July 16 - 22, 2015
Falls Church, Virginia • w w w . fc n p . c o m • Free
Founded 1991 • Vol. XXV N o . 21
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week Council Set to Finalize Annexed Land ‘RFP’
The Falls Church City Council will convene for a work session Monday to put final touches on a “request for proposal” for development of the near 40 acres of land, currently home to George Mason High and Henderson Middle School annexed into the City as part of the water system deal. See News Briefs, page 9
$672K OK’d for New Turf at Mason High
Fairfax Co. Planning Commission Defers on F.C. Plan for Mt. Daniel F.C. Schools Offer More Details on Expansion Goals
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
The Falls Church City Council Monday approved the expenditure of $672,000 for the replacement of the artificial turf football/ soccer field and track at George Mason High School. See News Briefs, page 9
David Brooks: The New Old Liberalism Well, Hillary Clinton hasn’t gone crazy. At a time when some in her party are drifting toward Bernie Sanders/Occupy Wall Street-style rhetoric, Clinton delivered her first major economic address of the campaign. See page 14
Press Pass with Guster Guster worked hard to master its unique sound – bongos are pretty uncommon in modern music. It took about three albums throughout the late 1990s to reach point where the band was satisfied with its sound. See page 21
FALLS CHURCH’S J.E.B. STUART High School is one of the Fairfax County Schools, along with Robert E. Lee and W.T. Woodson, a new petition is calling on to change its name. (Photo: Drew Costley)
Petition: Remove Confederate Names from Fairfax Schools
by Drew Costley
Falls Church News-Press
Index
Editorial..................6 Letters....................6 News & Notes.12-13 Comment........14-17 Business News....18 Food & Dining......19
Calendar.........22-23 Classified Ads .....24 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword...........25 Critter Corner.......26
In step with a growing national movement to remove symbols of the country’s proslavery Confederacy, a movement has begun in Fairfax County to rename three of the county’s schools – two named after leaders of the Confederacy and another named for a Fairfax superintendent who was opposed to the immediate integration of public schools. But there are currently two
opposing petitions circulating through the online Change.org, one calling for Fairfax County School Board member Sandy Evans to spearhead the renaming of Robert E. Lee High School, W.T. Woodson High School and Falls Church’s J.E.B. Stuart High School, and another opposing the renaming. Both petitions were started by alumni of the Fairfax school system. Lisa McQuail and Jeff Parker, two Stuart graduates, are heading up the group petitioning for the names to be
changed while David Chagnon, a Lee alumnus, started the petition opposing the renaming of the schools. Another group, made up of current Stuart students, began organizing to get their school’s name changed in late May. The students – Anna Rowan, Lidia Amanuel, Cassie Marcotty, Abby Conde and Marley Finley – are rising seniors at Stuart and all began questioning the name of the school named after
Continued on Page 5
Suddenly thrust into doubt by an unfriendly response from the Fairfax County Planning Commission at a hearing in late June, Falls Church’s $15.6 million Mt. Daniel Elementary School renovation and expansion project has now been delayed past the planned tight window that would have it ready to open in September 2016. The Fairfax Planning Commission voted Wednesday night to accept the Falls Church City Schools’ request for a deferral of the board’s final action until Sept. 12. Facing the real prospect of having the project rejected by the Planning Commission, the City Schools and their consultants scrambled to put together thorough 64-page document clarifying the rationale and appropriateness of the school expansion which was provided to all members of the commission. The project had a thumbs-up from the Fairfax County planning staff and residents in the neighborhood of the school site, located three blocks outside the Falls Church city limits in the county, were “on board” the planned expansion. But at its June 24 meeting, the Planning Commission was greeted by a strong opposition to the plan presented by Mark Zetts of the McLean Citizens Association claiming the expansion made the school too big for the nine-acre site. F.C. School Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones told the News-Press Wednesday night that Mt. Daniel’s classroom configuration will now be exactly the same this fall as it was in the spring.