Education

Fully Accredited (Almost): One School Fails to Meet Minimum Standards

School officials were ready to celebrate victory until state included Arlington Mill High School.

The news couldn't have been better for Arlington Public Schools. Preliminary reports indicated that the Virginia Department of Education was on the verge of releasing standardized test data that would show all 31 public schools in Arlington would be fully accredited. Then the bottom fell out.

Colvin Run Hosts Outdoor Movie

“Hotel Transylvania” shown at annual back-to-school event.

Though their weekend had officially begun several hours earlier, hundreds of Colvin Run Elementary School students and their families made their way back to the school at dusk Friday, Sept. 20 for the school’s annual outdoor movie night.

Car Show at Edison High

Junior class holds fundraiser with games, booths, bagpiper.

Edison High School’s junior class held a car show and community sale last Saturday, Sept. 14, as a fundraiser. The event brought out the community for games, booth vendors selling books and jewelry, inflatables and even a bagpiper.

Art Matters for All Ages

Local experts say art classes help children develop new skills.

If you walk into Art at the Center in Mount Vernon on a Tuesday morning, you might find a group of preschool students and their parents or caretakers squishing potting clay with their fingers. In the same room, several other tots could be brushing an array of paint colors across art paper, making a mess but having fun. The children are part of the Center’s Art Explorers class, designed for children ranging from 18 months to 5 years old.

Seniors Spell in Bee, Expert Youth Speller Moderates

Herndon Senior Center hosted 200-plus senior attendees from 15 senior communities and 22 contestants on Sept. 11 in a spelling bee to remember. Lori Anne Madison, 7, the youngest ever participant in the Scripps National Spelling Bee from 2012, gave a presentation and assisted in word calling. The overall winner was Ruth Siegerson of Falcon's Landing.

Herndon Parks and Recreation Wins Awards for Marketing

Approximately 450 delegates from Virginia gathered in early September for the 59th annual conference of the Virginia Recreation and Park Society, which was held in Williamsburg. The conference is a learning exchange and provides an opportunity for recreation and park professionals to collaborate and ultimately improve the delivery of parks and recreation services. A highlight of each conference is a presentation of awards. This year Herndon Parks and Recreation had two items, which were selected in the 25,000 and less population category:

Vienna Commemorates ‘A Day to Remember’

Town, American Legion Post 180, pay tribute to lives lost on September 11, 2001.

On a hot and humid September 11, 2013, people in Vienna—as they did in towns and cities across America—reflected on the horrific terrorist attack that altered the lives of Americans from that date forward 12 years ago. More than 3,000 innocent human beings lost their lives when jetliners slammed into the World Trade Center twin towers, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. Patriot Day pays tribute to lives lost, lives impacted and to the living who put themselves in harm's way to protect the nation.

World Food Crisis Is Focus of Marshall High's Model UN Training Conference

Marshall High School’s 10th annual My First Model United Nations (Model UN) training conference will provide high school and middle school students with the opportunity to debate solutions to the world food crisis. The conference is scheduled for 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 19. Marshall High School is a Fairfax County public school.

Week in McLean

On Monday, Sept. 23, 7 p.m., the Fairfax County Park Authority will hold a public meeting to present changes to the McLean Central Park Master Plan, made in response to comments from the June 2013 public meeting and afterward. The event will be held at the McLean Community Center, 1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean.

‘One Laptop Per Student’ at Churchill Road

Churchill Road Elementary School is piloting its “One Laptop per Student” initiative. Chrissy Frantz’s sixth graders were excited to be assigned a full-time laptop when they arrived in the classroom on their first day of school. One of their first tasks was to complete their log-in procedures.

Getting Used to School Cafeteria

The first week of school was especially exciting for Churchill Road’s 100 new kindergarten students. One of the first-time experiences was eating lunch in the school cafeteria. The students learned how to make healthy food choices, pay for their meals through their lunch accounts, and compost and recycle procedures.

Launching Rockets at Churchill Road

On Friday, Sept. 13, Churchill Road sixth graders conducted a scientific experiment using the rockets they built in science class. The cardboard rockets were fueled with a mixture of Alka-Seltzer and water in their boosters (film canisters). Science teachers Chrissy Frantz and David Ericson assisted the groups of students with the rocket “fuel.” After the launch, the students measured the height each rocket traveled; then looked at the correlation between rocket weight and launch height. The students discovered that the lighter rockets gained the most height. The top rocket went more than 14 feet.

Celebrating Women’s Equality

Women’s Equality Day celebrated at Workhouse Arts Center.

Did you know that the Commonwealth of Virginia did not ratify the 19th Amendment—giving women the right to vote—until Feb. 21, 1952? Or that American suffragists were the first people to ever picket in front of the White House? Are the names of Alice Paul and Lucy Burns as familiar as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott and Susan B. Anthony?

Gros to Lead Glasgow Middle

Doctoral candidate to mentor most ethnically diverse school in Alexandria.

On July 1, Penny Gros, 43, of Burke was named the new principal of Glasgow Middle School, an ethnically diverse school in Alexandria. It’s the best fit for the Spanish-speaking doctoral candidate in her 19th year in education. “This school is a perfect fit for my background, experience and passions,” she said.

Inspired to Give

Local teens positively impact youth on a global scale.

Picture this: An impoverished young teenager sits in a hospital bed in rural India, suffering from a life-threatening cancer, opens up a tablet device filled with educational tools and apps to distract them from their daily struggles. You would probably expect the tablet to have been shipped there by a large, national non-profit run by paid staff members. Not so. It was delivered to this teen by other teens, all working toward the same goal: to connect with pediatric cancer patients around the world in order to provide them with encouragement, support and education.

The Connection