Vienna Resident Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering — A Vienna resident pleaded guilty in federal court on Monday to a money laundering scheme tied to the terrorist group Hizballah. Prosecutors say the decade-long scheme was deployed to ship electronics equipment to a television station in Lebanon. [Patch]

Spring Hill Turf Field to Be Replaced — Spring Hill Park in McLean will undergo maintenance work starting on June 21 to replace a synthetic turf field. Work hours will be limited to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, though the contractor can work on Saturdays to avoid project delays if there is inclement weather. The project is expected to be mostly complete by Labor Day. [Fairfax County Park Authority]

Maryland to Downscale Beltway Project — The Maryland Department of Transportation will limit its planned Capital Beltway expansion to the construction of a new American Legion Bridge and the addition of two toll lanes in each direction on the bridge from I-270 to I-370. The project is considered critical to the success of Virginia’s 495 NEXT project to extend the I-495 Express Lanes to the bridge in McLean. [DCist]

Longfellow Finishes Second in National Quiz Bowl — “A quiz-bowl team from Longfellow Middle School finished second in the nation in the 2021 Middle School National Championship Tournament, held online the weekend of May 1. Longfellow’s “A” team made it 20 rounds into the competition before losing to the eventual champion, the “A” team from Winston Churchill Middle School of Carmichael, Calif.” [Sun Gazette/Inside NoVA]

A Fairfax County Public Schools student reported being targeted by anti-Asian slurs and other kinds of harassment during an encounter at Longfellow Middle School in McLean earlier this week, FCPS confirmed to Tysons Reporter.

The Fairfax County Police Department says a juvenile reported to an officer on Tuesday (March 23) that he was confronted by “several other juveniles” while attempting to use a recreational field at Longfellow around 6:20 p.m. on March 22.

According to police, the individual said that the people who confronted him “made derogatory remarks relating to his race and natural origin. The juvenile also mentioned the group spat near him.”

The student was not injured or assaulted, but the incident is under investigation by the school resource officer assigned to Longfellow Middle School. The FCPD says it is also “working collaboratively with our partners in FCPS to ensure that all students are treated fairly and with respect.”

While the incident took place on Longfellow grounds, the victim does not attend that school, according to FCPS spokesperson Helen Lloyd.

“The student involved was not a student at Longfellow Middle School, nor were any of the alleged perpetrators,” Lloyd said. “This incident took place out of school hours and is still being investigated, including whether the alleged perpetrators were FCPS students.”

FCPS acknowledged the ongoing investigation in a letter to the McLean community from Longfellow Principal Jim Patrick and McLean High School Principal Ellen Reilly. The letter, which was provided to Tysons Reporter by FCPS, states that the slurs reportedly directed at the student were anti-Asian.

“We stand with our Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students, staff and community and unequivocally denounce racism and discrimination of all kinds and to condemn all acts of hate,” Patrick and Reilly said in their letter. “We are committed to ensuring safe spaces for all of our students and interrupting any experience that would cause pain and trauma as a result of racialized (or other identity based) violence.”

The reported incident occurred on the same day that public officials and community members gathered in Annandale for a vigil to mourn the eight people — including six Asian women — who were shot and killed in the Atlanta area on March 17, a tragedy that put a spotlight on the racism that people of Asian descent experience in the U.S.

The Pew Research Center found last summer that the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic fueled an uptick in discrimination against Asian Americans.

In a report released on March 16, the advocacy coalition Stop AAPI Hate said since March 2020, it has recorded 3,795 hate incidents — ranging from verbal harassment and shunning to physical assaults — including 140 incidents in the D.C. area.

When it met on March 18, the Fairfax County School Board unanimously supported a resolution condemning violence and discrimination against Asians and Asian Americans. The county board of supervisors followed suit on Tuesday (March 23).

FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand issued a statement last week saying that the school system “condemns all acts of violence” while acknowledging the “misinformation and xenophobic language that have led to aggression toward, harassment, and exclusion of our students and families from AAPI communities.”

“It is our responsibility to ensure that all people are treated with dignity and humanity in our schools,” Brabrand said. “These behaviors are more than being unkind and will not be tolerated. Our success and well-being as a school division depends upon us standing united against any acts of violence and hatred committed against any person or group within our community.”

FCPS says that anyone with information related to the incident at Longfellow Middle School should contact their school principal or Fairfax County police.

Photo via Google Maps

The Fairfax County School Board voted last night (Thursday) to change the boundaries for McLean and Langley high schools — but not in the way they had discussed last month.

Of the three possible boundary changes presented to the community in December, Fairfax County Public Schools recommended a modified version of Option C when the school board met on Jan. 21. Last night, however, the option presented for the board to vote on was “Option B,” which passed 11-1 with Member-At-Large Abrar Omeish dissenting.

The approved boundary change will reassign students from McLean to Langley in the Colvin Run Elementary School split feeder area, along with portions of the Westbriar and Spring Hill elementary school split feeder areas.

Dranesville District Representative Elaine Tholen also included a provision that would allow rising ninth graders affected by the boundary change to either attend Langley High School this fall or be grandfathered into McLean High School and get transportation provided for all four years of school.

Overcrowding is a decades-old problem at McLean despite several attempts to add space, the latest of which comes in the form of 12 modular classrooms that are currently under construction. They will be finished later this month and ready for students’ return in March, Tholen said.

The option that was favored last month would have shifted some Spring Hill Elementary students from Longfellow Middle School and McLean High to Cooper Middle School and Langley High.

Tholen said Option B came out ahead after the board weighed “many considerations, many of them contradictory,” from the impact of future developments to diversity at Langley High School.

“We heard loud and clear from those who participated in our public hearing and public engagement process: Clean up at least one split feeder while giving McLean some capacity relief,” Tholen said.

Community input is also the reason why the two feeder middle schools of Longfellow and Cooper were included in the boundary adjustment study.

As a result of the new boundaries, an estimated 190 students previously assigned to McLean will now go to Langley, and an estimated 78 students from Longfellow will be moved to Cooper.

“This is not a perfect solution. Neither were the other options,” Providence District Representative Karl Frisch said, adding that he would have loved to address the Colvin Run and Spring Hill split feeders “in their entirety.”

Frisch said this option relieves capacity concerns at McLean without overloading Langley or Cooper, and improves both the Colvin Run and Spring Hill split feeders. He added that FCPS and the board will continue studying capacity data for McLean, Langley and Marshall high schools as well as other schools in the Tysons area.

Omeish commended Tholen for her diligence but predicted the board will be “finding ourselves here in a few years” with this limited change.

“I don’t feel in good conscience that this is the most long-term solution,” she said.

Image via FCPS

Fairfax County Public Schools has further refined a plan to relieve overcapacity at McLean High School using available space at Langley High School.

After presenting three possible boundary changes for the McLean and Langley pyramids at a community meeting on Dec. 7, FCPS Facilities and Transportation Services reviewed public feedback to refine one of its proposals, dubbed “Option C.” The updated option was presented to the Fairfax County School Board last night (Thursday).

For the last 10 years, overcrowding has persisted at McLean despite several limited attempts to add space over the years. The school sits at 118% capacity, with 2,350 students in a building designed for 1,993. Currently, 12 modular classrooms are being built to bring the capacity down to 100%.

The new recommendation from FCPS reassigns a portion of the area that currently feeds students from Spring Hill Elementary School to Longfellow Middle School and McLean. About 159 students would move from McLean to Langley, and about 73 students would move from Longfellow to Cooper Middle School.

“We have come a long way since work first began on the boundary adjustment between McLean and Langley pyramids,” Dranesville Representative Elaine Tholen said during the meeting. “Tonight, we are seeing some of the fruits of hard work our facilities staff has done to analyze option after option after listening to and incorporating public input.”

The original “Option C,” presented in December, considered reassigning students in the Spring Hill Elementary School split feeder area. After collecting emailed comments and verbal feedback, staff modified this option to create the new recommendation, said Jeffrey Platenberg, the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation.

“This is a pretty natural process,” he said during the meeting. “We usually call these the hybrid recommendation.”

Staff who reviewed public feedback found that the communities involved were primarily concerned about the impact of development in and around Tysons, the possibility of too many split feeders, and the socioeconomic diversity of the schools involved, he said.

Meanwhile, Tholen said some have shared concerns about balancing populations amid COVID-19 uncertainties and ongoing development. Others worry that Cooper Middle School will be overlooked in the focus on McLean and Longfellow, and still other community members want FCPS to diversify the types of housing within the boundaries for Langley.

As for those worried about children in their final year of elementary, middle or high school, school board policy allows FCPS to grandfather in these students, Platenberg said.

The assistant superintendent said the proposed revision addresses some of these concerns while allowing FCPS to monitor growth at McLean and Langley high schools.

Tholen acknowledged that no plan will address all concerns, but she encouraged every neighborhood to share how they feel they would be impacted.

“We are still taking public input,” she said. “No final decision has been made.”

There will be a public hearing next Thursday (Jan. 28), and after that, the school board will vote to pick a plan on Feb. 4.

“Your input has been thoughtful and extremely helpful, so please continue,” Tholen said.

Chart via FCPS