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Fairfax County School Board to Consider Nondiscrimination Policy Change

When the members of the School Board reconvene on May 7, they’re scheduled to act on whether or not to add “gender identity” to the list of nondiscrimination categories for all Fairfax County Public Schools students, employees or applicants for employment.

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Rescued Cats and Dogs Bring Loyalty to Families

Families grow with adopted pets.

The ASPCA estimates that nationwide, somewhere between five and seven million “companion animals” wind up in shelters each year. Of that number, 60 percent of dogs and 70 percent of cats are euthanized ... each year. The prominent humane organization also figures only about 20 to 30 percent of cat and dog pets were acquired from rescues and shelters.

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Fairfax County School Board Adds "Gender Identity" to Nondiscrimination Policy

Discrimination is bad, and everyone should have a safe environment in which to learn. These sentiments were common to the Fairfax County School Board members and the hundreds of parents who packed the auditorium and front lobby of Luther Jackson Middle School for the board’s May 7 meeting.

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Abiding Presence Lutheran Church and Temple B’nai Shalom hold 29th joint Thanksgiving eve service.

When he applied for Minister of Music position at Abiding Presence Lutheran Church in Burke, David Chavez said he was told there’s just one non-negotiable date on the calendar: Thanksgiving eve.

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‘Seeking That Which Unites Us’

Rumi Forum presents three religions’ takes on women in faith and society.

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Burke: Volunteers and County Workers Recognized at Best of Braddock Awards

Thanks to Jim Watkins, a striking statue of a barracuda emerging from the water now graces the Commonwealth Swim Club. Watkins and other volunteers, members of the club, have helped maintain and repair areas of the facility, including restoration of the storm runoff channel, new lighting and landscaping.

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Fairfax County: Community and faith leaders, elected officials speak about hate speech, bias incidents and hate crimes

More than 100 people filled the Ernst Cultural Center at Northern Virginia Community College’s Annandale Campus on Sunday, March 26, to hear more than a dozen elected and faith leaders, as well as representatives from local organizations speak about hate speech, bias incidents and hate crimes.

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School Board Sued over Nondiscrimination Policy Changes

Liberty Counsel challenges board’s authority to add sexual orientation and gender identity.

When the members of the Fairfax County School Board added sexual orientation and gender identity to the school system’s nondiscrimination policy in November 2014 and May 2015, did they have the authority?

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Friends of Sadie Blood Drive Enters Sixth Year in Burke

Sadie Lauer’s Neuroblastoma is in remission. She still has a tumor, buried near the top of her lungs, however it has no active cancer cells. Aside from “late effects” of her chemotherapy treatment, Sadie is a happy, healthy five-and-a-half-year-old girl.

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Burke and Fairfax: Young Artist with Autism Shows Work at Our Daily Bread’s “Artful Living”

“HERE MY WORK IS YELLING AT THE STONE INSIDE THAT REFUSES TO LEAVE MY SOUL AND BODY IN PEACE.” Those are 16-year-old Fairfax resident Ben Breaux’s words that accompanied his mixed-media painting “The Kidney Stone” at the April 23 juried art contest and Our Daily Bread fundraiser “Artful Living.”

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Fairfax County School Board Discusses New AAP Center at Poplar Tree

Board seeks more community feedback before taking action.

Greenbriar West Elementary School is far from the only Fairfax County Public School with an overcrowding problem.

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Burke, Fairfax Station, Oakton, Springfield: Four swimmers from Burke club compete at Olympic Trials in Omaha

1:01.19. For the last year, Oakton resident Jasmine Hellmer has gone to bed looking up at “1:01.19” written on a Post-It note stuck to her ceiling. That time represented the rising Flint Hill School junior’s greatest goal to date: the time standard to qualify for Olympic Trials in the 100 butterfly.

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‘Christ Alone’ in Fairfax

Jubilee Christian Center puts on an original drama with adapted music.

“Musically, the people in this church are really talented. I’ve been blown away by that.” —Producer-director Tim Buck of Burke

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Fairfax County: School Board Receives New Transgender Regulations

Discussion moves to a work session

Friday afternoon, July 1, Fairfax County School Board members each received an email containing new operating regulations regarding transgender and gender nonconforming students.

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‘Re-enactress Tea’ at Historic Clifton Home

Fairfax County History Commissioner Lynne Garvey-Hodge hosted former first ladies, Civil War wives and a Native American princess.

Amid a historically accurate buffet of fried cod balls, “Election Day” cake and biscuits and ham with zucchini relish, there stood a true culinary symbol of the afternoon: purple and pale gold-layered gelatin desserts served in stately glassware with a blackberry garnish.

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Lockard Channels Garza, Proposes $2.8 Billion FCPS Budget

FY2018 focuses on employee compensation and classroom resources.

Fairfax County Public Schools interim superintendent Steve Lockard is asking for $130.4 million more for the school system’s FY2018 operating budget than the previous year, a 4.9 percent increase, to a total of $2.8 billion.

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Fairfax County: High School Senior Addresses School Board on LGBT Issues

Board conducting community review of Family Life Education curriculum recommendations.

Bennett Shoop remembers first being bullied in second grade. He liked to dress all in black, wear weird shirts, be alternative in his outward expression.

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Health Curriculum To More Closely Align with State

School Board approves recommendations from advisers, with amendments.

Though it was the second packed house in as many months, it may be early yet to call crowded Fairfax County School Board meetings a trend.

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Clifton Wine Shop Expands

“America Reworked” store and showcase moves in as wine moves upstairs.

If the only thing better than one bottle of wine is two bottles, Clifton resident and owner of Clifton Wine Shop & Tasting Room Lucinda Lawson has not only taken the message to heart, she’s expanded on it. On Friday, Oct. 4, she and a multitude of customers and friends celebrated the grand opening of the shop’s new location that boasts more than twice the interior space of the previous shop.

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Thomas Jefferson Class of 2019: 70% Asian, 1.6% Black

Some say unbalanced admissions demographics at Northern Virginia’s top high school speaks to system-wide equity problems.

Consider: 70.2 percent Asian, 20.7 percent White, 5.1 percent Multiracial/Other, 2.4 percent Hispanic, 1.6 percent Black: This is the ethnic breakdown of the 493 students admitted to the 2019 class of the Fairfax County Public Schools magnet institution Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.

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