MedStar Capitals Iceplex in Ballston (via Monumental Sports and Entertainment)
More than 800 Arlington Public Schools students are being invited to a special Washington Capitals practice later this week.
Caps star Alexander Ovechkin scored his 802nd career goal last month, passing Gordie Howe on the NHL’s all-time goals list. Now APS students will help Ovie celebrate the achievement.
“Ovechkin scored his 21st and 22nd goals of the season and the 802nd of his career Dec. 23 against the Winnipeg Jets at Capital One Arena, passing Howe (801) for second place on the NHL’s all-time goals list,” the Caps said in a press release. “Ovechkin now only trails Wayne Gretzky (894) for the most goals in NHL history.”
“To celebrate the historic milestone, Ovechkin will host more than 800 children from Arlington Public Schools for a celebration at the Capitals Jan. 13 practice,” the press release continued. “Fourth- through fifth-grade students from five Arlington schools will be in attendance at practice. All students will receive special Ovi 800 T-shirts from Ovechkin and the Capitals. Leading up to the visit, the classes will participate in 800-related number activities in their physical education and other classes, such as math and reading.”
Students will take photos with Ovechkin after Friday’s skate, the Capitals said.
It’s one of several community initiatives launched by the team to help mark the milestone, including a donation to the American Special Hockey Association, programming at local ice rinks, and Ovechkin granting “multiple wishes later this season through wish-granting organizations.”
Contacted by ARLnow, a Washington Capitals spokesperson declined to saw which APS schools are among the five that have been invited to the event.
“We are not disclosing which schools are attending,” the spokesperson said.
Former Arlington Public Schools internal auditor John Mickevice (via Arlington Public Schools)
Arlington Public Schools appears to be looking for a new internal auditor.
The job posting comes after a national government auditors association told APS that the school system asked John Mickevice, the former internal audit director, to sign a problematic contract, per a letter obtained by ARLnow.
When reached for comment, Mickevice declined to discuss what happened but confirmed he is no longer with APS. The job listing for his former position was posted last Wednesday.
Before his departure, the Association of Local Government Auditors (ALGA) had written to the Arlington School Board, saying Mickevive was asked to sign a contract that conflicts with its own policies as well as best practices. The author — ALGA Advocacy Committee Chair Amanda Noble — confirmed with ARLnow that she sent the letter.
In response to questions about Mickevice’s job status and the letter, a spokesman for APS told ARLnow, “I don’t have any details and I can’t comment on personnel matters.”
According to the ALGA letter, dated as of late August, the contract would have allowed the Superintendent to terminate the Internal Audit Director without cause with 90 days of written notice. It also would have allowed the Superintendent to assign duties to the audit director.
Noble wrote that this conflicts with APS policy as well as with international auditor standards and government auditing standards from the U.S. Comptroller General.
Per APS policy:
The Superintendent shall oversee only day-to-day administrative matters such as authorizing the IA’s leave, travel or minor purchases. The IA shall otherwise be independent of the Superintendent’s supervision. The IA’s annual evaluation shall be conducted by the two School Board members of the Committee.
APS policy and international and national standards alike “protect the independence and objectivity of the internal audit function by placing the internal audit function outside the reporting line of areas subject to audit and preventing management’s interference in the auditor’s performance of work and reporting results,” Noble said.
In other words, such a policy is set up to ensure school officials do not influence the outcome of audits.
Noble says the auditor’s independence would be “greatly strengthened by clarifying district policy regarding appointment and removal of the [Internal Auditor] Director and changing the audit committee composition.”
Currently, the committee that directs the Internal Auditor Director and to which the auditor answers is made of two School Board members as well as the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent. Half of voting members are management, which Noble says increases the chance of interference in the audit process.
Noble says that is not typical of most committees.
“In a recent internal audit benchmarking report prepared by the Council of Great City Schools, no respondents reported that their audit committee included the Superintendent or any member of management,” she said. “All respondents having an audit committee reported the audit committee composition was board members only, community advisors only, or a mix of board members and community advisors.”
The sending of the letter and Mickevice’s departure occurred less than a year after his scathing review of issues that plagued the Virtual Learning Program, which he said earlier this year was “an indigestible meal that is going to make you sick.”
Arlington Public Schools will open on a two-hour delay on Thursday due to expected freezing rain, the school system just announced.
APS follows Fairfax County Public Schools in announcing a two hour delay tonight. Other Northern Virginia districts have announced weather plans ranging from two hour delays to closures.
From APS:
CODE 2: All APS schools and offices will open two hours late Thursday, Dec. 15. The Extended Day program will also open two hours late and morning field trips are canceled. Custodial and maintenance staff and food service workers should report to work at their regularly scheduled time. All other employees should report to work two hours past their usual start time. For updates about Pool Operations, go to www.apsva.us/aquatics. For information about Arlington County operations go to www.arlingtonva.us.
More on the storm timing from the National Weather Service:
Here's a quick look at timing in regards to the wintry precip tonight into Thursday AM. Plan accordingly for slick roads & travel delays. Most locations change to rain late Thursday AM into the afternoon (outside of western MD). Drier conditions Friday. #VAwx#MDwx#WVwx#DCwxpic.twitter.com/UPDbPgz9dO
Metro, meanwhile, said today that it’s tracking the weather and will respond to hazardous conditions as necessary.
Metro is keeping an eye on the sky and advising customers to be prepared for potential service impacts to Metrobus service tomorrow, December 15, if icy conditions materialize.
Metrobus plans to provide regular scheduled service tomorrow. However, if road conditions are observed to be hazardous, Metrobus customers may experience delays or detours as outlined in Metro’s light snow plan, which adjusts service on a route-by-route basis to keep buses off of steep hills, narrow roadways, and other challenging route segments during inclement weather.
Customers can review planned detours in advance to see how their service may be affected by clicking here. If conditions require that a route be detoured, customers will be notified via MetroAlerts email and text messages. Customers are also encouraged sign up for MetroAlerts and to follow @wmata, @metrobusinfo, and @metrorailinfo on Twitter for the latest service information.
Customers should allow additional travel time and use caution on platforms, escalators, parking lots and other areas that may be slippery.
Elsewhere across the system, Metrorail is expected to operate on a normal weekday schedule. MetroAccess will operate normally, with extra travel time possible based on road conditions.
VDOT is encouraging drivers to stay off the roads after the frozen precipitation starts falling overnight.
Motorists should avoid travel as frozen precipitation will create icy roadway conditions in portions of the Commonwealth tonight and tomorrow morning. Pavement temperatures will be at or near freezing levels. Temperatures will drop overnight and could cause treacherous conditions during the morning commute, primarily in the northern, northwestern and parts of central Virginia. As a reminder, bridges, overpasses and shaded areas tend to freeze first.
Freezing rain is forecasted to begin around 9 p.m. tonight in northwest Virginia and will continue through the morning.
Most Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) crews did not apply liquid pretreatment to roads in areas where the event is forecasted to start as rain, as the pretreatment application will wash away and be ineffective. VDOT crews are ready to treat roadways with salt, sand and abrasives once icy conditions begin to develop. Wreckers are pre-staged along certain routes and tree crews are available to handle downed trees.
Motorists should be vigilant, pay attention to weather forecasts in areas where they plan to drive, and delay travel in the impacted areas.
20 mph signage near Bishop O’Connell High School (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Arlington is proposing to lower speed limits near schools across the county to 20 mph as the county’s second year of Vision Zero enters the rear-view mirror.
This Saturday, the Arlington County Board is set to hear a proposal to expand these slow zones to all schools, after many people said they felt safer walking, biking and driving in 13 school zones where the speed limit has already dropped to 20 mph.
If the Board approves the changes, school zones will all get permanent signs with the new speed limits. The county says this is cheaper and more broadly applicable than flashing beacons, which will only be used on arterial streets within 600 feet of schools during arrival and dismissal times.
This change follows the approval earlier this year of moveable speed cameras to be installed in school and work zones, as well as calls from the Arlington County Board for a quicker staff response to critical crashes, after a driver fatally struck a pedestrian in an intersection near Nottingham Elementary School.
Schools have figured into other notable crashes, including a fatal crash involving a motorcyclist and a school bus in front of Drew Elementary in 2021 and a crash involving a drunk driver who killed a pedestrian near Thomas Jefferson Middle School this summer. In a less serious crash this fall, a driver struck an adolescent cyclist near Kenmore Middle School.
Lowering speeds is one action the county has taken over the last year and a half to work toward its goal of eliminating traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries by 2030, a plan known as Vision Zero.
“There are no corridors on county-owned roads that have a speed limit higher than 30 miles per hour, which is a big improvement. We’re very excited to say that,” Arlington Vision Zero coordinator Christine Sherman Baker said in a meeting last week.
In addition to lower speeds, the county has set up temporary school walking routes and roundabouts, completed 13 quick-build projects and made improvements to six critical crash sites and 14 crash “hot spots.” Staff are working on procuring speed cameras for school and work zones and red light cameras for six more intersections, which could be installed in 2023.
Amid the flurry of work, preliminary data from the first nine months of 2022 indicate crashes are down overall, according to a Vision Zero report released last month. As of Aug. 30, there were 1,313 crashes in Arlington, of which two were fatal and 34 were severe. (We’ve since reported on two additional fatal crashes.)
Historical severe and fatal crashes in Arlington (via Arlington County)
Pedestrian-involved crashes and crashes in intersections are both slightly lower, while bike crash figures are consistent with previous years. There has yet to be a crash in a work zone.
“Alcohol and speed prove to be some of our biggest challenges on our roadways,” Baker said in the meeting.
But some people say the county needs to be clearer in communicating if and how its work is reducing crashes as well as the dangers of driving.
The semi-nomadic school has had many temporary homes over the years, and is currently located in the former Fenwick building (800 S. Walter Reed Drive).
Now, it will move into the fourth and fifth floors, a space totaling 24,288 square feet, of the office building at 4420 Fairfax Drive. The building is also the headquarters of growing catering marketplace Hungry.
The Arlington School Board signed the lease, from January 2023 to Sept. 30, 2026, earlier this month, says spokesman Frank Bellavia.
The School Board heard and took action on approving the lease in its meeting on Oct. 27. Normally, it hears an item in one meeting and acts on it in a subsequent meeting.
The reason for combining these steps, per a presentation, is that “lease negotiations took longer than expected and staff wishes to begin design work immediately to help mitigate project delays.”
APS will move the school over the summer and students will start in this temporary location in September, Bellavia said.
The school system must seek a Special Use Permit from Arlington County to allow educational use in the office building. That use permit request will go before the Arlington County Board in January.
APS will spend an estimated $1.5 million on building modifications and approximately $80,000 a month on the lease. It estimates the rent will be around $90,000 a month in the final year of the lease.
Amazon has pledged to house the school in one of the office buildings it will build at the corner of S. Eads Street and 12th Street S. as part of the approved second phase of its HQ2 project.
The Arlington Public Schools Syphax Education Center (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Arlington Public Schools Superintendent Francisco Durán is proposing an earlier start to school next fall and more instructional days than the current academic year.
If approved, the 2023-24 calendar would have 180 instructional days for all students and would start on Aug. 21, 2023. This year, elementary and high school students have 175 instructional days and middle schoolers have 174, falling under the state standard of 180 days and APS calendars pre-pandemic.
The proposal comes after APS received more than 7,100 responses from families and staff earlier this fall in a survey gauging approval of the current calendar and asking for input on three possible calendars for next year. Some respondents urged APS to align its calendar with neighboring jurisdictions, such as Fairfax County Public Schools, and others suggested reducing the number of cultural and religious holidays, per presentation materials for the upcoming School Board meeting this Thursday.
“It is important to align with neighboring districts for holidays and start day… so that our schools can be fully staffed with your teachers,” one respondent said, per a presentation.
Another said they “support the spirit of inclusiveness, but do not support APS adopting so many religious holidays.”
Durán’s proposal has the same start date for students as the proposed or approved calendars for many neighboring jurisdictions, except FCPS, which appears not to have a proposal yet.
Calendars for Arlington Public Schools and nearby jurisdictions (via APS)
Durán’s calendar starts a full week before the preference of many survey respondents and a calendar committee comprised of a group of principals, PTA members, teachers union representatives and central office staff. It has a longer winter break than these two calendars as well.
APS 2023-24 calendar options (via APS)
The School Board will receive more information on the preferred calendar and alternatives on Thursday. It is then slated to vote on Durán’s proposed 2023-24 calendar on Thursday, Dec. 15.
The proposed increase would mark a return to aspects of pre-pandemic calendars, something for which watchdog group Arlington Parents for Education has advocated over the last year. It says this is one way to address its focal point of learning loss.
“Abandoning our longstanding commitment to providing at least 180 days of school, especially given the historic learning loss currently facing APS students, is the wrong approach,” the group said in a recent calendar analysis. “Our students deserve for their school system to return to its historical practice of meeting both the 180-day and 990-hour Virginia state standards.”
Over the last 10 years, the APE says, 181 days has been the norm for student attendance days. APS dipped under 180 days during the 2020-21 school year, at the onset of the pandemic, and has not returned to 180 days since, it said.
APS calendars over the last 10 years (via Arlington Parents for Education)
A few years ago, APS began starting the school year before Labor Day after former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam authorized schools to start up to two weeks before the September holiday.
“Despite that change, APS has tended to start later than neighboring divisions,” the group said. “The result is fewer days of school for Arlington children.”
Comparative calendars for D.C. area public school systems for the 2022-23 school year (via Arlington Parents for Education)
The proposed 2023-24 calendar would observe Yom Kippur (Sept. 25) and Eid al-Fitr (April 10). This fall, APS took days off for Rosh Hashanah and Diwali, but those are not included in next year’s calendar, possibly because they are set to occur on weekends next fall.
“This look-back at 10 years of calendar history and the comparison of the current APS calendar with that of our neighbors indicates that whether it is an earlier start, later finish, use of federal holidays, or different patterns around winter break, APS has options for how it can meet 180 days,” APE said.
Durán proposes 31 days off for federal holidays, winter break, and religious holidays, as well as grade and reporting days.
Proposed days off for students in Arlington Public Schools (via APS)
Sometimes, there is a theme — like wearing costumes on Halloween — as well as the occasional sweet treat or freebie, like bicycle lights from the county program Bike Arlington.
“I am not above bribing children,” says Gillian Burgess, who leads a group of children to the dual-language elementary school Escuela Key. “Donuts are definitely a big help.”
Burgess is a volunteer conductor of a bicibús (Spanish for “bike bus”) — a weekly bicycling group with a set route that makes two stops to pick up kids on the way to Escuela Key. It has a Spanish name because the concept started in Vic, Spain, to provide safety in numbers to kids intimidated by traffic, per a Duolingo podcast with the woman who started the bicibús.
It has since spread to larger Spanish cities, such as Barcelona, and throughout Europe. And it has gone stateside to Portland, Seattle and now Arlington.
In Portland, Oregon, a group of parents and one teacher came together to create an alternative way of getting kids to school while clearing road congestion.@byjacobward shares more details about the “bike bus” where hundreds of students ride together through the neighborhood. pic.twitter.com/LPdFK2gHyJ
— NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt (@NBCNightlyNews) October 12, 2022
Burgess started the Escuela Key route when APS provided hybrid education in spring 2021, and some parents worried about Covid transmission on buses. Now, families stick with it because they have noticed improvements to their child’s mood and focus in school, she said.
“It’s fun,” says fourth-grader Billy Schnell. “I like biking to school with my friends in the morning. It makes me happy. The regular bus is hot and stuffy, but I feel cool on the Bicibús.”
Burgess said there are two great things about the program: “Kids can go even if caretakers can’t go with them and there is safety in numbers.”
In greater numbers, Escuela Key riders feel safer navigating unlit crossings and getting from the intersection of the Bluemont Trail with N. George Mason Drive to Escuela Key a block away, she said. It also helps families break from their driving routines and gives kids independence.
“We take our kids to all these places. We sit and wait for them to finish their activities. We drive them there and home,” Burgess said. “It sucks for us as parents because we’re spending all this time chauffeuring, and kids are not learning how to be independent and confident.”
Meanwhile, the Campbell bike train, which started this year, provides a bi-monthly alternate route home now that parents cannot drive to pick up their kids directly from school, a decision Burgess said was made to improve student safety.
Burgess has taken other steps to help kids feel comfortable on bikes, such as helping install traffic gardens where kids could learn the rules of the road in miniature two years ago.
At the time, that had support from APS, but she is hoping for more coordination with the schools system now. That’s especially so in the wake of a number of high-profile crashes that involved students or happened near schools and have prompted the community and the Arlington County Board to call for swifter action on traffic safety and drunk driving.
“We don’t have a partner in APS right now,” she said, adding that she has reached out for help but hasn’t gotten much of a response. “We need someone who can come at it as a professional in the school system in terms of what is appropriate for adolescents, children and teenagers. What is the right messaging? What works?”
Braylon Meade playing basketball (courtesy of James McIntyre)
Brian Weiser and Braylon Meade (courtesy of James McIntyre)
James McIntyre and Braylon Meade doing their special handshake at the start of W-L basketball games (courtesy of James McIntyre)
Scenes from a candlelight vigil at Washington-Liberty High School for Braylon Meade (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Scene from a candlelight vigil at Washington-Liberty High School for Braylon Meade (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Braylon Meade’s father speaks at the candlelight vigil in his memory at Washington-Liberty High School (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Candlelight vigil at Washington-Liberty High School (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
(Updated at 7:30 p.m.) Braylon Meade’s classmates would know he was already seated by whether his basketball shoes were outside the door.
“He’d get up at 5 a.m. and after a workout, go to class at 7:30. Everyone said he would smell horrible. He would leave his shoes outside the classroom because he smelled so bad,” his teammate, James McIntyre, said with a laugh.
Shoes aside, his hustle garnered the admiration of his teammates, who agreed to him being their leader, overseeing drills and shouting out encouragement and direction during games.
“All the kids respected him because of how much work he put in… he worked so hard this summer to compete and play this season’s games,” W-L Head Coach Robert Dobson said. “He became our glue.”
McIntyre, who has known Meade since the third grade, says he was energetic but quick to share the ball. While not the tallest team member, he always ran to guard the opposing team’s best player.
“He went above and beyond to make himself the best athlete that he could be,” said Mark Weiser, a W-L parent who coached Meade in travel basketball. “He was the kind of player that, if you asked him to run through a brick wall, he’d do it and not complain.”
Meade died just before the start of the season this week and before he could show players across the region and state all the work he put in over the summer and fall. The 17-year-old was killed early Friday morning in a car crash, and a teen driver involved in the crash was charged with a DUI and involuntary manslaughter. On Sunday, hundreds of people turned out at the high school for a candlelight vigil organized in his memory.
In the wake of his death, family and community members are finding ways to honor his legacy. This morning (Wednesday), a scholarship fund in his name for Arlington Public Schools alumni went live on the Arlington Community Foundation website.
“The fund will provide need-based scholarships to graduates of Arlington County’s public high schools,” according to the foundation. “Braylon’s siblings, Bryan and Kerry, and his parents firmly believe that this scholarship fund will perpetuate one of Braylon’s passions, which was to lift up those in need.”
His coach is retiring Meade’s jersey number, 22, and before every game, his teammates will carry out the special handshakes he had for every player and hug his parents.
Dobson says he has already noticed teammates stepping up to try to do what Braylon did for the team.
“Kids who never said a word are now leading the huddle and calling out drills,” he said. “Everybody is doing it as a team.”
But Meade was more than just his sport. His friends and coaches tell ARLnow he worked hard off the court, had a sense of humor and a nerdy side. His girlfriend of three years, Christine Wilson, remembers him as a loyal, communicative boyfriend and a great conversationalist.
“He was such a gentleman and always held the door for me, paid for me, drove, and we would get food somewhere and have great conversation as always,” Wilson said. “Our conversations never got boring and we never ran out of things to talk about, even after three years.”
Weiser said Meade was smart, opinionated and enjoyed lively conversations. He watched basketball closely and often had the same insight into a play as a coach would.
“He was right more often than he was wrong,” Weiser said.
Meade tackled academics and basketball with the same intensity. He took all International Baccalaureate classes and tutored teammates if they asked.
“He had the brightest future of all of us, he never did anything wrong and was always there for me,” McIntyre said. “He was the most hardworking dude I knew for sure, whether it was school, basketball, or beating me in ping pong, he would always practice a lot.”
The Water Pollution Control Plant in South Arlington (via DES/Flickr)
Your poop could give Arlington County natural gas to power buildings or buses.
The county is developing plans to upgrade its Water Pollution Control Plant, where local sewage goes. One change involves installing technology that can harness the methane emitted when human solid waste is processed, turning it into renewable natural gas, a process some municipalities have already implemented.
The energy could be used to power the wastewater plant, homes and commercial buildings or become an alternate fuel for ART buses. The “sludge” created through this process can also be used as a fertilizer for gardens, forests, farms and lawns. (If you’ve ever used Milorganite brand fertilizer, you’ve used dried sewage sludge from Milwaukee.)
How sewage can become power (via Arlington County)
Improvements to the wastewater treatment facility, to the tune of $156 million, are part of a $177 million bond request for utilities upgrades, which also includes improvements the regional Washington Aqueduct system ($15 million) and new gravity transmission mains ($3 million).
Funding for this work would come from a half-billion dollar bond referenda that voters will be considering on Election Day tomorrow (Tuesday). Over $510 million will go toward this work as well as a host of initiatives, upgrades and maintenance projects that Arlington County adopted as part of its 2023-32 Capital Improvement Plan.
Some big-ticket items have already grabbed headlines, like the $136 million requested to build a new Arlington Career Center campus and $2 million to design a proposed Arlington Boathouse on the Potomac River near Rosslyn. But there are dozens of other upgrades proposed for facilities that Arlingtonians of all ages use on a regular, and sometimes daily, basis.
Renovations to existing county buildings and the construction of new ones surpass $53 million.
Highlights include:
$13.1 million for various renovations to Arlington’s police headquarters and, for the county’s courts building, technology upgrades, new finishes, a redesigned entrance and a relocated Juvenile and Domestic Relations Courts division.
$12 million to fund the construction and renovation of some floors of 2020 14th Street N. to make room for ACFD Fire Marshal and Battalion Chiefs offices and other public safety staff and functions. It will also see the replacement of the building’s 60-year-old HVAC system.
$7.5 million to acquire land next to the Serrano Apartments to build a fire station there and improve response times on the west end of Columbia Pike, given the pace of development along the Pike.
Overall, Arlington Public Schools is asking for$165 million. Of that, some $12.24 million would pay for safer school entrances, a measure many school systems nationwide are implementing in the wake of high-profile shootings, and new kitchens to allow more meals to be made in-house.
“Upgraded kitchens will allow students to eat high-quality meals that include more fresh fruits and vegetables that are prepared on-site,” according to APS. “The entrance and security vestibule updates will comply with current safety and security standards while ensuring all visitors check in at the main office.”
Existing and modernized school kitchens (via APS)
Another $16.8 million would pay for a new roof for Escuela Key, the Spanish-language immersion elementary school, HVAC replacement at Hoffman-Boston Elementary School and lighting upgrades across schools.
The Arlington Dept. of Parks and Recreation is asking for nearly $22.5 million for a dozen projects.
That includes some funding $1.5 million to replace and renovate some stretches of the county’s nearly 40 miles of off-street, multi-purpose trails, 56 pedestrian bridges and 11 low-water fords.
Preschool- and school-aged kids could have new playgrounds at Bailey’s Branch, Monroe and Woodmont parks sometime in 2024 ($2.8 million). Douglas Park will see $2 million in improvements, including a new picnic shelter, pedestrian bridge, stormwater management, invasive species removal and reforestation.
Athletes who play at Kenmore Middle School could have new turf fields ($300,000).
There’s $1.1 million in funding to design new facilities at Short Bridge Park, near the border of the City of Alexandria, as well as $1.8 million to redesign Gateway Park in Rosslyn, which the budget says is “difficult and dangerous to access due to the surrounding high-speed roadways” and is “under-utilized.”
People who live in the Ballston and Virginia Square areas would be able to get in on the ground floor of master planning processes ($1.5 million) next year to upgrade Maury, Herselle Milliken and Gum Ball parks starting as early as 2025.
The second, $4.4 million phase of work on Jennie Dean Park will move forward, including demolishing the existing WETA building, two parking lots and a portion of 27th Street S., installing a lighted basketball court and converting the existing court for tennis use.
The growing pickleball population, sometimes at odds with neighbors, and the dirt trail-less mountain bike enthusiasts could get new facilities through $2 million to convert tennis courts at Walter Reed Community Center for pickleball use, draw pickleball lines on some multi-use courts and fund “design improvements to natural surface trails and mountain biking improvements.”
Counterfeit OxyContin with fentanyl, also known as ‘blues’ (via Drug Enforcement Agency/Flickr)
(Updated 11/02/22 at 9:20 a.m.) “Do you know how it feels to look at your daughter when she can’t move her eyes?”
That’s an Arlington mother, who spoke to ARLnow on the condition of anonymity, about a recent fentanyl overdose her 13-year-old daughter survived. It happened off school grounds, but the mother believes her daughter took the drugs during school hours.
Parents and school community leaders who have spoken with ARLnow say that students in middle and high school are able to access counterfeit prescription oxycodone laced with fentanyl at or near schools.
The mother who spoke to ARLnow said her daughter started vaping nicotine and marijuana in middle school, and by the end of eighth grade, got a hold of counterfeit Percocet — a mixture of oxycodone and acetaminophen — cut with fentanyl.
“The only thing I want is for the parents to know that kids can get every kind of drug inside the schools,” she said through a Spanish-language interpreter. “I want them to be conscious and aware of what’s going on in the school. I don’t want other parents to go through what I went through and I want the schools to pay more attention.”
It has been difficult to quantify drug use among Arlington students. Parents fear parent-shaming — but the mother who spoke with ARLnow did say three other moms she knows are struggling with the same problems — and ARLnow couldn’t get data specific to drug overdoses involving minors.
The Arlington County Police Department provided the number of calls for service to Arlington Public Schools buildings involving reports of an overdose, which encompasses use of prescription drugs, illegal substances or alcohol.
The data shows there has been a relatively small but steady number of calls to buildings since 2018. Although there was a brief drop when schools were closed during the early stages of the pandemic, the rate hasn’t changed despite the decision to remove School Resource Officers from school grounds.
Overdose calls to Arlington Public Schools buildings (courtesy of ACPD)
“Overall, the volume of juvenile-involved opioid cases remains limited across Arlington, however, all cases involving opioids are taken seriously and thoroughly investigated,” ACPD spokeswoman Ashley Savage said.
Anecdotally, there were three overdoses last academic year, according to Elder Julio Basurto and Janeth Valenzuela, who founded Juntos en Justicia, an advocacy group representing Arlington’s Latino population. This school year, they have only heard of the overdose involving the 13-year-old girl mentioned earlier.
Basurto and Valenzuela noted that they have heard teens take the drugs in the bathrooms and distribute them in nearby parks and by vape shops near the schools.
“It’s getting out of hand,” Valenzuela said. “If we don’t do anything to correct this we’ll lose a generation.”
— Elder, Julio Basurto #reformarlingtonva (@ElderBasurto) October 21, 2022
What’s going on
Basurto said he has heard different descriptions of what kids are taking, and that ambiguity is part of the problem.
“We can’t confirm exactly what it is,” he said. “Something they smoke, something square in their mouth, they get high off that.”
He described some students obtaining blue pills that are then crushed into aluminum foil. Those are counterfeit oxycodone pills, known as “blues” or “M30s.”
“The real concern, the real worry, is these counterfeit pressed pills,” says Jim Dooley, who has taught more than 900 Arlingtonians how to administer Narcan through the Arlington Addiction Recovery Initiative. “What kids are getting — and adults — in a large number of cases, are pills that look identical to commercially manufactured pills: Adderall for attention, Xanax for anxiety.”
June Prakash, president of Arlington Education Association (via Arlington Public Schools)
Teachers who are part of the Arlington Education Association say there has been a communication breakdown since the School Board authorized collective bargaining in May.
Arlington Public Schools became the second school district in Virginia to do so, after the General Assembly in 2020 repealed a ban on school employees bargaining collectively.
Before that, AEA advocated for public school employees but could not guarantee benefits through legally binding contracts. This month, organization members told the School Board that its approval of the collective bargaining resolution shut out staff, and since then, communication has worsened between employees and APS’s top leaders.
“The collective bargaining resolution that passed in May does not create a fair process,” Arlington Career Center employee Javonnia Hill said at the School Board meeting on Oct. 13. “It is not what you thought it would be.”
As of now, only school administrators have chosen a bargaining unit and elected a representative. Two other employee groups are taking more time to review the resolution language. In the interim, AEA members report not being able to raise concerns directly with Superintendent Francisco Durán and his deputies.
June Prakash, AEA’s new president, said she was prevented from discussing “troubling trends and concerns” with leadership last month because employee groups are still choosing representative bargaining units. She said APS told her that staff should be going to their supervisors or Human Resources instead.
That is not the process AEA members are accustomed to, according to teacher Josh Folb.
“For AEA members, bringing concerns to their union president, who gathers that list to calmly discuss those concerns with the superintendent’s cabinet was the way that we would resolve employee concerns,” Folb said during the meeting. “It prevented the airing of dirty laundry in the public forum.”
He asked the School Board about the appropriate forum to discuss a substitute shortage at the high school level — one so acute that teachers are asked to use their planning periods to teach other courses.
Prakash, who took the helm after AEA’s executive board was ousted following two years of financial difficulties and a drop in membership, said she turned to the Board’s public comment period because of the walls APS put up.
“Did you know our bus drivers, who are required to wear a uniform, are rationed two T-shirts for a five-day work week? Did you know that summer school staff didn’t have keys to the classrooms they were in, leaving our students vulnerable in the event of a lockdown?” she asked. “I look forward to sharing so much more in the coming years. I will not be deterred… I will not fail our members, employees or students.”
APS counters that the collective bargaining resolution was forged with ample feedback, that employees need to move forward with standing up bargaining units, and that employees should discuss concerns with supervisors or Human Resources.
“APS remains committed to working with the Arlington Education Association. AEA continues to voice concerns over the collective bargaining resolution wherein APS met on numerous occasions with AEA and the Virginia Education Association (VEA) to discuss concerns that were brought forth from the associations prior to the final resolution being passed in May 2022,” APS spokesman Frank Bellavia said. “More than half of the requests from AEA/VEA were implemented into the approved resolution.”
Longtime teacher Danielle Anctil told the School Board that its vote in the spring has effectively shut employees out.
