Author: Scott McCaffrey

A Northern Virginia native, Scott McCaffrey has four decades of reporting, editing and newsroom experience in the local area plus Florida, South Carolina and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. He spent 26 years as editor of the Sun Gazette newspaper chain. For Local News Now, he covers government and civic issues in Arlington, Fairfax County and Falls Church.

News

Democrats clinch County Board, School Board seats as Arlington stays blue amid national red shift

By Dan Egitto, James Jarvis and Scott McCaffrey
Arlington County Board member-elect JD Spain, Sr. celebrates his victory during a watch party in Crystal City (staff photo by James Jarvis)

Democrats in Arlington County Board and School Board races emerged victorious last night by wide margins.

Democratic nominee JD Spain, Sr. claimed 58% of the vote in the race for County Board, according to unofficial election results. This happened in the first round of tabulation, avoiding the need for further tallying under ranked-choice voting.

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News

Forecast: Arlington’s voter turnout has potential to reach 80%

By Scott McCaffrey
An election worker helps register voters at Arlington County's Wakefield High School precinct during the 2024 general election (staff photo by James Jarvis)

It might not be a record-breaker, but Arlington ballots are adding up as the last three hours of voting approach.

And when all is said and done, turnout may be around 80% of the county’s 161,000 active registered voters.

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Schools

APS leaders seek delay in change of Va. school-accountability rules

By Scott McCaffrey
Arlington Public Schools headquarters (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Rather than a frontal assault against it, Arlington School Board members may try to win a delay in implementation of the state’s new school-accountability regimen.

School leaders plan to ask the General Assembly to intervene and postpone the Virginia Department of Education’s new School Performance and Support Framework, a two-pronged evaluation and ranking system that is replacing the previous accreditation process.

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Schools

School Board teeing up overhaul of its boundary-adjustment policies

By Scott McCaffrey
Arlington School Board in 2024 (via Arlington Public Schools)

Arlington School Board members in mid-November will consider a major overhaul to how the school system tackles boundary adjustments.

If adopted, school leaders will start looking at boundaries on a two-year cycle rather than the current five years, and will apply a new set of criteria to guide how to make them.

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News

County leaders weigh options in ‘second-signature’ towing proposal

By Scott McCaffrey
Advanced Towing tow truck outside the company's lot in Ballston (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Some say requiring real-time, in-person authorization of tows from private property is a needed consumer protection.

Others, however, believe it can endanger those working in local retail outlets, apartment-management offices and other front-line businesses.

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News

Environmental groups seek comprehensive trail along GW Parkway

By Scott McCaffrey
George Washington Memorial Parkway sign (via National Park Service)

A coalition of environmental advocacy groups is hoping recent controversy over tree-clearing along the Potomac River leads to creative thinking about the future.

Leaders of nine organizations dispatched a letter to Christine Smith, acting director of the National Park Service’s George Washington Memorial Parkway (GWMP). While much of the letter focused on the tree-clearing matter, there also was a call for ways to atone and move forward.

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News

Arlington lags months behind in release of County Board minutes

By Scott McCaffrey
The Arlington County Board at its June 15, 2024 meeting (via Arlington County)

Arlington residents for several years have been following the saga of Missing Middle. Now it’s a case of missing minutes.

Minutes, which give a description of the proceedings of each County Board meeting and chronicle the actions taken, haven’t been posted for public review since April.

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Schools

APS leadership starts early to avoid repeat of 2023 health-care debacle

By Scott McCaffrey
Members of the local teachers union, Arlington Education Association, protest the Kaiser contract termination during the Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023, School Board meeting (staff photo by James Jarvis)

Leaders of Arlington Public Schools are getting an early start on health-insurance renewal, while bringing employees into the conversation from the very beginning.

The goal, Superintendent Francisco Durán told School Board members Tuesday (Oct. 29), is to do better than in 2023, when confusion over a change in health-care providers and poor communication with the rank-and-file about it sparked outrage and led to an auditor’s investigation.

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News

Leftover funds from Falls Church budget likely to be used for new park

By Scott McCaffrey
Trees at the Fellows property in Falls Church (via City of Falls Church)

Members of the Falls Church City Council appear ready to jumpstart plans for the city’s newest park.

As they determine what to do with the city government’s $5.3 million fiscal 2024 surplus, Council members seem enthusiastic to allocate $1.5 million to complete design and move forward with construction on what they call the Fellows site.

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News

New Falls Church police chief: ‘We’re making progress’ on road safety

By Scott McCaffrey
Police Chief Shahram Fard (City of Falls Church)

Falls Church’s new-in-2024 police chief wants one of his eventual legacies to be safety improvements that benefit the drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists who share the city’s roads.

“I’ve made it a priority — we have stepped up enforcement,” Shahram Fard told City Council members Monday night (Oct. 28). “I take traffic safety very, very seriously.”

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