Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Most will celebrate annual event on Friday.
All 31 of Arlington Public Schools had planned on celebrating Bike to School Day on Wednesday, but gloomy skies caused about a third of them to postpone the event. Arlington Traditional, Key, Nottingham, Washington-Lee, Glebe, Jamestown Williamsburg, Taylor and Long Branch will hold Bike to School Day on Friday. H-B Woodlawn will celebrate the event on May 17 to coincide with the annual Bike to Work Day, schools spokesman Frank Bellavia told Patch. On those days, be on the lookout for backpack-toting cyclists around the start and end of the school day, particularly in neighborhoods. More: 'Bike to School Day' Coming Wednesday Blacknell: Arlington Celebrates Bike Month in a Big Way Photos: Oakridge Elementary Students Participate in 2012 …
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
Arlington County, schools together built $1 million field.
The Washington-Lee Generals softball team broke in its new $1 million field Monday night with a 16-1 win over the JEB Stuart High School Raiders. The field, at the corner of Washington Boulevard and North Quincy, next to the Washington-Lee football field, opened Monday. It was built by Arlington County and Arlington Public Schools, and will be a joint-use facility — that is, residents can go through the county to reserve it for use when the Generals aren't playing, schools spokesman Frank Bellavia told Patch. "…The field was great," Washington-Lee softball Coach Will Downs said in an email. Construction began in the fall, though wet weather caused some delays. The team had been playing on an older field that didn't have an outfield fence …
Be on the lookout for backpack-toting students on bikes this Wednesday, National Bike to School Day.
Thousands of children across the country will ditch buses and cars in favor of their bikes Wednesday in the second annual National Bike to School Day. All 31 public schools in Arlington have signed up to participate — more than anywhere else in the state, according to the National Center for Safe Routes to School, which is organizing the event. [See the full list of schools participating here.] The center also sponsors International Walk to School Day each October. Virginia is again among the states with the most participation in National Bike to School Day: More than 80 schools or groups across the state are planning organized bike rides. Wednesday’s weather is a little bit iffy — temperatures will climb to the upper 60s, but there’s a …
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Patch is happy to consider opinion articles for publication. We reserve the right to edit for accuracy, clarity and brevity.
The following opinion column was submitted by U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va. Moran is a member of the Congressional Autism Caucus. We recognize the month of April as Autism Awareness and Understanding month. Autism Spectrum Disorder, or ASD, is the fastest growing serious developmental disorder in the United States, affecting nearly two million Americans. One in 88 children is on the autism spectrum by age 8, and boys are five times more likely to have an ASD. A new survey by the Centers for Disease Control indicates that the instance of ASD may actually be higher. And here in Northern Virginia, we are experiencing the prevalence of ASD firsthand. Arlington Public Schools released a report showing a 52 percent increase in enrollment of …
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Annual Washington Post challenge index ranks difficulty of high schools locally and nationally.
Arlington's high schools ranked among the best in Virginia in this year's Washington Post Challenge Index. The H.B. Woodlawn Secondary Program ranked No. 1 out of 101 high schools in Virginia this year. Washington-Lee High School ranked third, Yorktown ranked sixth and Wakefield ranked 36th. Among high schools in the greater Washington area, H.B. Woodlawn ranked fourth, Washington-Lee ranked 10th, Yorktown was 14th and Wakefield was No. 63. H.B. Woodlawn was the only Arlington program to crack the top 10 of 1,900 schools in the 2013 Challenge Index nationwide. [To see the full list, click here.] Since 1998, the Post has used the Challenge Index to measure how effectively a school prepares its students for college. The formula: Divide …
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Students from Barcroft Elementary School made an appearance Saturday.
Barcroft Elementary School students were among the hundreds who performed at the 2013 Parade of the National Cherry Festival on Saturday. The school's fourth and fifth grade chorus sang as part of a 750-person choir representing the United States, according to a news release from the Arlington Public Schools system. The student chorus performed "ABC" and "Turn the Beat Around." Want to get articles on Arlington County delivered to your inbox every day? Sign up for the Clarendon Patch or Arlington Patch newsletters.
Monday, April 15, 2013
Parents ask county to grant Arlington Public Schools enough money to implement program.
A group of Tuckahoe Elementary parents who have organized in an attempt to bring foreign language instruction to their children's school have begun taking their case to the Arlington County Board. Eight Arlington elementary schools, including Tuckahoe, feed students into Swanson Middle School. Of those, Tuckahoe, Taylor and Arlington Science Focus do not have a Foreign Language in Elementary Schools, or FLES, program. The others do. Parents have pleaded with the Arlington School Board to fund the program at Tuckahoe — a $450,000 proposition — on the basis that their children are at a disadvantage when they get to middle school because their classmates have had more foreign language instruction. A large part of their argument centers on the…
Friday, April 12, 2013
Students from around Arlington County visited the exhibit.
Arlington fourth-grade students experienced an interactive Civil War exhibit brought right to their front door. The Civil War 150 HistoryMobile, based in Richmond, rolled into Thomas Jefferson Middle School earlier this week. “They’ve done a great job with engaging students,” said Diana Hasuly-Ackman, supervisor of social studies at Arlington Public Schools. “This is the time of year when they study the Civil War so the timing is just about right.” The 53-foot trailer parked right in the school’s parking lot Monday through Wednesday, as students from around the county paid visits at predetermined times. The trailer and staff travel around Virginia and the surrounding states nearly every week of the year, according to Rusty Nix, tour …
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Board wants to restore several positions Superintendent Pat Murphy has proposed eliminating.
The Arlington School Board wants to restore several positions Superintendent Pat Murphy has recommended eliminating, including gifted services teachers at the county's three high schools and some teen parenting positions. But the school board has built its budget assuming the Arlington County Board will approve an extra half-cent tax increase to fund those positions — and that's far from a sure thing. School officials made their case for the additional tax increase Wednesday night, putting pressure on the county to fund programs and positions that might otherwise be cut. The extra tax hike would generate a little more than $3 million annually. County Manager Barbara Donnellan's proposed $1.1 billion budget already includes a 3.2-cent tax …
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
The likelihood of the Arlington School Board funding such an expansion is unlikely, given budget constraints.
A group of Tuckahoe Elementary School parents is mobilizing in hopes of bringing foreign language instruction to their school. The parents, who have gathered nearly 100 names on an online petition, are making the case that students who move from Tuckahoe to Swanson Middle School are suddenly surrounded by classmates who have had years of instruction. The inequity drives their argument. "Foreign languages is a core subject in schools. You would never teach any other core subject the way that the world languages get taught now — half get math and half don't, half get English and half don't," said Einar Olsen, who has a second- and fifth-grader at Tuckahoe. "It's a pretty poor situation. It's sort of an educational malpractice situation, …
Melissa Pittard
2:22 pm on Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Appreciate Mr. Bellavia's input, but I don't believe him. APS can find money for anything they deem to be a priority. Like high-paid consultants. They should be totally ashamed of the world language instruction inequities in APS schools. more ›