Schools

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.


News

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.


News

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.”


News

Arlington’s two county-government-operated nature centers will see their operating days doubled in two weeks.

The county’s Department of Parks and Recreation has announced plans for Long Branch and Gulf Branch nature centers to be open six days a week for the winter season, starting on Tuesday, Nov. 12.


News

Arlington Independent Media now has new board of directors and the outlines of a battle plan to bring itself back from the brink of extinction.

“We’re not giving up the ghost,” the organization’s outgoing secretary, Claire Seaton, said at the end of AIM’s annual membership meeting, held Sunday (Oct. 27).


News

The Arlington government’s new LGBTQ+ Advisory Committee held its first meeting this week, electing a chair and vice chair and beginning to set priorities.

“I want to hear the different ideas everyone has, and how we can work together,” said Laman Ben-Trahoret, a committee member, on Monday (Oct. 21).


News

At the recent Falls Church Chamber of Commerce candidate forum, the two aspirants running in the special election for City Council were posed this hypothetical situation.

“If you had $50 million handed to you,” they were asked, “how would you use it to make transportation better in the city?”


News

U.S. Rep. Don Beyer says he does not, at present, desire to see a federal investigation into conditions at the Arlington County Detention Facility.

But speaking at a Monday (Oct. 21) candidate forum hosted by the Arlington NAACP, Beyer (D-Va.) did seek more interaction between local officials and their federal counterparts on the issue.


Around Town

As it moves further into its second century, the Lyon Park community is taking a deeper dive into understanding its formative years.

From digitizing historical records to developing a trio of commemorative markers, leaders hope that looking to the past will help shape the Arlington neighborhood’s next century.


News

Members of the Park and Recreation Commission on Tuedsay (Oct. 22) voted unanimously to recommend that the Arlington County Board bestow the name “Buckingham Pollinator Park” on a new park.

The park is to be constructed as part of redevelopment of the Harris Teeter site in the Ballston area.


Schools

Is Arlington Public Schools a two-tiered education system, with some groups receiving needed resources while others are left behind?

That was the view, to varying degrees, of the four candidates vying for two open School Board seats.


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