Fairfax County School Board Approves Revised TJ Admissions Process — “The Fairfax County Public Schools board voted Thursday to adopt a “holistic review” for admissions to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a revision meant to boost diversity at the top-tier magnet school and that ends months of fraught and fiery debate.” [The Washington Post]
Express Lanes Operator Adds Co-Investors After Year of Reduced Traffic — “While impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a reduction in Express Lanes traffic of around 80 percent in April compared to last year, Transurban has seen traffic increase gradually through 2020. In November traffic on the 495, 95 and 395 Express Lanes was down 39 percent.” [Transurban]
McLean Tech Company Donates WiFi Spots to Families — “To help provide equitable access to today’s digital curriculum through safe and reliable embedded internet connectivity, Kajeet and [Amazon Web Services] teamed up to donate Kajeet SmartSpots – controlled WiFi hotspots – with unlimited data plans to GOODProjects, which were distributed to 30 local families in need.” [Kajeet/PRWeb]
Town of Vienna Announces Holiday Decorating Contest Winners — Potomac River Running and the resident of 121 Casmar Street SE won Vienna’s annual holiday decorating contest. This was the first year of the competition to include residents. It also featured a porch parade. [Town of Vienna/Twitter]
Staff photo by Angela Woolsey
(Updated at 3:20 p.m.) Once home to 17,000 people living amid suburban office parks, Tysons has seen its residential population soar in recent years, growing four times faster than Fairfax County overall.
From 2010 to 2018, the population of Tysons grew 39% to about 23,749 people today, and by 2045, Providence District is expected to add roughly 57,000 residents. People under 20 now comprise one area of marked growth, from 1% of the population in 2010 to 21% in 2020.
“Forty percent is a tremendous number,” HR&A Partner Stan Wall said during the Tysons Partnership’s State of Tysons panel last week. “Tysons started off at a fairly low bar compared to some of the other communities in the region, but is outpacing Fairfax County and other areas around the region.”
Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik attributed much of the growth to the arrival of more young families in the area, as indicated by increases in children, teens, and 18- to 20-year-olds.
“People have not always thought of Tysons as a place where you can raise a family,” she said in a statement. “The increased investment in green space, affordable housing, and transit has made Tysons an attractive option for a demographic that previously did not consider Tysons as a place to live.”
But neither an influx of 57,000 people or the current growth rate are enough to reach Fairfax County’s goal of 100,000 residents in Tysons by 2050, according to Emily Hamilton, a research fellow and director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Fairfax County set 100,000 residents as a target in its 2010 comprehensive plan, which also aims for a population of 44,000 by 2030. Tysons would have to expand at a rate of 8.5% annually — double its current annual growth rate of 4.2% — to hit those benchmarks.
If the lagging growth concerns policymakers, they should consider up-zoning areas slightly farther away from Metro stations and encourage smaller-scale developments, which move more quickly, Hamilton says.
Currently, most development is happening in the one-quarter mile radius around the area’s four Silver Line stations, she said. The lower-density and mid-rise zoning on the periphery of the stations could be amended to allow for more residential growth.
The county is also encouraging large, 10 to 20-acre developments that provide public benefits, such as parks, along with housing, she said. To Hamilton, this approach makes sense, especially if policymakers want to achieve a new grid of streets in Tysons, but it also slows down development.
Tysons relies heavily on the private sector to contribute to and provide public infrastructure as part of developments, Hamilton says, but with land values increasing, it has the capacity to meet the needs of new residents, such as schools.
With a 20% influx in residents under 20, school board members say they area already working to out ways to combat capacity issues at the schools in the Tysons area.
“We are working closely with the community and staff from the school division and Board of Supervisors to better understand and prepare for the impact increasing growth in Tysons will have on school capacity, especially at the high school level,” Dranesville District School Board Member Elaine Tholen said in an email.
Providence District School Board Representative Karl Frisch is proposing to repurpose Dunn Loring Administration Center as a new elementary school, using available bond funds to relieve capacity concerns at Shrevewood and in the Tysons periphery.
“This proposal will bring much-needed, sustainable capacity relief to Shrevewood Elementary School and the Tysons periphery,” Frisch said during a virtual meeting of the Shrevewood Elementary School PTA. “Overcrowding has been an ongoing challenge for the community, and now we have a solution.”
Staff photo by Jay Westcott, image via Tysons Partnership
Fairfax County Public Schools will host a virtual job fair from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. on Friday (Dec. 18) as part of its search for classroom monitors and substitute teachers to support the potential return of additional students to in-person instruction in early 2021.
FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand reported to the Fairfax County School Board on Dec. 10 that the school system still needs approximately 730 classroom monitors to provide in-person assistance to students. So far, FCPS has filled 235 of the 966 total monitor positions that it says are necessary since first advertising the position on Oct. 31.
“Employment of classroom monitors is critical to standing up in-person instruction,” Sean McDonald, the interim assistant superintendent for FCPS’ Department of Human Resources said.
To fill its staffing gaps for classroom monitors, FCPS is considering letting schools compensate teachers who serve as classroom monitors during their planning periods, though workload concerns present a challenge to that strategy.
“Our goal remains hiring classroom monitors to fill the in-person coverage needs,” McDonald said. “However, in the near-term, schools may be in a position where it’s necessary to ask for teacher volunteers to serve as classroom monitors during their self-directed planning period.”
The county is also looking for substitute teachers, who can work either remotely or in-person.
According to FCPS, 30 teachers and 24 instructional support staff members have chosen to resign or retire as of Dec. 4, and 62 teachers and 13 support staff members have taken a leave of absence this year.
2,933 employees, including 2,020 teachers, have requested Americans with Disabilities Act accommodations, which are open to individuals with underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk of complications from COVID-19. As of Dec. 3, FCPS had processed 2,359 ADA requests.
FCPS has suspended its Return to School plans for phasing students back into in-person classes, which are now only open to about 1,340 students after consistently high COVID-19 case levels in Fairfax County prompted 4,100 students in special education and English-learning programs to revert back to virtual learning on Monday.
However, FCPS hope to resume bringing students back into school buildings starting on Jan. 12 with special education, pre-kindergarten, and kindergarten students. Elementary, middle, and high school students would follow in groups between Jan. 19 and Feb. 2.
FCPS says people interested in attending the upcoming virtual job fair can register online, and questions can be directed toward its human resources department.
The renovation of Louise Archer Elementary School is finally beginning to take shape.
The Vienna Town Council heard an update on a potential site plan and timeline during a work session on Monday (Dec. 14). The timeline moves up the completion of the project to mid-2024.
Fairfax County Public Schools design and construction lead Eric Brunner, who serves as coordinator for the project, presented the update alongside Architecture, Inc. senior project manager Brad Pierce.
The renovation project is currently in a planning and design phase that Brunner expects to be completed by mid-2021. Permitting will be the next step and should run through the spring of 2022, followed by a two-year construction process.
The projected completion of construction has moved up a year ahead of expectations. FCPS told the Vienna Planning Commission in May that construction would take three years and finish in 2025.
The potential site plans include nearly doubling the size of the school to around 103,000 square feet. The majority of the new square footage will come from a new second-story addition that will be constructed behind the existing school.
“A lot of the space is already on the site that we’re just making permanent,” Brunner said.
The current site plan concept also includes repurposing the current cafeteria for the library, adding a stage off of the school gymnasium, and creating a community room that may be utilized for community meetings. A new cafeteria and kitchen will be built “from the ground up,” Brunner said.
The current interior of the community room will be preserved as much as possible while displaying some history of the school, Pierce added.
Additional site concepts include expanding the bus loop, increasing the stormwater management system, and expanding the parking lot to about 106 available spaces, according to Brunner. The plan also shows a new playground and new basketball courts.
The project will remove temporary facilities — two trailers and a 66-foot by 180-foot modular classroom — that exist on site as construction progresses. The Town Council approved the continued use of the trailers for two years on June 15. The Board of Zoning Appeals voted on June 17 to permit continued use of the modular classroom for five years.
The modular classroom on the south side of the school will be replaced with a kiss-and-ride parking lot for student drop-off. The lot will run off the current three-way stop at the intersection of Nutley Street and Knoll Street Northwest, which Brunner said could potentially be permanently converted into a four-way stop.
According to the latest FCPS proposal, the renovation will be done in phases to allow for minimal interruption for students during the construction process. The new two-story addition would be built first, while students stay in the existing sections of the school.
Students would then move into the new addition upon its completion, allowing for renovation of the existing school to be completed.
John McGranahan, a partner with Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, which represents Fairfax County Public Schools, said the group would like to reappear before the council with another progress report before officially submitting an application for the project.
Photo via Google Maps
All Fairfax County Public Schools students will learn virtually tomorrow (Wednesday) as the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area braces for its potential first snow of the year.
While the heaviest precipitation is expected to fall more toward the western part of Virginia, the National Weather Service issued a winter weather advisory at 4:00 p.m. today for Fairfax County, predicting that the area will see mixed precipitation with about one to three inches of snow and sleet accumulation.
The advisory will be in effect from 10 a.m. on Wednesday to 1 a.m. on Thursday.
“Plan on slippery road conditions,” the NWS says. “The hazardous conditions could impact the morning or evening commute.”
That forecast is a slight downgrade from the agency’s projections on Monday, when it issued a winter storm watch suggesting that Fairfax County could see more than five inches of snow.
Still, FCPS has decided to close all school buildings to students. Here is the full news release:
All Fairfax County Public Schools’ students will participate in virtual learning tomorrow.
Students will have synchronous (teacher-led) instruction.
Information about food distribution will be sent separately.
The following activities in schools and on school grounds are canceled:
- appointments for in-person assessments
- extracurricular activities
- interscholastic contests
- team practices
- field trips
- middle school after-school programs
- professional learning and training courses
- adult and community education classes
- recreation programs and community use by outside groups not affiliated with FCPS
- School age child care (SACC/SRS) centers are closed.
Organizers of virtual school events will reach out to participants regarding the status of the event.
Public school bus support for non-school programs is canceled.
While division operations are open, access to school facilities is limited and school work spaces for instruction are unavailable. All teachers, instructional assistants, and other less-than-12-month staff should telework from home. Program managers will inform staff if or when school building work spaces are available. School Office and Central Office 12-month employees who can telework should telework or follow supervisor direction for reporting in-person.
Staff photo by Catherine Douglas Moran
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
Fairfax County Public Schools officials presented three possible options for adjusting McLean High School’s boundary with Langley High School to address overcrowding at the former facility at a virtual community meeting on Monday (Dec. 7).
Officials say they considered several options and eliminated some when they determined that they would produce new overcrowding problems or create infrastructure or transportation issues.
Overcrowding has been a persistent concern at McLean throughout the past decade, as the school’s student population ballooned from 1,863 people in the fall of 2009 to over 2,000 people by 2012.
Despite several limited attempts to add space over the years, including the addition of temporary classrooms and the removal of lockers from hallways, FCPS says McLean High School is now at 118% capacity with 2,350 students in a building designed for 1,993 – a “substantial” deficit.
In comparison, Langley High School currently has 1,972 students and can accommodate 2,370 students after finishing a renovation last year.
FCPS has been exploring a possible boundary change for the two schools since early 2019. Feedback from a pair of community meetings in December 2019 led the Fairfax County School Board to add Cooper and Longfellow middle schools to the study’s scope on Mar. 9.
Longfellow Middle School is currently at 97% capacity with 1,334 students in a building for 1,374 students, though it is projected to exceed capacity going forward. Cooper Middle School has 992 students and will expand its capacity to 1,120 students after a renovation is completed around 2023.
Here are the three potential boundary adjustments that FCPS presented:
- Option A: reassign an estimated 131 students from McLean to Langley and an estimated 53 Longfellow students to Cooper in a split feeder area that includes Colvin Run Elementary School and a portion of Westbriar Elementary School
- Option B: reassign an estimated 190 students from McLean to Langley and an estimated 78 students from Longfellow to Cooper in the Colvin Run split feeder area, along with a portion of Westbriar and Spring Hill Elementary School
- Option C: reassign an estimated 240 students from McLean to Langley and 113 students from Longfellow to Cooper from the Spring Hill split feeder area
FCPS Facilities Special Projects Administrator Jessica Gillis emphasized that no students attending Longfellow, Cooper, McLean, or Langley right now will be moved out of their current school.
FCPS officials also included an option for no boundary change. Projections show that both McLean and Longfellow will be over capacity for the foreseeable future, whereas Langley’s enrollment will drop to 1,855 students, or 78% of its capacity, in 2024.
With any boundary adjustment not expected to take effect until the start of the 2021-22 school year, FCPS is installing a modular with 12 classrooms at McLean High School to provide temporary capacity relief, though it will still be at 103% capacity. The school will also still have six temporary classrooms.
Dates for FCPS staff to deliver a recommendation to the Fairfax County School Board and for the board to take action after holding a public hearing have not yet been determined.
Map via FCPS
Fairfax County Public Schools Presents Final Options for TJ Admissions — “After months of debate, Fairfax County school officials are proposing final options for reforming admissions at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology — either switching to a lottery system or adopting a “holistic review,” revisions meant to boost diversity at the flagship STEM magnet school.” [The Washington Post]
Tex-Mex Restaurant Opens in Mosaic District — “Urbano Mosaic is a spinoff of Urbano116, a similar concept on lower King Street in Alexandria…The menu covers items such as appetizers, ceviches, tacos, salads, fajitas, chimichangas, enchiladas, burritos, entrées and platters.” [Patch]
Virginia Transit Leaders Discuss Post-Pandemic Commute Changes — “Democratic senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner — the latter in a recorded message — expressed optimism that lawmakers would soon pass a COVID-19 relief package. Kaine and Warner reiterated the importance of funding to enable Metro to avoid major service cuts despite its budget shortfalls.” [WTOP]
Staff photo by Jay Westcott
Fairfax County Public School administrators are looking to write a new policy that will ban secluding children across the division by 2023.
The new policy governing when and how children can be restrained or secluded would also require administrators to contact parents the day of an incident and to review data every quarter. After being restrained or put in a room alone, students would meet with a trusted staff member who could provide positive supports.
“We are delighted that FCPS recognizes that they were in shocking non-compliance with federal regulations,” Fairfax County Special Education Parent-Teacher Association President Michelle Cades told Tysons Reporter. “We are really optimistic that reporting is going to improve and that there is going to be more transparency.”
According to the policy, starting in 2021, seclusion will only be allowed at Burke School and Key and Kilmer Centers.
“We’re requesting that it be prohibited in 99% of schools now, but 100% is our desire, 100% is our goal,” Assistant Superintendent of the Special Services Department Michelle Boyd said in a work session last week.
The policy would go into effect Jan. 1, 2021, and includes some clauses that respond to feedback from parents and other stakeholders. FCPS will hold a public hearing on the new policy on Friday.
These changes come one year after a 2019 WAMU investigation found hundreds of instances of restraint and seclusion in FCPS, even though the school division had not reported a single incident to the U.S. Office of Civil Rights for 10 years.
“We have to make sure that people feel confident, not just in the new policy, but that we are implementing the data collection with fidelity,” Superintendent Scott Brabrand said during a Dec. 1 work session. “We have to acknowledge that for too many years, we reported no information, as did other school districts, and it was wrong.”
At-Large School Board Representative Abrar Omeish questioned what data FCPS is relying on to be confident that a new restraint and seclusion policy will be implemented properly.
“I worry about relying on this information, when we have reason to believe that it is not reliable,” she said. “We should imagine the worst-case scenario and put in place the checks that are going to hold us accountable to make sure we’re not wronging kids in the process.” Read More
Fairfax County Public Schools is creating “Safety Teams” of staff members and retirees to monitor adherence to COVID-19 safety protocols at schools that have reopened to students.
Charged with enforcing the implementation of mitigation strategies recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the teams will conduct random on-site spot checks, provide education and resources, and report data to administrators, according to a news release that FCPS published yesterday (Monday).
“The role of these teams is to help protect staff and students, and to make sure we all know what we can do to ensure safe, clean, healthy spaces,” FCPS Assistant Superintendent of Facilities and Transportation Services Jeff Platenberg said. “We’ve been training teams and conducting checks in recent weeks across FCPS.”
To limit the transmission of COVID-19, the CDC says schools should, at a minimum, ensure that students and staff consistently and correctly use masks, maintain social distancing to the extent possible, practice hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette, clean and disinfect facilities, and collaborate on contact tracing with local health officials.
The announcement that FCPS has deployed safety teams comes as school officials face dueling pressures from reports indicating that virtual learning has hampered many students’ educational experience and from teachers’ unions who argue that in-person classes are unsafe.
FCPS currently has approximately 5,500 students receiving in-person instruction, all of them in special education, career preparation, and other specialized programs.
FCPS returned 2,900 students to distance learning and suspended plans to bring more students into school buildings on Nov. 16, when the COVID-19 transmission rate in Fairfax County surpassed 200 new cases per 100,000 people.
The percentage of positive COVID-19 tests over the last 14 days also has to be lower than 10% for students to start or remain in class.
As of Dec. 7, Fairfax County’s COVID-19 case rate is now more than double the 200-case threshold at 431.4 new cases per 100,000 people within the past 14 days. The test positivity rate is currently at 9.4%.
The Fairfax County Federation of Teachers and Fairfax Education Association, two unions that represent faculty and staff in FCPS, have urged FCPS to return all students to virtual learning.
“In schools that are already open, COVID-19 cases are increasing and employees report unsafe working conditions,” the FCFT said as part of a letter-writing campaign. “Fairfax County must transition everyone to virtual learning until it is safe.”
FCPS has recorded 387 COVID-19 cases since Sept. 8, including 300 staff members and 58 students. 21 cases involved staff at multiple sites, according to the school system’s COVID-19 dashboard.
Platenberg says the data that FCPS collects through its new safety teams will help officials determine where to devote additional education or resources in their effort to curb the spread of COVID-19 in schools.
“We want to make sure we are consistently implementing the CDC’s strategies,” Platenberg said. “This is new for all of us, and so far, we are encouraged by what we see.”
Photo via FCPS
