February 25 – March 3, 2021
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FOU N D E D 1991 • VOL. XXXI N O. 2
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Real Estate Assessments in F.C. Improve Despite Pandemic F.C. City Officials Said Assessments Are Up 2.7% Overall, Outpacing Estimates From End of 2020 BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
Pandemic? What pandemic? One might consider such a reaction to the City of Falls Church’s annual real estate assessments released this week.
They grew an impressive 2.7 percent overall, slightly ahead of estimates that the City has been operating from as recently as December. According to City Manager Wyatt Shields, in an interview with the News-Press Wednesday,
there were no surprises in the results announced by the Office of the Assessor’s chief officer Ryan Davis and appraiser Lisa Freeman. The slightly better than expected increase came as part of the $55 million growth attrib-
utable to the progress in the construction of the Founder’s Row large scale mixed use project now under construction at the intersection of W. Broad and N. West Street. “That major improvement and the spate of new individual
home construction and renovations around the City account for the growth,” Shields said. Shields said that as the economy begins to recover from the darkest days of the Covid-19
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F.C. Schools Reopen for Hybrid Learning at All Grade Levels BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
It seemed almost like the start of a new school year for the Falls Church City Public Schools this week. With all the system’s teachers and staff having received their second Covid-19 innoculation last week, this week for the first time since the onset of the global Covid-19 pandemic last March, all students began to occupy all of the City’s classrooms. Social distancing requirements for the students prevented a full return, however, as the whole system went into a hybrid mode, with some classroom learning and some still from home. The biggest event was the fact that students were being allowed into the new high school, just completed at a cost of $120 mil-
lion, for in-person classes for the first time. Also, Tuesday night the School Board approved its budget of $53.6 million to submit to the City Council for a final OK. That budget is within the guidance provided by City staff in December and provides for a step salary increase above a one percent cost-of-living adjustment. The two percent growth over last year is below the guidance of a 2.7 percent growth that the City Council stipulated in December, and of the $53.6 million total, $43.8 million will be sought from the City’s general fund. That budget will be woven into the City Manager’s proposed budget for the whole City that he will present March 8. The board authorized the renewal of the system’s lease-
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STUDENTS at the City of Falls Church’s yet-to-be-named elementary school listen to their teacher do some reading prior to dismissal earlier this week. (P����: C������� FCCPS P����/C���� S��)
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SEE STORY, PAGE 10
SEE STORY, PAGE 19
SEE STORY, PAGE 19
As unusual and unwelcome as a Covidcautious season could be, the girls basketball team for the City of Falls Church’s high school was happy to walk away from it with a Class 3 state title after a 65-49 victory over Spotswood High School on Saturday night.
Some artists prefer to tell their stories without any lyrics, with one of those being acoustic fingerstyle guitarist Yasmin Williams, who will be a featured performer for the Creative Cauldron’s “Passport to the World” showcase this Friday.
One of the first things people associated with recently deceased Temple Rodef Shalom Rabbi Emeritus Laszlo “Larry” Berkowits was that he was a Holocaust survivor. The founding member of the synogague survived the genocide while still in his youth.
INDEX
Editorial............................................... 6 Letters................................................. 6 Comment ................................ 7,12,13 News & Notes................................... 10 Crime Report .................................... 12 Calendar ........................................... 14 Business News ................................. 15 Classified Ads ................................... 16 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword ......... 17 Critter Corner.................................... 18
