 13 when the novel coronavirus pandemic first hit the area, FCCPS has been phasing groups of students into a hybrid learning model with in-person and virtual instruction since approximately 80 special education and English-language-learning students returned on Oct. 6.
Kindergarten and third-grade students started hybrid learning on Nov. 10. Plans to start in-person classes for elementary school students in first, second, fourth, and fifth grades today were not affected by Noonan’s announcement about Thanksgiving week.
Unlike Fairfax County Public Schools, which reported its first outbreaks last week, FCCPS has not seen any outbreaks since starting in-person instruction, but as of Nov. 16, two staff members and one contractor have tested positive for COVID-19, according to the FCCPS COVID metrics dashboard.
Noonan says the city school system is currently planning to resume hybrid learning after the Thanksgiving break. He urged community members to follow public health guidelines, including avoiding travel unless absolutely necessary and limiting celebrations to household members.
“This temporary pause is vital for our collective school community,” Noonan said. “It provides time and space to ‘hunker down’ and stay in our family configurations to slow and stop the spread of COVID…If we all do our part, we will be able to continue to ‘dial-up’ and reopen schools.”
Photo via FCCPS/Facebook
Fairfax County Public Schools administrators reaffirmed their commitment to bringing more students back for in-person learning during a Fairfax County School Board work session last night (Thursday), despite increasing levels of COVID-19 transmission in Northern Virginia.
After introducing more than 8,000 students to hybrid learning – which consists of two days of in-person instruction and two days of virtual instruction – over the past month, FCPS is preparing to welcome an additional 6,800 students back into classrooms on Nov. 17, Superintendent Scott Brabrand told the school board.
Under a newly revised timeline, another cohort of approximately 13,500 students, including first and second-graders as well as students with disabilities, will start hybrid learning on Dec. 8, a week later than previously proposed.
Students in grades three to six will now be phased in on Jan. 12 instead of Jan. 4. Middle and high school students are still scheduled to return on Jan. 26.
“As we make preparations for additional students and staff to return, we are very mindful of the national, state, and local COVID trends,” Brabrand said. “COVID remains a fluid situation, and I want to emphasize these are my recommendations as of today, this evening.”
For now, FCPS will forge ahead with its Return to School plan even as COVID-19 cases rise in Fairfax County at a rate not seen since early June and the public school system reports its first outbreaks of the pandemic.
According to FCPS, Justice High School in Falls Church and Woodson High School in Fairfax had outbreaks on Nov. 10 that involved staff members, but no students. An outbreak is defined as more than two cases of COVID-19 that are epidemiologically linked.
FCPS sent out letters reporting the outbreaks to the affected school communities and is working with the Fairfax County Health Department to support its contact tracing investigations.
“Those outbreaks are concerning to us, and we take that seriously,” FCPS Department of Special Services Assistant Superintendent Michelle Boyd said. “We’re following up on what may have contributed to the transmission in our schools.”
As of this morning, FCPS has recorded 192 COVID-19 cases since Sept. 8, including 28 cases involving students, though the vast majority of infected individuals have been employees. 40 cases have been reported just this week starting on Nov. 8.
The unions that represent FCPS educators have argued that the school system should halt its plans for bringing in more students. Read More
A private school that specializes in childcare and early childhood education will open in McLean’s Valo Park next year after its owners signed a lease on Tuesday (Nov. 10).
Owned and operated by couple Kate and Brian Mulcahy, Celebree School of McLean will be the first Virginia location for Celebree School, a network of early childhood education centers predominantly based in Maryland and Delaware.
The Mulcahys were drawn to Valo Park (7950 Jones Branch Drive) as a location for their franchise because of the amenities on the business park’s 16-acre campus. They also believe there is a need for quality childcare in the Tysons area, according to a Celebree School press release.
“This location stood out because of its long list of features, especially the ample outdoor space,” Kate Mulcahy said. “Plus, it is ideal given the immediate access to the Capital Beltway, Dulles Toll Road and other major roadways. Valo Park truly is a convenient location for parents living and working in the area who need a high-quality and easily accessible childcare solution.”
Celebree School first announced that it had signed a franchising agreement with the Mulcahys to start a center in either Fairfax or Arlington County on Apr. 21. This is the couple’s first franchising effort, but they have previous experience in business and philanthropy, according to Celebree School.
Kate Mulcahy said at the time that she and her husband were interested in working in early childhood education to help children and families, and the “flexible nature” of Celebree School’s model appealed to them.
Originally founded in 1994 in Lutherville, Md., Celebree School provides full and part-time day care, before and after-school programs, and summer camps to children from 6 weeks to 12 years of age.
Celebree School started franchising in 2019 and now encompasses 44 open or under-development locations. The company says franchise opportunities are available in Maryland, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
“We’re extremely pleased with this location and the added amenities Brian and Kate will be able to offer, like outdoor learning experiences and on-campus field trips for students,” Celebree School Chief Development Officer Jim DiRugeris said. “We believe Valo Park is a prime location for a Celebree School and meeting the childcare needs of area families.”
Staff Photo by Jay Westcott
In a perfect world, Sahar Javadi’s children would have gone back to school on Aug. 25 as the Fairfax County School Board planned when it adopted a calendar for this academic year in July.
In a perfect world, there would presumably be no novel coronavirus, let alone a pandemic that appears to be resurgent in Virginia just as the weather cools and Fairfax County Public Schools prepares to usher more students back into physical classrooms for the first time since March.
Because this is not a perfect world, however, Javadi and thousands of other parents in Fairfax County have spent the past month deciding whether to send their children back to school and risk them contracting COVID-19, or stick with virtual learning despite its challenges.
Javadi says she has been impressed by how the teachers at Freedom Hill Elementary School in Vienna have adapted to online classes, especially compared to the chaotic transition that FCPS went through when schools shut down in the spring.
When surveyed over the summer and again in October about whether to continue exclusively with virtual learning or to attempt the hybrid model proposed by FCPS, Javadi opted to sign her fifth-grade and second-grade sons up for two days of in-person classes both times.
“I am a little nervous, but part of it is also, [we] just gotta take a plunge and see where we go next and kind of be adaptive as we move along, because it’s not like COVID’s going away any time soon, right?” said Javadi, who is the president of Freedom Hill’s PTA.
If FCPS sticks with its current “Return to School” plan, which could change if COVID-19 cases continue to rise, Javadi’s younger son will be part of the cohort of first-grade, second-grade, and special education students scheduled to resume in-person learning on Nov. 30.
Fairfax County started bringing students into classrooms on Oct. 5 for specialized high school career preparatory programs. Since then, select groups of special education students and English-language learners have returned, and a cohort of pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students is expected to start in-person classes on Nov. 16.
While Javadi says she feels reassured by FCPS’s planned health protocols, which include a mask requirement and reduced class sizes, Bailey’s Elementary School PTA president Melissa Snyder is more ambivalent about choosing hybrid learning for her first-grader and her third-grader, who is not scheduled to go back to school until Jan. 4.
“It was a difficult decision, and it’s not, from our perspective, an endorsement of the plan to return to school,” Snyder said. “It was made mostly because we didn’t think that the kids were going to get what they needed with the concurrent learning plan. If it had been a truly all-virtual class, we would’ve kept them virtual.” Read More
Laura Schwartz is a licensed Realtor in VA, D.C. and MD with McEnearney Associates in Vienna. You can follow Laura on Instagram at @LauraSchwartzRealtor or her Facebook page. Laura can be reached at 703-283-6120 or [email protected].
One day, someday, we will all get back to “normal” schedules again.
As you plan ahead for child care needs for “school aged children” which usually means elementary school, a lot of people don’t know that some of the schools don’t have a SACC program in the building. If you have younger kids, keep in mind the dates for registration as you should get on the wait list a year before your child actually starts Kindergarten.
The day assigned for you to call is based on the alphabet. Check the website for details. Also one thing to note is that not all of the schools start at the same time. For example, the “tardy” bell at Vienna Elementary is 8:45 a.m. while the Louise Archer “tardy” bell isn’t until 9:15 a.m. You can register for before care and/or after care based on your needs.
My company made this handy chart for reference when exploring schools around town:
