October 31 — November 6, 2019 Fou n d e d 1991 • V ol. XXIX No. 37
Fa lls Chur c h, V i r g i ni a • ww w. fc np. c om • Fr ee
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week School Board Extends Noonan Contract On Tuesday, the Falls Church City School Board unanimously approved a new four-year contract for Peter Noonan as Superintendent of Schools. See News Briefs, page 9
F.C. Dance Studio Wins Irish Dance ‘Olympics’
Fifteen local students from the McGrath Morgan Academy of Irish Dance won the “Olympics” in world Irish dance drama, watched by 3,000 at the 2019 competition in Greensboro, North Carolina.
F.C. Officials Strive to Inform Voters Of Polling Site Change This Tuesday Happy Halloween!
See page 10
Stormwater Task Force Volunteers Sought The Falls Church City Council is looking for seven volunteers to join the newly-created Stormwater Task Force, which will update and prioritize the list of stormwater improvement projects in the City’s Watershed Management Plan. See News Briefs, page 9
‘Stangs Rout Wildcats in Regular Season Finale George Mason High School’s volleyball team heads into the Northwestern District tournament headstrong with a 3-0 thumping of Warren County High School Tuesday night. See sports, page 16
Index
Editorial................6 Letters.......... 6, 22 News & Notes.12, 13 Comment...14, 15 School News.... 17 Calendar..... 18,19
Classified Ads... 20 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword........ 21 Crime Report.... 22 Critter Corner.... 22 Business News.23
IT WAS A COSTUMED CELEBRATION at the City of Falls Church’s Halloween Carnival last Saturday where the family-friendly event featured games, face painting, puppet shows and, of course, candy. Here, Recreation and Parks Program Supervisor for Special Events Scarlett Williams poses with a happy reveler at the City’s spooktacular shindig. (Photo: Gary Mester)
Former Oakwood Site Moved to F.C. Community Center
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Citizens in the City of Falls Church are facing an important local election next Tuesday, Nov. 5, when three local City Council and School Board seats will be up for grabs on the ballot in the City. But the major challenge facing election officials here involves getting out the word on the fact that one of the City’s three polling locations will not be in service next Tuesday, and all voters used to casting ballots at the Oakwood Apartments (now called Falls Green) location will be redirected to the F.C. Community Center, 223 Little Falls St., to vote. With only three polling places in the Little City, this impacts fully a third of voters. The City’s Registrar of Voters David Bjerke has been working overtime with the City’s Electoral Board volunteers and the local chapter of the League of Women Voters to help get the word out. Running for the three (out of seven) City Council seats are Phil Duncan, Letty Hardy, David Tarter and Stuart Whitaker. Duncan, Hardy and Tarter are incumbents widely praised for the significant progress made in the Little City in the last four years. Running for three (out of seven) School Board seats are incumbent Phil Reitinger, school activists and parents Laura Downs, Susan Dimock, and parent Douglass Stevens. This weekend will see a flurry of last-minute campaigning, with Hardi having signed up 21 volunteers online to carry literature around the City’s 2.2 acres. The incumbents will assemble at Clare and Don’s Beach Shack after polls close at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
PAGE 2 | OCTOBER 31 – NOVEMBER 6, 2019
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OCTOBER 31 – NOVEMBER 6, 2019 | PAGE 3
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PAGE 4 | OCTOBER 31 – NOVEMBER 6, 2019
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•HONOR•COURAGE•LOYALTY• THE REV. JOHN OHMER stands before part of the large reception held in his honor Sunday, following his �inal sermon before departing after seven years restoring the congregation of the historic Falls Church Episcopal Church. (N���-P���� �����)
F.C. Episcopal’s Healing Rector Leaves After 7 Years of Growth BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON
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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
The Rev. John Ohmer, who for seven years led the recovery of the congregation of the historic Falls Church Episcopal from its many years of exile, held his final service there last Sunday, departing for a new position in Asheville, North Carolina. Over 400 attended his last service and a reception held after. When Ohmer came onto the scene at the church in September 2012, the property had just been reclaimed by the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia from a more than six year occupation by defectors who’d voted to leave the denomination in December 2005, but then continued to occupy the property. They voted to leave in large part protesting the Episcopal denomination’s election of an openly-gay bishop in 2003. During those years of occupation, whose claim to the property after years of litigation was denied by the Virginia Supreme Court and then went unheard by the U.S. Supreme Court, a small remnant of “continuing Episcopalians” persisted, first meeting in the living room of a lay member and then invited to worship in the fellowship hall of the Falls Church Presbyterian Church across the street. That small remnant was only 40 persons at first, and when they were eventually given back the historic church property — where George Washington reportedly worshipped and that served as a
hospital during the Civil War — they began weekly services with only 60 or so in attendance. Being called to serve the congregation, Ohmer’s first service was on Sept. 9, 2012 and from the beginning, as Associate Rector Kelly Moughty said at the reception following the service Sunday, he insisted on “planting a flag” in the main sanctuary with its capacity of 800, despite only 60 or so parishioners then, and to “not be afraid” of claiming it. The fruit of that commitment were seen in the 400 people who attended this Sunday. Over Ohmer’s tenure, 138 baptisms have been performed. In his final sermon Sunday, Ohmer focused on three points, stressing to the congregation that “you are the Body of Christ and individually members of it,” that “when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, he said, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and might, and love your neighbor as yourself,’ ” and “love is not so much an emotion or a feeling as it is a series of concrete actions.” He added, “You don’t just go to church, you are the church. Yours are the eyes through which Christ’s compassion will look upon the world, yours are the feet with which Christ will go about doing good, and yours are the hands with which Christ will bless others now.” And he cautioned, “Remember that this side of Heaven, there will never be a time when ‘everything will be fine.’”
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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM Under his leadership, the church adopted a statement of purpose that became enshrined on a plaque displayed there, saying the church is “a welcoming community called to be an enduring beacon of faith, hope and love to all.” In an earlier interview with the News-Press, Ohmer said he was blessed to serve “a fantastic faith community with a fantastic story” with a “radical hospitality toward all, and all means all.” He said that by being denied their church property for so many years contributed to the core congregation’s deeply-based hospitality and sense of welcome to all. “It is an outwardly-facing congregation,” he added, noting the role the church has played as a “second community center for Falls Church,” opening its facilities for many community events. They included meetings of the Falls Church Social Action Committee in the fellowship hall, and the historic “Stonewall 50” panel this June co-hosted with the News-Press to celebrate and reflect on the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots that are credited with the founding of the modern LGBTQ rights movement. Leaving after his seven years
“is bittersweet,” Ohmer said. “This is a good sad,” added Moughty this Sunday, and there were more than a few tears from congregants, including among the youth. The church’s chief rector position will be filled by an interim while the congregation works with the Diocese to find a permanent replacement after a year or so. Ohmer told the News-Press, “I did what I came to do here. I have tried to foment a healing sense following the split in the congregation and helped to make God more real and the Bible more alive to people here.” “We don’t ask people to conform, but to gain a sense of being sent by God. The focus is not on what someone is supposed to be, but what someone is called to do. We benefit by the energy, passion
and time all contribute here,” he said. Moughty recalled at the reception Sunday that when Ohmer first arrived, he transformed the rector’s office from a place organized to emit a sense of power to one that had a conference table in its center, to draw from a collaborative effort of everyone. “Collaboration is more important than power,” she said. Backing that up was a large banner at the reception reading, “All crew, no passengers.” “This is a beautiful, growing place,” Ohmer said at the conclusion of the reception, recalling the three essential components of prayer that were the subject of his sermon that day, which he said are to express “help, thanks, and ‘wow.’ ”
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E D I TO R I A L
Next Tuesday’s Local Election
It is hard to overstate how important Tuesday’s election is for voters in the City of Falls Church. The election is vital for all the state legislative districts being contested throughout Virginia, but the races for those offices right here are not being so contested. But with three seats on the Falls Church City Council and School Board at stake locally, it is vital that Falls Church voters, with their stellar record of high turnouts for all elections, come through to reaffirm the laudable values and issues they’ve supported in recent years. To reiterate, the News-Press has enthusiastically endorsed the three incumbents seeking reelection to the City Council, Phil Duncan, Letty Hardi and David Tarter. These hardworking incumbents have proven their commitment to the City on a day-to-day basis to the best interests of its citizens for years and their reelection will represent a form of a “vote of confidence” for their efforts, and in line with the overwhelming support that City voters gave in 2017 to approve a bond referendum to build a new high school and more. Their lone challenger, Stuart Whitaker, has no experience working for the citizens of the City, no resume of participation in its local issues or volunteer boards and commissions. Recently moved to the City, his issues are theoretical and thin in nature, and to the extent he’s applied them to Falls Church, they have come in the form of unfounded criticisms and negativity. At this point, we do not see him aspiring to, or qualified for, a constructive role in our city. In the race for the School Board’s three (out of seven) seats, it has been disconcerting to see the race becoming dominated by the persisting ideological assertions of one of the candidates, first time challenger Douglass Stevens. With no history of volunteer involvement or other sustained engagement with the schools, his repetitive arguments would effectively undermine the progressive and compassionate posture of the school system, and the other candidates, regarding the current commitment to inclusiveness and diversity affirmation of all students. The News-Press has strongly endorsed the other three candidates in this race, incumbent Phil Reitinger, and long-standing volunteers and parents in the system Laura Downs and Susan Dimock. Again, we see votes for them as “votes of confidence” for the important progress that has characterized the City’s world renowned school system in recent years, including with its transparent and compassionate cutting edge commitment to affirming the importance of all, including marginalized, students. As thoroughly as we have covered these races from week to week, we are solidly convinced that Falls Church and all its citizens, will be best served by the election of the candidates we’ve endorsed.
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F.C. Hasn’t Done Good Job On Climate, Transportation Editor, While Falls Church City has done a good job in a number of areas, it hasn’t done a good job in transportation or climate change, two issues that are integrally related. Earlier this month, the Council devoted over two hours to dangerous traffic conditions on Noland Street. Two months ago the City
held a town hall to address the severe flooding from a recent storm. These are infrastructure problems that we have known about for years that the council should have worked on but didn’t. What should be done? The City should set a goal of reducing its auto-dependency. Recent reports found that 86 percent of City trips were by car and 63
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percent of emissions come from cars. I propose we target reducing auto trips to 50 percent, through a combination of better public transit, protected bike lanes, sidewalks, and roadway redesign. Public transit ridership is on the decline in this area because of poor service, and one of the biggest reasons is that our elected officials are stuck in the past and haven’t made reduced auto use and lower emissions a priority. Case in point: this City Council supported an agreement to build 50 additional miles of highway on I-66 outside the Beltway that restricts extension of public
transit along I-66. This tends to increase congestion, traffic, collisions, and emissions. There is an exciting proposal on the drawing board to put a high performance Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system down Route 7 from Tysons through Falls Church City. This could go a long way to attracting riders and to reducing auto use, but there are two concerns. First is that this system is at least ten years away — this is far too far in the future. Second is that if the same people who made the decision to prohibit public
Letter Continues on Page 22
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
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OCTOBER 31 – NOVEMBER 6, 2019 | PAGE 7
Bright Lights in the Little City: A Community Celebration B� S���� C���
On Friday, Nov. 15, the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce will host Bright Lights in the Little City, a Community Celebration highlighting our local businesses. Business leaders, elected officials and residents are invited to join us at The State Theatre to honor commercial contributions to our community and thank local entrepreneurs and employees for their services, their support of our schools and nonprofits, and their contributions to our tax base. We will recognize our business community as a whole and honor those business leaders who go above and beyond in their contributions to the special nature of the Falls Church community. This event, taking place in the middle of Falls Church’s Live Local month, will include hors d’oeuvres, desserts, a signature drink by The Kensington and Famille Café, a silent auction, and performances by Washington Sinfonietta thanks to support from the Arlington Community Federal Credit Union, and by The Grandsons thanks to the Hilton Garden Inn Falls Church. It will be a wonderful celebration of the bright lights in our community, our businesses. Earlier this week, Falls Church City Council officially designated November as Live Local Month by proclamation for the second year. The City’s formal recognition of the important role our businesses play in the Falls Church community was the brainchild of City Council Member Ross
Litkenhous, who during the Council meeting, credited the Falls Church Chamber’s Live Local campaign as a significant contributor of the City’s revenue surplus for that period. Given the results we generated on social media, we are inclined to agree!
“We will recognize our business community as a whole and honor those business leaders who go above and beyond in their contributions to the special nature of the Falls Church community.” The Chamber will again conduct its #LiveLocalFC social media campaign to encourage patronage of our local businesses and services. The Chamber’s #LiveLocal Campaign is designed to provide a fun, interactive way to help people get in the habit of supporting the local business community while also sharing experiences and helping others understand the vast array of businesses in Falls Church. Participation in the campaign is easy — live your life locally, document your local business
experiences with selfies and other photos, post them to your favorite social media platforms and be sure to tag them with #LiveLocalFC and the business name. You can also post them to the Chamber’s Live Local FC Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages where you can see your neighbors’ posts and access helpful information such as a new Bingo card with helpful ideas such as going out for happy hour with friends, checking out local art and history, taking a class, learning a business owner’s name, and picking up a gift for a loved one. We hope you will post often through the month, especially since each post will be eligible for weekly prize drawings! Of course, you will also be helping to promote your favorite businesses. The benefits of living and spending locally are legion. Living local generates sales and meals taxes. Living local is better for our environment as it saves gas and cuts down emissions. Living local is healthier because it is faster, less stressful, and the customer service is usually better. Living local helps support schools and nonprofits because local business owners donate more to local schools and charities than businesses out of the area. Living local generates jobs as most new jobs are provided by local businesses. And, last but hardly least, living local helps create a greater sense of community while strengthening and preserving the fabric of Falls Church’s unique business population. The more successful our existing businesses are, the more likely more busi-
nesses will want to have a presence here. Living local and patronizing doctors, lawyers, accountants, stores, and restaurants in our community supports business owners, commercial property owners, employees, and our entire community. The Falls Church Chamber of Commerce challenges residents, business leaders, employees, and local decision makers to choose local whenever possible, regardless of the month. The Chamber’s #LiveLocalFC campaign is designed to spur the live local focus in a fun and interactive way. The end result fulfills our mission “to promote local business interests in order to foster economic prosperity and civic well-being in the greater Falls Church community.” Better business makes for a better Falls Church. Our local businesses rely on local support and when they thrive, we all prosper. Win win. We invite all residents and businesses to join us for Bright Lights in the Little City on Nov. 15 and to embrace the #LiveLocalFC Challenge as we kick-off the holiday spending season. You will be helping our environment, your mental health, our local economy, friends and neighbors, and our loyal and generous business owners and employees. For more information about this campaign, the Chamber, local businesses, or Bright Lights in the Little City, visit www.FallsChurchChamber.org. Sally Cole is a local resident and executive director of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce.
Q������� �� ��� W��� Will any of the incumbents lose in Tuesday’s City of F.C. election? • Yes • No
Last Week’s Question:
Will electric scooters be a positive addition to the City of Falls Church?
• Not sure
Visit www.FCNP.com to cast your vote
FCNP On-Line polls are surveys, not scientific polls.
[WRITE FOR THE PRESS] The News-Press welcomes readers to send in submissions in the form of Letters to the Editor
& Guest Commentaries. Letters to the Editor should be no more than 350 words and writers are limited to one appearance every four weeks. Guest Commentaries should be no more than 800 words and writers are limited to one appearance every four months. Because of space constraints, not all submissions will be published. All submissions to the News-Press should be original, unpublished content. We reserve the right to edit submissions for length, grammar and accuracy. All submissions should include writer’s name, address, phone and e-mail address if available.
Email: letters@fcnp.com | Mail: Letters to the Editor, Falls Church News-Press, 200 Little Falls St., #508, Falls Church 22046 | Fax: 703.340.0347
PAGE 8 | OCTOBER 31 – NOVEMBER 6, 2019
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OCTOBER 31 – NOVEMBER 6, 2019 | PAGE 9
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NEWS BRIEFS F.C. School Board Renews Noonan Contract Tuesday night the Falls Church City School Board met at a special meeting whose only order of business was to unanimously approve a new four-year contract for Peter J. Noonan as Superintendent of Schools. The agreement represents a seven percent salary increase over the last contract, an increase in line with raises received by Falls Church City Public Schools staff over the previous three budget cycles. “I am thrilled that Dr. Noonan has agreed to continue his work in Falls Church City Public Schools,” said School Board Chair Erin Gill. “His commitment to equity and the needs of each student are unparalleled. Dr. Noonan has created a culture of continuous improvement, pushing our already excellent schools to new heights, and we are fortunate to have him leading FCCPS.” In approving a new pact, board members also cited Noonan’s leadership in a transparent budget process, guiding contract negotiations for the George Mason High School new school construction project on budget, and opening the Mt. Daniel expansion for the return of second grade to the building. He also was lauded for his role in the district’s student performance. For the first time four years, FCCPS reached a 90 percent pass rate or better on the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) assessments. “I am very humbled and honored to be asked to continue as superintendent for Falls Church City Public Schools,” Noonan said in a prepared statement Tuesday. “The reputation of the division remains second to none, and I look forward to continuing to engage and build relationships with the community over the next four years.” Noonan came to Falls Church from the City of Fairfax school system in May of 2017, and this year was named Region IV Superintendent of the Year and was a finalist for State Superintendent of the Year. Noonan, the ninth Falls Church Superintendent, was in the third year of his original contract. The Board’s action cancels the first agreement and sets the effective date of the new contact of July 1, 2019.
Stormwater Task Force Volunteers Sought The Falls Church City Council is looking for seven volunteers to join its newly-created Stormwater Task Force, which will update and prioritize the list of stormwater improvement projects in the City’s Watershed Management Plan. City residents can apply online (www.fallschurchva.gov/TaskForce) or pick up an application at the Mary Riley Styles Library, 120 N. Virginia Ave., or Community Center, 223 Little Falls St. Applications must be received by the City Clerk’s office by close of business on Friday, Nov. 15. The City Council Appointments Committee will recommend task force members from the applicants, and City Council will make the final decision. The task force is expected to meet four times total, from December 2019 through February 2020, with a final presentation to City Council in March 2020. The group was created because of extensive flooding in the past two years and the need to update the Watershed Management Plan, which was adopted in 2012 and contains a number of now-completed projects. The report presented to City Council as part of the Fiscal Year 2021 Capital Improvements Program will prioritize projects in order of the most cost-effective stormwater improvements that will protect the most people. The City Council will make the final determination on funding the improvements.
Rt. 29 Improvement Meeting Draws 70 Citizens Held at the Thomas Jefferson Elementary last Thursday, over 70 Falls Church and Fairfax County residents showed up at a public meeting organized by graduate students from Virginia Tech to provide input on needed improvements to Route 29 (S. Washington/ Lee Highway) from Tinner Hill Road to Graham Road. F.C. Vice Mayor Marybeth Connelly staff representatives and two Fairfax Supervisors were present. An early December follow up meeting is planned to evaluate recommendations and help prepare a report to the F.C. City Council and Fairfax Board of Supervisors by early next year.
Va. Tech Taking Innovation Campus Applications Virginia Tech is accepting applications for the first degree program to be run out of its new Innovation Campus at Potomac Yard in Alexandria. According to a report in the Washington Business Journal this week, the program is a new master’s of engineering degree in computer science. Applications for spring 2020 enrollment are now being accepted through Nov. 15, and fall 2020 enrollment, with a deadline of Feb. 1. The master’s program offers part-time, full-time or full-time accelerated. Virginia Tech officials expect to enroll roughly 100 graduate students in the campus’ first year, and approximately 750 master’s candidates and hundreds more doctoral candidates and postdoctoral fellows during the next decade.
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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
F.C. Irish Dance Academy Wins Pinnacle of Competition BY PATRICIA LESLIE
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS
A Falls Church studio has won the “Olympics” in world Irish dance drama, watched by 3,000 at the 2019 competition in Greensboro, North Carolina. Fifteen local students from the McGrath Morgan Academy of Irish Dance participated in the contest this past April, which regularly draws 5,000 dancers and 25,000 spectators from around the world who compete in various events. This year was the 49th for the world competition and only the third time it’s been held in the U.S. Contestants come from 27 countries and range from 5 – 23 years of age and up. Rules for the drama allow only a spoken introduction to a story which can be performed only through dancing and music, according to John Lawrence Morgan, McGrath’s principal choreographer and instructor. McGrath’s entry in the drama competition was based on Irish folklore and titled the “Banshee in the Bedroom.” Three students who danced in the show took a break from practice last week while Irish music played in the background and Morgan walked between rows of dancers directing them to “Smile! Smile!” while mixing in reminders of “Posture! Posture!” Morgan’s classes in Ireland and the U.K. won three “golds” before he came to Falls Church, lured across the Atlantic by McGrath owner Lauren McGrath Dutton.
JOHN MORGAN (center, back turned), the principal instructor and choreographer for McGrath Morgan Academy of Irish Dance, uses his world champion background in Irish dance to coach his own students into winning form at the Falls Church-based studio. (P����: P������� L�����) He is a world champion dancer and former member of the Irish music and dance production, Lord of the Dance, who is a big draw for prospective students and their parents, like Pam Mahony whose daughter, Molly Mostow, 12, has won regional, national, and world competitions. Molly is a student at Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School
and has been dancing since she was 5. For big competitions, she practices up to 20 hours a week, her mom said. “Dancing is a wholesome activity that takes a lot of teamwork. And, the school really likes to engage with the local community,” Mahony said. Practice and learning also contribute to increased self-con-
fidence. “Here they deal with adult issues like teamwork, hard work, disappointments and stress which make them better prepare for life. Our school motto is ‘Perform with pride; compete with confidence,’” said Morgan. Fourteen-year-olds Sophia Savage and Patrick Gareau, along with Patrick’s 18-year-old sister
Mary Kate, agreed that dancing helps them to be better focused and use their time more judiciously. “It helps you learn how to manage your time and get everything in,” said Mary Kate, who sometimes assists Morgan with corralling the students. She began Irish dancing at age 7. “I’m here a lot and still have to figure out how to better discipline myself.” McGrath’s dancers march in parades on St. Patrick’s Day and Memorial Day, and perform at weddings, concerts and nursing homes. For the past two years its dancers have been a headliner at the White House when the Irish prime minister comes for the annual celebration, Morgan said. Dancing for the president looks good on college applications and “Makes students stand out from the crowd.” He has students who have enrolled at Columbia, Trinity and Yale universities. For the first time in six years, the regional Irish dance competition for students from southern states and Mexico, will be held in Washington Dec. 6 – 8 and the public is invited to come and watch McGrath defend its title for free at the Gaylord Convention Center at National Harbor. Dance anthropologist and professor Helena Wulff calls dance drama and figure dancing the “highlights” of the world Irish dancing competitions. McGrath has other locations in the DMV, including Manassas, Bethesda, McLean (adults only) and is planning to add a beginner’s class in Falls Church.
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
OCTOBER 31 – NOVEMBER 6, 2019 | PAGE 11
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Community News & Notes Cub and Boy Scouts Begin Rounds for Food Donations On Saturday Nov. 2, Falls Church-area Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts will walk through neighborhoods distributing flyers that explain how to donate food as part of the annual Scouting for Food drive to benefit local food pantries. Scouts will return the following Saturday morning, Nov. 9, to collect food donations that residents set outside their front doors before 9 a.m. that day. Scouts will not enter buildings
to collect donations, but residents of apartments and condominium buildings can deliver food donations to the parking lot of Falls Church Presbyterian Church (225 E. Broad St., Falls Church) between 9 – 10 a.m. on Nov. 9.
Vienna Arts Society Turns Half a Century The Vienna Arts Society celebrates its 50th Anniversary by holding a live auction of all 41 benches from this summer’s public art display around town on Saturday, Nov. 2. with doors
opening at 6 p.m. and bidding beginning at 7 p.m. at the Vienna Community Center (120 Cherry St. SE, Vienna). Interested attendees can enjoy drinks, light fare and the opportunity to see all the benches under one roof. Proceeds will support the Vienna Arts Society’s outreach activities. Tickets available online at ViennaArtsSociety. org and at the door. Attendees 12 and under get in for free. For more information, visit the website or call 703-319-3971.
New Dominion Chorale Holds Sacred Music Concert New Dominion Chorale will present a concert of sacred music on Sunday, Nov. 3 at 4 p.m. at Saint Luke Catholic Church (7001 Georgetown Pike, McLean).
THE FIRST IN WHAT Falls Church Mayor David Tarter hopes will be an annual tradition, leaders of neighboring Northern Virginia jurisdictions were invited to an informal social to get to know each other better at the new F.C. City Hall. It was also the night of the second game of the World Series with the Nationals playing, so paraphernalia was encouraged. (Photo: News-Press)
The concert will be conducted by Thomas Beveridge, Artistic Director of the 185-voice chorus, and will feature keyboard artists Thomas Pandolfi, pianist, and Paul Skevington, organist. Prized soprano Amy Broadbent will head a cast of prominent local soloists: Chris Dudley, countertenor; Jerry Kavinski, tenor and James Rogers, baritone. The featured work will be “Jephtha,” a sacred cantata on an Old Testament story by the 17th century composer, Giacomo Carissimi, sung in Mr. Beveridge’s English translation from the original Latin. Other works to be performed are Franz Schubert’s cantata, “Miriam’s Song of Triumph;” Henry Purcell’s canticle, “Thy Word Is a Lantern” and Mr. Beveridge’s setting of
Saint Francis of Assisi’s poem, “Il Cantico di Frate Sole” (The Canticle of the Sun). Of particular interest to American listeners will be “Four Sacred Harp Melodies on Biblical Themes,” arranged by Beveridge for this performance: “David’s Lamentation,” “The Converted Thief,” “Mary’s Grief and Joy” and “Jacob’s Vision.” The Sacred Harp tradition of singing originated in New England and spread throughout the American South in the 18th and 19th centuries. Pianist Thomas Pandolfi has performed throughout the United States, Europe and China to great acclaim and has established himself as one of America’s finest virtuoso artists. Organist Paul Skevington has been Director of Music at Saint Luke Catholic
IT’S THE LAST DAY to visit the City of Falls Church businesses that participated in the annual Halloween Window painting before the month of November scares them away until next year. (Photo: News-Press)
Send Us Your News & Notes!
The News-Press is always on the lookout for photos & items for Community News & Notes, School News & Notes and other sections of the paper. If you graduate, get married, get engaged, get an award, start a club, eat a club, tie your shoes, have a birthday, have a party, host an event or anything else you think is worth being mentioned in the News-Press, write it up and send it to us! If you have a photo, even better! Because of the amount of submissions we receive, we cannot guarantee all submissions will be published, but we’ll try our best!
Community News & Notes: newsandnotes@fcnp.com | School News & Notes: schoolnews@fcnp.com Mail: News & Notes, Falls Church News-Press, 200 Little Falls St. #508, Falls Church, VA 22046
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SLEEPY HOLLOW MANOR’S Cat Tallant and her homemade Haunted House are back for the Halloween season. The house sticks to the conventional fare — ghouls, ghosts and goblins instead of chainsaws and blood & guts — but still might be too scary for young children. Halloween is its �inal night in operation, so those who’re interested should make their way to 6415 Carolyn Drive, Falls Church from 6 – 9 p.m. before it’s booooo late! (P����: J. M������ W�����) Church for 25 years and is noted for having performed with all of the Washington area’s choral ensembles. New Dominion Chorale has distinguished itself amid the crowded world of choral music in the Washington, D.C. area. It operates as a “singers’ cooperative” without paid management and is one of the area’s largest choral societies, with 185 singing members. Tickets may be purchased online at newdominion.org or at the door at the time of the performance. Ticket prices are $35 for adults, $30 for seniors 62 and older and $15 for students ages 5 – 22. Group tickets are available for groups of 10 or more at $25 per ticket. All tickets are for general admission, and parking is free. For more information, visit newdominion.org or contact president@newdominion.org or call 202-244-7191.
Columbine Shooting Survivor Speaks to Healthcare Pros Kacey Johnson, a former student at Columbine High School in Colorado who survived the mass shooting that took place there 20 years ago, will discuss the importance of organ, eye and tissue donation at the Synergy Symposium hosted on Nov. 1 at 3 p.m. at the Falls Church Marriott
Fairview Park (3111 Fairview Park Dr., Falls Church). Johnson will deliver her keynote address at 3:20 p.m. The symposium is titled “The Domino Effect — How Donations Falls into Place,” and will bring together more than 500 healthcare professionals from throughout the Washington, D.C. metro area to share best practices in organ, eye and tissue donation and transplantation. At Columbine, Johnson was trapped in the library as two gunmen carried out their attack. While hiding under a table, Johnson was shot at close range, leaving her shoulder bones almost non-existent and her hand severely injured. She made a recovery thanks to her doctor and donated bone and tissue which rebuilt her shoulder, arm and hand. For more information, visit beadonor.org/synergy.
Medical Gala Honors Local Child Advocates The Medical Care for Children Partnership Foundation’s Annual Gala will take place on Saturday, Nov. 9 at the Country Club of Fairfax (5110 Ox Rd., Fairfax) where the event will celebrate and award community champions of children’s health. Local gala honorees include Jane K. Thatcher, Social Worker,
Annandale Terrace Elementary; Maria Demarest, Parent Liaison, Bailey’s Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences. Other gala honorees are Chairman Sharon Bulova, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and Dr. David Treff, DDS, Pediatric Dentistry of Burke. Hosted by Medical Care’s Larry Michael (voice of the Washington Redskins) and Jennifer Siciliano (chief external affairs and communications officer for Inova). To purchase tickets, visit eventbrite.com/e/mccp-annualgala-celebrating-communitychampions-of-childrens-healthtickets-75297810779.
One More Page Books Celebrates Day of the Dead One More Page Books (2200 N. Westmoreland St., Arlington) will hold an abbreviated version of its monthly First Friday wine tasting on Nov. 1, a free event where attendees can sample new arrivals. This month features a celebration of the Mexican holiday, the Day of the Dead, starting at 7 p.m. with a discussion by author Marion Winik. Known for bringing humor and wit to one of the most unavoidable of subjects — death — Winik’s criticallyacclaimed writings have been combined into “The Big Book of the Dead.”
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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
A Penny for Your Thoughts
News of Greater Falls Church By Supervisor Penny Gross
Christopher Koerner, and incumbent Gerald Peters bring thoughtful and solid environmental backgrounds to watershed protections. Public education is the number one priority in the county, and voters can elect three at-large School Board members, as well as their local district member. Democratically endorsed candidates are Abrar Omeish, Rachna Sizemore Heizer, and incumbent Karen Keys-Gamarra. Newcomer Dr. Ricardy “Rickie” Anderson is running for the Mason District School Board seat being vacated by Sandy Evans, who announced her retirement earlier this year. Rickie will bring both her expertise as an educator and her understanding of the challenges facing young students and their families to the School Board. Also on the ballot is a $360 million School Bond for the school system’s Capital Improvement Program. Be sure to turn your ballot over and vote “yes” for school bonds. Last, but hopefully not least, I am running for re-election as your Mason District Supervisor. No candidate for the Board can match my leadership and experience of more than two decades, and I treasure the trust placed in me by Mason District voters during the past six elections. I am a workhorse, not a showhorse, and I work every day to make a difference – whether restoring our local streams and the Chesapeake Bay, keeping our county the safest jurisdiction of its size in the nation, working with civic and homeowner associations to solve neighborhood issues, or ensuring that the most vulnerable in our community receive the services they need to succeed. It’s a fulltime job that I love, and I would appreciate your vote. Happy Halloween, and don’t forget to vote!
Before anything else, we are all human. It’s time to embrace diversity. Let’s put aside labels in the name of love.
Penny Gross is the Mason District Supervisor, in the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. She may be emailed at mason@fairfaxcounty.gov.
Rethink your bias at lovehasnolabels.com
NEVER GIVE UP UNTIL THEY BUCKLE UP.
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Stormwater Task Force Help the City of Falls Church prioritize stormwater and flood mitigation projects. Apply by November 15, www.fallschurchva.gov/TaskForce
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Every election seems to be touted as the “most important election” ever! Despite the hyperbole, the elections next Tuesday really are important for Northern Virginia, as some of our largest jurisdictions will experience significant turnover in their governing bodies, because of retirements or primary losses. Since most votes have not been cast or counted yet, there may be some surprises, too. Every seat in the Virginia General Assembly is on the ballot, as state senators and delegates battle to gain control of the closely divided chambers. Democratic state senators Richard Saslaw, Dave Marsden, and Chap Peterson are running for reelection in their individual districts. If Democrats prevail, Senator Saslaw is expected to become Senate Majority Leader. In the House of Delegates, re-electing Kaye Kory (38th District), Vivian Watts (39th District), Alfonso Lopez (49th District), and Marcus Simon (53rd District) is important to bring Democratic control back to the lower house. Countywide races are generating a lot of interest. Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay is running to succeed retiring Board Chairman Sharon Bulova. Jeff’s leadership and grasp of issues — he’s chaired the board’s Transportation Committee, and now heads both the Budget and Legislative Committees — ensures a steady hand in county governance. Sheriff Stacey Kincaid, the first female sheriff in the county’s history, has superb community outreach, and deserves re-election. The Commonwealth’s Attorney race features Democrat Steve Descano, who won a spirited primary against incumbent Ray Morrogh in June, and Jonathan Fahey, who filed as an independent after Morrogh’s defeat, when it was too late to gain an official Republican Party endorsement. Steve’s progressive focus is to create a criminal justice system that works for everyone. You also can vote for three directors of the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District. Monica Billger,
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
The Stadium Chants, ‘Lock Him Up!’
The epic revival of the fortunes of the Washington Nationals baseball team in the sixth game of the World Series Tuesday, evening their chances of winning the world championship in the final, deciding seventh game (the outcome coming after the deadline for this column), as compelling for their fans as it was, can best be appreciated as a karmainfused reward for their role in the most historically memorable event of this and maybe any other such series. That event came Sunday night, when over 40,000 baseball-crazed Washington D.C. area citizens packed their home stadium, sitting in the shadow of the Capitol dome, caught sight of Trump waving from his box as shown on the park’s gigantic video screen. FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS The reaction was spontaneous and unscripted, unlike with the carefully-choreographed stadium rallies that are constantly being organized for Trump to assuage his monumental ego. It was a torrent of sustained “boos,” mixed with chants of “Lock Him Up!,” and according to eyewitness accounts, it was really, really loud, some reporting it topped 100 decibels. At the same time, a giant banner was unfurled reading, “Impeach Trump!” A Washington Post columnist Petula Dvorak wrote Tuesday under the headline, “Hear the Chant? That’s What Unites D.C.,” ''abhorring President Trump is what unites D.C.” And she reminded readers that the sentiment was not only from District residents, but from the suburbs, where the majority of the game’s fans came from. For those of us who appreciate what a criminal scumbag Trump is, it was a heartwarming and reassuring moment. Hopefully, it will inspire many others in the land to do more than just sit passively with wide eyes and mouths agape as the Trump criminal enterprise offends the sensibilities and the institutions of lawful democracy. If it gets them on their feet and joining “Lock Him Up!” chanting, then that is an important step toward the kind of activism the nation needs to expel this ugly infestation of corruption and sociopathology that has temporarily occupied the White House. What a bad move for some, even some strongly opposed to Trump, to chastise the fans for their honest and robust spontaneity. Theirs was the spirit needed to roust him out, to overwhelmingly roust him out with a powerful exercise of democracy. Meanwhile, as the evidence emerging from the impeachment inquiry underway in the House reinforces the findings of the Mueller Report and whistle blower accounts chip away at the shrinking core support for this unsupportable cad, the most persistent support base he has is rooted in the hypocrisy of so-called “evangelical leaders.” He assembled a gaggle of such usual suspect hypocrites around him in the Oval Office Monday supposedly to pray for him, but in reality for a photo op for them to use on their websites to raise money from sadly gullible followers. The roots of “The Cult of Trump,” as described by cult expert Steven Hassan in his new book by the same name, lies a lot in the trappings of heretical religion and shallow ideologies that these “ministers” and other hucksters and posers exploit to drive the hurting and unwitting to act against their self-interest. Their “gospel” is grounded in fear and hatred, not love, fomented by the same kind of lying, empty promises and platitudes that Trump uses in his staged rallies and speeches. The vast majority of honest political and social leaders do not appreciate the way this phenomenon works, because they have not had direct experience with the nasty reality of mind-bending cults, most of which grew out of the devious counterinsurgency operations of U.S. and other intelligence agencies from the 1950s onward. The reason Trump continues to double down on his mantras about “fake news” and claims that all his adversaries are “scum” and traitors is because this is how cult-based control mechanisms work. That’s why it is so important that actual reality imposes itself against this, reality such as the rude reception 40,000 baseball fans provided this week, and hopefully voters in Virginia will provide in their state legislative elections next Tuesday. Nicholas Benton may be emailed at nfbenton@fcnp.com.
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Nicholas F. Benton
Our Man in Arlington By Charlie Clark
Locals are only joking (I think) when they speak of renaming Arlington as “Amazon County.” But the arrival of our famous corporate citizen in Crystal City has reverberated through the debate over Arlington’s “missing middle” and declining stock of affordable housing. I sat in on a revealing discussion of divisions over the county’s current push for “upzoning,” held Oct. 15 by the Arlington Civic Federation. It contrasted ambitious visions for long-term urbanization planning against feelings in some residential neighborhoods that resemble “Stop the world, I want to get off!” The call for higher-density housing near employment centers and transit is embodied in the county’s “Housing Arlington” campaign launched this year. Our population of nearly 208,000 will gain 58,000 residents by 2040, as laid out by senior planner Richard Tucker. “We have a shrinking number of households earning less than $100,000 a year,” dropping from 52.6 percent in 2010 to 43.9 percent in 2017. There’s a shortage of 9,000 apartments, and “Arlington has one of the highest housing costs in the nation.” Housing Arlington crosses disciplines with public and private initiatives, Tucker said. Among them: land use and financial tools, institutional partnerships, raising the density cap offered to developers who fund affordable housing, a county employee subsidy and an update of the housing master
plan. Examples of upzoning include the newly expanded option of adding accessory dwelling units to detached homes, placing assisted living units in multi-family homes and creating housing conservation districts in multi-family areas. Not so fast, argued Peter Rousselot, an attorney and veteran of Arlington’s fiscal policy battles, who is my colleague in columny. (He writes in ArlNow.) His advocacy group, Arlingtonians for Our Sustainable Future, warns that the plan to “eliminate singlefamily zoning” would “transform Arlington from an urban village to a paved metropolis.” The result: more “disastrous flooding” (like the July 8 deluge), escalating taxes, and new pressures on schools, infrastructure and the budget. The upzoning to “make room” championed by County Board members such as Katie Cristol, “is alluring,” Rousselot said. “But it can lead to discordant results to those who moved into neighborhoods with single-family zoning who thought density was confined to the corridors.” Arlington should avoid the high-density bandwagon he called trendy among today’s planners. He cited policy studies that question the efficacy of local government efforts to create affordable housing. “There are rising home prices, so we need new ways to address Amazon, up to a point, I agree,” Rousselot said. “But let’s get a handle on density and development already authorized before we get into things that increase that density.”
Concretely, Rousselot recommends the “best practice” of a 10-year operating budget forecast that factors in all priorities amid “fiscal and environmental constraints.” There are studies and there are studies, rebutted Terry Clower, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University. He joked that some Arlingtonians want to build a moat, so we “don’t let them come in.” But seriously, “the devil is in the details,” and the applicability of narrow studies to the broad picture — particularly the private studies that don’t disclose data — require expertise to understand. The county is “not rushing into anything,” Clower said, pointing to decades-long timelines for energy and transportation planning. Many residents appear supportive, but take the attitude of “just make sure you change the day I move out.” *** After eons of construction, Metro’s unusual Bike & Ride cage at the East Falls Church station is nearly ready for use by mixedmode commuters, I’m told by WMATA spokesman Ian Jannetta. Though there already are rows of bicycle racks available for cyclists with bike locks, the spiffy white cage offers better anti-theft protection at no charge to those who register bikes with their SmarTrip cards, he said. Only the College Park station has such a cage, with a third being built at Vienna. The East Falls Church shelter is expected to open by the end of December.
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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
Mustangs Tumble Back to .500 Cross Country by Natalie Heavren
Falls Church News-Press
A rally fell just short for George Mason High School’s football team in its 21-20 loss last Friday to Skyline High School as the team dropped to 4-4 After finding themselves down 14-0 in the first quarter, the Mustangs would rebound to take a late lead that they couldn’t hold onto in crunch time. Senior two-way player Connor Plaks’ interception right before the end of the third quarter had Mason’s comeback in full swing. A touchdown pass from sophomore quarterback Evans Rice on the ensuing drive pushed the Mustangs ahead for the first time and had the team 10 minutes away from a 5-3 record. However, senior kicker Tucker Gaskins’ missed extra point only put Mason up 20-14 and left the door open for Skyline. The Hawks didn’t waste the opportunity. After returning the kickoff to midfield, Skyline scored three minutes later to go up 21-20 with seven minutes to play. The Mustangs failed to regenerate the offensive momentum they once
had in the game’s final moments. “I’ve told them they’re close to being a great team,” Mason head coach Adam Amerine said. “We just got to be able to step over that hurdle and get some younger guys on the field so our older guys aren’t just collapsing from exhaustion. And [we] gotta get some of these younger guys on the same page with us.” The loss overshadowed some exceptional performances from the Mustangs. Plaks, who also served as the lead running back, was integral to digging Mason out of its early two-touchdown hole. He bulldozed his way down the field during drives in the second and third quarter that he finished with nine and four-yard runs, respectively, to tie the game at 14 early into the second half. He was backed by sophomore linebacker Joshua Stillwagoner’s team-leading 13 tackles, junior Nathan Jaramillo’s nine tackles, and sophomore running back George Papadopoulos’ 85 yards rushing on 15 attempts to go with nine tackles. Heroism from the Mustangs was necessary due to the game’s start. The Hawks easily moved
down the field in its first drive and took a 7-0 lead three minutes after the opening kickoff. A 92-yard catch and run on its third drive gave Skyline a commanding twoscore lead with a minute and a half to go in the first quarter. Mason had its chances to counter early on, but poor execution and penalties killed any momentum. The Mustangs’ first drive was a victim of the latter. A gifted possession on Skyline’s own 12-yard line after a botched punt attempt fell prey to the former when Mason turned it over on downs after four plays. The penalties especially stuck out to Amerine. “We would get a little momentum, [then] we’d get a hold or jump offsides or whenever we were trying to stop them there. It hurt,” Amerine said, while noting there was no simple solution. “At some point, we’re gonna have to take people off the field that are committing these penalties. But with so many injuries, we’re kind of stuck in a corner.” The Mustangs travel to William Monroe High School for their last road game of the season tomorrow night at 7 p.m.
IN ITS FIRST SEASON as a part of the Northwestern District, George Mason High School’s cross country team continued the dominance it displayed in its previous Bull Run District tenure. The girls team won the district title with 48 points and extended a 17-year streak of placing in the top-2 within the district. Meanwhile, the boys team came in second, just four points behind Central High School. (Photo: Carol Sly)
Mason Sets Sights on Postseason by Caitlin Butler
Falls Church News-Press
George Mason High School’s volleyball team heads into the Northwestern District tournament headstrong with a 3-0 thumping of Warren County High School Tuesday night. The Mustangs’ victory over Wildcats concluded their regular season with three consecutive, straight set wins. Junior outside hitter Megan Boesen’s back-to-back aces sealed the match in favor of the Falls Church locals. Mason started the first set focusing on running new plays and positions on the court. “Yesterday at practice we practiced these plays we haven’t run before. So, coming into today some of our goals were to run those. That was a big focus mentally today and it was kind of a challenge,” Boesen said. The experimentation was evident when Warren County came out strong against the Mustangs. Junior libero Caroline Poley shook Mason out of its lull with
her strong serving run and led the Mustangs to an 11-9 advantage. Mason went on to capture the first set easily with a score of 25-15. Minor communication errors still bugged the Mustangs in the second set after giving its new approach another shot. The miscues allowed Warren County to gain multiple points, but Mason quickly regained its momentum once it went back to running and playing at its normal pace. Poley’s serving helped snap the Mustangs out of a funk for a second time when her three aces course-corrected the set. Boesen’s spike was the finishing blow to a 25-16 second set win. “In the first and second set we were supposed to be running those [new plays]. Once we decided not to run them anymore, there was an increased focus,” Boesen added. “We definitely ran them successfully at practice, but it’s a lot harder during a game situation when its loud and you can’t hear what’s going on. I think that’s the reason we started slow.” The Mustangs stuck to their
usual play script from from start to finish in the third set. Junior outside hitter Catherine Carroll’s hard serve set up Boesen’s back-toback aces, handing Mason a final 25-15 set win over the Wildcats. The Mustangs 14-4 record has them entering the regional tournament next week as a second seed and as Northwestern District champions. Now, with an opening slate of do-or-die contests to get through to start the postseason (and the confidence of breaking a previous three-year drought in such situations), Mason is making sure it’s maintaining the appropriate intensity in its matches. “Our main focus right now going into tournament is to just work on our intensity, bringing a faster ball and a smarter hit,” Boesen stated. “We might see teams we haven’t played before that are a new level of game. Just coming out with an intensity and a drive of being ready to work hard.” Mason will play this Monday, Nov. 4, but opponent, venue and time of the match has not yet been determined or released.
BOTH THE BOYS AND GIRLS had multiple All-District placers. For the girls, that included Jo Sevier in third place, Lauren Mellon (top picture) in seventh, Victoria Lecce in ninth and Madison Mamjek in 12th. The boys All-District finishers were Colson Board in fourth, Victor Gedeck in 10th and David Meade in 12th (bottom picture). Mason will look to add to its winning ways when it travels back to Woodstock to run in the regional championships next Tuesday, Nov. 5. (Photo: Carol Sly)
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For your hometown, the person you feel at home with...
STATE LEGISLATORS in Senator Dick Saslaw (second from right) and Delegate Marcus Simon (right) joined Falls Church City Public Schools Superintendent Peter Noonan (left) and school board members Erin Gill (second from left) and Shannon Litton on their annual “walk the schools” where they went through different classrooms at Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School while chatting about high school’s construction process as well. (P����: FCCPS P����/C���� S��)
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Multiple Local Schools Receive Awards for Equity
BASIS Independent McLean (BIM), a preK to grade 12 private school in McLean, recently named Paul Geise as its head of school. As a veteran educator with more than 40 years of experience, Geise excels in leadership of schools in the United States and the United Kingdom, specializing in strategic plans and fostering student and community development in schools. Geise’s main BIM objectives are to continue to strategically cultivate community, create a strategic plan, support and develop exemplary faculty and foster a school culture of learning and enjoyment — to be accomplished within a two-year timespan. For the past 20 years, Geise has served as a school head at independent schools. Most recently, he served as interim president at Holy Cross High School in Waterbury, Connecticut. In his various roles, he has increased enrollment, created strategic plans, started assessment programs, implemented international studies programs, completed accreditations and more. He also led St. Anne’s-Belfield Middle School in Charlottesville, as well as managed the middle school division of TASIS, an American International School near London, England.
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Superintendent Scott S. Brabrand and the Fairfax County School Board have recognized schools for achievement in standardized testing with the Superintendent’s Excellence in Equity Award. This award was developed by the superintendent and the School Board to recognize schools that make considerable gains in improving school and student performance across all student subgroups and significant reductions in achievement gaps among student subgroups in English and mathematics. Awards are based on school performance in the 2018-19 school year under revised accreditation standards that were approved by the Virginia Board of Education in 2017. Justice High School earned the Excellence in Equity Award for being a top ten school to achieve the highest average increase across all reporting groups for the subject of English. Baileys Upper Elementary earned the Excellence in Equity Award for being a top ten school to achieve the greatest reduction of the English achievement gap. Marshall High School and Wolftrap Elementary School
OCTOBER 31 – NOVEMBER 6, 2019 | PAGE 17
made the top ten schools to earn the Excellence in Equity Award for achieving the greatest reduction of the mathematics achievement gap.
Mason High Boys Soccer Program Wins National Award George Mason High School’s boys soccer team was announced as one of the inaugural winners of the United Soccer Coaches Team Pinnacle Awards for high schools. Thirty-five high school teams and 22 college programs are recipients of the award for the 2018-19 academic year for achieving a high level of fair play, educational excellence and success on the pitch. To be considered for this award, teams must have received either the Platinum, Gold, Silver or Bronze version of the High School or College Team Ethics and Sportsmanship Award in the past; achieved recognition in the classroom as a recipient of the High School or College Team Academic Award and recorded a winning percentage of .750 or higher during the respective season. The 57 teams, a part of the award’s inaugural class, will be formally recognized at either the College Coaches Reception Jan. 16, 2020 or the High School Coaches Breakfast Jan. 17, 2020 in Baltimore, Maryland, as part of the United Soccer Coaches Convention.
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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
FALLS CHURCHCALENDAR COMMUNITYEVENTS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31 Bring your own lunch to the park. Interested residents are encouraged to bring a prepared meal to Mr. Brown’s Park, where they can eat and mingle with other residents and community members in this casual setting. Mr Brown’s Park (100 block of W. Broad St., Falls Church). Noon – 1 p.m. 703248-5210 (TTY 711).
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1 Columbine Surivior Speaks at Symposium. Kacey Johnson, a former student at Columbine High School in Colorado and survived the mass shooting that took place there 20 years ago, will discuss the importance of organ, eye and tissue donation at the Synergy Symposium titled “The Domino
Effect — How Donations Falls into Place,” and will bring together more than 500 healthcare professionals in the Washington, D.C. metro area to share best practices in organ, eye and tissue donation and transplantation. At Columbine, Johnson was trapped in the library as two gunmen carried out their attack. While hiding under a table, Johnson was shot at close range, leaving her shoulder bones almost non-existent and her hand severely injured. She made a recovery thanks to her doctor and donated bone and tissue which rebuilt her shoulder, arm and hand. Falls Church Marriott Fairview Park (3111 Fairview Park Dr., Falls Church). 3 p.m. For more information on the symposium, visit beadonor.org/ synergy.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2 Farmers Market. The year-round
market is filled with fresh, local produce, meat, dairy and much more for interested attendees. City Hall (300 Park Ave., Falls Church). 8 a.m. – noon. 703-2485034. Fit at the Farmers Market: WERQ Cardio Dance. Interested residents or Farmers Market goers can come get a free WERQout – a cardio dance class based on pop and hip-hop music routines. All dance and fitness abilities welcome. All classes are free and there is no registration required. City Hall (300 Park Ave., Falls Church). 9 – 10 a.m. 703-2485027 (TTY 711). Habitat Restoration: Howard E. Herman Stream Valley Park. Interested volunteers can help install native plants that benefit local birds and butterflies in the City of Falls Church. Tools, gloves, water and snacks will be provid-
ed. No need to register unless a group includes five or more people (organizers like to ensure they have sufficient tools and snacks for all the participants). This is appropriate for children, but direct parental supervision is required. For more information, contact Jeremy Edwards, Green Space Manager, or to register for an event, 571-238-5178 or jedwards@fallschurchva.gov. Location is 601 W. Broad Street or next to 434 Sherrow Ave., Falls Church. 10 a.m. – noon.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5 Election Day. Polls are open for elections to the school board and City Council in the City of Falls Church as well as the school board and Board of Supervisors in Fairfax County. All local seats for Virginia’s state legislature will also be voted on. Various locations. 6 a.m. – 7 p.m.
THEATER&ARTS
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1 “Newsies” In the summer of 1899, the newsboys of New York City took on two of the most powerful men in the country — Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst — and won. Inspired by true events, the Broadway smash hit is a testament to the power of standing up and speaking out. The Tony Award-winning musical features fan-favorites like “Carrying the Banner,” “King of New York” and “Seize the Day.” Arena Stage (1101 Sixth Street, SW, Washington, D.C.). $51 – $105. 8 p.m. arenastage.org.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2 “A Chorus Line.” Signature continues its tradition of big musicals in intimate spaces with one of the most iconic musicals ever written. Up close in the audition room, feel every heartbeat and heartbreak as hopeful dancers pour out their dreams, memories, loves, and why they dance in a breathtaking display of the
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tremendous talent it takes to be in a chorus line. With one of the largest casts in Signature history, “A Chorus Line” is the one singular sensation for the holiday season. Signature Theatre (420 Campbell Ave., Arlington) $40 – $103. 8 p.m. sigtheatre.org.
Bowie) + Sunhead (No Doubt). Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $10 – $20. 7 p.m. 703255-1566.
“Trying.” This two-hander explores the author’s real experience working for Francis Biddle at his home in Washington, DC from 1967-1968. Judge Biddle, Former Attorney General of the United States under Franklin Roosevelt and Chief Judge of the American Military Tribunal at Nuremberg’ is notoriously hard on his staff as he tries to cement his legacy. Can the old Philadelphia aristocrat and his young Canadian assistant bridge the generational divide and come to understand one another in this “comic and touching” play (The New York Times)? 1st Stage Theatre (1524 Spring Hill Rd.., Tysons) $42. 8 p.m. 1ststagetysons.org.
Scaryoke (Costume contest with prizes). Falls Church Distillers (442 S. Washington Street, Ste A Falls Church). 8 p.m. 703-8589186.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3 “Escaped Alone.” Hailed as one of the most important playwrights of our time, Caryl Churchill’s (“Cloud 9,” “Top Girls”) electrifying Signature debut is a caustically funny and surreal afternoon of tea and calamity. In a serene British garden, three old friends are joined by a neighbor to engage in amiable chitchat — with a side of apocalyptic horror. The women’s talk of grandchildren and tv shows breezily intersperses with tales of terror in a quietly teetering world where all is not what it seems. Signature Theatre (420 Campbell Ave., Arlington) $40 – $103. 2 p.m. sigtheatre.org.
LIVEMUSIC THURSDAY, OCTOBER 31 Patchwork Dorothy. Dogwood Tavern (132 W. Broad St., Falls Church). 6:30 p.m. 703-2378333. Aspire Presents Rocking Horror Cover Show featuring Bluewreck (Black Sabbath) + Unsullied (Van Halen) + Kid Brother (David
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OCTOBER 31 – NOVEMBER 6, 2019 | PAGE 19
George Winston. Wolf Trap (1645 Trap Rd. Vienna). $42. 8 p.m. 703-255-1900.
Thrillbilly’s — David Kitchen Birthday Party. JV’s Restaurant (6666 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 8:30 p.m. 703-2419504.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1 Jim Sheats. Clare and Don’s Beach Shack. (130 North Washington St., Falls Church). 6 p.m. 703532-9283. SWELL. Falls Church Distillers (442 S. Washington Street, Ste A Falls Church). 8 p.m. 703-8589186. Union Stage presents at The Miracle Theatre The Sporkful Podcast Live feat. Kwame Onwuachi & Dan Pashman. Miracle Theatre (535 8th St. SE Washington, D.C.). $18. 8 p.m. 703-255-1566. VFW Punk: Rise/Defy, CDR, Holographic, Brick Wall Monty. VFW (7118 Shreve Rd, Falls Church). $5. 8 p.m. 703-9016786. Eaglemania: The World’s Greatest Eagles Tribute. The State Theatre (220 N Washington St., Falls Church). $25. 9 p.m. 703-237-0300. Herb & Hanson. Dogwood Tavern (132 W. Broad St., Falls Church). 10 p.m. 703-237-8333.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2 Two From the Heart. Clare and Don’s Beach Shack (130 North Washington St., Falls Church). 7 p.m. 703-532-9283. Bourbon and Bubbles at The
THE WAILIN’ JENNYS will be at The Birchmere on Wednesday. (Photo: WailinJennys.com) Barns — Tasting Social. Wolf Trap (1645 Trap Rd. Vienna). $250. 7 p.m. 703-255-1900. VFW Metalcore: 156/Silence, Band Under the Pier, LMI, Damages. VFW (7118 Shreve Rd, Falls Church). $5. 8 p.m. 703-9016786. Joseph Arthur, Sean Gaiser. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $18 – $25. 8 p.m. 703255-1566. Billy Boy & The Funtaztiks. Falls Church Distillers (442 S. Washington Street, Ste A Falls Church). 8 p.m. 703-858-9186. Boardwalk Karaoke. Clare and Don’s Beach Shack (130 North Washington St., Falls Church). 9:30 p.m. 703-532-9283.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 3 Open Mic. Falls Church Distillers (442 S. Washington Street, Ste
A Falls Church). 5 p.m. 703-8589186. Brendan James + Pete Muller. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $15 – $25. 7 p.m. 703255-1566. Oleta Adams. The Birchmere (3701 Mount Vernon Ave, Alexandria). $45. 7:30 p.m. 703549-7500.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4 Superchunk plays “Foolish” Live and in Concert — A 25th Anniversary Acoustic Performance, with Torres. The Birchmere (3701 Mount Vernon Ave, Alexandria). $29.50. 7:30 p.m. 703-549-7500. The Bachelor Boys Band, Sound Society. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). 8 p.m. 703-2551566. Wolf Blues Jam Weekly Show.
JV’s Restaurant (6666 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 8:30 p.m. 703-241-9504. Bal Boheme, The Restoration. Galaxy Hut (2711 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $5. 9 p.m.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 5 Citizens. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $10 – $20. 7:30 p.m. 703-255-1566.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5 Steven Dayvid McKellar. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna). $12 – $15. 6:30 p.m. 703-2551566. The Wailin’ Jennys. The Birchmere (3701 Mount Vernon Ave, Alexandria). $49.50. 7:30 p.m. 703-549-7500. Modern Warrior Live. Wolf Trap (1645 Trap Rd. Vienna). $32. 8 p.m. 703-255-1900.
Calendar Submissions Email: calendar@fcnp.com | Mail: Falls Church News-Press, Attn: Calendar, 200 Little Falls St., #508, Falls Church, VA 22046
Be sure to include time, location, cost of admission, contact person and any other pertinent information. Event listings will be edited for content and space limitations. Please include any photos or artwork with submissions. Deadline is Monday at noon for the current week’s edition.
PAGE 20 | OCTOBER 31 – NOVEMBER 6, 2019
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KIDS LOVE SCALLIWAG By Eileen Levy .
I sang to him in verse That even made it worse!
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OCTOBER 31 – NOVEMBER 6, 2019 | PAGE 21
57. Popular LGBTQ magazine 58. $50, for Boardwalk 59. Sunburn cause ... or something experienced by 17-, 27-, 34- and 43-Across 62. Fish-eating raptor 63. Reason to earn a badge 64. First word of “Send in the Clowns” 65. Juiceless, as a battery 66. Gnocchi topper 67. “Porgy and ____”
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JOHN DEERING
Sudoku
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NICK KNACK
© 2019 N.F. Benton
Solution to last Sunday’s puzzle
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Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit 1 to 9. For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit sudoku.org.uk. © 2019 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency. All rights reserved.
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BACK IN THE DAY
20 & 10 Years Ago in the News-Press
Falls Church News-Press Vol. IX, No. 34 • November 3, 1999
It is now the time fo r all good to go cows to aid of the p a s their ture . * * * Throw * * Pour it up. it up
Falls Church News-Press Vol. XIX, No. 35 • November 4, 2009
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM
Critter Corner 10 Year s Ago
It is now the time fo r all good to go cows to aid of the the ir pas ture . * * * Throw * * Pour it up. it up
58% Reject ‘Super Majority’ Referendum; Victory for Hull, Whipple, Byrne, Gross
City of F.C. Solid for Dems, Bucks State’s GOP Sweep
With a voter turnout of 48.9%, considered high for an off-year election, citizens of the City of Falls Church soundly rejected a referendum proposal to require a “super majority” of the City Council here for any significant changes to Cherry Hill Park. The referendum became a cause celebre for political activists in what was otherwise a ho-hum election.
Radically bucking statewide patterns in Tuesday’s election, the City of Falls Church produced near two-to-one margins for Democrats in all the contested races on its ballot, contributing to the solid re-election of incumbent Democratic State Del. Jim Scott. But it was a different story for the eastern section of Fairfax County, constituting the 11th Congressional District.
C i t y o f Fa l l s C h u r c h
CRIME REPORT Week of Oct. 21 – 27, 2019
Larceny from Motor Vehicle, 400 blk N Washington St, between October 14 at 10 PM and October 19 at 3 PM, unknown suspect(s) broke a window and took items of value from a vehicle. Destruction of Property, 500
blk Roosevelt Blvd, October 23, 4:15 PM, a male, 38, of The City of Falls Church, VA, was arrested for felony Destruction of Property. Destruction of Property, 500 blk Roosevelt Blvd, October 23, 5 PM, unknown suspect(s) keyed a parked vehicle.
News-Press
TO LETTERS THE EDITOR Continued from Page 6
transit along I66 are involved in this BRT system, they are likely to distort it in a manner that serves certain commercial interests rather than the public’s interest. That process has already begun, and must be resisted. Stuart Whitaker Falls Church
School Board Race Shouldn’t Focus On Single Issue Editor, The race for school board seats has become increasingly focused on the single issue of transgender students. This is unfortunate because there are so many other issues being crowded out of the conversation.
There is now, and there will for years to come, strong support on the school board for transgender students. But I hope voters are learning what the candidates know — or don’t know — about the many other important topics that come before the school board. Let’s hear the candidates’ visions for the future of our school system. How would they address competing budget priorities such as teacher compensation, class size, and staffing? Why are their backgrounds, experiences, and beliefs good for the schools, the staff, and our students? Let’s vote on all the issues. When we allow school board elections to be decided on a single, narrow issue, we do a disservice to ourselves, our schools, and our community. Shawna Russell Falls Church
Drug/Narcotic Violation, 900 blk W Broad St, October 27, 3:59 AM, following a traffic stop, a male, 21, of Rockville, MD, was arrested for possession of THC oil and Marijuana, a male, 21, of Wheaton, MD, and a male, 22, of Adelphi, MD, were issued a summons for Possession of Marijuana. Destruction of Property, 300 blk Hillwood Ave, October 27, 9:44 PM, a male, 26, of Falls Church, VA, was arrested for destruction of Property and Drunk in Public.
[ LETTERS ] The deadline for Letters to the Editor and Guest Commentaries is 5 p.m. Monday each week of publication. Letters to the Editor should be 350 words or less. Guest Commentaries should be limited to 800 words. All letters printed in the News-Press become property of the Falls Church NewsPress and may be edited for clarity and length.
Email letters@fcnp.com
Mail or drop off Letters to the Editor, c/o Falls Church News-Press, 200 Little Falls Street #508, Falls Church, VA 22046 Include full name, address and telephone number with each submission. Anonymous submissions will not be printed.
JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN is this pitch black kitty! Goose is the name, but don’t let that fool you. Adopted from animal rescue by Robbie Barnett, he’s into a lot, but definitely not laying eggs. Just because you’re not famous doesn’t mean your pet can’t be! Send in your Critter Corner submissions to crittercorner@fcnp.com.
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B������� N��� � N���� Pumpkin Carving Contest at Hilton Garden Inn The Hilton Garden Inn Falls Church is hosting its first annual pumpkin carving contest. Entries are by HGI employees. Guests and the public are invited in to vote for the scariest, the most creative and the best all-around pumpkin. Votes must be placed before Nov. 1. Those that include contact information will be eligible for random prize drawings, room upgrades, free appetizers, gift cards and more. The Hilton Garden Inn Falls Church is located at 706 W. Broad Street in Falls Church.
Gold Fish Swing School Sponsoring Cauldron’s ‘Jungle Book’ Gold Fish Swim School is sponsoring Creative Cauldron’s original adaptation of “The Jungle Book” which will run from Nov. 8 – 24. The Learning Theater Production performance is adapted from Rudyard Kipling’s classic by Laura Connors Hull and Ellen Selby and features 10 original songs by Matt Conner and Stephen Gregory Smith. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.CreativeCauldron.org.
Got Lunch?
Profile by Sanford Brings Weight Loss Business to F.C. Profile by Sanford will be opening in Falls Plaza at 1140 W. Broad Street in Falls Church on Friday, Nov. 1. Profile by Sanford is a personalized weight loss and health coaching program that was founded in 2011 when Sanford Health CEO Kelby Krabbenhoft challenged the organization to create a weight loss program rooted in science and research. A grand opening and ribbon cutting will be held for the Falls Church community on Nov. 23. For more information, visit www.profileplan.com.
Virginia Tech Hosting Discussion on Artificial Intelligence The Virginia Tech Facts & Snacks Series: What is AI? will be held Friday, Nov. 8 from 3 – 4 p.m. at the Northern Virginia Center at 7054 Haycock Rd., Room 214. Dr. Kendall Giles will discuss what is meant when we say “AI” and present examples of both the benefits and the challenges of artificial intelligence. The event, which is free and open to the public, is offered by the Virginia Tech Graduate School at the Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church. Giles is an assistant professor in Virginia Tech’s Electrical and Computer Engineering Program. For more information, visit www.nvc.vt.edu.
F.C. Chamber’s ‘Bright Lights in the Little City’ Celebration on Nov. 15 Several local businesses are sponsoring the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce’s community celebration, Bright Lights in the Little City taking place Friday, Nov. 15 at The State Theatre. The evening will include musical performances by Washington Sinfonietta sponsored by the Arlington Community Federal Credit Union and The Grandsons courtesy of the Hilton Garden Inn Falls Church. Hors d’oeuvres will be available and desserts from Bake Shop, Kiln & Custard, Nothing Bundt Cakes, and Plaka Grill will be offered as will a signature drink by The Kensington Falls Church and Famille Café. Additionally more than seventy businesses have secured sponsored tables and donated to the silent auction. The public is encouraged to attend. Visit www.FallsChurchChamber.org for event information, tickets, or to view and bid on auction items.
Pelton Celebrates 20th Anniversary Erik M. Pelton & Associates celebrated its 20th anniversary with a reception and mixer for the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce at Clare & Don’s Beach Shack on Tuesday, Oct. 22. The event drew locally elected officials such as Mayor David Tarter, Vice Mayor Marybeth Connelly, and Council members Phil Duncan and Letty Hardi as well as members of the Economic Development Authority and the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce. Business News & Notes is compiled by Sally Cole, Executive Director of Greater Falls Church Chamber of Commerce. She may be emailed at sally@fallschurchchamber.org.
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