Woodbridge resident Tomika Anderson has come up with a way to reach out to single parents who need support, or ideas to school their children.
The pandemic has proven challenging enough for parents who have to stay home to teach their children or to monitor their children’s virtual assignments, but what are single parents supposed to do?
Seven years ago, Woodbridge native Tomika Anderson founded a single parent traveling Facebook group Single Parents Who Travel that has now pivoted to also helping single parents with the schooling aspects during a pandemic. The group has nearly 7,580 members, with members around the world from the Philippines to Zimbabwe.
Members in the group have started meeting outside of the group as well, and next summer will have their third annual trip where they hope to go to Cancun.
But now that the pandemic has affected travel, she’s found ways to pivot to address the needs of her members coping with the challenges of COVID-19. She is finding ways to help parents educate their kids by tapping into her own parent’s wisdom, including the idea of “Grammy School”.
“My mother came up with the idea. My son calls her Grammy, thus the name. She volunteered to teach my son this year and in talking to some of her other educator friends / fellow grandparents they decided to support each other through teaching each other’s grandkids as well, whether providing information, support or other resources,” Anderson states in an email to Potomac Local.
Tomika Anderson’s parents, Regina and Gary both taught in Prince William County Schools. Gary Anderson was most recently a principal at Graham Park Middle School in Triangle and was also a guidance counselor at Potomac High School, Garfield High School Woodbridge.
Her mother was also a teacher who trained teachers at multiple schools including Leesylvania Elementary School in Woodbridge.
“Though my parents have long been retired they substitute teach and volunteer in multiple schools across Woodbridge each year to include Leesylvania and Mary G. Porter,” Anderson said in an email to Potomac Local. “Basically my parents are an educational dream team,” Anderson added.
Tomika’s parents are now helping to educate her son Solomon, who is seven years old. Her mom has a whole “posse” of former educators, both inside and outside Prince William County, who have been discussing how to help support their grandchildren during this time.
Not everyone has an involved grandparent, so Tomika said the group has also been having Facebook Lives with parents and problem-solving with members, including those with jobs like nurses to epidemiologists to school administrators.
They had a recent Facebook Live chat with mothers and fathers from as far away as the Netherlands, discussing what they’re doing and what it looks like for their children, and some were even able to tell the others how virtual learning was already going in their state or country.
If a single parent doesn’t have a grandparent, “We definitely have some pods that have just formed,” Anderson said, where kids who are in similar grades and in close towns who work out of one parent’s home. She also said that having honest discussions with employers is also an option.
Tomika, who is black, said that there are often bad connotations to being a single parent. The goal is to create a “new narrative” around what a single parent is.
“…to empower single parents to effectively put the proverbial masks on themselves first so they can provide the best possible support for their kids — during COVID and beyond. Our kids are only as “good” as mom and/or dad are. It’s also to provide the village we all so desperately need – in real life, whether in person or online. It’s also to change the narrative of what it is to be a single parent — we are not to be pitied or looked down upon. We are real-life superheroes, especially now!” Anderson said.
Osbourn Park graduate Thumay Huynh was awarded $5,000 through Diabetes Scholars, a program of the nonprofit organization Beyond Type 1.
She will attend the University of Virginia and plans to study computer science with a minor in business.Â
Huynh was born in Worcester, Mass. Fer family moved to Manassas when she was 4-years-old, where she has lived ever since.
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Hispanics in Manassas, much like the rest of the U.S., have a high prevalence of coronavirus cases.
After partnering with the CDC to conduct a survey of potential coronavirus patients, Prince William Health District Director Dr. Alison Ansher told the Manassas City Council on July 27 that many city residents have been hit hard by the pandemic.Â
Coronavirus case numbers from neighboring Prince William County illustrate the problem. Nearly 5,000 Hispanics have contracted the disease, and 65 have died.
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Police in Manassas adopted "8 Can't Wait" reform guidelines meant to serve as principles in communities across the U.S.
On Monday, July 27, city police chief Douglas Keen addressed City Council before it adopted a resolution “to acknowledge that the City of Manassas, Virginia supports the 21st century policing principles and participation in the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies accreditation process so that the City of Manassas Police Department remains a model agency for modern policing in the Commonwealth of Virginia.”
The proclamation comes as the police department received began its reaccreditation process in June. It's a process the department goes through every four years.
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Manassas leaders did not endorse a plan to build a bypass around the city.
Despite the urging of Mayor Hal Parrish II, the city council deferred a vote on whether or not to support the new road that would create a new pathway to drivers to access heavily-congested Route 28 until its next meeting on August 27 — after Prince William County leaders have their say at an upcoming meeting on August 4.
The controversial bypass road would be built from the intersection of Godwin Drive near Prince William Medical Center, through an open tract of wetlands, connecting with Route 28 in Fairfax County. A total of 54 homes would be demolished to make way for a road that many say will do little to alleviate traffic congestion for Manassas residents, and would instead provide a more direct route to Interstate 66 for those commuting from the Linton Hall Road corridor in Prince William County, as well from Fauquier and Stafford counties.
Supporters of the bypass, to include the Prince William Chamber of Commerce, say something needs to be done to alleviate traffic on Route 28 between Liberia Avenue in Manassas and I-66 — the most congested stretch of road in Northern Virginia. The majority of the $300 million road would be funded by a bond Prince William County voters approved last year.
Former Prince William Coles District Supervisor Marty Nohe spearheaded the bypass project when he served as the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority Chairman before he was defeated in an election last fall. Parrish, who is retiring later this year, served with Nohe on the transportation authority.
“I’m mindful of this project that has been working its way through the process for many years. And the people of Prince William, (and) frankly Manassas, Manassas Park, and Northern Virginia, are looking for solutions,” said Parrish.
Current Prince William Coles District Supervisor Yesli Vega put the brakes on the road project earlier this month when she requested more time to speak with residents whose homes could be demolished as part of the project. The Prince William Board of County Supervisors is set to take up the measure again at its upcoming meeting on August 4.
As of Thursday, July 30, Vega told Potomac Local News she still unsure where she stands on the project.
The Prince William County Transportation Department is seeking approval from supervisors to vote in favor of asking the transportation authority for about $90 million it has earmarked for a study that will determine how the future roadway could affect the wetlands in the area. The Army Corps of Engineers would need to review the study once completed, and has the ultimate say as to whether or not the project could proceed.
Manassas City Councilwoman Pamela Sebesky said the city needs to wait for the Board of County Supervisors to make a decision before it can weigh in.
“I think it’s presumptive of us a council to not allow them to make that decision and then support what the Board of County Supervisors’ decision will be in the near future,” Sebesky said.
“My sense is, as I have said, that this council needs to stand up and vote for transportation instead of slowing it down,” Parrish said.
The resolution to support the bypass died on the table.
“OK. You all are awfully quiet. I suspect you had a conversation about this beforehand as to what to do.”
Manassas City leaders will consider giving their mayor a say.
A public hearing to discuss whether or not the city's mayor should have a vote is expected to be announced soon. Historically, the mayor has cast a vote only to play the role of a tie-breaker in the instance the council is deadlocked on an issue.
If approved, the measure would give more political power to the political party to which the respective mayor belongs. Mayor Hal Parrish, II, a Republican who has on the city council since 1993 and city mayor since 2008, will not seek re-election in the November 3 General Election.
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Two popular baseball fields in Manassas will soon be paved over to make way to more parking for the city's largest employer, Micron.
Micron will pay for the construction of the parking lot that will replace two of eight fields at the E.G. Smith Baseball Complex at the corner of Route 28 and Godwin Drive, and will also build an equipment shed for use by the Greater Manassas Baseball League.
On June 3, Manassas Director of Community Development Liz Via-Gossman, during a city council meeting, told officials the EG Smith Baseball Complex in the City and how they will need to be eventually replaced.
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Manassas is beginning to spend the CARES Act money received from the Federal Government in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
At a June 22 meeting of the City Council meeting, officials unanimously approved $1 million in CARES Act federal grant revenue to recoup pandemic-related costs borne by Manassas City Schools. Andy Hawkins, the executive director of finance and operations for the city
public Schools told the council that the money would be a much-needed boost to the school system.
The funding is broad, Hawkins said, but it would cover expenditures like cleaning the schools and facilities, although he said it would primarily be to help families and students to access the internet and have high-quality functioning service to their home so they can participate in virtual instruction.
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Manassas citizens will have the chance to vote to select three out of four Democrats running for City Council in a June 23 Primary.
Polls in the city will open at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m.
The vote will occur before they head to the general election in November. There are four candidates, including the incumbents Mark Wolfe and Vice Mayor Pamela Sebesky.
