Arlington Public Schools is kicking off the new school year with a bit of good news related to academic performance.
Last school year, students as a whole made gains in math, social studies and science, and in almost all areas, generally exceeded statewide scores, per new testing data.
(Updated at 2:30 p.m.) The Arlington County Council of PTAs is criticizing plans to close Nottingham Elementary School and make it a “swing space” where students go when their school is being renovated.
In suggesting this change, the coalition of PTAs, or CCPTA, says Arlington Public Schools has not considered how little money it has in the next decade to spend on sorely needed renovations. It adds the move would disadvantage low-income, diverse neighborhoods that rely on schools for county and community-based services.
Using a restrictive covenant in a 1938 deed, neighbors in the Tara-Leeway Heights neighborhood convinced a developer to build a single-family home instead of a duplex.
The home, 1313 N. Harrison Street, is not far from a wall that separated the historically Black neighborhood of Hall’s Hill from single-family-home subdivisions originally built exclusively for white people. In addition to specifying that only one home can be built on the lot, a second provision in the deed bars owners from selling to people who are not white.
(Updated 7:10 p.m.) The Arlington County Police Department is pouring more time and people into recruiting officers in an effort to outpace attrition.
For the past four years the number of “functional staff” at ACPD has been in decline. That includes sworn officers and higher-up positions but excludes those on light duty for medical reasons as well as those in training.
It has been 10 years since Arlington County last put up speed humps to reduce speeding.
Now, they will be coming to streets around a trio of schools where lowering speeds to 20 mph has not stopped drivers from going well past the speed limit.
It appears work is coming together for a new Centurion Lounge in Reagan National Airport.
Boards concealing construction activity are up, advertising the lounge from American Express coming to the airport’s “National Hall” in Terminal B, after passengers clear security.
After a summer lull, politicking in Arlington is back in full swing.
For candidates, the first big stop on the campaign trail was an in-person and virtual forum hosted by the Arlington County Civic Federation, or CivFed, last night (Tuesday).
The Air & Space Forces Association will be moving out an office building north of Rosslyn to something closer to the Pentagon.
The association, which supports members the Air and Space Forces, was looking for a more modern space for its national headquarters after spending about 40 years in an office building from the 1980s. It sold its digs on Langston Blvd earlier this year before agreeing to move into the Westpost development, formerly Pentagon Row, in Pentagon City.
Last month, some neighbors told a developer they would “oppose any attempt to obtain permits” for a duplex in the Tara-Leeway Heights neighborhood, and the developer backed down.
McLean-based BeaconCrest Homes bought a single-family home at 1313 N. Harrison Street, an area residents have dubbed “Larchmont.” When it announced to neighbors its plans to build a duplex, a skirmish over the lot’s future — based on a provision in a deed from 1938 — ensued.
Plans to build the long-planned 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Visitor Education Center in Arlington National Cemetery could be gaining momentum.
There will be an in-person and virtual meeting next Wednesday, Sept. 6, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. to discuss the project.
(Updated at 12:40 p.m.) Residents of an aging condo complex near Columbia Pike are embarking on a novel project to upgrade their living situations while dodging staggering condo fees.
Members of the Arlington Heights Condominiums, located on 8th Road S. in the Arlington Mill neighborhood, plan to get the property redeveloped while ensuring every resident who wants to stay can.
(Updated at 4:30 p.m.) Three days into the school year, Wakefield High School has logged a potential student overdose.
Medics were dispatched to the school at 11:30 a.m. and again about 45 minutes later for two students suffering possible drug overdoses — or, at least, the effects of suspected narcotics — according to scanner traffic.
