SEVENS RUGBY TOURNAMENT: 30 teams to play Saturday in Manassas. SPORTS, PAGE 12
July 8, 2021 | Vol. 20, No. 27 | www.princewilliamtimes.com | $1.00 Covering Prince William County and surrounding communities, including Gainesville, Haymarket, Dumfries, Occoquan, Quantico and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.
County releases draft equity, inclusion policy
LaTanya McDade met with school division staff July 1, her first day as superintendent of Prince William County schools.
Public comments sought until July 23 By Daniel Berti
Times Staff Writer
COURTESY PHOTO
New superintendent takes the helm of Prince William schools
Prince William County officials are seeking public input about the first draft of a wide-reaching new policy aimed at ensuring equal and equitable access to county government services for residents. The proposed “Equity and Inclusion Policy” will be the first of its kind in the county. It is the result of a directive the Prince William Board of County Supervisors approved nearly unanimously in June 2020. The directive asked county staff to “develop a framework for becoming a more inclusive and equitable Prince William County.” All supervisors voted in favor of
By Jill Palermo
LaTanya McDade took over as superintendent of Price William County Schools on July 1. During her first week on the job, McDade announced a 100-day listening tour to gather input from teachers, principals and support staff. McDade comes to the county after a 23-year career with Chicago Public Schools. She is the first woman and the first African American to lead the county’s nearly 90,000-student school division. Her hiring follows the retirement of former superintendent Steven Walts, who led Prince William schools for 16 years.
Under McDade’s leadership as Chicago Public Schools’ chief education officer, the city’s school division expanded its advance course offerings and increased graduation rates and college enrollment, according to a school division press release. With 340,000 students, CPS is the nation’s third-largest public school system. When her hiring was announced in March, McDade said she was drawn to Prince William County in part because of the school board’s focus on equity, which she called “a moral imperative.” See McDADE, page 4
See EQUITY, page 4 The “Mill at Occoquan,” approved July 6, would include 52 condominiums in a six-story building along the Occoquan River.
In Q-and-A, LaTanya McDade discusses equity, remote learning, school resource officers Times Staff Writer
the directive except for Supervisor Pete Candland, R-Gainesville, who was absent from the meeting. If adopted in its current form, the new policy will inform all other county government policies, planning, practices and programs as they apply to the delivery of government services. “The intended outcome out of [the policy] is really to increase our services to the public at large, and to guarantee the public is aware of the services that we offer and that they have access to those services,” Prince William County’s Equity and Inclusion Officer Maria Burgos
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Occoquan OKs smaller condo, retail project By Aileen M. Streng Contributing Writer
The scaled-down, six-story “Mill at Occoquan” condominium and retail project was approved unanimously Tuesday night by the Occoquan Town Council, more than three years after it was first proposed. “I’m very pleased,” the project’s developer, Kevin Sills, of Mid-Atlantic Real Estate Investments, said
in an interview after the meeting. He acknowledged the process took longer than he had anticipated. A few more steps remain before Sills can begin construction on the new building. Occoquan’s Architectural Review Board must approve the design of the building, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency must a review its impact on the floodplain along the See OCCOQUAN, page 2
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Dale City July 4th parade returns. See photos, page 5.
DULLES, VA
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