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News Briefs
PAGE 2 | SEPTEMBER 1 - 7, 2022
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Classes Begin Without a Hitch on Five F.C. School Campuses
As students and staff returned to school Monday, everyone was excited to be back in the classroom. Superintendent Peter Noonan, School Board Chair Laura Downs, and Vice Chair Tate Gould made Day 1 tours of all five schools. At Mount Daniel and Oak Street, teachers and staff greeted students as they arrived. While at Jessie Thackrey Preschool, the youngest learners of FCCPS explored their classrooms and made new friends.
Reproductive Rights Forum Set Next Thursday, Sept. 8
Arlington-based State Sen. Barbara Favola and Delegates Patrick Hope and Rip Sullivan will host an informational town hall on Thursday, Sept. 8 to discuss reproductive health care in Virginia. Also participating will be Dr. Aimee Danielson, an expert in maternal mental health, and Jamie Lockhart, the head of Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia.
New Tennis Business Opens On Sept. 10 in Falls Church
Tennis String Theory is opening its new Falls Church retail storefront, 7115 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, marking the brick-and-mortar return for a local family with a 46+year retail history in Falls Church. Under the guidance of proprietor Jennifer “Ivy” Smith, daughter of the tennis store’s founder, the new shop will expand to 900 square feet of retail space.
Ivy has extensive knowledge of tennis and racquet sports, gained over the years as she worked with her father at the shop he originally established. As one of a few female racquet stringers on the East Coast, Ivy brings her experience and technical ability to what has traditionally been a maledominated field.
Tennis String Theory is much more than a retail outlet, as Ivy and her team provide extensive guidance to assist every player’s skill level, style and find the best gear to enhance their game. The store offers a wide selection of racquets, shoes, clothing, bags, racquet stringing and grip services. The retail space includes a hitting area. Tennis is the store’s specialty, but pickleball, racquetball and squash gear is also available.
The new store’s grand reopening is happening Saturday, Sept. 10 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with a slate of exciting activities to be announced soon.
N. Va. Transportation Group To Meet New Metro CEO Tonight
Members of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) will welcome new Metro GM/CEO Randy Clarke and review upcoming public outreach efforts for the NVTC-led Envision Route 7 Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system planning effort at their monthly meeting tonight.
Commissioners will welcome newlyappointed Metro General Manager and CEO Randy Clarke. It will be Clarke’s first meeting with the full commission since joining Metro in late July. Clarke’s appearance comes a week before Metro shuts down the Yellow Line in Northern Virginia for major construction.
NVTC’s appointees to the Metro Board of Directors and members of the NVTC WMATA Committee will provide updates on the shutdown and available travel alternatives.
Then the NVTC staff will brief Commissioners on public outreach efforts this fall designed to gather feedback on the Envision Route 7 BRT system
NVTC leads the project which, when completed, will provide high-quality, highcapacity transit service between Tysons and Mark Center in Alexandria, via Seven Corners, Falls Church and the East Falls Church Metrorail Station.
The project is currently undertaking a mobility study which will provide analysis of traffic operations and impacts as well as include extensive public outreach focused on the City of Fall Church segment of the corridor. Outreach will begin in mid-September and include digital communications, a public meeting on October 11 and at inperson events. Tonight’s meeting will be held Thursday, September 1 at 7 p.m. at NVTC’s offices: 2300 Wilson Boulevard, First Floor Conference Room, Arlington, Virginia, 22201. It will be livestreamed on NVTC’s YouTube channel.
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SEPTEMBER 1 - 7, 2022 | PAGE 3
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in all vehicle values. The increase varies widely from year, make, model and type of vehicle. This year about 85 percent of vehicles owned by City residents increased in value, compared to 15 percent of vehicles increasing in value last year. The tax is due October 5 and can be paid online at www. fallschurchva.gov. Payment can also be mailed or placed in the yellow drop box outside the City Hall main entrance; payment and the bill stub should be included. The mailing address is Treasurer, 300 Park Avenue, Falls Church, VA 22046.
Questions about vehicle assessments can be directed to the Commissioner of the Revenue’s Office (commissioner@fallschurchva.gov or 703248-5450, TTY 711). To register a vehicle or to give notice of a moved out vehicle, go to www.fallschurchva.gov/vehiclereg. For billing and online payment questions, contact the Treasurer’s Office (treasurer@ fallschurchva.gov or 703-2485046, TTY 711). Information about payment options can be found online at www.fallschurchva.gov/Payments.
In terms of the value of a used vehicle, the following is taken from the website for NADA:
“NADA is the National Association of Automobile Dealers. The first NADA guides were issued in 1933 during the Great Depression at the request of the federal government. Over the years, the NADAguides (the yellow book) has become the premier resource for finding the value of vehicles in the used vehicle industry. Since 2015, the NADAguides have been licensed to J.D. Power.
The NADA value is the value of your used vehicle based on many different value factors. The NADA guides have values for automobiles, motorcycles, boats, RVs, and even manufactured homes. The NADA used car guide provides multiple values for each vehicle. This depends on whether it is the auction value, actual cash value, retail value, trade-in value, private party value, or even the used car or new car dealer price. The prices are compiled from actual purchase information and are regularly updated. This provides some of the most important information when it comes to used car values, and is a useful research tool online for anyone looking to sell their vehicle at a fair price, offering several options as well. An individual owner, an automotive dealership, banks, and auctioneers: all rely on NADA to find out more about the automobile marketplace and get an estimated market price.
Several different factors and data affect the NADA value of your vehicle. In fact, all of the factors combine together to give an accurate picture of the genuine value of the vehicle. Sentimental value is not one of these. There are four major factors that affect NADA value: 1 Location of vehicle, 2 Optional Accessories, 3. Mileage, 4 Condition.
It’s pretty straightforward to know that mileage and condition affect the value (if you didn’t know, you can check a vehicle’s history report by entering the VIN number on the guide by NADA site as well). For example when it comes to average retail value in terms of mileage, it should be within the acceptable range for the model year. In addition to condition, it’s something car dealers also take into account all the time, but less so when it comes to vehicle location and optional accessories.
Optional accessories affect NADA value because they definitely add value to a vehicle. Of course, optional accessories like automatic transmission and air conditioning are very important selling points for a vehicle. Generally, the more optional accessories or products the vehicle has then the higher the NADA value is.
Location affects pricing and cash offers as well. Not only is there a rural vs. urban divide when it comes to car prices, but there is also a regional disparity. This disparity can be caused by economic differences between areas. It can also be caused by supply and demand issues. There can even be seasonal price differences. Not surprisingly, there is less demand for a convertible model car in December in a place like North Dakota than there is in another state like Florida. While location doesn’t play a huge part in vehicle values, it is something to be aware of.
NADA Guides (National Appraisal Guides) shares the vehicle valuation market with Kelley Blue Book (KBB), and many consumers often want to know which of these tools is better. They both are trusted guides for vehicle valuations with almost a century of experience, but there are some key differences, mostly in how they calculate the value. NADA relies more on hard data about sales and prices from sellers, retailers, trying to be more comprehensive, while the KBB focuses on auctions a bit more. More importantly for us, unlike the NADA Guide, KBB does not offer valuations for RVs and motorhomes, focusing just on used cars, new cars, SUVs, and trucks.”
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F.C. Mayor Speaks on Educati on, Development and the Ongoing Pandemic
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sought to foster transparency and openness by having town halls, walking tours and community forums on issues of interest and importance. Having a local newspaper like the News Press provide in-depth coverage of community issues is invaluable for informed discourse.
Q:. What can you say about the City’s resilience as a community and the many examples of the residents coming together to make a public celebration or fundraising or charity event a reality?
A: As terrible as the Covid crisis has been, it has brought out the best in many people and showed the strength and spirit of our community. We saw numerous acts of generosity, neighbor helping neighbor… shuttered businesses making masks for health care workers and local restaurants providing food to first responders.
Q: 2022 has seen many development plans move forward in the City, such as Founders Row and the Great Street plan. With new construction and the eventual influx of cars, how has the City been addressing residents’ worries regarding traffic congestion and safety?
A: We all know that traffic in Northern Virginia can be a mess, but the City is working hard to relieve congestion and promote safety. For new developments, the City requires traffic studies, and usually developer-funded traffic improvements as a part of each new proposal. With these improvements, most new projects maintain or even improve preexisting traffic throughput.
More broadly, sidewalks, traffic calming and pedestrian and bike safety continue to be major priorities throughout the City. To reduce the burden of expensive capital improvements, we continue to seek and obtain grant funding for these projects…streetscape improvements to South Washington Street are nearly complete and are a major boost to this commercial area. The upgrades include wider sidewalks, street trees and lights, crosswalks, utility undergrounding and new markers telling the City’s history. The cost was paid by state and federal grants.
Q: In terms of City infrastructure, what is your impression of how Falls Church has been addressing climate change, environmental sustainability and related policy?
A: Environmental sustainability is a top priority for this Council and we continue to make important strides in combating climate change. Almost a decade ago, Falls Church became Virginia’s first EPA Green Power community and we have been building on that commitment ever since.
Recent successes include completion of Meridian High School, the City’s first Net-Zero ready facility. Solar panels will be coming soon to it and Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School. The schools will also be adding new electric school buses to their fleet. Likewise, the police and City have begun their transition to clean energy with recent purchases of electric vehicles. We are also in the midst of preparing our Community Energy Plan, which will provide a City roadmap to implementing the goals of the Paris Accord. Even our urban planning is informed by climate change with the West Falls project, the City’s largest and densest one, located near the West Falls Church Metro Station.
Q: In the City, biking, electric vehicles and sustainable gardening are among some of the top areas of interest for residents; do you think the City has overall continued on the right path when it comes to being environmentally responsible?
A: I think so. Climate change is one of the defining issues of the modern era. We have made major strides in just the past few years but we can’t let up. There is so much more yet to be done. I am particularly proud that our students and young people have been leading the charge for action.
Q: Although Covid-19 is still a consistent part of our lives, Northern Virginia in general has seen improvements in terms of people getting vaccinated as well as the amount of cases appearing to decrease. However, with Governor Youngkin’s stance on masking and vaccinations, does the City have a rough plan for dealing with another possible surge?
A: The City will be ready in the event of another Covid surge. We continue to carefully monitor Covid infection rates, hospitalizations and other metrics, and to work with the Fairfax Health Department, our health partner, to ensure that we are ready to take action if need be. Through much of Covid, I was chair of the Northern Virginia Regional Commission and saw first-hand how the region came together and coordinated its efforts, adopted best practices and spoke with one voice. New vaccine boosters should be available this fall offering broader protection and will hopefully reduce the chances of further outbreaks. I am confident that we can deal with any further surges, should they come.
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Q: Mandates have been a tricky topic the past few years and have unfortunately been politicized across the country, but do you foresee any special challenges in getting City residents to comply with health mandates if those should be brought back?
A: I don’t anticipate that masking or social distancing mandates will return. If it were to become necessary, however, I am confident that Conti nued on Page 7
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Welcome to the 20222023 School Year
This week may have been the first week of school, but the activity in and around all FCCPS campuses ramped up last week. Superintendent Peter Noonan welcomed all teachers and staff back and celebrated milestones at Convocation. Meet the Teacher days were held at Oak Street, Mt Daniel and Jessie Thackrey. Staff and teachers welcomed students to the Secondary Campus during open houses and orientation.
Register Now for FCEF’s Run for the Schools
Support the Falls Church Education Foundation by participating in our two early fall events. The annual FCEF Run for the Schools 5K Run/Walk for all ages and abilities is Sunday, September 18th at 8 am. Enjoy running or walking the beautiful Falls Church City streets with your friends and neighbors for a great cause!
Support Mustang Football
The Meridian football team is selling restaurant discount cards that work in and around Falls Church City. The fundraising effort will go towards purchasing an end zone camera for teaching purposes and other necessary practice equipment. The cards are $25 and work until 8/1/2023.
FCPS Sees Steady Growth in SOL Data
The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) has announced 2021-22 Standards of Learning (SOL) data for school divisions that shows Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) has made steady progress towards a return to prepandemic levels.
FCPS annual pass rates for 2022 indicate that, while the road to recovery continues, FCPS students made promising gains in reading, mathematics, and science over the course of the 2022 school year.
The data show that FCPS reading rates this year are nearly commensurate with pre-pandemic levels at 79 percent, while math rates are up by 13 percentage points to 74 percent. Science pass rates have improved by a third this school year.
MONDAY, AUGUST 29 marked the first day of school for Falls Church City Public Schools.
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Back to School Night for FCCPS
Meridian High School, Henderson Middle School, Mt Daniel Elementary School and Oak Street Elementary School will be hosting a virtual back to school night from September 6 to September 15. Meridian’s virtual back to school night will be on Tuesday, September 6th from 6:30 p.m. — 8:30 p.m. and Henderson’s will be on Thursday, September 8 from 6:00 p.m. — 8:00 p.m.
Mt Daniel’s virtual back to school night will be on Tuesday, September 13 from 6:30 p.m. — 8:00 p.m. and Oak Street’s will on Thursday, September 15 from 6:00 p.m. — 8:00 p.m.
FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM Commentary
Why Student Debt Relief Isn’t Elitist
Paul Krugman
NEW YORK TIMES
Embarrassing admission: I have been watching the TV show “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law.” I’m not, in general, a fan of the superhero genre; but after “Orphan Black” I’ll watch anything starring Tatiana Maslany.
Anyway, one of the show’s plot points is that the title character is reluctant to reveal her superpowers. Why? Among other things, she’s worried (correctly, it turns out) that once people know what she can do she’ll have a hard time paying off her student loans.
I don’t think the writers were trying to make a political statement. They were just acknowledging the pervasiveness of student debt — and anxiety about student debt — in modern America. And that pervasiveness is why Republicans’ attacks on President Joe Biden’s debt-relief policy — which they generally portray as a giveaway either to privileged elites or to lazy spendthrifts — are likely to fall flat.
Let’s talk about the numbers. The Biden administration says that its plan will provide relief to as many as 43 million Americans. That’s a lot of people, not a small, cosseted elite. In particular, data from the New York Fed say that more than 12 million Americans in their 30s — more than a quarter of that age group — still have unpaid student debt.
What this means is that even if you subscribe to the Trump diner theory of politics — according to which the only voters who matter are blue-collar guys wearing baseball caps — you should be aware that some of those guys probably took out loans to attend trade schools or community colleges, all too often getting nothing but debt in return. Even among those who didn’t take out student loans, many probably have children, siblings, cousins or friends who did. So the Biden plan will touch many people.
In short, student debt relief isn’t some kind of niche elite concern; it’s a broad, one might even say populist, issue. Initial polling on the Biden plan is somewhat mixed, with an Emerson College survey showing much stronger support than a CBS/YouGov survey. Even the latter survey, however, finds a majority of Americans approving of the plan; it even finds much less opposition among noncollege whites than you might have expected given that group’s general disapproval of all things Biden.
The other prong of the rightwing response involves invoking personal responsibility — in effect, portraying the recipients of debt relief as welfare queens. Republican efforts on that front have, however, been extraordinarily tone-deaf.
Just on general political principles, telling tens of millions of Americans that they’re lazy and irresponsible — that they’re all, as Sen. Ted Cruz put it, like a “slacker barista” who wasted years “studying completely useless things” — seems … not smart. To be brutally honest, that sort of caricature may have worked for Republicans when the insults were directed at urban Black people. But it’s likely to backfire when we’re talking about a broad spectrum of Americans who were just trying to move up in the world.
Furthermore, many of the most prominent critics of debt relief are almost comically out of touch, hypocritical, or both. Actually, scratch the “almost.”
For example, Sen. Marco Rubio has proudly declared that he paid off all his student debt — after being elected to the Senate and getting a book contract. Why can’t everyone do that?
On the hypocrisy front, the White House is having a field day mocking Republican members of Congress whose businesses received debt forgiveness under the Paycheck Protection Program. It’s true that debt relief for employers who maintained their workforces in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic was built into that program; it’s also true that later research sug-
Happy one-year anniversary to our recycling staff’s campaign for composting!
But based on my nonscientific chats with fellow residents, many have yet to make use of the tan plastic counter-top caddies distributed by Arlington County Solid Waste last September. Some consider them a confusing hassle that generates fruit flies and stale odors in what otherwise, I presume, are immaculate Arlington kitchens. So after witnessing a specialists’ demonstration at the county fair last month, I asked Solid Waste Bureau Chief Erik Grabowsky to address such complaints. A fair number of Arlingtonians, I reminded him, think the small caddy itself is meant to be placed outside for pickup with the large green organic bins. And there is skepticism that the food scraps, after all that labor, actually end up somewhere useful.
Grabowsky, who does his own composting at his South Arlington home, acknowledged that the program “is underutilized,” perhaps 40-45 percent of homes, according to audits. The county “would like to see it reach the same” participation rate as general recycling, 85-90 percent.
When he spotted a neighbor putting her small caddy on the curb empty, as if to get rid of it, Grabowsky tactfully placed a composting brochure on her door. “We just have to do a consistently better job of educating the public.”
On odors, “when things get funkier, I empty the bag and make sure the caddy is cleaned,” he said. “Residuals compound the effects of odor.” But if it gets stinky beyond your comfort level, empty the caddy into the larger green bin. “People have differing tolerance for odors.” To minimize invading insects, Grabowsky advises, clean the caddy with paper towels to reduce moisture. He also recommends cleaning out refrigerators regularly. “The advantage of using the compost program is that you realize what you were wasting in food.” Instead of buying two avocadoes, for example, perhaps buy one. “With inflation, there is serious money [involved], and this is an opportunity to retool purchases.”
Grabowsky assures me all recycling is recycled and all compost is composted, whether it’s in the Freestate Farms Compost facility in Manassas, the recyclables transfer station in Merrifield (materials from there are trucked to an Elkridge, Md. facility), or the joint ArlingtonAlexandria facility on Eisenhower Ave.
His office performs quarterly waste audits, polling the contractor refuse crews in a sampling of 100 homes. You’ll note that the same14-15 labeled trucks (they cover 10 routes daily) can be used for trash, paper and composting. But composting pickups might be delayed a day if there is excess heat or a truck breakdown.
The campaign began with a multi-page printed guide, cart-hanger reminders, website instructions, and a refrigerator sticker suggesting what scraps are compostable. The bureau is considering a refresher cart-hanger this fall in its “trial and error” quest for zero waste.
“Maybe some people had a rough start when composting started,” Grabowsky said. “But we encourage them to give it another try.”
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The debate within Arlington schools over a proposal to cease grading homework is, as the new year starts, on hold.
Last year’s plan to relieve pressure on students by grading only at key “summative” points (say, end-of-unit tests)—prompted some resistance.
A group of Wakefield High School teachers expressed concern that their experience suggests that if they don’t grade the work along the way (formative assessments), students won’t take it seriously.
Sarah Putnam, APS executive director of curriculum and instruction, tells me the policy has been “paused,” revised only slightly for clarifications. Some teachers are moving toward viewing homework as practice, to “try something else on how to motivate students not because grades are important but because learning is important.” There currently are time constraints on assigned homework that vary by grade level, she said. But the superintendent plans to “take this current school year for growth and expansion and try different paths,” she says. “We won’t make changes until we have critical mass that teachers are ready to move in that direction.”Continued on Page 7
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