Opinion

The Right Note is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

At Thursday’s school board meeting, members should receive a superintendent’s update on the reopening plan for the fall. As of now, it looks like APS will continue to move toward full in-person learning when schools open their doors again in August. Classrooms will be at normal capacity with an all-virtual, but no hybrid, option.

The CDC last week said vaccinated students and teachers could safely attend school without masks. Absent updated guidance, however, all APS students and personnel will still be required to wear masks while indoors.

While mask wearing will certainly be a controversial topic, it would be interesting to learn the status of enrollments for the fall. Across the country, there are reports that school districts are not returning to pre-pandemic levels of enrollment. Some parents who moved their children to homeschooling and private schools will simply not return. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, the schools are hosting enrollment block parties to counteract the enrollment decline.

Last fall, Arlington saw an official enrollment decrease of 1,125 students after they had predicted an increase of 1,122. APS should have a realistic projection at this point of the summer based on the levels of kindergarten enrollments as well as if students who left the district last year are re-enrolling now.

The superintendent will undoubtedly paint a rosy scenario of “anticipations” when it comes to enrollment, if he reports on it at all. However, holding steady or a second straight decrease in the student count should certainly impact budget decisions for this year and into the future as spending approaches $25,000 per student.

One thing that will not be in the schools this fall are the school resource officers (SROs). In June, the Arlington County School Board voted unanimously to remove the SROs from school buildings, becoming the second Northern Virginia jurisdiction to do so. This decision was made after a working group was quickly brought together to “study” the issue. The final report was short on rationale and data, but few politicos around the county doubted this would be the ultimate outcome.

Now every parent will be left to rely on hope that no incident occurs that could have been stopped, or mitigated, by the on campus presence of an officer.

Mark Kelly is a long-time Arlington resident, former Arlington GOP Chairman and two-time Republican candidate for Arlington County Board.

The Right Note is a biweekly opinion column. The views expressed are solely the author’s.

Two years ago, Arlington Democrats picked a new prosecutor in a contentious primary. Parisa Dehghani-Tafti was backed by George Soros to put social justice front and center in the prosecutor’s office.

Since taking office in January of 2020, she took on the Circuit Court judges on the crimes she must prosecute. And she announced earlier this spring she would focus on reducing racial disparities in prosecutions by 20 percent.

The annual Crime in Virginia report from the Virginia State Police is out for 2020. The latest crime statistics gives us one objective measure to look at the effect on public safety during Dehghani-Tafti’s first year on the job.

In 2019, there were 822 simple assaults reported. In 2020, there were 906 or a 10 percent increase. Aggravated assaults are up 40 percent. Vandalism is up 13 percent. Theft from a motor vehicle is up 16 percent. And robbery was up by 27 percent. And while reports of “Group A Offenses” is essentially unchanged, arrests are down by 12 percent.

There were drops in some crimes, including a significant reduction in credit card fraud, which is to be expected with businesses being closed for so long in 2020 due to COVID. Thefts from buildings and drug violations also dropped.

If you want to track crime statistics monthly, the Arlington County Police Department also provides reports. May’s report shows a 16 percent uptick for 2021 over the same period last year.

Dehghani-Tafti used the recent release of ACPD’s 2020 crime report to tout her support for a regional task force to combat carjackings which are up dramatically in 2021. Two weeks ago, Dehghani-Tafti took a ride along with Arlington Police detectives who are trying to stop the spread of car thefts and thefts out of vehicles across the county. She tweeted “Seriously, lock your doors please.”

Dehghani-Tafti also used the event to push back on the idea that insufficient prosecution, or being a “reformer” is the reason for rising crime numbers. She promises to overhaul her office’s case management system to provide data to the public to back up her assertions that her office is focusing prosecutorial efforts “on crimes that are a public safety risk,” including “car tamperings and car thefts.” Hopefully, these numbers are forthcoming soon to show how her office’s reforms translate into measurable data.

If numbers were the only thing that mattered to voters, most of Congress would have been fired for putting us nearly $30 trillion in debt. However, they do give us something objective to measure. And ultimately, the voters will have to use the numbers as they evaluate whether Dehghani-Tafti’s overall job performance deserves re-election in two years.

Mark Kelly is a long-time Arlington resident, former Arlington GOP Chairman and two-time Republican candidate for Arlington County Board.