Author: Scott McCaffrey

A Northern Virginia native, Scott McCaffrey has four decades of reporting, editing and newsroom experience in the local area plus Florida, South Carolina and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. He spent 26 years as editor of the Sun Gazette newspaper chain. For Local News Now, he covers government and civic issues in Arlington, Fairfax County and Falls Church.

Countywide

Fairfax County leaders press state legislators to increase K-12 education funding

By Scott McCaffrey
The Virginia State Capitol building (file photo)

By the Fairfax County government’s math, local residents are being shortchanged nearly $570 million annually in education funding by the state government.

Facing a $292.7 million gap between expected revenues and expenses projected for the coming fiscal year, county leaders would like their state lawmakers to leave from Richmond next year with some of that funding in hand.

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News

Local leaders want to maintain pressure on Maryland over American Legion Bridge

By Scott McCaffrey
Traffic heads from McLean into Maryland on the American Legion Bridge (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

Virginia leaders plan to keep prodding their Maryland counterparts in the direction of revitalizing the American Legion Bridge to both ease existing congestion and provide additional transit options.

At a Dec. 5 forum sponsored by the Dulles Area Transit Association (DATA), Northern Virginia leaders acknowledged being irked by Maryland’s more cautious approach to addressing the transportation bottleneck.

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Countywide

Fairfax County meals tax still on menu for consideration in upcoming budget

By Scott McCaffrey
People eating meals at a restaurant (via Dan Gold/Unsplash)

Decision day is drawing closer, but Fairfax County leaders aren’t yet committing one way or another on whether to implement a meals tax as part of their upcoming budget deliberations.

Even if one is imposed, it won’t be the cure-all to the county government’s funding challenges, with a $292.7 million gap between anticipated revenues and expenses that must be filled in the coming year, one top official says.

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Countywide

Fairfax County School Board declines to review rights of student journalists

By Scott McCaffrey
The Fairfax County School Board discusses a proposed review of Fairfax County Public School policies protecting student journalist rights at its meeting on Dec. 5, 2024 (via FCPS/YouTube)

A Fairfax County School Board member’s desire to affirm the defined rights of student journalists in the wake of the Hayfield Secondary School athlete-transfer uproar died on a 9-3 vote at the Dec. 5 board meeting.

At-large board member Ryan McElveen introduced the measure as part of a broader discussion of the Hayfield athletics matter. He said it was in reaction to allegations, which have not been independently confirmed, of student journalists at Hayfield having their work on the issue censored.

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Countywide

Route 7 bus rapid transit study shifts focus to Seven Corners segment

By Scott McCaffrey
Metrobus 28A on Route 7 in Falls Church (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

Preliminary work for future bus rapid transit service from Tysons to Alexandria along the Route 7 corridor is taking another step forward.

The Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) voted on Thursday (Dec. 5) to send out a request for proposals to firms interested in studying the easternmost leg of the corridor from Seven Corners to Alexandria.

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Countywide

Regional taxes, longer I-66 toll hours on table for dedicated N. Va. transit funding

By Scott McCaffrey
A train arrives at the Tysons Metro station (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

Fifteen options are now on the table, as regional and state leaders mull ways to establish dedicated funding for Northern Virginia transit operations.

A full range of funding options for Metro and other public transportation systems was presented to the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC) on Thursday (Dec. 5), including new taxes and fees.

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Countywide

‘I am sorry’: Superintendent works to make amends following uproar over Hayfield football

By Scott McCaffrey
Superintendent Michelle Reid (staff file photo by James Jarvis)

Fairfax County School Board members and Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid took formal steps last week to address the alleged athletic recruiting irregularities at Hayfield Secondary School that have roiled the entire community.

At the school board meeting on Thursday (Dec. 5), Reid offered her first public mea culpa for the crisis of confidence in Fairfax County Public Schools leadership sparked by its handling of the controversy around Hayfield’s football program.

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Countywide

State champion FCPS athletes honored by Fairfax County leaders

By Scott McCaffrey
2024 Robinson Secondary School cheer team (via Fairfax County)

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday (Dec. 3) honored students and teams from the county’s public high schools for state-championship performances this fall.

“We have a long list of champions, which is fantastic,” Board Chairman Jeff McKay said during a presentation that helped kick off the body’s final meeting of 2024.

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Countywide

Redevelopment of judicial complex wins approval from county board

By Scott McCaffrey
Fairfax County Judicial Complex redevelopment as approved by supervisors (via Fairfax County)

An anticipated two-decade-plus effort to redevelop Fairfax County’s 48-acre judicial complex has taken its first major step forward.

County supervisors approved a conceptual plan on Tuesday (Dec. 3) that ultimately could add four new office buildings, affordable housing and parks to the site at 4110 Chain Bridge Road, adjacent to the City of Fairfax. The construction would bring the amount of development on the campus from 1.4 million square feet to about 2 million.

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Countywide

Fairfax County approves higher accessible parking standards for new development

By Scott McCaffrey
Reserved parking (via Steve DiMatteo/Unsplash)

Future parking lots and garages across Fairfax County will need to devote a larger percentage of spaces to support those with disabilities.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a proposal Tuesday (Dec. 3) changing the ratio of accessible spaces to total spaces from the current one per 25 spaces to one in 15. The change took effect at midnight on Wednesday, Dec. 4.

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