Dear FCCPS Families,
I trust you all had a safe and healthy holiday break. I wanted to send some updates and clarifications regarding our next steps for reopening FCCPS. While my letter to all of you about returning this month was filled with excitement and enthusiasm, it also included a revised set of metrics for reopening and, if needed, thresholds for returning to virtual instruction. While we are all excited about returning our students to in-person hybrid learning, it is important to temper expectations.
The COVID data for our region, and specifically Falls Church City, is particularly challenging as the number of cases continues to rise, and the percentage of people testing positive continues to increase. Additionally, our region remains in a state of substantial transmission and a high burden of disease. These are concerning as we move forward in our planning.
A Virginia School Board Is Wrong to Renounce Jefferson and Mason realclearpolitics.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from realclearpolitics.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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The Falls Church City Public Schools board in Virginia beclowned itself this month by voting unanimously to remove the names of founders Thomas Jefferson and George Mason from an elementary school and a high school, respectively.
The names will be removed because each of the famed Virginians owned slaves. The change, said board Chairman Greg Anderson, is “a necessary part of our equity work,” adding that it is important that the school community “feel safe, supported, and inspired.” Other board members repeated the mantra that the founders’ names made children feel “marginalized or uncomfortable.”
The board made the change in open defiance of its own survey showing that 56% of the school community, and more than two-thirds of those who expressed a definite opinion, wanted to keep the names. It also defies fiscal responsibility, with the name changes estimated to cost more than $110,000 to implement.