Letters to the Editor: June 16 – 22, 2016
‘The Falls Church Way’ Is Lacking in Balance
Editor,
We would like to publicly express our thanks and gratitude to the City of Falls Church, and its public schools, for all of the hard work by staff, teachers, parents and administration that go into making the schools here a special place to send our children. This year has been one of many successes for the kids in our schools that give us much to be proud of. We know these victories do not come in a vacuum. They require effort – by kids and parents, and also the school staff, teachers and administration.
It is with this in mind, that we feel compelled to address an element of the talking points widely distributed by a group calling itself “The Falls Church Way.” From what we see, this group couples a list of decisions by our school leadership with which they disagree, with expressions of dissatisfaction by a very small number of staff, to argue that school leadership change is a necessity. We find the argument, to date, by this group unpersuasive. And not because we believe school leadership has made all of the right calls.
Instead, what we see lacking in The Falls Church Way is balance. We see a group that appears too often to be dismissive of reasonable school responses or to engage in a rush to judgement that assumes the worst. The Falls Church Way also lists some criticisms with which we agree. But the lack of balance compels us to withhold our support, overall.
We also see a bigger issue – a lack of support from the city council for our schools. The initial budget request by the School Board and Toni Jones was eminently reasonable, and should have been approved. This is a school district that faces competition for its brightest teachers and staff from wealthy, neighboring districts, has a growing student body, and has had to deal with major construction projects that have not progressed as hoped.
What’s ironic is that the community of parents that should be united with school leadership in pushing for better funding for its schools is instead a house divided, fighting amongst itself and missing in action where the real battle lies: proper funding for the public school system.
Barton and Hilary Crockett
Falls Church
City of F.C. Focus On Growth Is Misguided
Editor,
I agree totally with the comments last week from Doug Goodgion regarding the traffic in Falls Church. The problems are getting worse on the heavily traveled streets as the city council appears to ignore the fact that the ridiculous amount of development and growth in the city further exacerbates the problem.
Does the City Council not see the traffic congestion in the Washington/Lee Highway corridor every morning? Falls Church spends a lot of time chasing the revenue from overdevelopment but does absolutely nothing to improve the conditions for the residents and businesses. Where are the improvements to the Route 7 corridor or Washington/Lee Highway to mitigate the ridiculous traffic problems already existing? The focus on growth is misguided when the basic infrastructure is constantly playing catch-up. This is no longer a “Little City” and unfortunately the residents and businesses will pay dearly for this over development for generations to come.
Stan H. King
Falls Church
Do Your Part To Help Protect The Animals
Editor,
Every day animals are abused and killed. It is a horrible thing. That is why we are doing a school project on it. During our project we have learned several examples of animal abuse and how to help prevent it from happening. Some examples of animal abuse are chaining up dogs in harsh weather, making animals work too hard, hurting them, and not caring for them correctly. Sadly these things happen no matter how hard we try to stop it, but there are a few things you can do to prevent it. One easy way is to report animal abuse if you see it. To report it, you just call a local animal shelter or animal control officer and they will come to help the animal as soon as possible. The Falls Church City Animal Control Officer’s phone number is 703-248-5172.
If you do see an animal in distress, although you may want to go comfort him or her, be sure to never approach them because they may be aggressive. The most effective way to help animals is to volunteer at an organization that helps animals such as PETA, ASPCA, The Humane Society Of America, The Animal Welfare League Of Arlington, or any other foundations that you may know of. You can also donate to these charities to support the protection of animals.
We hope you will do your part to help protect animals!
Erin, Lily, Matthew & Ibrahim
5th Graders, Thomas Jefferson Elementary
Letters to the Editor may be submitted to letters@fcnp.com or via our online form here. Letters should be limited to 350 words and may be edited for content, clarity and length. To view the FCNP’s letter and submission policy, please click here.
