Covid-19
Peter’s Make a selection is a weekly conception column. The views and opinions expressed on this column are those of the author and perform no longer basically accept as true with the views of ARLnow.com
Arlington County and APS face unprecedented challenges on fable of of COVID-19.
With many questions left unanswered, on June 9 Governor Northam licensed general guidance for a phased reopening of Virginia public schools.
COVID-19 have to turn out to be the catalyst for County government and APS fully to reorganize and mix their working and capital planning now.
County Board July 7 special election
Just candidate Susan Cunningham precisely devotes a total press liberate to many helpful solutions for accelerating County/APS collaboration, including:
“The County Board, College Board, County Supervisor, and original Superintendent might possibly objective calm sit down together presently to prioritize what’s a will deserve to comprise for our college community and your entire Arlington community.”
Democratic nominee Takis Karantonis astutely concludes:
“I’m a stable supporter of the work performed by the 2015 Community Facilities Assume community [“CFSG”]. I comprise been frustrated by a seeming lack of make stronger amongst College and County Board participants for the considerate solutions in that respect.”
Republican nominee Bob Cambridge properly confirms that “efficient management requires initiatives corresponding to rate-relief analyses.”
College Board November 3 general election
In responses to a questionnaire sponsored by my colleagues at Arlingtonians for our Sustainable Future (ASF), the three College Board candidates additionally recommend fundamental reforms now:
Symone Walker, the Just candidate:
“[I]t is time … to larger prepare and jabber Arlington’s development in a more paced and modulated formula. I decide the blueprint in which to retrofit and repurpose present APS and county facilities as has been performed in Fairfax County and the Metropolis of Alexandria. I decide this form as practical, more efficient and environmentally friendly, and doubtlessly the most rate-efficient.”
The two ACDC-endorsed candidates:
Cristina Diaz-Torres has “long supported APS and the County taking part in more sturdy rate-relief prognosis procedures for constructing. Right here is specifically crucial given the present economic crisis and the seemingly drop in both tax income and (potentially) bond capability.”
David Priddy states “for years we now comprise got had conversations around facilities owned by the county and facilities owned by APS. The two had been no longer in settlement. That meant we didn’t comprise the stout describe when smartly planning for future development.”
Budgeting
As Cunningham properly stresses, “we want multi-yr budgets that consist of facilities plans, community facilities, and reasonable upkeep. Colleges might possibly objective calm be envisioned and operated as factual community sources, with facilities integral to the entire community — specifically outside college hours.”
Given APS’s like a flash enrollment development spurred by Arlington’s surging population development and model, APS’s present working and facilities fashions are fiscally unsustainable.
Operations
As we now notion more intensively to reopen APS, we have to undertake suggestions like these:
- Create a original instructional imaginative and prescient for APS. As Symone Walker and Unlit Mother and father of Arlington rightly escape, APS have to fully restructure the blueprint in which it teaches kids uncomplicated how one can read.
- Delivery a fully-transparent, public civic engagement course of to establish holistically at APS and County operations together, analyze the advantages and costs of colleges, parks, fields, out of doors discovering out areas and humanities venues sooner or later of the separate APS and County bureaucratic silos, and form reprioritized working plans.
- Scrap the present income-sharing settlement between APS and the County (under which APS is entitled to 47% of in the neighborhood-generated tax revenues), and replace it with original funding mechanisms that accept as true with both present and long-term realities.
Facilities
Final descend, APS published its Arlington Facilities and Student Lodging Thought (“AFSAP notion”). At the time, the AFSAP notion contained what was then APS’s handiest estimate of the original schools it would want for the length of the following 10-yr Capital Enchancment Thought (CIP) cycle. Now, on fable of of COVID-19, the County Supervisor is proposing a scaled-abet, one-yr CIP for FY 2021.
Nonetheless planning urgently wants to delivery now on a revised 10-yr AFSAP notion. A fundamental arena remaining descend’s notion exposed is the snail’s tempo of present County and College Board participants in adopting a protracted-term public facilities notion locating original college seats and varied original public facilities (e.g., fireplace stations, parks, stormwater infrastructure) at jabber internet sites — 5 years after the CFSG solutions to perform so.
Conclusion
Arlington County government and APS have to presently escape, combine and reform planning for our community’s future. We’re all on this together.
Peter Rousselot beforehand served as Chair of the Fiscal Affairs Advisory Commission (FAAC) to the Arlington County Board and as Co-Chair of the Advisory Council on Instruction (ACI) to the Arlington College Board. He is additionally a frail Chair of the Arlington County Democratic Committee (ACDC) and a frail member of the Central Committee of the Democratic Gather together of Virginia (DPVA). He at the moment serves as a board member of the Collectively Virginia PAC-a political action committee dedicated to figuring out, helping and advising Democratic candidates in rural Virginia.
