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3-13-2025

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March 13 - 19, 2025

Falls Church, Virginia • w w w . fc n p . c o m • Free

Founded 1991 • Vol. XXXV No. 5

The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper of Record, Serving N. Virginia

School Board HOWIE MADE IT HAPPEN OKs Budget Falling Within Guidance Shields Dishes FF.C.’s Overall Plan Monday by Nicholas F. Benton

Falls Church News-Press

The Falls Church City School Board approved its Fiscal Year 2026 operating budget at its regular meeting this Tuesday, pulling back slightly from an earlier recommendation by the Superintendent of Schools Dr. Peter Noonan to seek more than the F.C. City Council allotted in its guidance earlier in the year. All eyes are now focusing on F.C. City Manager’s recommendations that he will present that Monday night, March 24, for the overall City operations budget for the new fiscal year that begins July 1. While surrounding jurisdictions are already experiencing significant pain due to declines in commercial real estate values, it is anticipated that Shields’ budget may include a 2 cent real estate tax rate cut, even with the full School Board budget request. That will be because of the City’s aggressive economic development commitment that has yielded major revenue gains derived from its new commercial and real estate developments. However, the cautionary aspect of this centers on how extensive the Trump administration’s slash and burn federal program cuts and personnel firings will be felt here, something that will be difficult to calculate this soon. Extensive job losses and resulting residential vacancies, for example, may take a major toll in ways that will become clearer in the coming months.

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YOUNG HOWIE CATES (center) was honored by the Falls Church School Board at its meeting Tuesday for his seminal role initiating the establishment of important accessibility features of a playground at the Oak Street Elementary School. He was joined by Superintendent Noonan, members of the School Board and his family. (News-Press photo)

Warner, Kaine, Beyer Continue Initiatives Vs. Trump

by Nicholas F. Benton

Falls Church News-Press

Virginia’s venerable federal legislators, U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine and, for this area, U.S. Rep. Don Beyer, have taken numerous strong stands against the moves by the Trump-Musk administration in the last two months since Trump returned to the White House. U.S. Sen. Warner assailed the Trump tariffs that went into effect yesterday. The 25 percent tariffs target foreign steel and aluminum, triggering additional tariffs and retaliatory fees and hurting consumers.

Warner said in a statement, “Let’s be clear, today’s action by the Trump administration to levy a 25 percent tax on the importation of all steel and aluminum into the U.S. will jack up costs for consumers and small businesses across the Commonwealth and the nation. These tariffs will significantly increase input costs for small businesses, put homeownership further out of reach for Virginians, and threaten goodpaying manufacturing jobs across America. “They will also endanger the Commonwealth’s greatest economic engine – the Port of

Virginia – by targeting commerce and potentially threatening activity at the port. Americans don’t want a reckless and misguided trade war. I’m going to keep working to lower prices for families and fighting to ensure we don’t turn our back on our allies.” Congressman Beyer issued a statement Tuesday on Musk and Trump’s mass firing of thousands of employees at the U.S. Department of Education. He said, “Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s political purge of the Department of Education is a gross betrayal of American stu-

dents. It is also illegal: Trump is plainly trying to eliminate by fiat a department established in law by Congress. “Gutting the Department of Education would have horrific effects on American students and schools. Teachers will be fired, students will go hungry, college will be less affordable, and the worst harm will fall on students with disabilities and students of color. All this just to put a few more dollars into the pockets of billionaires – it is truly disgusting. “Department of Education

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