Metro Board Debates Lowering Fares — “During the transit authority’s bi-monthly board meeting Thursday, four board members voiced support for a flurry of proposals that would simplify or reduce rail fees, including lower fares and eliminating rush hour peak pricing.” [DCist]
Paycheck Protection Program Deadline Extended — The deadline for small businesses to apply for forgivable loans from the federal COVID-19 relief program has been extended to May 31. The new PPP application period includes a 14-day window exclusively open to businesses and nonprofits with fewer than 20 employees. [Fairfax County Economic Development Authority]
Virginia to Overhaul Police Shooting Investigations — “Virginia’s attorney general and the state’s NAACP announced Wednesday that they are launching a collaborative effort to bring more transparency, impartiality and public confidence to the way police shootings are investigated across the commonwealth.” [The Washington Post]
Hunter Mill Supervisor to Assist with Potomac River Cleanup — “Help clean up our beautiful communities! This Saturday, April 10 is the Potomac River Watershed Cleanup. I’ll be participating in events in Reston and the weather looks good, so please consider joining us!” [Supervisor Walter Alcorn/Twitter]
Federal Assistance Available to Shuttered Venues — The Small Business Association’s Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program is now accepting applicants seeking assistance with payroll, rent, and other expenses. Supported by $16 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act, the program is open to live venue operators, promoters, theatrical producers, live performing arts organizations, museums, zoos, aquariums and theaters. [Fairfax County Government]
RCC Unveils Plans to Celebrate Earth Day — Reston Community Center’s 2021 Earth Day activities will include a photo scavenger hunt, play-dough making, storytelling, and supplies for a home herb garden. Advance registration and face masks are required for the Green Reston program on April 24. [Patch]
Photo via Mary Dominiak/Twitter
A new neighborhood is coming to Herndon this summer.
Reston-based homebuilder Stanley Martin will open the Liberty Park neighborhood in Herndon in July. It will feature 155 two-over-two condo and townhome options.
The townhomes will start in the $700,000 range, while condos start in the mid-$500,000 range. The housing will include options for two to four bedrooms, two to four baths, and up to 2,700 square feet of space.
Both townhomes and condos will have private garages, balconies, and rooftop terraces.
Neighborhood features include garden parks, playgrounds, electric vehicle charging stations, and dog stations. The site also has active recreation areas that include a playing field and basketball court.
MRP Realty originally acquired the property at 13605 Dulles Technology Drive in 2016 as a part of a reported $97 million purchase from Liberty Property Trust, according to the Washington Business Journal.
The purchased Liberty Park portfolio encompassed the entire 32-acre business park with eight buildings and 532,041 square feet, according to MRP Realty’s website.
MPR Realty says that it plans to bring “Class A amenities” to the buildings at Liberty Park, including a “community tenant lounge and conference facility, a fitness center, and outdoor experiences to set them apart from other properties in the market.”
The new residential neighborhood is part of a larger effort by MPR Realty to transform the Liberty Park office complex into a mixed-use development to take advantage of the area’s proximity to the upcoming Innovation Center Metro station.
The Fairfax County Planning Commission approved the developer’s application to rezone the site for mixed-use development on Nov. 8, 2018. According to a final development plan published in March 2019, MPR Realty ultimately hopes to bring up to 530 residential units and up to 6,000 square feet of retail space to Liberty Park.
Image via Fairfax County
Developers broke ground yesterday (Wednesday) on a much-discussed new senior living community in Great Falls.
Slated to open in the summer of 2022, The Residence of Colvin Run at 1131 Walker Road will be a 53,000 square-foot facility set on 2.8 acres. It’s about a half-mile from the Colvin Run Mill historic site.
The senior living facility will offer 62 single and double occupancy units for adults 65 and older. That includes 44 assisted living apartments and 18 memory care residences.
Amenities will include an art studio, a theater designed for the hearing-impaired, several dining venues, an open-hearth brick oven, and a trail connecting to neighborhood businesses.
In terms of staffing, about 60 employees are expected to be on payroll, operator IntegraCare tells Reston Now.
Renderings depict an architecture that seems similar to a small cottage or a Craftsman-style look with lots of brick and wood.
Senior living facilities of this nature are becoming more in demand as the area’s population ages. In opening remarks, it was noted that nearly 34% of the Great Falls population is over 55 years old.
“In our experiences, we’ve found that seniors want to continue to live in the communities that they raised their families in,” IntegraCare CEO Larry Rouvelas said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “The need to build senior housing communities in the specific neighborhoods that people grew up in is an important part of their quality of life.”
IntegraCare also operates a senior living facility in Hunters Woods on Colt Neck Road.
Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust has been a consistent supporter of the project, stating that the development fulfills three of his goals for the district and Fairfax County at large.
“First of all, we’re very interested in economic development. This is a business. Secondly, we have a large population that’s aging, and this is a fantastic facility for them to age,” Foust said. “And third, from a land-use standpoint, it’s a beautiful building that’s going to fit into the character of Great Falls and make it even better.”
He also emphasized the concept of “placemaking,” as in providing amenities and creating a community that attracts companies and a workforce.
“It used to be that you built a factory and people came to that factory to work. Today, we build a community that people want to live in. The [workforce] comes to you and the employers come to them,” Foust said.
Foust also believes a greater supply of senior living options will be needed throughout Fairfax County in the future, since the county as a whole is getting older.
According to the county’s latest demographic information, about 14% of county residents — or 164,000 people — are 65 years old or older.
By 2025, that number is expected to tick up by 30,000 people and encompass 16% of the county’s total population. In 2035, as much as 17.5% of county residents — a total of 226,000 people — could be 65 or older.
“The aging of the population has created a need. Fortunately, we have developments like this one to try to meet that demand,” Foust said. “But demand right now far exceeds any supply that we’ve been able to create. So, it’s great to see this type of development occurring across the county for the foreseeable future.”
Construction on The Residence of Colvin Run is expected to take 15 months, with an additional two months for permitting. That puts the opening somewhere between July and September of 2022.
Work on the facility’s footings and foundations will commence in about a month, and then, in about three months, residents and passersby will see a steel frame being erected. The exterior skin will go on after that.
Construction on a renovation project at Herndon’s Fox Mill Elementary School will begin in May, Fairfax County Public Schools tells Reston Now.
The Fairfax County School Board is scheduled to open a bidding period for contractors as new business during its meeting tonight (Thursday). FCPS will receive bids on April 14 and develop recommendations before the board awards a contract at its May 6 meeting.
According to FCPS, the existing 71,718 square-foot building will be renovated and expanded by about 19,000 square feet, bringing the school’s size up to 91,123 square feet.
The addition will include a new courtyard and secondary entrance, a new basketball court, and an expanded parking lot. New electrical, plumbing, and heating, ventilation, and cooling systems will be installed.
Fox Mill will also get a new main entrance with “updated, more modern front elevation,” and the existing hallways will be redesigned to “simplify and provide easier navigation through the building,” FCPS said.
According to FCPS’s proposed capital improvement program for fiscal years 2022-2026, Fox Mill currently has a design capacity of 840 students and a program capacity of 683 students. The planned renovation will actually shrink the design capacity to 650 students.
Enrollment at Fox Mill dropped from 598 students in the 2019-2020 school year to 544 students in 2020-2021. The school has fluctuated between 81 and 92% capacity utilization over the past decade, peaking at 643 students in the 2014-2015 school year.
This will be the first time that Fox Mill has been renovated since its doors opened in 1979, though it did get an addition in 1980.
FCPS says the project carries a total estimated cost of $30 million, including a projected cost of $18.5 million for construction. Fairfax County voters approved school bonds in 2017 and 2019 that, respectively, included $2 million for planning and $27.5 million for construction, according to the CIP.
According to FCPS, construction will be completed in the spring of 2023.
Rendering via FCPS
Marijuana Possession Will Soon Be Legal in Virginia — “The Virginia General Assembly agreed Wednesday to make it legal for adults to possess up to an ounce of marijuana on July 1, nearly three years sooner than had been approved by the legislature in February.” [The Washington Post]
County Residents Share Thoughts on Police Chief Search — Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay and Lee District Supervisor Rodney Lusk hosted a public input session on Tuesday (April 6) as part of the county’s ongoing search for a permanent successor to retired Police Chief Edwin Roessler Jr. McKay said the board will hold interviews for the position over the next week. [WTOP]
Reston Delegate Holds Post-Session Town Hall — After the Virginia General Assembly adjourned yesterday, Del. Ken Plum and State Sen. Janet Howell are holding a virtual town hall meeting at 7 p.m. today to discuss the 2021 session. Anyone interested in attending can register in advance for the Zoom link and submit questions to [email protected]. [Ken Plum]
Metro General Manager Calls Silver Line Phase 2 “A Priority” — Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld declined to commit to a “hard start date” for when the Silver Line’s second phase will open, but he told the Northern Virginia Transportation Alliance yesterday “want to get that out as quick as we can” because of the potential impact on ridership and the region’s economic development. [WTOP]
Democratic Candidates for Governor Spar in First Televised Debate — Five candidates vying for the Democratic Party’s nomination to become Virignia’s next governor discussed the pandemic, gun violence, and criminal justice reform during an hour-long event hosted by Virginia State University in Petersburg. [Virginia Mercury]
Reston Company Lands Billions in Defense Contracts — “On the heels of an $830 million U.S. Army contract won in February, Reston-based Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) has landed two more Army contracts worth a combined $4.4 billion, it announced today.” [Virginia Business]
Photo via vantagehill/Flickr
Since Virginia’s new law barring the use of mobile phones while driving went into effect on Jan. 1, local police have written hundreds of citations.
The Fairfax County Police Department has issued “over 415 tickets” related to violations of the hands-free law since the new year.
The Herndon Police Department tells Reston Now that its officers initially issued warnings but did not ticket motorists for violating the law, which prohibits people from holding a handheld communications device while driving a moving vehicle on Virginia highways.
“The first two months of 2021 saw our patrol officers issuing warnings to motorists that were observed in violation of the law,” a Herndon Police spokesperson wrote. “Our goal was to inform as many people as possible of the change in laws.”
However, Herndon Police began issuing citations on March 1, and since then, they have written 43 citations for motorists violating the law.
The state law notes that violations are punishable by a fine of $125 for the first offense and $250 for any subsequent offenses.
The law was technically enacted on July 1, 2020, but was not effective until six months later so that a public messaging campaign could be established and law enforcement could be trained on how to enforce it.
There are few notable expectations to the rule, including emergency vehicle operators performing official duties, drivers who are lawfully parked, and someone using their phone to report an emergency.
While it is illegal to hold a mobile phone while driving, it remains legal to talk on a phone provided it is not in the driver’s hand.
According to Drive Smart Virginia, nearly 15% of all fatal crashes in 2020 involved distracted driving.
Preliminary Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles data indicates that Fairfax County had the most fatalities related to distracted driving in the state last year, as well as the most injuries resulting from distracted driving.
Photo via Alexandre Boucher/Unsplash
Herndon residents looking to clean out old documents, magazines, and other assorted papers will soon have a convenient opportunity to do so, courtesy of Herndon Senior Center.
The senior center at 873 Grace Street will host a free community paper-shredding event on May 8 from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The event is being organized in partnership with the nonprofit Herndon Village Network and the independent living facility Herndon Harbor House.
Herndon Village Network, which provides free transportation to senior citizens in the Herndon area, shared instructions for the upcoming event in a press release issued yesterday (Tuesday):
- Don your face mask and place items to be shredded into disposable, cardboard boxes. You don’t need to remove staples.
- Put the boxes into the trunk of your car.
- Drive to Park Avenue, and, from Park Avenue, turn onto Jorss Place.
- Turn left into the Herndon Harbor House parking lot, where cars will line up for the shred event.
- Stay in your car and follow directions from volunteers. Traffic flow will eventually take you into the Herndon Senior Center parking lot, where the shred truck will be parked.
- When it’s your turn, put your car in park, stay in your car, and pop your trunk. Someone will remove your items for the shredder.
- Exit the Herndon Senior Center parking lot as directed by volunteers.
Residents can also get rid of large, non-paper-based items later this month at the Town of Herndon’s annual spring clean-up, which will take place on April 21-23 this year.
Photo via Google Maps
(Updated at 12:20 p.m.) The Fairfax County Health Department has expanded eligibility for COVID-19 vaccine appointments to all Phase 1c workers, bringing the county one step closer to opening registration up to the general adult population.
Starting today (Wednesday), people who live or work in the Fairfax Health District and are employed in the following industries can sign up for a vaccine appointment through the health department:
- Barbers, stylists, and hairdressers
- Finance
- Information technology and communication
- Media
- Legal services
- Public safety engineers, including emergency communication centers and heavy and civil engineering construction
- Other public health workers, such as public health program administrators and researchers in physical, engineering, and life sciences
The Fairfax Health District encompasses Fairfax County, the cities of Fairfax and Falls Church, and the towns of Clifton, Herndon and Vienna.
Individuals who are eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccination can register through the Fairfax County Health Department’s website or by contacting the department’s call center at 703-324-7404.
This latest expansion of eligibility comes just two days after Fairfax County opened vaccine registrations up to an initial group of Phase 1c workers, including food service workers, cleaning and janitorial staff, and faculty and staff at higher education institutions.
“We expect to move into Phase 2 by April 18 in accordance with federal and state goals for the COVID-19 vaccination rollout,” the health department says.
President Joe Biden declared yesterday (Tuesday) that everyone 16 and older will be eligible to register for a COVID-19 vaccine by April 19, ahead of his previous target date of May 1.
Gov. Ralph Northam announced on April 1 that all of Virginia will reach Phase 2 — the general adult population — by April 18, though some jurisdictions could advance to that point sooner than others. Fairfax County has said it can meet that deadline as long as it receives a sufficient supply of doses.
According to its vaccine dashboard, the county received 40,950 first and second vaccine doses from the Virginia Department of Health during the week of March 29 to April 4, a step down from the roughly 55,000 doses that came in the previous week.
The Fairfax County Health Department says that it ordered 18,000 fewer doses last week, because some of its partners had unused vaccine that got carried over from the previous week, which can happen on occasion when there is a delay in a partner coming onboard or fewer people come through a particular site than projected.
“The number of vaccinations performed in the health district was not impacted,” the department told Reston Now. “This week, vaccine orders are at normal levels.”
The county health department is currently making appointments for individuals who registered on March 30. There are more than 36,000 people on the waitlist right now, 9% of the 395,096 people who have registered since December.
According to VDH data, 368,665 Fairfax County residents have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 196,304 residents have been fully vaccinated. More than 1.6 million Virginians have now been fully vaccinated — 18.8% of the state’s population.
A pop-up vaccination clinic will be open at Southgate Community Center in Reston on Thursday (April 8) for a portion of eligible county residents.
The clinic is for residents 65 and up as well as individuals aged 16 to 64 with underlying medical conditions. It will run from 1:30-4:30 p.m. and is in partnership with the Fairfax County Health Department.
Appointments are on a first-come, first-serve basis.
To make an appointment, county residents can go to the community center at 12125 Pinecrest Road or call 703-860-0676 to sign up.
Supply is very limited, though, with only 120 doses available for those looking for their first shot.
In fact, appointments almost were already filled up, as of late Tuesday afternoon, Southgate Community Center director Richard Cabellos told Reston Now.
The community center was just alerted about 48 hours ago that it will be hosting the pop-up clinic, but few appointments remain available due to Southgate’s walkable location and demand.
“It shows how many people want vaccines in Reston,” Cabellos said.
This will be the second pop-up clinic at the community center. The first one took place on March 18 and had only 60 appointments available. Those, too, got snapped up quick.
Residents who got their first shot on March 18 are being invited back for their second in the morning of April 8.
The doses for those in need of their second shot have been set aside and do not factor into the 120 slots available for first-timers.
Cabellos says there are plans to do another pop-up clinic in the future, due to popularity and the ease in which the community center can set up a clinic on short notice.
Democracy Drive in Reston Town Center Closed — The street will be closed all week for “ongoing infrastructure updates with repairs and modifications being made to the waste lines in the Southwest Building,” a Reston Town Center spokesperson says. The street remains accessible to pedestrians, and all stores are open. [Potomac River Running/Twitter]
Kennedy Center to Fully Reopen in the Fall — The Kennedy Center will hold a grand reopening in September, launching an extensive lineup of performances and activities to celebrate its 50th anniversary. A limited number of in-person concerts are also being planned for this spring and summer. [Washingtonian]
Task Force Proposes Strategies to Preserve Affordable Housing — Fairfax County Affordable Housing Preservation Task Force presented a report to the Board of Supervisors yesterday (Tuesday) with recommendations for maintaining the county’s approximately 9,000 existing market affordable multifamily units. [Fairfax County Government]
Reston Startup Raises Millions in Funding — The cybersecurity startup ThreatQuotient Inc. raised $22.5 million in equity and debt funding that it hopes to use to accelerate the growth of its data platform, which gives clients information they can utilize to automatically detect and respond to threats. The company says it saw “record bookings and revenue growth” last year. [Washington Business Journal]
Celebrate National Beer Day at a Local Brewery — National Beer Day comes every year on April 7 to mark the end of the Prohibition-era ban on the sale and consumption of low-alcohol beverages like beer. Local options for celebrating include Herndon’s Aslin Beer Company as well as Bike Lane Brewery and the Lake Anne Brewhouse in Reston. [Patch]
Photo via vantagehill/Flickr
The Reston Association plans to spend more on lake management in 2021 than in previous years.
Lake Anne and Lake Thoreau suffered from constant algae blooms and overgrowth of invasive hydrilla in 2020, according to an RA community discussion last week about the lakes.
To manage those rather typical lake-related issues, the plan is to take a more “proactive” mitigation strategy, but that requires increasing the lake management budget, a possibility that was first discussed last fall in relation to a potentially toxic algae bloom that emerged in Lake Thoreau over the summer.
However, the investment is planning to be substantially more than initially thought.
In 2020, RA spent $17,000 for monitoring and treating lakes. In 2021, the plan is to spend about three times more money — nearly $52,000.
As stated at the March 31 meeting, this is largely due to Lake Thoreau.
Besides algae, Reston’s deepest lake also suffers from overgrowth of hydrilla, an aggressive, invasive aquatic plant that crowds out native species and impedes boating and fish habitats.
“Hydrilla is a big concern in Lake Thoreau,” said Bill Kirkpatrick of Aquatic Environment Consultants, which RA hired to manage the lakes. “Hydrilla grew late in the year, and the treatment was done on an emergency basis. We’ve revisited this and rethought the process.”
The plan is to start treatment early in the growth stage with a low, multiple-dose application of herbicide that is released slowly through clay pellets dropped to the bottom of the lake.
“It’s kinda like taking antibiotics,” Kirkpatrick said. “You don’t take all of it at once…You split it up to keep a certain concentration in your body.”
While this is a more expensive and time consuming way of treating the hydrilla, the hope is that it lasts much longer.
“It should suppress the growth and it never reaches that big die-off phase,” Kirkpatrick said.
While the hydrilla treatment will cost about $19,000 in 2021, the consultant believes that, if it is successful, no further treatment will be needed in 2022 or, perhaps, for several years beyond.
Starting in May, both Lake Thoreau and Lake Anne will be treated with low-dose algeasized concentrations on a monthly basis through September.
“The goal is to control the noxious algaes and allow the beneficial algaes to exist,” Kirkpatrick said.
Aquatic Environment Consultants plans to manage algae in this manner going forward, and the cost of algae treatment in 2022 is expected to remain the same.
All in all, it’s currently being estimated that the budget for lake management in 2022 will be $29,471 — about $22,000 less than RA anticipates spending in 2021.
The budget also includes funds to monitor lake water quality and to manage alligator weed, water primrose, and water lilies on Lake Newport.
The community discussion covered several other lake-related topics as well, including restocking the carp population, a new fishing line recycling program, and managing the Canadian geese population by tracking nests, counting geese, and potentially addling eggs.
“They cause traffic disturbances, they cause damage to people’s property, and they can put a huge amount of nutrients in the lakes, which can cause some of those algae blooms,” RA Watershed Manager Bill Peterson said. “We are not trying to eradicate the geese population, just trying to keep it down to an acceptable level.”
In recent months, the Reston Association has increased the assessment fee by $10, and as noted at the meeting, the boat mooring rate has also gone up.
Three left lanes on the eastbound Dulles Toll Road will be closed tonight so that construction crews can perform civil work near the Herndon Metro station.
The closures will start at 9 p.m. around the 3.3 mile marker by the rail station and extend past the Reston Town Center Metro station to the 5.2 mile marker just beyond Reston Parkway, according to a construction alert from the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project.
“Drivers are asked to use caution and pay attention to all signage and barricades,” the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project says. “Traffic should be aware of the change in pattern.”
Traffic stoppages on the toll road could last up to 20 minutes at a time.
Christopher Beausoleil, a project manager for the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, tells Reston Now that the lane closures are necessary to allow crews to repair a damaged safety cable on the roof of the pedestrian bridge connecting the Herndon station to the new Herndon-Monroe Parking Garage.
According to Beausoleil, the repairs needed are relatively minor, but the Dulles Toll Road lanes will be closed “out of an abundance of caution” to ensure the workers’ safety, since they aren’t allowed to be on the pedestrian bridge when there is traffic on the highway below.
While the lanes are scheduled to be closed until 5 a.m. tomorrow (Wednesday), Beausoleil says the actual repair work will likely not take that long. It could potentially be completed within half an hour.
“It will probably be shorter than advertised,” Beausoleil said.
A full list of lane and ramp closures scheduled for this week in the Dulles Toll Road corridor due to ongoing construction activities related to the Silver Line phase two project can be found on the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project website.
Image via Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project
If the prospect of trillions of cicadas emerging from the earth fills you with excitement, Fairfax County’s official tourism organization has just the game for you.
Visit Fairfax has introduced a Cicada Stroll Bingo card where participants can mark off squares when they take photos of a cicada at certain locations for a chance to win insect-inspired prizes.
“While some may view the arrival of the Brood X cicadas as a nuisance, we here at Visit Fairfax choose to look at it as an exceptional opportunity for visitors and residents to witness one of Earth’s most remarkable natural occurrences – and have fun at the same time!” Visit Fairfax President and CEO Barry Biggar wrote in the press release.
Suggested sites to spot cicadas range from pieces of public art like Patrick Doughtery’s “Bird in Hand” in Reston Town Square Park to the Sully Historic Site in Chantilly. Other boxes to check include county hiking trails, shopping centers, a brewery or winery, near water, and at a restaurant (hopefully, not on your food).
Anyone who fills out two squares in their bingo card, plus the traditional “free” square in the center, can upload the card and accompanying photos for a chance to get a Cicada Care package with items like a custom cicada facemask.
Winners will be announced in May, and some of the best photos will be featured on the county’s blog and social media.
The Cicada Bingo Card was conceived as a way to showcase “road trip travel” and encourage folks to visit outdoor county attractions safely in a “quirky kind of way,” Visit Fairfax spokesperson Ali Morris says.
She adds that this is also another way to encourage residents to visit and support their favorite local business as they recover from an extremely rough last year.
The D.C. region is expected to be the epicenter for the emergence of Brood X, a brood of cicadas that emerge only every 17 years. They spend their larva years underground, which is anywhere from two to 17 years, chowing down on tree roots.
There could be millions of them buzzing around in the area in the early summer. They’re extremely loud, thanks to the sound that the males produce by rubbing their legs together to attract potential mating partners.
While they are also big as far as insects go, they’re completely harmless. In fact, their long life cycles and the fact that they are so numerous are really their only defense mechanisms from predators.
The Brood X cicadas are expected to hit peak emergence in Northern Virginia in late May through early June. While they’ll be visible and audible everywhere, parks and other natural settings will be the best place to see and hear them.
They are also edible, to an extent.
“A few are not likely to hurt pets but too many could cause digestive issues,” Fairfax County Park Authority naturalist Tammy Schwab told Reston Now last month. “They are edible by people if you’re brave enough to try it.”
Photo courtesy Visit Fairfax
Fairfax County Public Schools students will offer four days of in-person instruction to select students starting this week, FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand announced yesterday (Monday).
The opportunity to get four days of in-person classes has been extended first to the pre-kindergarten through 12th grade students who have been experiencing the most significant challenges in virtual and hybrid learning.
FCPS says school personnel identified these students using the school system’s Multi-Tiered Systems of Support model, which takes into account students’ behavior and social and emotional well-being as well as their academic success.
Other students may be able to receive four days of in-person classes starting the week of April 20, but only if their families opted for in-person learning in the fall and they are currently attending two days of in-person classes.
“I am thrilled to announce that FCPS is continuing to move forward with bringing back additional students to in-person learning — particularly our students who are experiencing the greatest learning challenges,” Brabrand said. “Overall, we see this as very good news for FCPS students, families, staff, and the community and will help us prepare for five days of in-person instruction this fall.”
Brabrand told the Fairfax County School Board on March 16 that FCPS could expand in-person learning to four days on a limited basis after spring break, with the goal of providing more support to students with disabilities, English-language learners, and others who have especially struggled this year.
To ensure that there would be sufficient capacity, FCPS required students who opted for some in-person learning to confirm that they were attending school regularly by March 26, the day before spring break. If they were not in class, they risked being reverted to all-virtual instruction.
FCPS spokesperson Lucy Caldwell says that the school system does not have an exact figure for how many students were sent back to virtual learning, but those decisions were handled on school-by-school basis.
The expansion of in-person learning comes even though FCPS is instructing all staff and students at middle and high schools to maintain six feet of social distancing, citing Fairfax County’s high rate of community transmission of COVID-19.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance for schools on March 19 to recommend at least three feet of social distancing in classrooms if everyone wears a face mask. However, the federal agency also said that middle and high school students should be at least six feet apart in communities with high transmission levels.
“This recommendation is because COVID-19 transmission dynamics are different in older students — that is, they are more likely to be exposed to SARS-CoV-2 and spread it than younger children,” the CDC said.
The CDC determines community transmission levels primarily based on testing positivity rates and the number of new cases per 100,000 people over the past seven days. Fairfax County has recorded 103.4 new cases per 100,000 people in the past seven days, and 5.2% of all PCR tests have been positive, as of the week of March 27, according to the Virginia Department of Health’s school metrics dashboard.
Caldwell says that the ability of schools to accommodate four days of in-person learning varies widely based on current occupancy, the size of classrooms and lunchroom spaces, furniture, and staffing.
“Some of our schools DO have open space,” she said in an email. “Some students who were expected to come back in-person did not; school staff reached out to those families who’s students did not show up and ascertained whether or not we might have open seats through those discussions. We are addressing these open seat opportunities now.”
In-person attendance currently ranges from 20 to 80% depending on the specific school, according to Caldwell, who also noted that staffing levels could become insufficient if employees need to quarantine.
As of Monday, FCPS has recorded 1,253 COVID-19 cases since Sept. 8, including 660 cases among staff and 440 among students. Public health officials are currently investigating outbreaks at McLean High School, South Lakes High School, and the Word of Life Christian Academy, according to VDH.
Reported to the state on March 26, the South Lakes outbreak stems from 11 cases among players in the school’s football program. The outbreak led to the cancellation of two games and required almost 40 other students to quarantine.
“Each school is working within their own capacity to accommodate additional in-person opportunities for students whose families have already expressed a desire for them,” Caldwell said.
Photo via FCPS
Metro Proposes Delaying Funding for Silver Line Phase 2 — Unveiled yesterday (Monday), Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld’s revised FY 2022 budget proposal confirms that the second phase of the Silver Line will not open this year, though the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has maintained that the project will be ready for Metro to take over by Labor Day. [ABC7-WJLA]
Reston Woman Charged with Assault after Barricade — Fairfax County police arrested a woman on Sunday after she barricaded herself in an apartment on the 2200 block of Stone Wheel Drive in Reston. The hours-long standoff began when officers arrived to investigate a reported domestic assault and serve a warrant to 29-year-old Iesha Walker, who police say threatened to burn the building, shoot officers, and harm a family member and acquaintance who were in the apartment with her. [FCPD]
Reston Tech Company Partners with Baltimore Ravens — Leidos and the Baltimore Ravens will donate funds to support Oxford House in Silver Spring for the second year of their “Tackling Opioid Addiction” campaign, which aims to raise awareness about the ongoing opioid epidemic. [Baltimore Ravens]
Herndon Student Wins Statewide Art Contest — Sarah Saravanan, a first-grade student at McNair Lower Elementary School in Herndon, won the Virginia Lottery’s Thank A Teacher Art Contest, which invites students to create art that will be showcased on “thank you” notes sent to during National Teacher Appreciation Week on May 3-7. [Patch]
Photo by Ray Copson
