This week was yet another filled with plenty of news about snow, but unlike previous January weeks not a lot of actual snow.
Using its last traditional snow day allotment, Arlington Public Schools closed Thursday for what turned out to be a bust — a rainy, cold day. Lucky for students looking to enjoy the weather when school’s closed, this weekend should at least be sunny, albeit a little cold, in Arlington.
Now, here are the most-read Arlington articles of the past week.
The Diocese of Arlington is advising Catholic schools to follow Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) executive order exempting families from school-based mask mandates.
One of Youngkin’s first acts in office was an executive order intended to let parents decide whether their children wear masks to school. It goes into effect Monday and rescinds former Gov. Ralph Northam’s executive order last year requiring masks in schools.
In a letter to school leaders explaining what this means for schools in the Diocese of Arlington — which encompasses 21 counties and seven cities in Northern Virginia — Superintendent of Schools Joseph E. Vorbach III says state requirements supersede local public health guidance.
“Throughout the pandemic, our Catholic schools have been directed to follow state and local public health directives,” he writes. “Where those have been in conflict, the state requirement has primacy.”
The executive order says parents of a child enrolled in elementary or secondary school or a school-based early child care and educational program “may elect for their children not to be subject to any mask mandate in effect at the child’s school or educational program,” the order reads.
The state legislature, however, passed a law that some schools systems interpret as protecting their ability to establish mask mandates in order to offer in-person instruction. The executive order’s legality has since been challenged by some parents who sued. Attorney General Jason Miyares has already asked the lawsuit be dismissed.
In response, Arlington Public Schools, as well as other public school systems, including those in Alexandria and Fairfax County, have come out with guidance defying Virginia’s new governor. Last night (Thursday), the Arlington School Board voted to retain the school system’s mask requirement.
But Catholic schools in the sprawling Diocese of Arlington, which reaches from Arlington to Shenandoah County, are being told to follow Youngkin’s order while keeping up other mitigation strategies recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Diocesan direction to our schools is to continue following local public health guidance, without however, violating the rights of parents as described in Executive Order 2,” Vorbach said. “The governor’s executive order is clear on the right of parents not to have their child be subject to a mask mandate.”
As for how school administrators should walk this tight-rope, Vorbach says schools should provide updated, school-specific guidance to faculty and parents and maintain other COVID-19 protocols.
“The diocese continues to elect to follow CDC guidelines for isolation of those who contract COVID-19 and quarantining for those who come in close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19,” he said.
Spokeswoman Amber Roseboom tells ARLnow that one way administrators can navigate this shift in approach is to identify “which parents prefer their children to wear a mask in school.”
In addition, she said, the schools will keep up with other public health recommendations related to isolation and quarantine.
“Local public health guidance remains very important, and our schools are continuing to employ a variety of COVID-19 mitigation strategies,” she said. “We are following isolation and quarantine recommendations to the greatest extent possible. Our schools communicate with local public health offices regularly. The Executive Order allowing parental choice on masks is a new variable our schools will work with, as we have done in each situation over the past two years.”
The CDC, which recommends masking, has published studies showing more COVID-19 cases among schools without universal masking policies, although some have questioned the science behind this guidance.
APS Chief of School Support Kimberley Graves (via APS)
(Updated at 12:05 p.m. on 2/3/21) During the Arlington School Board meeting last night, public school administrators made the case for why the fledgling, controversial in-house virtual learning platform now deserves better grades.
Last fall, Arlington Public Schools launched its Virtual Learning Program for families with reservations about in-person school amid the pandemic or whose students preferred online classes.
But the program got off to a rocky start due to a teacher shortage and lack of administrative support. Parents said many students were sitting unsupervised in virtual “waiting rooms,” doing individual work overseen by assistants, struggling to get into third-party online classes and not getting needed special-education services.
Teachers, meanwhile, reported getting switched to different subjects on short notice, scrambling to find instructional resources, not knowing who to talk to and feeling unsupported.
“We were not pleased with the rocky start and we wanted to make sure things were moving on a little more smoothly by about this time of the year,” School Board Chair Barbara Kanninen said during the meeting.
Yesterday, APS administrators outlined what it’s done since then to extinguish the VLP’s myriad little fires. They didn’t, however, address the rumors swirling of an uncertain future for the VLP beyond the 2021-22 school year amid dropping enrollment, mostly at the elementary level, as families transition back to their home school or leave the school system. The program had 282 elementary students in October and has 247 students today.
Kimberley Graves, APS’s chief of school support, said communications with parents and home schools have improved under the new principal Danielle Harrell, but that the connection between the online and the brick-and-mortar school still needs work — an assessment shared by some teachers.
“While there’s been tremendous support from home schools, there is still work to be done to ensure that our students in the VLP have a direct connection to their home schools and really define what those connections look like,” Graves said.
A parent from the VLP Parents’ Coalition echoed Graves’ evaluation of the program.
“Although VLP has made good progress, there are still a number of challenges to be addressed, and the VLP Parents Coalition looks forward to continuing our collaboration with APS to ensure the program is a successful option for those that need and want it,” the parent, who wished to remain anonymous, told ARLnow.
Those connections are crucial because, compared to the overall APS student body, the VLP has higher proportions of students who received additional services from their brick-and-mortar buildings pre-pandemic. Sixty percent of students are eligible for free- or reduced-price lunch, while 24% are special-education students and 36% are English-language learners.
Graves outlined a few bright spots: Harrell was onboarded with the temporary help of three retired principals who also addressed the program’s immediate concerns. She now meets regularly with the school systems’ other principals. Every vacant instructional position is now filled and teachers had opportunities last November to access instructional training.
APS is calling more families of students who don’t log in frequently, but Graves said, this isn’t “catching all students.” Meanwhile, those students who were teacher-less in September won’t receive first-quarter grades in those classes.
Going forward, Graves said APS will make sure more students can participate in extracurricular activities and athletics through their home schools and increase the number of middle- and high-school classes taught by live APS teachers.
All elementary classrooms are taught by APS teachers but third-party vendors such as Virtual Virginia, the state’s online learning platform, are used in the middle and high school levels, she said.
More than 70% of middle school classes are taught by live APS teachers; at the high school, two-thirds of classes are taught by third-party vendors to give students a wide variety of courses to choose from.
Covid cases in Arlington as of Jan. 20, 2022 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)
The average rate of new Covid cases in Arlington has fallen nearly 40% since peaking eight days ago.
That’s according to the latest Virginia Dept. of Health data, which is in line with regional trends that show cases falling in D.C., Alexandria, Fairfax County, and Montgomery County (Md.), among other Washington area localities.
VDH is reporting a seven-day moving average of 396 cases per day in Arlington, down from 646 per day at the Jan. 12 peak. Today 363 cases were reported — prior to the current Omicron-variant-fueled surge in cases, that would have been nearly twice the previous single-day case record from January 2021.
Arlington’s test positivity rate is also steadily falling, reaching 22.1% today, down from the Jan. 2 peak of 29.3%.
Covid test positivity rate in Arlington as of Jan. 20, 2022 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)
Hospitalizations remain elevated, with a seven-day moving average of four Covid-related hospitalizations per day as of today. That’s down from five per day on Sunday.
So far in January, there have been 62 Covid-related hospitalizations and a net of three reported deaths in Arlington, according to VDH.
Currently, 95.1% of Arlington’s adult population has received at least one vaccination dose.
Covid hospitalizations in Arlington as of Jan. 20, 2022 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)
New Deputy County Attorney Named — “Mr. Ryan Samuel, who joined the County Attorney’s Office (CAO) in 2018, serves as a board member for the Local Government Attorneys of Virginia and is a member of the Virginia Workers’ Compensation American Inn of Court.” [Arlington Government]
APS Launches Test to Stay — The Virginia Department of Health has authorized Arlington Public Schools to implement its “test to stay” pilot program, which consists of contact tracing and serial COVID-19 testing so students can continue attending school during after being a close contact to someone who tested positive. [APS]
Still Not Getting Mail? — From Rep. Don Beyer: “We’re working with USPS leadership to resolve mail delivery problems arising from winter weather and omicron-driven staffing shortages. I’m told some USPS units are working with just 1/3 of normal staff. Keep alerting my District Office to your issues, we’ll do our best to help.” [Twitter]
DES Seeks Input on Eads Street — From DES: “It’s a concept. It’s a design. It’s a concept design for upgrading S Eads Street between 12th and 15th Streets S. And you can chime in.” [Twitter, SurveyMonkey]
Virginia Hospital Center Names CEO — “The Arlington hospital said Wednesday that New York health care executive Christopher Lane will succeed Jim Cole, who’s retiring after nearly 37 years as its president and CEO.” [Washington Business Journal]
Speed Cameras Could be Coming — “Coming soon to a thoroughfare near you – Arlington aims to install speed-monitoring cameras that will spit out $50 citations to offenders.” [Sun Gazette]
Arlington County is set to receive more than $3 million to entice tourists to visit Arlington and help the hard-hit tourism industry recover from the pandemic.
The county’s tourism division, Arlington Convention and Visitors Service (ACVS), would use the $3.25 million grant for advertising, media outreach, marketing research, promotional events and tourism development to support the travel and hospitality industry, according to a county report.
The Arlington County Board is set to consider the grant during its meeting this Saturday. The Virginia Tourism Corporation awarded ACVS the money through the American Rescue Plan Act Tourism Recovery program, but the County Board must approve the funding.
In November, the Board cited this grant as the reason it did not consider direct financial support to hotels in its allocation of about $9 million of American Rescue Plan Act funds, which went toward housing assistance, expanding critical behavioral health services, meal distribution for senior citizens and more affordable child care options, among other initiatives.
Board members said the ACVS grant will instead help hospitality workers through training and job search support.
“Unfortunately, unlike the ARPA funds Arlington County received earlier from the Commonwealth, [the ACVS] funds can’t be used for grants or other direct financial support to our hotels, which is what we continue to hear would be the most impactful for their recovery and for maintaining sustainable, predictable compensation for their employees,” Arlington Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Kate Bates told ARLnow.
In Arlington Economic Development’s survey of local hotels, employee pay and benefits was the top spending priority across hotels of all sizes, Bates said.
“Moreover, employment data show that Arlington has lost about half of its hotel workforce during the pandemic,” she said.
ACVS has gathered input on how to use the grant funding from representatives of Arlington hotels, the Chamber of Commerce, local Business Improvement Districts, the Clarendon, Columbia Pike and Langston Boulevard neighborhood partnerships, Arlington Economic Development and the Department of Parks and Recreation, the report said.
The conversations are expected to continue over the 30 months the grant will be distributed.
“The funds are designated specifically for marketing Arlington as a destination to generate visitor spending, and I’m confident that Emily Cassell and the great team at ACVS will develop a plan to successfully do that, with continued feedback from the hotels along the way,” Bates said.
Arlington Central Library (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Covid-related staffing shortages are forcing Arlington libraries to shutter some services, including shutting down two branches this week.
Cherrydale and Glencarlyn libraries will both be closed through Sunday (Jan. 23), including the book drops, according to an announcement on Monday (Jan. 17).
Holds on the shelf at these branches will be moved to Central Library on Wednesday (Jan. 19) and available until Wednesday, Jan. 26. No new holds will be fulfilled at the two branches during the closure.
The current plan is to reopen the Cherrydale and Glencarlyn branches on Monday, Jan. 24.
“Operations will continue to be assessed, as these plans are contingent on current staffing levels,” Henrik Sundqvist, spokesperson for Arlington Public Libraries, tells ARLnow. “Announcements regarding resuming in-person programming will be made when we have more information.”
Also starting Monday, all in-person programs at Arlington libraries will be paused and a number of meeting and study rooms will be unavailable in order to cut back on workload and provide more space for staff.
All of this is related to a staffing shortage, notes Sundqvist, something that’s impacting many other businesses across the region and country.
Back in November, Arlington libraries announced the system was set to finally fully reopen at the beginning of January for the first time in nearly two years. That ended up being very short-lived, with two branches again closing only several weeks later.
The reason for the lengthy reopening process was due to a “high number of vacant public service jobs.” The library system has since increased hiring, Sundqvist confirms.
Dealing with holds, in particular, can be a tedious and time consuming task for staff, Sundqvist notes. Though, it’s understandable why residents may not have been picking up held books recently.
“When people don’t pick up holds, the holds need to be pulled and re-shelved which increases staff workload,” Sundqvist says. “It’s reasonable to think recent weather and higher levels of community COVID-19 affect people’s ability and willingness to come into the library and pick up holds.”
Additionally, in recent weeks, Arlington libraries has been distributing at-home COVID tests, which has increased staff workload. All locations are currently out of stock on tests.
It’s anticipated that the Cherrydale and Glencarlyn branches will be open for good and hold service restored starting next week, but Arlington libraries can’t make any promises.
“Our intention is to do everything possible to keep library locations open,” says Sundqvist. “However, like many other services in the region, we may continue to be impacted by COVID-19 related staffing shortages.”
Arlington County school bus (Photo courtesy Chris Rief)
(Updated at noon) Arlington Public Schools is bringing athletics back early and reducing quarantine periods, despite more than a thousand Covid cases reported among students and staff this past week.
Starting next week, the school system will adopt revised CDC guidance, Superintendent Francisco Durán wrote in an email to the school community Wednesday. The isolation period for staff members who test positive will be halved to five days. The new guidelines also reduced the quarantine period to five days for a student or staff member who is considered a close contact to someone who tested positive.
“Students who are exempt from quarantine (e.g., those with up-to-date vaccinations, are asymptomatic and are able to wear a mask) will be excluded and verified by Contact Tracers before being able to return to school,” Durán noted.
APS will still require a 10-day isolation period for students who test positive for COVID-19, despite the CDC’s recent change to guidelines allowing a five-day isolation for positive cases under certain conditions. That’s because APS is unable to ensure that “consistent physical distancing and mask protocols [are] in place at all times, including during meals.”
“Maintaining safe, consistent in-person learning is our priority,” Durán wrote. “APS will maintain in-person learning except in limited instances to address high transmission in a classroom or school. Switching any class or school to virtual learning–even for a short period of time–will be a last resort.”
There are 864 students and 183 employees who have tested positive for Covid over the past week, according to the APS Covid dashboard as of publication time. That compares to 56 positive student cases over a seven-day period just over a month ago, in early December.
Arlington is currently seeing its highest Covid hospitalization rate since January 2021. Nine people were hospitalized on Wednesday alone, according to Virginia Dept. of Health data. The seven-day moving average of daily hospitalizations is now just above four.
As teachers and community members expressed concerns about the surge in Covid cases over winter break, driven by the new Omicron variant, Durán committed to return in person. Last week’s snowstorms ended up cancelling school for the entire week, but students returned to classrooms on Monday.
While some in the community have urged more caution amid the Covid wave, others have advocated for schools and activities to remain open.
In a statement Monday, prior to Wednesday’s announcement, the pro-school-reopening group Arlington Parents for Education said that “APS should follow the CDC-recommended five days for isolations and quarantines instead of ten in order to significantly increase APS’ ability to staff schools and to reduce students’ days out of school.”
Arlington Parents for Education and more than 1,500 petition signers have also called for APS to resume athletic activities, which were “paused” for two weeks to start the new year, a move not mirrored by other local school systems.
In his email, Durán said that in-person athletics and extracurriculars returned early, on Wednesday, “following our current testing, vaccination and mask requirements.”
Only family members can watch events, Durán wrote in his email. Other limitations for spectators could apply based on facility.
The full message from Superintendent Durán is below.
Columbia Pike Optician Robbed — “Security camera video captured the tense moments when a group of thieves robbed an Arlington County store owned by a man known in the community for his charity work… The five suspects take hammers to the cases and fill bags with Cartier, Dior and Gucci frames, about $60,000 of merchandise.” [NBC4]
Mail Delays Frustrate Residents — “Residents across the D.C. region have become increasingly frustrated over delays in mail deliveries, with last week’s snowstorms, a spike in coronavirus cases and long-standing problems with the U.S. Postal Service contributing to a breakdown in services… Arlington resident Diana Wahl said she received no mail between Dec. 27 and Jan. 9. She finally received some mail on Monday and Tuesday, but older mail.” [Washington Post]
Fmr. Local Prosecutor Joins New AG’s Office — “From the job title, it doesn’t look as if [former Arlington Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo] Stamos’s primary role is going to be to keep an eye on those prosecutors. But multi-tasking is the way of the world these days, and by picking her, Miyares certainly poked his thumb in the eye of some of the Northern Virginia chief prosecutors.” [Sun Gazette]
Some Local Libraries Closed — “Due to Covid-19 related staffing shortages, Cherrydale and Glencarlyn Libraries will be closed Thursday through Sunday, Jan. 13 – 16. All library locations are closed Monday, Jan. 17 for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.” [Arlington Public Library]
Winter Storm PSA from ACPD — From the Arlington County Police Department: “With the risk of another winter storm on the horizon, now is a good time to register for Arlington Alert to receive information on major emergencies, weather, traffic disruptions and transit delays in Arlington County.” [Twitter]
Arlington Loses Delegate on New Maps — “He’s been redistricted out of Arlington, but Del. Rip Sullivan said he will always consider the community a second political home.” [Sun Gazette]
It’s Thursday — Today will have increasing clouds, with a high near 46. Sunrise at 7:25 a.m. and sunset at 5:09 p.m. Tomorrow will be mostly sunny, with a high near 44. North wind 8 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. [Weather.gov]
Covid hospitalizations in Arlington at of 1/12/22 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)
Arlington has set yet another record for the daily rate of Covid cases, while hospitalizations are rising in the county.
Nine people were hospitalized f0r Covid yesterday, Arlington’s largest single-day hospitalization total since January 2021, according to Virginia Dept. of Health data. The seven-day moving average of daily hospitalizations is now just above four, also the highest point since last January.
Cases, meanwhile, have reached new heights. The seven-day moving average of new cases in the county is now 646 per day. That means that over the past week, about one in 50 Arlington residents have tested positive for Covid — a number that excludes those who used at-home tests not reported to VDH and anyone who was infected but did not get tested or was unaware they were sick.
Covid cases as of 1/12/22 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)
Two new Covid testing locations opened in Arlington this week, amid the increase in cases. The rise in cases has also led Arlington’s public health division to change its contact tracing plan.
“Due to the ongoing surge of COVID-19 cases, Arlington County Public Health is shifting its contact tracing to maximize resources and focus on high-risk populations and settings (workplaces, long-term care facilities, group homes, schools, childcare settings),” said a county webpage with “steps to slow the spread” that was updated a few days ago.
In a bit of good news, the test positivity rate in Arlington continues to tick down. As of today it stands at 26.1%, which is still considered quite high but is below the recent peak of 29.3%. A sustained decrease in the positivity rate could signal a coming peak in cases.
Covid test positivity rate as of 1/12/22 (via Virginia Dept. of Health)
People stand in line at the recently opened COVID-19 testing kiosk at Central Library (staff photo by Matt Blitz)
A free Covid testing kiosk opened Monday at Central Library near Quincy Park.
Arlington County sponsors the new kiosk that Curative operates daily between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. at 3809 10th Street N., the southwest corner of the park near the tennis courts.
No symptoms or doctor referral is required but the county says you must make an appointment through the Curative website as the company works through lab backlogs. Staff at the site on Monday said they were allowing walk-ups, however.
Patients administer their own COVID-19 nasal swab test under the supervision of a Curative worker and receive results in 48 to 72 hours.
Parking is available at the library and park’s surface lots or the Central Library parking garage after 10 a.m.
Arlington is opening an additional no-cost COVID-19 testing kiosk at Central Library by Quincy Park. The kiosk is in partnership with @Curative, which operates three additional sites in the County.https://t.co/0n70DNwASRpic.twitter.com/5b1JEg3B8N
Arlington Mill Community Center parking lot (909 S. Dinwiddie St.), which is closed due to an electric issue that requires the delivery of a new kiosk
Courthouse Plaza parking lot (2088 15th St. N.; corner of 15th St. N. & N. Courthouse Rd.)
Virginia Highlands Park parking lot (1600 S. Hayes St.)
The Curative kiosks are administering an average of 8,500 PCR tests a week, up from an average of about 2,900 tests per week at the end of November/start of December, said Arlington County Community Engagement and Resilience Manager Tania Bougebrayel Cohn. Each kiosk can administer about 400 PCR tests a day.
There have been numerous closures of the Curative sites over the past couple of weeks — due to test and staffing shortages — but the county is working quickly to open additional testing sites to meet community demand as staff and supply chain-related shortages continue to affect the kiosks, she said.
“Demand for COVID-19 testing is at an all-time high. By adding an additional testing site, located in a densely populated Metro corridor, we hope to help meet that demand and remove barriers to testing access for all Arlingtonians,” said Dr. Aaron Miller, Director of the Department of Public Safety Communications and Emergency Management.
