Jun e 1 6 - 2 2 , 2016
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. XXVI NO. 17
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George Mason High School’s girls and boys soccer teams brought home a pair of state titles last weekend, as the girls nabbed their ninth consecutive championship and the boys won their fourth straight. SEE SPORTS, PAGE 24
F.C. Schools Hit ‘Reset’ Button on Campus Development Project, 4-2 Secretive Work With 2 Bidders Ends, But Timing Still Urgent
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
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The summer edition of the NewsPress Real Estate Guide is inside this edition with features on a new architectural design firm in Falls Church, the Urban Land Institute award winners and more. SEE PAGES RE-1 – RE-8
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My question, as Democrats gleefully tear into the Trump business record, is why rival Republicans never did the same. SEE PAGE 12
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Jesse Dee has been touring in support of his album On My Mind/In My Heart and will be the headlining act at the Columbia Pike Blues Festival in Arlington this Saturday. SEE PAGE 29
AMONG THE MORE THAN 80 Falls Church citizens who attended last Thursday’s meeting of “Families for the Falls Church Way in Our Public Schools” were those who had to settle for Standing Room Only. (P����: N���-P����)
‘Falls Church Way’ Activists Draw 80 to Community Event
BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
INDEX
Editorial.................6 Letters.............6, 34 News & Notes 10-11 Comment ..12-14, 23 Calendar ........30-31 Sports .................24
Business News ...26 Food & Dining.....27 Classified Ads ....32 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword ..........33 Critter Corner......34
Over 80 mostly Falls Church citizens were counted attending a meeting at the American Legion Hall on N. Oak last Thursday night, there at the bidding of a new local civic group going by the name of “Families for the Falls Church Way.” Those in attendance represented a wide array of civic
activists, including members of the City Council and a strong representation from the City’s venerable civic organization, the Citizens for a Better City, better known as the CBC, although that group had nothing to do with the forming of the “Falls Church Way” group. According to a handout at the meeting, “The Falls Church way is calling for better leadership for our school district, leader-
ship that inspires us to come together and connect, to lift each other up and become better versions of ourselves, to serve each other and realize the exponential benefits.” Long-time Falls Church teacher and American Legion leader Harry Shovlin accepted the role as the convener of the meeting, quipping that one of the earliest leaders of the school
Continued on Page 5
At last breaking a logjam of indecisive votes by the School Board and City Council, the Falls Church School Board provided a 4-2 majority Tuesday night to the motion to end the effort at developing the 36-acre high school and middle school campus site with a complicated and frustrating socalled “public private educational development” process. The process had two bidders competing to develop a plan that includes a new or renovated high school and 10 acres of commercial development by the site located next to the West Falls Church Metro station. Last week, the School Board was unable to make such a decision with a 3-3 tie vote, and then this Monday night the City Council voted 4-3 to delay making a final decision for still two more weeks. But in Tuesday’s decisive vote, the winning majority was provided by School Board member Michael Ankuma, who cast his lot with the three who’d voted the week before for terminating the current process, Erin Gill, Phil Reitinger and Lawrence Webb. According to News-Press sources, the regional commercial development community has not wasted any time perking up to Tuesday’s move, eager to focus on how to turn the 10.3 undeveloped acres by the West Falls Church Metro into a windfall for the City, its schools and, of course, themselves. Eager to jump in with plans for a “highest and best use” of the 10
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