Community Corner

School Board Debates Priorities, Approves Budget and Kindergarten Amendment

Town of Vienna begins Town Manager search

The Fairfax County School Board adopted a $2.2 billion education budget Thursday night that

But not all members were optimistic the board would actually receive the funding requested from the county board of supervisors, or could sustain the quality of the school system much longer without it.

"Does this meet all the needs of our school system? I would say not. There are only so many cuts we can make and still maintain a world-class education,” board member Tessie Wilson said.

Find out what's happening in Viennawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The board also approved an amendment that would add full-day kindergarten at all 37 schools currently without it by 2014, at . Board members said though they agreed it was a priority, they  couldn't guarantee its implementation until they received a final budget from the county Board of Supervisors.

The meeting turned into a nearly three-hour discussion of priorities and transparency after the board

Find out what's happening in Viennawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The amendment, proposed by school board member Martina Hone, would have shifted the $3.1 million dollars that currently funds Foreign Language in Elementary Schools(FLES) to the staffing reserve.

The FLES amendment drew strong opinions from school board members, who said Hone should have introduced the idea of getting rid FLES prior to the school board meeting to give the board and the community time to debate the issue.

“The amendment came after the work session. The public didn’t know this was happening until 48 hours ago,” Bradsher said. Watch our video of highlights from the meeting by clicking on the video to the right.

NEWS

Construction crews working at the future Fresh Market location on Branch Road The former That's Amore space, in the shopping center next to Giant Supermarket, is being renovated in preparation for the arrival of Fresh Market, a  grocery retailer that focuses on high-quality products. The gas leak was cleaned and cleared by Fairfax County Fire.

The Town of Vienna , a search it hasn't undertaken in 25 years. Led by consultant R. Scott Silverthorne, a former 18-year member of Fairfax City Council, Town Council has developed a four-page job description with several “key skills” for the position, which oversees more than 200 town employees.

We began rolling out several changes on Patch, including PatchCast, a daily video roundup of news from Patches across Northern Virginia. Take a look at our first three PatchCasts for Feb. 2, , Feb.4. We also started our weekly "Patch Picks"

The statewide economy could expand by as much as $4.1 billion if the state chose to spend roughly $30 billion on highway construction, said Stephen Fuller, an economist and the director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University. Fuller , funded by the Virginia Secretary of Transportation’s office, which concluded that better highways would yield a stronger statewide economy.

The Senate Finance Committee Senate Bill 1394, sponsored by Sen. Jeff McWaters (R-8th District) would have dedicated 0.25 percent of sales tax revenues in the Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to transportation projects in those regions. The plan would have generated more than $1.1 billion for the two areas over seven years.

ARTS/COMMUNITY

We ran our first "Letter to the Editor" column on Friday, from Sean McCall, who in advance of budget hearings for the town's FY 2012 budget.

When Peggy James walked into The Artful Gift Shop for the first time, she could only think one thing: “This is what I’m supposed to be doing.” On Jan. 1, James at the "hippest art gift store in the area," and she couldn’t be happier about her life-changing decision.

When a natural disaster on foreign soil calls for specialized search and rescue teams, the United States Agency for International Development has two teams they can deploy in a matter of hours.One is in Los Angeles County. The other is in Fairfax County.We took a look at the team from Virginia, 

In the nearly 40 years since then, the Washington, D.C.-based Nighthawks have been associated with the best of the all-American blues, the kind that get  people dancing on the floor and tapping along to the beat. On Feb. 5, the Nighthawks returned to Jammin' Java


SCHOOLS/SPORTS

Around Thanksgiving, if you had asked Madison wrestling coach Shawn Hutchison about his program, he would have been blunt and told you he didn’t think there were enough tough, hard-working kids in Vienna who wanted to wrestle. Fast forward a couple of months, and it looks like he’s found at least a few. Hutchison’s Warhawks fell short of the Liberty District title on Saturday night, finishing third behind Langley and Stone Bridge, but with three individual wins and one second place, the team had the second-most champions in the meet.

Between expensive cleats, weight sets, bats, balls, bells and whistles, it's not unreasonable to think a sport can cost high school student athletes (and their parents) hundreds of dollars a season. But it's still hard to fathom the needs of James Madions High School's crew team, whose varisty row boats cost about $37,000. Each. Watch our video of the crew team kicking of their season

More than 50 students enrolled in Marshall High School's film study class presented movie trailers they created from multiple movies during

The Marshall High School "It's Academic" team topped the leader-board early in the Saturday morning competition at the NBC studios in Northwest Washington, but , losing to both teams from St. Albans School and La Plata High School. The final score was Marshall: 410, La Plata: 425, St. Albans: 495.

The Vienna Division 2 Girls 14U Basketball team posted a 53-47 loss to Mercer Academy on Saturday  at James Madison High School. For a glimpse of the action, take a look at our photo gallery.

The Warhawks' diving team picked up where their swim teams left off on Jan. 30 by claiming a pair of district titles Sunday afternoon. nd helped lift the boys' team to an even larger margin of victory over rival Langley.

James Madison Gymnastics took fourth place and Marshall High School took fifth on Jan. 31 Only the top two teams -- Stone Bridge and Thomas Jefferson, respectively -- will move on to the regional competition.

We are always on the prowl in our communities for great photos and local stories. In our new series "Viewfinder," this week, we captured the box lacrosse game


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