Fairfax County voters will soon get the chance to decide the fate of a school bond referendum next week.
The general election ballot will ask voters if they want to approve a $360 million bond referendum for Fairfax County Public Schools.
For families in the Tysons area, the bond includes:
- $19.5 million in construction funds for adding an addition to Madison High School in Vienna
- $49.6 million in construction funds for renovating Cooper Middle School in McLean
- $1.7 million in planning funds for renovating Louise Archer Elementary School in Vienna
The bond also includes $2 million in planning funds for a new “Silver Line elementary school.”
Madison High School is one of nearly a dozen high schools in Fairfax that is over 100% capacity, Tysons Reporter previously reported.
Fairfax County uses bonds to pay for renovating and building new schools.
Candidates vying for the Providence and Dranesville district seats on the Fairfax County School Board debated a variety of issues — from guns to vaping — at local debates.
Two recent candidate debates hosted by the League of Women Voters-Fairfax Area gave community members a chance to hear from the school board candidates.
The audience questions varied drastically at the two debates — except for the issue of school safety and bullying of LGBTQ students.
Guns in Schools and Active Shooter Drills
Dranesville District candidate Ardavan Mobasheri and Providence District candidate Karl Frisch said that they are worried about excessive school safety procedures.
“Schools are becoming fortresses,” Mobasheri said.
Frisch said that active shooter drills are unnecessarily and cause harm. “I’m afraid we are traumatizing our kids,” Frisch said.
Frisch made a point that telling teachers to put black paper over windows and hiding in the corner is not an efficient measure during an active shooter situation.
Karl Frisch’s opponent, Andrea Bayer, agreed with him that drills are not effective. During the debate, Bayer said that many of the active shooter training drills are costly to the taxpayers and not backed by statistical evidence that shows they work.
“Let’s do the thinking before we invest tax dollars,” she said.
Frisch and Bayer suggested bulletproof glass in the classroom, more efficient teacher training and cameras monitoring the schools.
The other two Providence District candidates — Anastasia Karloutsos and Elaine Tholen — focused on school resource officers (SROs), agreeing that they should have guns.
Tholen said that SROs should be the only people in schools allowed to have guns, while Karloutsos said that guns should be expanded to SROs or retired police officers in elementary schools.
How to Address LGBTQ Bullying
All of the candidates agreed that LGBTQ students should feel safe at school.
“We need to make sure every single student that walks through our doors feels protected,” Frisch said.
Bayer noted that “Fairfax County has always accommodated LGBTQ students.” She said that she’s never heard of any issues.
Tholen, a Providence District candidate, said that she wants to see more community schools, mentor programs and peer-to-peer programs. One of her opponents, Karloutsos, said that mental health counselors could help students struggling with bullying.
Providence District Candidate Debate
At the Providence District Candidate Forum last Wednesday (Oct. 16), popular topics for the school board candidates included vape pen and e-cigarette use among kids, prayer in schools and retention. (Providence District School Board candidate Jung Byun did not attend the event.)
When it came to bus driver retention, Bayer said it’s low “because behavior is a major issue on the bus.”
“I don’t like driving my van. Why would I want to drive a school bus?” she said, adding that traffic leads to frustrated drivers.
Frisch said that bus drivers — and the rest of school staff — need higher wages.
The candidates sparred over how they would approach prayer and vaping in schools.
Frisch said that he supports expanding holidays for Muslim and Jewish kids because kids can lose out on education when they are forced to take off school days for religious holidays, while Bayer said that students have opportunities to practice whatever they want.
“Our schools are freedom of religion not freedom for religion,” Bayer said.
As for vaping, Bayer said that vaping is a parenting issue, while Frisch said he would use his platform, if elected, to educate students on vaping.
Dranesville District Candidates Spar Over Overcrowding, One Fairfax
Meanwhile, at the forum for Dranesville District candidates last Thursday (Oct. 17), the candidates debated how to address overcrowding at McLean High School.
Karloutsos and Tholen agreed that the principal needs to be involved in the decision making.
While Tholen said that she is supportive of a boundary adjustment that would switch some McLean High School students to Langley High School as a short term solution, Mobasheri said he does not support the proposal.
“McLean [High School] needs an addition,” Mobasheri said, calling for a new high school in Tysons. “It is no longer suburbia.”
While only brought up briefly, One Fairfax — a joint social and racial equity policy of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and School Board — was one of the most contentious topics of the night.
Karloutsos blasted it as a “big issue,” while Mobasheri called it the “21st-century rendition of the Bill of Rights.” (Tholen did not comment during that debate on One Fairfax.)
There were two topics that the three Dranesville District candidates all agreed on — students should be vaccinated and that restraint and seclusion should either be used when there is a threat of imminent danger or never at all.
The election is on Nov. 5.
Ashley Hopko and Catherine Douglas Moran contributed to this story.
Swinks Mill Road Reopens in McLean — Severely damaged by flooding in July, the road at Scotts Run reopened Friday (Oct. 18). [VDOT/Twitter]
McLean Resident Retires From NVTC — “Northern Virginia Technology Council’s (NVTC) president and CEO Bobbie Kilberg is set to retire on June 30 after 22 years leading the organization.” [Technical.ly]
Pedestrian Killed Along Route 50 in Falls Church — “A police cruiser struck and killed a man who was crossing an intersection in West Falls Church, Virginia, early Sunday morning, police say.” [NBC4]
Home Catches Fire in Dunn Loring — Firefighters responded to a house fire in the 8100 block of Timber Valley Court in Dunn Loring area on Saturday. The fire is now out. “No reported injuries at this time.” [Fairfax County Fire and Rescue/Twitter]
How Walkable is Tysons? — Find out what it’s like to stroll around Tysons with a walkability researcher, who measured the noise levels and air quality. [Greater Greater Washington]
New Leader at McLean Private School — “BASIS Independent McLean, a preK to grade 12 private school in McLean, Va., recently named Paul Geise as its head of school. As a veteran educator with more than 40 years of experience, Geise excels in leadership of schools in the United States and United Kingdom, specializing in strategic plans and fostering student and community development in schools.” [Patch]
Marshall HS Students Visit Capital One HQ — “Members of Marshall High’s Latinos United Club took a field trip to Capital One’s headquarters in McLean to meet with their mentors. Students learned about the vast career opportunities in technology at Capital One and participated in various activities with the mentors including job shadowing, panel discussions, and a tour.” [Fairfax County Public Schools]
USA Today May Phase Out Print Edition — “After a nearly 40-year run, USA Today and its digital sites are about to undergo a major restructuring that will include building up digital marketing while phasing out the print edition.” [Poynter]
Falls Church Receives High Bond Ratings — “For the second consecutive year, the city has earned the highest credit rating from all three major bond rating agencies.” [City of Falls Church]
Falls Church Polling Place Moved — “Due to delays in a renovation of the Falls Green apartments (formerly Oakwood), the City of Falls Church’s Ward 2 polling place has to be moved for the upcoming Nov. 5 election.” [Falls Church News-Press]
New Natural Health Center in Vienna — “The Health Improvement Center, a natural health care center, has moved to a new location in Vienna. The move to a larger space happened in August, while a ribbon-cutting is set for Nov. 14 from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. The new location is 407 Church Street NE Suite C.” [Patch]
The two candidates vying for the Dranesville District seat on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors debated last night in McLean.
The debate was hosted by the League of Women Voters-Fairfax Area at the McLean Community Center last night. Incumbent John Foust and Republican Ed Martin sparred on issues ranging from traffic congestion to gun regulations.
While they both agreed that it’s difficult to afford to live in the county and that focusing on climate crisis is important, the two men took very different approaches to how they would tackle the issues in the audience-submitted questions.
Foust pointed to his experience on the county board — he was first elected in 2007 — to emphasize that the local government will continue to make progress, pointing to the expansion of Balls Hill Road at Georgetown Pike to address traffic and the county’s conversion of existing streetlights to LEDs.
“We’re doing what’s necessary to prepare for the growth,” Foust said in response to a question about infrastructure and population growth. “[We need to do] more of what we’re doing.”
Meanwhile, Martin, who currently lives in Great Falls, pushed for lower taxes, more pressure on Richmond and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan about the traffic on I-495 and reconsideration of the One Fairfax policy — a social and racial equity policy.
“I reject One Fairfax,” Martin said, adding that equity is in the eye of the beholder. “Don’t we like equity? I like exceptional.”
While the debate was mostly civil, the conversation became heated around guns and whether Fairfax County should be a “sanctuary county.”
Foust passionately said that he supports banning guns from public facilities. “It’s scary. It is not fair to people,” he said.
While Martin said that he would defer to law enforcement’s opinion on guns in public facilities, his answer mostly criticized Foust for not taking enough action on the trailers at McLean High School.
“Having trailers behind a school is not safe,” he said before transitioning to his position that sanctuary counties can lead to violence.
Foust responded that he wants to see the trailers go away as well. While Martin noted safety several times throughout the debate, Foust said that Republicans wanting to limit gun regulations have made “none of us safe.”
“We are constantly rated the safest community for our size in the country,” Foust said, adding, “We are not a sanctuary county. I will tell you, we don’t go out and enforce civil warrants by ICE.”
By the time the debate wrapped up, the candidates had taken several jabs at each other.
Martin said Foust’s “I delivered” statements show Foust is part of antiquated leadership, while Foust dragged Martin for being a newcomer to the area — “I have never seen you at a community event” — and also for not filing some of his campaign finance reports.
The election is on Nov. 5.
Images via Fairfax County and voteedmartin.com
(Updated 10/18/19) In-person absentee voting starts today (Thursday) at the McLean Governmental Center, along with several other locations around Fairfax County.
In total, 10 locations will offer in-person absentee voting until Saturday, Nov. 2, at 5 p.m. — the last day to vote absentee in-person.
Voters in the Tysons area can head to the McLean Governmental Center (1437 Balls Hill Road) and the Providence Community Center (3001 Vaden Drive) between 3-7 p.m. Monday-Friday and 9 a.m.-5 p.m. on Saturdays.
All of the locations will be closed on Sundays.
The last day to apply for an absentee ballot was Oct. 29.
10 locations across Fairfax County are now open for in-person absentee voting. Learn more: https://t.co/5hVlINJtoU #absenteeballot #virginiaelections #VAleg #VApol #vote #fairfaxcounty pic.twitter.com/53wjheiCou
— Fairfax County Votes (@fairfaxvotes) October 17, 2019
Tysons Reporter has learned that a retired foreign service officer is joining the race for the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ Providence District seat.
Eric Jones started working for the U.S. State Department in 1990 and retired in 2016, according to his LinkedIn.
Jones and his wife Yelena, who is a realtor, bought their home in Fairfax in 2005, according to The Washington Post.
Jones has been endorsed by the Republican Party, Pat Ferguson, who works in Fairfax County’s Office of Elections, told Tysons Reporter.
His name is expected to show up on the Virginia Department of Elections’ list of candidates on Monday, Ferguson said.
The previous Republican candidate for the seat, Paul Bolon, died from a heart attack in August at the age of 69.
Jones will face Democratic candidate Dalia Palchik on Nov. 5.
Image via Fairfax County Republican Committee
As election season heats up, debates give voters a chance to hear from candidates and learn more about pressing issues that matter to them most.
Throughout October, there will be several public forums around the area hosted by community organizations.
Wednesday, Oct. 16: Providence District candidates
The Providence District Candidate Forum will take place from 7 -9 p.m. at the Providence District Community Center (3001 Vaden Drive). This is an opportunity to meet the candidates running for the Providence District School Board and Providence District Supervisor seats. This event is hosted by the League of Women Voters in the Fairfax Area.
Thursday, Oct. 17: Dranesville District candidates
The League of Women Voters-Fairfax Area will host a forum at the McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Avenue). Speakers will include those running for Dranesville District Supervisor, Dranesville District School Board Member and House District 34, which represents Great Falls, parts of McLean and the Wolf Trap area. It starts at 7 p.m.
Thursday, Oct. 24: Falls Church City Council candidates
Attendees will be able to hear from the four candidates vying for three seats on the Falls Church City Council starting at 7 p.m. at the Falls Church American Legion Hall, Post 130 (400 N. Oak Street).
The candidates are: Phil Duncan, Letty Hardi and David Tarter — incumbents — and Stuart Whitaker. Former candidate Thomas Cash dropped out of the race in August.
Wednesday, Oct. 30: Dranesville District candidates
The McLean Citizens Association will hold a forum at the McLean Community Center with the candidates running for Dranesville District Supervisor, Dranesville District School Board Member and House District 34. The event starts at 7:30 p.m.
Jonathan Fahey, a former federal prosecutor, has thrown his hat into the race for the commonwealth’s attorney position in Fairfax.
Fahey worked on drug, gang and white-collar crime cases as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia, but resigned last month, the Washington Post reported.
He is listed as an Independent candidate for the spot, according to Fairfax County candidate information.
Fahey served as general counsel for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy last year, according to his LinkedIn. He also was an adjunct professor at American University’s law school and the George Washington University.
Fahey lives in the Falls Church area of Fairfax County near Belvedere Park, according to the Fairfax Bar Association.
Fahey will face off against former U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor Steve Descano, a progressive candidate who ousted Raymond Morrogh in a close race for the Democratic nomination.
The general election is Nov. 5.
Photo via Jonathan Fahey/LinkedIn
Fairfax County is looking for election officers for the Nov. 5 general election.
The Fairfax County Office of Elections needs “hundreds” of officers to serve, according to the county.
Officers will be paid $175 for a full day or they can volunteer their time.
The county recommends that people apply by Oct. 10 for the best chance to receive a precinct assignment.
Registered Virginia voters can sign up online or call 703-324-4735. Before they can work at polling locations, election officers must complete a three-hour training, which will be offered at multiple spots around the county starting Aug. 22.
Bilingual election officers who can fluently speak Korean or Vietnamese, in addition to English, are also needed, especially in Falls Church.
The Weekly Planner is a roundup of interesting events coming up over the next week in the Tysons area.
We’ve scoured the web for events of note in Tysons, Vienna, Merrifield, McLean and Falls Church. Know of any we’ve missed? Tell us!
Wednesday (June 19)
- Kiki’s Delivery Service at Angelika Film Center — 7 p.m. at Angelika Film Center (2911 District Avenue) — As part of their Studio Ghibli summer festival, Angelika Film Center will be screening Kiki’s Delivery Service — the anime classic about a young witch striking out on her own — on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and Thursday at 11 a.m. Tickets are $14.50.
Thursday (June 20)
- The Boro Summer Kick Off — 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at The Boro — Boro Tysons is hosting a summer kick off event with food trucks, music, lawn games and “puppy therapy.”
- Summer Reading Party — 7-8 p.m. at Bards Alley (110 Church Street NW) — The Bards Alley bookstore in Vienna is hosting a summer book party with finger foods and lemonade available. Booksellers will be in attendance sharing their favorite summer reads.
- Vienna Stories Book Talk — 7:30 p.m. at the Vienna Community Center (120 Cherry Street SE) — Marie Kisner, a former public information officer for the Town of Vienna, collected newspaper stories about Vienna into a new book called “Vienna Stories 1950-2000.” Kisner is also planning a book signing at the Freeman Store on Saturday, June 22, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.
Friday (June 21)
- Echosmith at Tysons Corner Center — 3:30-9:30 p.m. at Tysons Corner Center (1961 Chain Bridge Road) — HOT 99.5 and Tysons Corner Center are hosting a free concert with the band Echosmith. The show is scheduled to start for 6:30 p.m. but attendees are encouraged early to grab a seat.
Saturday (June 22)
- Daylily Walking Tour — 10:15-11:15 a.m. at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens (9750 Meadowlark Gardens Court) — The Northern Virginia Daylily Society President Janice Kennedy will lead a walking tour through the gardens showing the daylily collection including a few award-winning varieties. The tour is free and those participating in the tour will have free admission.
- Georgia Peach Truck — 12 p.m. at Merrifield Garden Center (8132 Lee Highway) — The Georgia Peach Truck is planning to roll into Merrifield at noon on Saturday with beaches brought up from Georgia available to be purchased by the box. One 23-25 pound box is $45.
Sunday (June 23)
- Providence Democrats Unity and Summer Solstice Celebration — 4-7 p.m. at Nouvelle Apartments (7911 Westpark Drive) — Following a crowded Democratic primary that saw Dalia Palchik voted as the Democratic nominee for the vacant Providence District Board of Supervisors seat, Providence District Democrats are hosting a buffet and silent auction fundraiser with the nominees and the other candidates. Attendees are encouraged to RSVP early.
Photo via Meadowlark Botanical Gardens/Facebook
