A UNIQUE GOLD CUP: Doc Cebu won the Gold Cup eight weeks after its intended date. Page 9.
July 1, 2020 | Vol. 19, No. 27 | www.princewilliamtimes.com | 50¢ Covering Prince William County and surrounding communities, including Gainesville, Haymarket, Dumfries, Occoquan, Quantico and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.
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For students, name change is just a start
‘Unity’ names picked for former Stonewall schools
More funding, resources sought for aging schools
The Prince William School Board stripped the name of Confederate Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson from a county middle and high Arthur Reed school Monday night, choosing instead to name the schools for an ideal – unity – and the names of local African-American heroes: Carroll and Celestine Braxton and the late Arthur Reed.
By Jill Palermo
Times Staff Writer
By Angela Roberts Special to the Times
In the three years Shane Goodson has attended Stonewall Jackson High School, the irony that the school was named for a Confederate general hasn’t been lost on him: Goodson is biracial and far more of his classmates are Black or Hispanic or Asian than are white. Still, when he’d talk about the school’s name with his friends, they always reached a consensus: So many students had already filtered through the school and graduated with “Stonewall Jackson High School” written on their diplomas. Why would the name change now? “We just kind of had that mindset of, we’re just kids in a world run by adults,” said Goodson, a rising senior. “What could we do?” But after nearly 50 years, both Stonewall Jackson High School and Stonewall Middle School were renamed after just one week of meetings. The Prince William County School Board picked new names for the schools on Monday, June 29, after soliciting feedback and suggestions from the community in two virtual town halls. Stonewall Jackson students, teachers and alumni, interviewed prior to the school board’s vote, greeted the decision to rename their school with both relief and approval, but few said they were surprised. Given the surging movement against systemic racism and police brutality, some said the name changes seemed almost inevitable.
See UNITY, page 4
Proposed Va. 28 bypass moves forward New road could impact 70 homes By Daniel Berti
Times Staff Writer
the opening of Gainesville High School in the fall of 2021. The board’s boundary plan will increase the share of students at the former Stonewall Jackson who are economically disadvantaged, English language learners and minorities. “The county has to realize that this conversation, that these actions, don’t stop with the name change,” said Kimberly Elias, who graduated last year. “They start with it.”
A July 14 public hearing has been set for a $300 million bypass project that aims to improve traffic on the Va. 28 corridor. But some residents whose homes will be impacted are raising concerns the new road will not receive the level of environmental scrutiny once promised. A federal environmental review, which was expected to be completed this year, is no longer necessary because the bypass won’t need federal funding. Last November, Prince William County voters approved a $355 million transportation bond referendum that included $200 million in new local borrowing for the bypass.
See STUDENTS, page 4
See BYPASS, page 2
PHOTO BY DELIA ENGSTROM
Students, Shane Goodson (left), Eric Sledge (center) and Nash McCarthy, outside what is now Unity Reed High School. Now, however, they are calling for the school board to not only give the high school a new name but to also follow through on earlier promises to allocate more funding to renovate its aging facilities and provide more resources to students, who have long felt neglected. Students say the request should take on greater urgency since it comes in the wake of the school board’s vote last year to redraw attendance boundaries to prepare for INSIDE Classifieds...........................................13 Lifestyle................................................8 Obituaries...........................................11
Opinion.................................................7 Puzzle Page........................................20 Real Estate .........................................10 Sports...................................................9
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