B4 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11 , 2020
according to school syste m’s web-
site.
But it is thought to be unlikely
that these cases developed or
spread inside school buildings.
Loudoun is pursuing a policy of
publicly reporting all cases among
its staff and student body, whether
the infected individual is working
or studying on a c ampus.
And, as of last Friday, the Vir-
ginia Department of Health re-
ported that Loudoun County was
witnessing no coronavirus out-
breaks inside schools. The depart-
ment defines a s chool-associated
outbreak as at least two confirmed
cases of the virus, and in which
“transmission [took place] within
the school facility or at a s chool-
sponsored event among students,
faculty, staff or visitors.”
For the past several weeks, Lou-
doun had been by far the most
aggressive of Northern Virginia
school districts in its push to re-
turn students to classrooms, con-
tinuing to welcome children even
as peer school systems were back-
ing away from face-to-face learn-
ing.
Alexandria City Public Schools
recently opted for online-only
learning for all of its 16,000 stu-
dents, after returning just six chil-
dren to school buildings. Arling-
ton Public Schools, which enrolls
23,000, chose to postpone return-
ing lower-schoolers to classrooms
until 2021.
And last month, Fairfax Schools
Superintendent Scott Brabrand
announced he was halting his
plans to return thousands of stu-
dents to buildings in N ovember
and December. He also sent more
than 3,000 students back to on-
line-only instruction, leaving
roughly 5,500 children still partic-
ipating in a c ouple days each week
of in-person learning.
[email protected]Virginia Education Association —
one of the state ’s most powerful
teachers associations, with 40,000
members — called on Northam to
order all public schools to go virtu-
al-only until at least mid-January.
“We know that virtual learning
is not a true substitute for the
in-person instruction we have em-
braced for gener ations, [but] it IS
the safest and wisest course,” the
association’s president, James F.
Fedderman, said in a statement.
“Learning losses will be made up,
but loss of life cannot be.”
Williams, in his note to parents,
wrote that two particular statis-
tics for Loudoun County had
caused the school system to close
its classrooms again: The total
number of new cases per 100,000
people in the county had stayed
above 200 for more than five con-
secutive business days, and the
county’s positivity rate for corona-
virus tests had remained above 10
percent for the same time period.
The school board had previous-
ly voted that if both of thresholds
were met, the Loudoun district —
which enrolls roughly 82,000 stu-
dents — would have to close its
classrooms to students complete-
ly.
Williams revealed little in his
message about when classrooms
might be able to reopen. At a
school board meeting next week,
he wrote, “LCPS will further dis-
cuss plans for using these metrics
to determine when hybrid in-per-
son learning could resume.”
So far, it does not appear that
Loudoun’s reopened school build-
ings functioned as superspreader
sites. The school system has re-
ported 166 positive cases of the
virus among staff members, and
94 positive cases among students,
since Sept. 8.
At p resent, 112 staff members
and 24 students are in quarantine,the percentage of students with
disabilities receiving at least two
F’s jumped from 9 p ercent to 19
percent, and the percentage of
English-learner students in this
category jumped from 17 percent
to 35 percent.
On Thursday, Fairfax officials
announced they planned to tar get
these populations specifically. In
coming weeks, staffers will con-
duct family conferences with the
parents of every child in either
group who is earning D’s and/or
F’s. For the families of English-
learner children, these conferenc-
es will be conducted in that house-
hold’s native or primary language.
Fairfax also will work to ensure
English-learner students have ac-
cess to the Internet and will re-
quire that all teachers complete an
hour-long training — “Essential
Practices for English Learners” —
by Feb. 1.
In addition, case managers for
children with disabilities will
check in with students every two
weeks. For children in this group
who are earning D’s and F’s, case
managers will work to develop
“plans of support,” according to a
presentation prepared for the
meeting.
The twin developments in Lou-
doun and Fairfax come as corona-
virus cases and deaths continue to
spike dramatically nationwide
and in the Washington region. On
Thursday, coronavirus deaths in
D.C., Maryland and Virginia
passed 10,000, and the seven-day
average of new daily infections
rose to a record 6,989.
The new wave of cases spurred
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D)
to issue an expanded mask man-
date, place stricter limits on social
gatherings and impose a c urfew
asking people to stay home late at
night.
Also Thursday, the head of thealso disclosed a new grading pol-
icy that is to take effect in early
Januar y. The policy directs that
students cannot receive grades
lower than 50 percent, minimizes
the penalty allowed for late work,
says any one assignment can
count for at maximum 20 percent
of a student’s final grade and re-
duces the minimum number of
assignments per class per quarter
from nine to six.
Fairfax is further examining
how it can offer greater “flexibili-
ty” regarding end-of-year exami-
nations and grades, Chief Aca-
demic Officer Sloan Presidio said
at the meeting, and the district
plans to enhance its summer-
school offerings to help students
catch up.
These grading changes have
come as a direct response to a
worrying report, released by Fair-
fax last month, that found failing
grades had risen dramatically in
the era of online learning: The
percentage of middle school and
high school students earning F’s in
at least two cl asses jumped by
83 percent, from 6 p ercent of those
students to 11 percent. That meant
close to 10,000 children earned at
least two F’s, an increase of more
than 4,300 students from this
time last year.
Presidio called the percentage
of F grades highly concerning,
adding that anecdotal evidence
also suggests children are strug-
gling.
“We continue to hear from our
students [who] have concerns
about the impacts of grades on
their future... who feel discon-
nected from peers and teachers,”
Presidio said. “They feel overall
that as a school system, we’re not
doing enough to hear them, listen
to them and address their needs.”
And the district’s most vulner-
able students struggled most —abrupt backtracking will cause
chaos.
“We understand that this p roc-
ess is disruptive for families of
students who have been partici-
pating in hybrid in-person learn-
ing this fall,” Williams wrote. “The
safety and well-being of all stu-
dents, staff members, their fami-
lies and the community continues
to be our highest priority, and this
decision is being made consistent
with our commitment to achiev-
ing that objective.”
In Fairfax County, so far slightly
more than 5,000 children have
reentered classrooms; under the
tentative timeline discussed
Thursday, the rest of the student
body would begin heading back
on Jan. 12, with all who choose
face-to-face learning fully re-
turned by Feb. 2.
On Thursday, school officialshome hundreds of high-schoolers,
thousands of kindergartners
through fifth-graders, very young
children, students with disabili-
ties and English-as-a-second-lan-
guage students.
Some of that cohort benefited
from almost a full semester of
face -to-face instruction — t he ear-
liest returnees, 900 high-school-
ers at the Monroe Advanced Tech-
nical Academy, stepped back to
their buildings on Sept. 8. Others
returned over the course of Octo-
ber. But roughly 7,300 students
have been back in classrooms for
only about a week, having re-
sumed in-person schooling Dec. 1.
In a message to families an-
nouncing the switch, Loudoun
Schools Superintendent Eric Wil-
liams wrote that he recognizes the
SCHOOLS FROM B1
All Loudoun s tudents to
r eturn to o nline classes
BY JUSTIN WM. MOYER
A hotel that has been part of
Arlington’s skyline for nearly half
a century will be imploded Sun-
day morning to make way for
new development.
The Rosslyn Holiday Inn,
which closed this year, has stood
at 1900 Fort Myer Dr. near the
Key Bridge since 1972. With
views of Georgetown and the
Potomac River, among other
Washington landmarks, the 18-
story hotel, not subject to the
height limits across the river,
stood over the city for decades.
The demolition will make way
for new development approved
last year by the Arlington County
Board. Plans from Dittmar Co. —
which also built the existing
Holiday Inn building — include
more than 500 new residential
units, a conference center and a
new hotel.
Since the pandemic, Dittmar
has sought to decrease the proj-
ect’s number of hotel units and
increase its number of residen-
tial units, according to Matthew
Pfeiffer, principal planner for the
Arlington County Planning Divi-
sion. However, the overall size of
the planned project, called the
Key, remains the same.
“The developer feels pretty
confident they can lease up the
residential units — a lot less
confident about the hotel units,”
Pfeiffer said. “I think we all are
hoping that after the pandemic,
the market for hotels will recov-
er.”
Dittmar did not respond to
questions about the project’s
completion date.
Controlled Demolition, the
Maryland company that is han-
dling the implosion, did not
respond to a request for com-
ment. Information from the com-pany released through Arlington
County noted the advantages of
an implosion over other forms of
property deconstruction, partic-
ularly the use of hydraulic ham-
mers that “can produce weeks ormonths of pounding noise.”
“With implosion, surrounding
communities will experience lit-
tle or no impact during implo-
sion preparation or even during
the implosion itself, which takesplace in a m atter of seconds,” the
company said. “The actual noise
and ground vibration created
will be well below levels of
concern.”
Controlled Demolition said it
would establish an “exclusion
zone” near the hotel property to
protect the public during the
demolition. The company said
people nearby should avoid be-
ing outside at ground level, on
rooftops or balconies, or near
open windows during the implo-
sion.
Arlington County Police said
streets near the hotel will be
closed Sunday before the implo-
sion. No one should try to view
the implosion in person, county
officials said.
“There are no good viewing
areas available to the public,”
according to a county news re-
lease. “Members of the public are
encouraged to avoid the area and
watch local media coverage of
the implosion.”
The Virginia Department of
Transportation said it plans tohave a nearby traffic camera —
which spends most of its time
monitoring westbound Inter-
state 66 traffic — pointed at the
building as it tumbles.
As one Arlington hotel comes
down, another could follow. In
March, the Arlington County
Board approved the redevelop-
ment of the nearby Key Bridge
Marriott to make way for 300
apartments and more than 150
condominiums.
Pfeiffer said that building’s
fate, whether destruction by im-
plosion or otherwise, has not
been determined.
“Physically taking a building
apart takes a long time,” Pfeiffer
said. “Imploding a building takes
20 seconds.”
Police will begin closing near-
by roads about 6:30 a.m. Sunday.
Roads immediately adjacent to
the building will stay closed most
of the day, while others will open
around noon. I-66 will close in
both directions, beginning at
7:45 a.m., for about 45 minutes.
[email protected]VIRGINIA
Rosslyn’s Holiday Inn building to be imploded Sunday
MATT MCCLAIN/THE WASHINGTON POST
The former Holiday Inn hotel, seen Wednesday, stands near the
Key Bridge with views of Georgetown and the Potomac River.Demolition of hotel, built
in 1972, will make way
for new developmentBY PATRICIA SULLIVAN
In an act of what might be
considered historic poetic justice,
a panel of Arlington residents
wants to change the name of Lee
Highway, which honors Confed-
erate Gen. Robert E. Lee, to Mil-
dred and Richard Loving Avenue,
the couple who successfully chal-
lenged Virginia’s ban on interra-
cial marriage.
A county board-designated ad-
visory panel voted overwhelm-
ingly Wednesday night to support
the Loving name. Twenty-one of
the 25 board members made it
their first choice; their poll of
3,400 Arlingtonians showed 1,200
making it their first choice as well.
“There’s an emotive, a visceral
reaction to that name, and it gives
me chills,” said Anika Kwinana, a
member of the advisory group.
“When I mention it to people, it
draws a smile. It will also set a
precedent for all the other Robert
E. Lee [place] names.”
The Lee Highway Alliance, a
business and community group
that organized the working group
on renaming the highway, has
been discussing a name change
for three years, although it only
got down to work this past sum-
mer, said Ginger Brown, the alli-
ance’s executive director.
“The Loving name has both
Virginia and national impor-
tance,” she said, “and it encom-passes the idea of justice. It’s also
short, easy to spell and can be
used in branding for our business-
es. I think it’s a f antastic change.”
The renaming effort is part of a
movement that has spread across
Virginia and the South to recon-
sider the Confederate monikers
on roads, buildings, plazas and
statues. It was fueled by the 2015
deadly shooting by a white su-
premacist at a historic Black
church in Charleston, S.C. That
state subsequently decided to re-
move the Confederate ba ttle flag
from its Capitol grounds. The
movement gathered further mo-
mentum when protests erupted
nationwide after the death of
George Floyd in the custody of
Minneapolis police in May.
Over the past two years, Alex-
andria, Arlington and Prince Wil-
liam County have all turned Jef-
ferson Davis Highway, the road-
way once honoring the presidentof the Confederacy, into Rich-
mond Highway. In June, “Appo-
mattox,” the 131-year-old Confed-
erate statue that stood in the mid-
dle of Alexandria’s main artery,
was removed. And four of the five
Confederate figures that once
stood along Richmond’s Monu-
ment Avenue have come down.
Schools that once bore the names
of Confederates have been re-
named and a small, mostly White
town even erected a “Black Lives
Matter” banner.
Unlike in Richmond, where
some Monument Avenue resi-
dents objected to the felling of the
statues, residents along Arling-
ton’s Lee Highway don’t appear to
be attached to the name of their
street, Brown said. They have
been more concerned with revi-
talizing the retail and housing
mix, adding trees and reducing
traf fic congestion.
The panel will inform theCounty Board on Tuesday of its
recommendation for subsequent
approval, and then the recom-
mendation will head either to the
Commonwealth Transportation
Board or the Virginia General As-
sembly, who need to agree to the
change because Lee Highway is a
state route.
Just in case the county and
state boards disagree, the work-
ing group also offered other choic-
es, in this order: John M. Langs-
ton Boulevard, for an abolitionist
who became the first Black con-
gressman from Virginia; Ella Bak-
er Boulevard, for the civil rights
and human rights activist; Dr.
Edward T. Morton Avenue, for a
Black physician who lived along
the road and in 1931 was the first
African American to run for the
county board; and Main Street,
which several group members
warned could spark tensions with
other neighborhood groups who
consider their road arteries to be
Arlington’s “Main Street.”
The advisory group originally
came up with 20 names for Lee
Highway, but the community’s
preference was clear. Upon ques-
tioning from the panel, the county
staff said they’d prefer a name
that was no more than 15 charac-
ters long so that it would easily fit
on standard street signs, but the
group members noted that sev-
eral existing streets violate that
recommendation.
Several group members
praised all the choices as good
options — and Arlington resi-
dents may see some of them yet.
As resident and panelist Jim Todd
noted: “We still have to rename
Old Lee Highway.”
[email protected]VIRGINIAArlington is staging a role reversal for Lee Highway
BILL O’LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POST
An advisory group wants to honor Mildred and Richard Loving, the
couple who challenged the state’s interracial marriage ban.Advisory panel votes
to rename it for historic
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