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DEMOCRATIC CONTENDER SETS BID FOR COUNTY BOARD
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Sun Gazette
VOLUME 83 NO. 8 JANUARY 18-24, 2018
ARLINGTON’S SOURCE FOR HOMETOWN NEWS SINCE 1935
Contracts Ready for Signatures Final Documents Set the Budgets for New Schools
CELEBRATING THE LEGACY OF DR. KING
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Students from Duke Ellington School of the Arts in the District of Columbia were among the featured performers at the Arlington County government’s annual tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., held Jan. 14 at Wakefield High School. The annual tribute also features spoken-word and musical performances. See more photos on Page 14, a slide show of photos from the event at www.insidenova.com/news/ arlington, and see the work of winners of the county school system’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Literary and Visual-Arts Competition PHOTO BY DEB KOLT on Page 10.
Bill by Del. Hope Would Allow for Instant-Runoff Voting in Arlington SCOTT McCAFFREY Staff Writer
Municipal elections in Arlington could move to an instant-runoff voting procedure if the General Assembly gives its OK. Del. Patrick Hope (D-47th) has introduced legislation allowing the County Board, if it desires, to mandate instantrunoff voting in local races. The bill would apply only to Arlington, and the County Board could, by majority vote, impose it
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for County Board and School Board general elections and, potentially, for County Board nominating processes. “Instant-runoff voting has proven itself to encourage more positive campaigns, and ensuring the eventual nominated or elected candidate will be the one with the broadest consensus of the public,” Hope told the Sun Gazette. The proposal has elicited a wary reaction from the county’s Electoral Board Continued on Page 22
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Work already is taking place, but Arlington School Board members on Jan. 18 are slated to approve final construction contracts for two new schools set to come online in the fall of 2018. School-system officials have agreed to a construction contract of just under $81.5 million with Gilbane Building Co. to construct the new “Wilson site” school in western Rosslyn, which will house a relocated H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program and several smaller school programs. All told, the facility will include 775 seats. The construction contract is part of a total project cost of $101 million. When the new facility is open, the existing H-B Woodlawn building north of Lee Highway will revert to its original (1950s-60s) purpose as a neighborhood middle school. School Board members also are slated to approve a $46.75 million final contract with Whiting-Turner Construction for the 752-seat Fleet Elementary School, currently being built adjacent to Thomas Jefferson Middle School. The total project cost for the Fleet school, including a parking deck, totals $59 million.The school is named after longtime local educator Alice Web Fleet. When the school opens, students in nearby Patrick Henry Elementary School will move into it, and the Patrick Henry building will be used to accommodate the Montessori program currently housed at Drew Model School. – A Staff Report
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