High school students are losing valuable time during their education because they’re tired, according to Benjamin Kim, a student representative on the Prince William County School Board.
Kim pushed for a later start time for high schoolers at the January 22 county School Board meeting. He cited both California and neighboring Fairfax County which both mandate schools begin classes after 8 a.m., he said.
“It’s time to put a foot down and give students a better education — and it starts with later start times,” said Kim. “Science and logic says that it’s better.”
Generally, Prince William County high school students are in session from 7:30 a.m. to 2:10 p.m. Monday through Friday. Kim says that early start times would lead to increased academic performance, better student wellbeing, and would make students safer drivers on area roads.
Kim is also seeking a mental health day for students in the county, where students may take excused absences for the betterment of their mental well being. The Montgomery County, Va. school district voted to implement a such a policy last fall.
“Students struggling with mental health sometimes need a day off,” said Kim.
Kim says he has spoken to counselors at his school and students and they said mental health days would be positive. To combat abuses, the number of mental health days students could take would be capped to prevent students from using them as skip days.
Kim, who attends Stonewall Jackson High School near Manassas, is one of there non-voting members of the Prince William County School Board for the 2019-2020 school year.
Traffic is moving again on Prince William Street in Manassas.
The project that began in late 2018, to widen the two-lane street, install new curb and gutter along the street to handle stormwater, and to add new bike lanes and a new sidewalk is finally complete.
“Don’t avoid it anymore. Use it,’ exclaimed Mayor Hal Parrish II, referring to the street that links Grant Avenue to Wellington Road.
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At about 10 square miles, Manassas isn’t a large city. And when it comes to the available on which to build, there’s not much left.
At Monday night’s City Council meeting, this fact was highlighted as city leaders reviewed the Manassas Comprehensive Plan, a document that will outline and guide development in the city of the next 20 years.
While much of the attention has been placed on the city’s downtown area, formerly known as Old Town before a 2015 rebranding effort by the city government, one resident says a piece of land between the city’s famed railroad tracks and Liberia Avenue, an industrial corridor, is ripe for development.
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Business in Manassas is looking up, according to the city’s economic development director.
In fact, there are more jobs available right now in the city than there are people to fill them. “The city is prosperous,” said city economic development director Patrick Small during a city council meeting on Monday, January 27.
Small provided his annual report to the council.
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As Manassas Park considers getting out, its residents are urging it to stay in.
City residents were asked to weigh in on the Prince William Public Library System, of which the city is a member, recently courtesy of a survey from the Manassas Park Community Center.
The survey comes as it, and its neighboring city of Manassas, is considering learning the PrincE William County Library System and striking out on their own. That would end a years-long shared services agreement where both cities agreed to pay the county's library system so its residents could check out books and materials, and to use the facilities.
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Peter and Michelle Fisher tied the knot on December 13 at a private ceremony at the Prince William County Courthouse in Manassas.
The couple then honeymooned at a rather unusual location: two of the Habitat for Humanity Prince William County ReStore locations.
“…We went to Habitat for a Habitat honeymoon,” Michelle told me. The couple visited both the Manassas and Woodbridge locations on their Habitat honeymoon.
Michelle runs a property management and restoration business, “Serenity Homes and Solutions,” which often takes her to Habitat for Humanity to scout for furniture. Peter often accompanies her to help get furniture and move it into her clients’ homes, so the setting for a honeymoon made perfect sense for the couple.
“…it’s kind of our thing,” Michelle told me.
Peter has been in the Manassas area for over eight years, and Michelle has been here for one year.
Michelle says she always liked doing crafts and “Pinterest stuff,” and had always wanted to get started in the rental business. She moved to the Baltimore area, drawn there due to its high levels of poverty and people who needed help, she said.
Michelle soon fell in love with the idea of helping families who need help. Now, “…it’s like we have an extended family out there.” Michelle said about the Baltimore area.
For Michelle, it’s not all about rentals. If any of her clients need help with a birthday party, Michelle and Pater bring a shaved ice and popcorn maker to help the celebration.
“It’s just really fun and I love it,” Michelle said.
Peter has a fulltime job at the Department of Defense and helps Michelle with her work on the weekends.
Michelle and Peter had been friends for about 10 years, and their relationship “just kind of blossomed,” Michelle said.
The couple eloped due to “The stress of the idea [of a wedding],” Michelle said. They plan to have a church ceremony eventually.
So on a rainy Friday, the couple went up to the courthouse with no guests and tied the knot. “We kinda giggled,” Michelle said.
Peter had just proposed the Friday before.
The honeymoon afterward? That was “spur of the moment,” Michelle said.
Through their dating, they would always look at things for houses to help families – Michelle said a lot of her clients are low income. So, she and Peter would go to thrift stores, Habitat for Humanity stores, and loading docks to look for furniture.
So right after their courthouse wedding, Michelle said, “I think we need to go to Habitat.”
“It’s our thing to do,” Michelle said. She said she and Peter had recently helped get a family into a property that didn’t have anything, so they provided them with items from Habitat for Humanity.
“That’s us at our core- helping the families in Baltimore,” Michelle said.
City officials continue their push for donations for a Jennie Deane bronze memorial statue.
Manassas Councilwoman Michelle Davis-Younger said the city has raised $129,000 in the effort to revitalize Jennie Dean Memorial Park, outside the elementary school of the same name on Wellington Road. A total of $175,000 is needed for the project.
A statue of Dean was originally slated to be installed last year if the project met its fundraising goals, marking the 126th anniversary of post-Civil War industrial school that Dean founded for African-Americans in what today is Manassas City, in 1893. Born into slavery in 1852, Dean is remembered for championing education for black Prince William County residents in the dark times following the Civil War.
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Prince William County leaders have heard enough.
They and decided the Board of County Supervisors won’t hold a meeting on January 21 to take up the topic of gun control and mental health.
With a motion by Neabsco District Supervisor Victor Angry and seconded by Brenstsville District Supervisor Jeanine Lawson, the Board voted unanimously to table the resolution that urged lawmakers in Richmond to pass a red flag law and provide more money for mental health treatment.
The red flag law would allow a judge to temporarily remove a person’s rights to bear arms if the judge deemed the person was a threat to themselves or others. As for the mental health needs, many Prince William police officers, as well as law enforcement officers across the state are spending more of their working hours declining with cases of mental illness.
Authorities say it’s taking cops off the street and away from patrol duties.
The move comes just one week after a hotly contentious meeting at the Prince William Board of County Supervisors when the resolution was proposed. Hundreds of Second Amendment rights advocates packed what was the first meeting of the year for the Board and gave more than four hours of testimony, urging Supervisors not to pass the resolution.
It was not only the first meeting of the New Year but also under the leadership of Chair, At-large Ann Wheeler, who introduced the resolution.
“Last week was a very hot topic,” Angry said. “It was very challenging at times.”
Last month, the Prince William Board of County Supervisors under former Chairman At-large Corey Stewart passed a resolution declaring the Prince William a “constitutional” county where the right to bear arms would be protected as outlined in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The NRA is planning a lobbying day in Richmond on January 20 when tens of thousands are expected to descend onto the state capitol urging lawmakers to toss out bills introduced by Democrats vying for tougher gun restrictions.
At the capitol on Monday, four gun bills advanced in committee, such as the one-gun-per-month purchase limit, universal firearm background checks, and a red flag law that Prince William Supervisors were calling for.
Senate Bill 16, filed by Falls Church Senator Dick Saslaw, banning the sale and possession of assault rifles in the state was stricken from the record at the request of the senator.
Visitors to the Landing at Cannon Branch will need a place to park their cars once a new office building opens. A new lease approved Monday by the City Council will see to that.
The council approved a five-year lease with Buchanan Partners, so it can build 70 parking spaces on a piece of land that’s about the size of four-acres, where a new 20,000 square foot office and retail building is going up.
Buchanan will pay the city $10 a year for the property, and the parking spaces will be used by anyone who visits the development. In addition to retail and office space, the new development is also home to apartments and townhouses.
