National Spotlight on Band
<bt>The Loudoun Valley High School band has been selected as one of 15 bands in the United States to attend the 49th Annual Pegasus Parade at the Kentucky Derby.
Director Rick Reaves, who has been band director for five years at the high school and is in his 27th year of teaching, said 78 of his 94 band members will be marching. The parade will be held at 5 p.m.. Thursday, April 29, in Louisville, KY.
Loudoun Valley will compete with other bands from all over the country at the Kentucky Derby Music Festival in Lexington, Ky. on Saturday, the same day as the race.
Reaves said he believes his band was invited because someone saw it on NBC's television hit "The West Wing" in 2001. That opportunity was a "luck of the draw," he said. "Evidently somebody saw we had been on "The West Wing" and that got around."
Loudoun Valley's band has been a Virginia state honor band several times and has received superior ratings in marching and concert seasons, he said. "I think it's great for the kids. It's a great recognition for our program and an opportunity for us to be in the national spotlight."
An estimated 400,000 people will be watching the parade and it will be televised in seven states. NBC "Today Show" weatherman Willard Scott will be announcing the parade.
<sh>Board Names Schools
<bt>The School Board has approved names for three schools slated to open in the fall of 2005. The elementary school in the Belmont Country Club subdivision will be named Newton-Lee after Christopher Newton and Dong Lee, who were killed at the Pentagon, Sept. 11, 2001.
The elementary school in the Brambleton subdivision will be named the Legacy Elementary School. The board debated whether to support the name, after learning there is a developer by the same name. But it accepted the name after learning the developer was not building houses in that area.
The elementary school in Leesburg will be named the Sycolin Creek Elementary School.
<sh>Accident Injures 17 Year Old
<bt>A Haymarket man was charged this weekend in a single vehicle accident near Upperville that sent his teenage passenger to an area hospital. Domingo Cosme Molina, 22, was driving a 1998 Ford Explorer south on Willisville Road near Millville Road shortly before midnight on Saturday when he lost control on a gravel portion of the roadway sending the SUV up an embankment where it rolled over. A 17-year-old female who was a front seat passenger and was not wearing a seatbelt was injured in the accident and airlifted to Inova Fairfax Hospital. She was released on Sunday. The driver, who was treated at the scene, has been charged with alleged driving without a license and reckless driving.
<sh>Elementary School Employee Charged
<bt>A Loudoun County Public School employee has been charged for embezzling funds from Potowmack Elementary School. Tracy L. Bryan, 37, of Sterling is a bookkeeper with the school and has been charged with embezzlement and obtaining a signature by false pretenses. The alleged misappropriation of funds from the Sterling based elementary school occurred between July 2003 through this April and was discovered during a routine audit conducted by the school. School officials contacted the Sheriff's Office April 21 and Investigators determined Bryan was involved in embezzling money from the school. Bryan turned herself over to authorities Monday morning.
<sh>Construction Accident
<bt>At 5:30 p.m. on April 16, a 45-year-old Maryland man received serious but non-life threatening injuries after falling approximately 20 to 30 feet onto the ground. The victim, Jose Perez, was taken to Loudoun Hospital and later transferred to Inova Fairfax Hospital. The man was installing windows at a community center under construction in the Broadlands area when the accident occurred.
<sh>Fire Damages Storage Building
<bt>The Loudoun County Fire Marshal's Office is investigating a fire that damaged a storage building on the Leesburg Elementary School property. Around 6:33 p.m. on Wednesday, April 21, Loudoun County Fire-Rescue received a 9-1-1 call for a structure fire at 323 Plaza Street, NE in Leesburg. Fire and rescue personnel from Leesburg, Lucketts and Ashburn responded to the scene. Upon their arrival, firefighters discovered that the fire was in a storage building located behind the school. There were no injuries as a result of this fire.
<sh>Woman Identified
<bt>Montgomery County Police has identified the woman whose body was found in the Potomac River near White’s Ferry last week.
Doris Rebecca Lyles, 74 of Poolesville, Md. was identified based on information provided by family members. The medical examiner ruled the cause of death as drowning. There was no trauma to the body and no evidence of foul play.