February 9 – 15, 2017
Fa lls Chur c h, V i r g i ni a • ww w. fc np. c om • Fr ee
Fou n d ed 1991 • Vol. X X V I No. 51
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week F.C.’s Davis Dreams Big with Tiny Homes
Falls Church native and George Mason High School alum Pete Davis hopes his tiny house startup has a big future after appearing on “Shark Tank” last month. See page 8
Creative Cauldron Nets 4 Helen Hayes Nods Falls Church’s theater program took another big leap toward a proud regional profile with the release of nominations for the annual D.C.-area Helen Hayes awards that included nominations for best actor and best actress in a musical and best supporting actor and actress in a musical.
Schiller Stuns School Board With Plan for $60+ Million High School Focuses on Citizen Desire for All-New, Cost-Efficient Plan
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
tax rate, the amount the City demands in taxes based on $100 of assessed real estate valuation. The current rate is $1.315, which held steady last April when the Council voted 4-3 to cut $912,600 from the School Board request. A lot of citizen anger at that cut wound up centering, whether deservedly or not, on thenSuperintendent Dr. Toni Jones, who resigned in favor of a more lucrative job last summer, and this year, enrollment at the City’s five schools has grown much faster than projected — at a 6.4 percent
Falls Church’s veteran interim superintendent Dr. Robert Schiller stunned the F.C. School Board late Tuesday night with a new plan for a single-phase construction of a new George Mason High School with an estimated cost of almost half the current $117 million projection for a 1,500 student capacity school. His rough estimate is that it could be done for $60-$70 million. Schiller carried forward logic he introduced at a joint F.C. City Council-School Board work session last week, and then at a City Council work session Monday night, by noting that removing or finding other ways to deal with non-essential elements of a new school construction plan could save millions in taxpayer dollars. His latest iteration was a further advance based on the preponderance of community concerns elicited from a record-turnout town hall event held last Saturday morning at the Henderson Middle School. City Hall officials indicated to the News-Press that the attendance topped 200, virtually unprecedented for a town hall gathering of its type in the City. Summaries of over an hour of small-group deliberations by the participants indicated a strong preference for a single-build high school, for maximum economic development allowable on the 39-acre site, and a great concern for limiting the cost of it all to taxpayers. These came out of the three options presented at the meeting, a simple renovation and minor expansion of the existing
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See News Briefs, page 9
David Brooks: Where History is Being Made
James and Deborah Fallows have an excellent sense of where world-shaping events are taking place at any moment — and a fervent commitment to be there to see it happen.. See page 14
Top Seed Mason Girls Head to Postseason
The George Mason High School girls varsity basketball end the regular season on an 11-game win streak to solidify their spot atop the Conference 35 standings. See Sports, page 16
Index Editorial..................6 Letters....................6 News & Notes.10–11 Comment........ 12–14 Food & Dining......15 Sports..................16
Calendar........18–19 Classified Ads......20 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword ..........21 Critter Corner.......22 Business News....23
F.C. INTERIM SCHOOL Superintendent Dr. Robert Schiller (middle of those seated on the right) presented his latest plan for a new high school to the F.C. School Board Tuesday night. (Photo: News-Press)
New F.C. Budget Elements Taking Shape, Real Estate Assessments Out Next Week by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Parameters of the coming Fiscal Year 2018 budget process in the City of Falls Church are taking shape this month with the introduction of annual real estate assessments due late next week, a second-quarter financial report of the City’s operation unveiled this week, and the F.C. School Board poised to finalize its request next Tuesday for its annual financial transfer to cover the next school year. While there are predictions that real estate values will rise considerably, as Councilman Phil
Duncan that cited a sale price of a property was 14 percent above its current assessed value, they remain based on anecdotal information. While the official results from City assessor Ryan Davis are, by law, meant to reflect sale values of real estate, some have complained in recent years they are unduly conservative. The assessments coming next week will be a major determinant of how much taxes the City will be able to raise to cover the costs of government and the schools. Over and above that, the City Council retains the authority to raise or lower the real estate