By Rosmary Goudyrev
Stafford, Va.
The Stafford County Public School’s current redistricting plans to move the Park Ridge community out of Park Ridge Elementary is a direct consequence of the poorly planned new development of Embrey Mill. A development that is not even done adding to the load of our districts.
Why should the longstanding, established community of Park Ridge (the obvious namesake of the school) be punished?
What appears to be an easy solution (grabbing the closest slice ‘Park Ridge’ and shoving it into another district) will end up causing a huge embarrassment to the county and the board members. This is because the proposed plan is a logistical nightmare, the effects of which will pale in comparison to the nightmare we experienced earlier this school year.
Lest we forget, the nightmares caused by the bus shortages and lack of planning. How can we believe that the need to shuttle kids who live across the street from Park Ridge Elementary all the way across town is going to yield no issues?
There will be more buses on the road, more driver shortages, more horrendous traffic that will affect the entire county. More stories of entire bus loads of children being unaccounted for as terrified parents wait for hours at the bus stops (this happened at the start of the year). We were patient. We believed SCPS would resolve the issues. But the current plan is going to make these scenarios likely yet again.
Can the board please acknowledge that moving children further from their neighborhood schools is a disastrous idea? Embrey Mill residents made it known years ago that they don’t even want to attend Park Ridge. They want to attend the school closest to them. As is logical!
I implore each School Board member to please imagine living across the street from a school but having to put your kids on a bus to attend a school that, with morning traffic, might take twenty minutes to get to. This is what your plan is proposing.
Our children having to wake up earlier and stay on buses longer. Why are you proposing to have our children suffer and pay for the lack of planning of poorly planned new developments?
By Michael Halstead, HartwoodÂ
During the 2021 Stafford County School Board election, a sitting board member released personal information regarding a minor child, violating the minor's privacy and putting the minor's safety at risk.
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The mandate is not supported by science, not supported by the majority of parents, the kids absolutely hate it, and the teachers are put in a bad position. We can go in most any establishment without facing a mask mandate.
As soon as our kids get out of school the masks come off, they play sports and other games together, and the masks do not go back on until they walk through the school doors the next day. What's wrong with this picture?
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By Peter Candland
Prince William Board of County Supervisors
Gainesville District Representative
If we have learned one thing over the last two years of a pandemic, it's that what is classified as "science" is always changing as we learn more. And that's okay. I would hope that as a society we would learn from our experiences and continuously balance all potential threats to our children and not just let one aspect of our lives rule over everything else.
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In her May 27 Data Center-Market Viability Review forwarded to the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, Christina Winn, Executive Director, Economic Development, asserted, "Of the approximately 8,700 acres of land within the Data Center Opportunity Zone, there is approximately 600-1,100 acres Economic Development would consider market viable," and "Of those parcels, there are only two sites that would meet the 100-acres scenario of a data center requirement."
While the report notes that the most common requests are for 30-40 acres, it appears the 100 acres used as the basis is built on only the most recent requests from data-center operators.
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Please consider the following comments to the 95 Express Lanes/Opitz Boulevard Ramp Project
1. The new ramp should be constructed wide enough to support future bi-directional access at this location.
The I-95 corridor currently experiences significant congestion 7 days a week. The future population growth along the I-95 corridor will require the implementation of bi-directional express lanes at some point in the future. The express lanes are currently closed between 2-4pm on Saturdays which is a peak shopping period for Potomac Mills. The Optiz Boulevard Ramp should be constructed with a similar footprint to I-495 Express Lanes/Route 29 Ramp (See Below). It is shortsighted to build the ramp as currently proposed.
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School Board Chairman Babur Lateef publicly says Prince William County Schools are not teaching Critical Race Theory.
But, in private texts that were made public only through a Freedom of Information Act request, Lateef says "Well I have always said that and I have maintained CRT is what we are doing here."
School Board Member Loree Williams says Critical Race Theory is not being taught in the schools in Prince William County, and anybody who claims otherwise is wrong.
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To the citizens and parents of Prince William County:
I am writing in regards to the Town Hall meeting that was held Tuesday night at Patriot High School. Congratulations to Mac Haddow, Erica Tredinnick, and London Steverson of the Prince William County Racial and Social Justice Commission for giving parents the opportunity to discuss current issues affecting education and our county.
School Board members and the rest of the Racial and Social Justice Commission, as well as the Board of County Supervisors should take a lesson in how a successful conversation with parents and constituents should be handled.
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By Jeff Eastland
Stafford
The Vulcan Quarry in Stafford is seeking to rezone three parcels from A-1 agricultural to M-2 heavy industrial for expansion of mining operations adjacent to Eastern View and other subdivisions and residential areas in North Stafford.
They're also seeking a conditional use permit to build a concrete plant on existing wetlands in a flood plain in another section of the property.
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By Cord Sterling
Rock Hill District
A proposal to significantly expand and extend the operations of the Vulcan quarry despite its encroachment (with explosives and crushing operations) on the people of Stafford who live in those neighborhoods now goes to the Board of Supervisors.
Do not think the impact will be isolated to the people that live nearby. The various communities along the routes taken by the new gravel and now cement trucks will also be impacted by noise and safety. And this is just the near term.
![Parents gathered outside the Stafford County Public Schools headquarters to demand the School Board give parents options to send their child to school without a facemask. [Photo: Uriah Kiser/PLN]](https://www.potomaclocal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/012522-parent-mask-protest-stafford-.jpg){kind=link}