VIDEO: Falls Church Residents Prepare for Irene

BY ANDREW FINEIN
Video Editor
August 26, 2011

As Hurricane Irene is set to impact this area Saturday night into Sunday morning, Falls Church area residents are rushing to local stores and gas stations to prepare for the worst. Batteries, bread, and water are some of the first items to disappear from the shelves at the Falls Plazza Giant in Falls Church.

Officials recommend stocking up with 2-3 days of food and water, as well as plenty of batteries to power those TVs and radios.  They also suggest filling gas tanks in case of an emergency. As always, residents should check local news and radio stations for updates. Falls Church City will issue email and text alerts through alert.fallschurchva.gov and post on the City’s Facebook page.

Here are some important numbers that you may need during the upcoming storm:

• Dominion Power: 866-366-4357
• City Water Service: 703-248-5071
• City InfoLine, manned starting at 6 a.m. on Sunday: 703-248-5200

Video: “The Strings Club” Part 2 (2009)

Here is Part 2 of “The Strings Club” from 2009, the initial production of “The George Mason Coffee House,” produced at FCC-TV by GMHS senior Andrew Finein. Members of the Strings Club are Kate Highnam, Linda Lay, Emily Rueckert, Ethan Hoskins, and Nate Cooper on violin,  Greg de Paula on cello, and Crystal Lou on piano. Click here to view photos from The Strings Club performance on the Coffee House.

Video: “The Strings Club” Part 1 (2009)

This video is the first edition of “The George Mason Coffee House” from 2009.  The Coffee House is a production of GMHS grad Andrew Finein, begun when he was a high school junior, and still continued today at the studios of Falls Church Community Television.

In this video, the members of the Strings Club are Kate Highnam, Linda Lay, Emily Rueckert, Ethan Hoskins, and Nate Cooper on violin,  Greg de Paula on cello, and Crystal Lou on piano.

Video: Lou Olom on FC Schools, Elections, and Development

Long-time City resident and activist Lou Olom recently sat down with Falls Church Times’ Stan Fendley for a taping of the Falls Church Forum program at FCC-TV.  In the interview, Lou talks about City schools, elections, and real estate development.  The interview is 30 minutes long.

1999 FLASHBACK: Mayor Snyder Explains Water Return

December 26, 2010

Someone, unknown, with access to the Falls Church City Council video archive, has posted a 2-minute clip on YouTube from May 5, 1999, of then-Mayor Dave Snyder announcing that the City would begin taking a higher rate of return on income from its water sales and thereby reduce City taxes.

On January 6, 2010, Fairfax Circuit Court Judge R. Terrence Ney ruled to strike down a sentence in the City’s charter which allowed it to transfer surpluses from its water fund to its general fund as a “return on equity.”   On appeal, that ruling was left standing by the Virgina Supreme Court.

Click below to view the video clip.
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School Board Won’t Participate in City Efficiency Study

By GINGER PINHOLSTER
Falls Church Times Staff

December 18, 2010

While Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields is contracting for an outside efficiency study on City operations and possible consolidation of services, including with City schools, the School Board has declined to participate in the efficiency study.

At the December 14 School Board meeting, Board member Greg Rasnake said he had been contacted by a member of City Council regarding the Board’s decision not to participate. Rasnake emphasized that, in his view, the Board’s problem with the efficiency study is related solely to concerns about timing — late in the year, when the Board is preparing its next budget.

“Rushing a study in front of this budget whose purpose is to look at consolidations will be tantamount to recommending consolidations, and I think to do so would be a mistake,” he said.

The Falls Church Times reported earlier this month that while Shields has the authority to proceed on his own with an efficiency study, Mayor Nader Baroukh has recommended that both the City/School Board liaison group and the Council’s Government Operations Committee review the proposals.

SPECIAL EDUCATION PENALTY

Superintendent Lois Berlin reported that the Schools were being penalized $185,000 for failure to comply with complex federal and state laws concerning special education.

The issue relates to the “maintenance of effort” requirement,  Berlin said, which stipulates that local funds spent on special education must not be less than the prior year. The City spent less in 2010 because an employee moved away, she said.

Most Virginia school districts receive a 50-percent waiver of this requirement. Falls Church did not, because it was deemed “disproportionate”—meaning the number of ethnically diverse students taking part in its special education programs is too high, according to the state.

Ultimately, Berlin said, “We were $185,176 out of effort.” Most of this expense will be covered by contingency funds, but money from the stimulus bill will pay $57,000 of the tab.

According to Board chair Joan Wodiska, “The state is saying, `You are serving too many students, some kids within a certain group, you shouldn’t be helping, [but] we’re going to help those kids because it’s the right thing to do. We have done our due diligence to reduce expenses, and in turn, we are being told we must send a check for $185,000, and these are funds we could use in Falls Church to reduce taxes, cover salaries or services to students, but our hands will be tied by the special education law.

“The federal special education law tied the School Board’s hands and dictated our spending levels on special education services, and to make matters worse, the federal law, designed to protect and ensure the education of students with disabilities, is actually hindering our ability to serve students, and even our taxpayers. It is deeply frustrating,” Wodiska stressed.

The Board has made a number of appeals, including outreach to representatives in the Senate and House, she said.

RELOCATE GEORGE MASON HIGH SCHOOL?

Board member Susan Kearney asked whether the Board should consider moving George Mason High School from its current location, but no one on the Board responded.

“At some point, I’d like to see this group take a substantive look at what could happen in this City if we did something other than have a high school on the George Mason campus property, which would include an evaluation of the value of that property, what kinds of development we might put there, how that might change our perspective on other land in the city, and its usability for school facilities and so on,” Kearney said. “I’m not sure when that fits in the timeframe, but I feel like this group taking a look at that might change the way people think about what we’re doing here to the benefit of both the school board and the kids.”

After a pause, Wodiska moved on to other business. In September, Wodiska had strongly refuted speculation that the school division might tear down Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School, which is located adjacent to the high school. Wodiska had emphasized at that time that there are no such plans.

COMING SOON — HIGH-TECH-HIGH?

Technology—including Internet access for students in need and online learning opportunities for those outside Falls Church City—took center stage at the meeting.

Board members approved a five-year strategic technology plan and also hinted at two special initiatives on the horizon: A public-private partnership with Milestone Communication to extend Internet access beyond the classroom, and electronic learning resources that could be offered to students in other communities.

When students face a digital divide between their school and home, “we can’t improve student achievement the way we want to,” said Board chair Wodiska. A key goal of the proposed revenue-generating partnership with Milestone Communication, initiated as a result of Wodiska’s role as president-elect of the Virginia School Boards Association, would be “to provide Internet access to students in need,” she said.

Board vice chair Pat Riccards had described the proposal in a November 21 Falls Church Times commentary. “The plan is simple,” he wrote. “Milestone can replace a light pole currently on our school property with a new pole that allows for cellular service. Telecomm companies would then pay an annual fee to host an antenna on our light pole. Each year, our school division could collect approximately $30,000 per pole for such use. Through this partnership, we will be able to improve Internet access at [Thomas Jefferson Elementary School] . . . As an added benefit, the Falls Church City Public Schools is able to use this partnership to provide an Internet connection to students throughout the City.”

The School Board is currently “reviewing contract language to formalize this innovative public-private partnership,” Wodiska said in an e-mail exchange following the December 14 meeting. “It’s a win-win for everyone. It can provide a steady source of revenue, expand Internet access, bridge the digital divide for low-income students, and even help expand our city’s digital infrastructure to support public safety.”

Further public dialogue will take place before plans are finalized, she said.

ONLINE LEARNING

Educators also have begun to talk about boosting electronic learning resources and “embracing kids who don’t necessarily attend our schools to do some of their learning with us,” Board member Kearney reported.

Currently, Wodiska explained after the meeting, students have access to e-learning opportunities via outside providers and teachers, sometimes at a cost to the school division. Online learning can be leveraged to enhance course offerings, academic rigor, and the student experience, but the current approach is “piecemeal” and “can be cumbersome,” she said.

“Today, non-resident students pay tuition to attend our brick and mortar classes,” Wodiska said. “In the future, the School Board envisions a day when it may be possible for non-resident students to pay a fee to attend an online course at George Mason High School taught by our very own George Mason teachers as a way to raise revenue for the district.”

So far, she said, the Board has held work sessions with high-school staff to discuss, for example, establishing a new e-learning policy, common rules for students, grading, length of offerings, assessment, and more. Site visits for Board members and high-school staff may be planned to learn more about online schools in Virginia and Florida.

FIVE-YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN

The Five-Year Strategic Plan for 2012-2016, unanimously approved by the Board, outlines five goals, starting with the need to “provide a safe, flexible, and effective learning environment for all students.” The plan includes a strategy for implementing fiber and 1 Gbps Ethernet as well as wireless access to every school. It also emphasizes “just-in-time,” or on-demand technical assistance for users.

Wodiska and others commended technologist Steve Knight for his hard work and vision in preparing the strategic plan.

Knight fielded comments by Board members Rosaura Aguerrebere and Charlotte Hyland concerning the Access technology, which among other features, allows parents to log into a secure system to track their children’s daily grades. Hyland said she felt the previous technology, Angel, “was easier,” and she wondered whether most teachers have been able to master the Access system. Aguerrebere reported problems with logging into the Access system. “The logon is just impossible,” she said. “I gave up, after a month.”

Knight acknowledged that some users have experienced a learning curve with Access, but he said professional development for teachers is continuing. He also noted that mastery of the previous Angel technology took several years.

Board member Rasnake asked, “Are we squaring the use of technology with the components that make for a well-rounded education?” he asked, with a nod to Thomas Jefferson Elementary School music teacher Marie Harbison, who was in the audience. “Are we making sure we won’t plug our students into the Hal 2000 and then spit them out on the other side?”

Berlin said the question went beyond the scope of Knight’s mandate, and then Wodiska added, “Art and music are safe in our district.”

Kearney recommended keeping an eye on “cyber-bullying as it’s changing over time with new tools and platforms and technology.” Knight said division leadership recently took part in a panel on cyber-bullying, and he hopes the division can soon pull together a task force and a summit to address the issue.

Details about the new technology plan are at http://tinyurl.com/FCCPS-tech.

ESOL PLAN

Also during the meeting, the Board approved a new English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) plan, covering 2010 through 2015.

The 181 English language learners (ELL) who enrolled in Falls Church schools for the 2009-2010 year represent about 9% of the total enrollment of 1,991, a slight decline compared with the prior year. As of January 2010, ESOL staff consisted of five full-time teachers, three part-time teachers and two full-time and one part-time paraprofessional. Goals emphasized within the new ESOL plan include efforts to “close the persistent academic gap between the ELL student population and the mainstream population as measured by standardized test scores,” and to increase the participation of those students in advanced programs and classes. See http://tinyurl.com/FCCPS-ESOL.

Wodiska commended Jennifer Riccards, head of the ESOL advisory group, and Board liaison Aguerrebere. “This is a great example of how the School Board is reaching out to and engaging the public,” she said after the meeting. “The group has benefited from Jennifer and Rosaura’s rich knowledge and passion for the well-being of ESOL students, and in turn, our entire community.”

NEW CURRICULUM

Three new curriculum offerings were approved: A new two-year IB environmental systems and societies course, an intermediate band course, and a contract jazz ensemble course. An existing standard-level IB biology course will now be shelved, while the new IB environmental option will encompass the realms of both science and social studies. An existing jazz ensemble will now provide students with a half-credit, and the 150 high-school band students will be split into three groups, based on ability and experience.

OTHER BUSINESS

Rasnake also commended Falls Church Times staffer George Southern for his role in promoting public discourse about community issues. He said he hasn’t always agreed with Southern, who recently announced plans to forego writing opinion pieces (http://tinyurl.com/hadmysay ). But Rasnake said he looks forward to reading Southern’s news coverage of the city.

The School Board meeting is online at http://tinyurl.com/FCCPS-12-14-10.

VIDEO SPOTLIGHT: Tech Exec Brian Williams of Viget Labs

By FALLS CHURCH TIMES STAFF

August 7, 2010

Brian Williams, CEO of  Falls Church City-based web consulting firm Viget Labs, was interviewed recently by Adam Fendley, a rising ninth-grader at George Mason High School.  In the interview, Williams discusses the company’s background, clients and philosophy.

Williams started Viget Labs in 1999 with his father, Wynne Williams, and his brother, Andy Rankin, who serves as company president.   Today the company has 40 employees in Falls Church and Durham, NC.  Viget’s customers include athletic shoe manufacturer Puma, Choice Hotels International, Duke University, National  Geographic, PBS Teachers, and environmental consulting firm ClearCarbon.

Why did Viget headquarter in Falls Church City?  Because of the convenience for clients and employees offered by the close proximity to I-66, two Metro stations, and Reagan National Airport, says Williams, and because the City’s high quality schools were attractive to Williams and Rankin, each of whom has young children.

The interview is 20 minutes long and appears in two parts.  Click on the players below to view the videos.

DANCING IN THE CITY:
2010 Falls Church City Community Center Dance Recital

Click read more to see a video made from pictures from the recent Community Center dance recital.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

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