August 22 - 28, 2024
Falls Church, Virginia • w w w . fc n p . c o m • Free
Founded 1991 • Vol. XXXIV N o . 28
The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper of Record, Serving N. Virginia
2 Launch VIRGINIA VOTES FOR HARRIS! Campaigns to Fill Vacant Council Seat Aug. 30 Deadline to Make F.C.’s Special Nov. 5 Ballot by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
Two prominent Falls Church citizens have stepped up in the last week seeking to qualify for the Special Election on Nov. 5 to fill the Falls Church City Council seat vacated by the resignation last week of Caroline Lian. Former School Board chair Laura Downs and Zoning Ordinance Advisory Committee and Board of Zoning Appeals member John B. Murphy are currently striving to obtain the necessary 125 valid signatures of registered City residents and to complete the paperwork required to qualify, and get it all done by August 30, now just over a week away. A third city resident, Joseph Schiarizzi, chair of the City’s Environmental Sustainability Committee, made an initial inquiry about running, he told the News-Press, but decided not to proceed when he learned that Downs would be.
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VIRGINIA’S U.S. SENATOR Mark Warner casts the Virginia delegation’s votes for Kamala Harris for President at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago Tuesday in a scene televised live worldwide. Others from Virginia visible here include Rep. Gerry Connolly, Rep. Bobby Scott and Rep. Alfronzo Lopez. More on Page 7 and 16. (Photo: Michael Smith)
F.C. School Chief Noonan Upbeat About New Year by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
The new school year got off to a “roaring start” this Monday, according to Dr. Peter Noonan, in an exclusive interview with the News-Press this week. He made the rounds of all the City of Falls Church’s five schools on opening day, starting with helping preschoolers off the bus at the Jesse Thackrey Preschool at 7:30 a.m. and culminating at Meridian High School, where classes now begin at the new and later start time of 8:30 a.m. The smooth start, he said, was a carryover from the calm experi-
enced throughout the now-shorter summer break since the high school graduation ceremony in mid-June. A first glimpse at enrollment has established that earlier estimates for this school year of an overall increase of about 100 students, as predicted by the Weldon Cooper and George Mason University Fuller Institute was just about right. “We had about 100 more students last year than the year before, will have about 100 more this year and 100 next year,” Noonan said, based on the aggressive new development of residential and mixed use housing in the City that
has contributed so much to the tax rate that pays for the schools. At the two-day convocation of all FCCPS (Falls Church City Public Schools) employees held last week at the Meridian High auditorium, Noonan touted the Falls Church system as one of the best, if not the best, in the entire U.S. That is due to the fact it is one of only seven in the nation that has incorporated the full, globally-renowned International Baccalaureate (IB) program into its entire system, from PreKindergarten through 12th grade, with the Pre-K program being introduced just last year.
Now, over 95 percent of students in the entire system take at least one IB course and the core skills that are the subject of IB courses are weaved into the entire range of course offerings. Those core skills are designed to encourage students to become inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, risk takers, open minded, caring, balanced and reflective, according to IB materials, and this is achieved through an inquiry-based approach that, simply, involves asking questions.
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