Sully District Council of Citizens Associations

The meeting was called to order by Council President Mark McConn at 7:00 PM.

The minutes for the November 2016 Sully District Council are available online.

Refer to the December agenda for meeting announcements.

• Follow us at @SullyDistrict!
• For transportation and related issues, follow the Sully District Transportation Advisory Commissioner at @SullyTAC

• Fairfax County Public Schools
Both school board members discussed FCPS Superintendent selection process in 2017; the new superintendent needs to develop a better budget process instead of the consistent back-and-forth with the Board of Supervisors annually. Some of the discussion focused on academic programs and the school board members stated that the board heavily depends on the staff expertise for new programs and books. They do not have time to review every program and book and make a professional judgment. Another issue was a new high school in Western Fairfax County in the future. Mr. Wilson stated the current demographics do not support a new costly high school.
• Upcoming items
• New superintendent
• New auditor
• New budget
• Revised CIP -- possible school boundary changes
• New superintendent
• Dr. Garza left for a position with Battelle corporation for a job that had national impact w/o being in the trenches.
• Use the superintendent qualification list for the last search -- tweak it if necessary rather starting from scratch -- don't reinvent the wheel
• Looking for someone with long term vision and financial health of system
• Are our teacher's benefits too rich or too little?
• Is there a tie to the community?
• We hire such excellent folks they tend to leave early -- possibly add a retention bonus
• Initial contact is a 4-year term
• Candidate should be familiar with performance audits
• Candidate should have a long-term budget picture rather than fighting yearly budget battles
• Current deputy superintendent who's interim superintended has indicated he doesn't want the superintendent's job for family reasons
• Population growth:
• Changing demographics -- more students with English as a non-primary tongue
• More students with higher needs - Fairfax has more higher-need students than Arlington has students
• CIP
• New high school in Western Fairfax -- unfunded (ten-year horizon) Westfield HS lost population
• Cohorts for grades 9,10 & 11 are the largest -- lower grade cohorts are smaller
• Budget
• 70% from real estate taxes
• 20% from state sources
• 10% from miscellaneous sources (federal, etc.)
• Technology
• Westfield and Chantilly HS pyramid students are issued laptops. School board is evaluating result -- risk of falling in love with technology. Most parents Tom interviewed thought the experience was positive.
• Why not eliminate school snow days -- log on from home -- do all student households have access to high-speed access? Will those hours meet state requirements for school hours?
• Are our state colleges happy with Fairfax County students?
• Teachers
• Golden handcuffs - once they're in the system it's hard for them to leave
• We are hiring quality teachers (signing bonuses)
• Curriculum
• Based on state's standards of learning -- handwriting no longer required

We have invited both FCDOT and VDOT
• Jeff Parnes - Sully District Transportation Advisory Commissioner

1. 7:00 -- Fairfax Forward
• Proponent: Meghan Van Dam, AICP, Chief, Policy and Plan Development Branch, Planning Division, Department of Planning and Zoning
• Action: SP 2016-SU-090
• Location: Countywide
• An evaluation of Fairfax Forward to look at how successful the process has been as a replacement to the Area Plans Review process
As you may recall, our comprehensive planning process Fairfax Forward has been undergoing an evaluation to look at how successful the process has been as a replacement to the Area Plans Review process. Two of the main concerns have been the amount of public engagement in the process and the amount of general understanding of the process. Staff has been working with the Planning Commission to draft proposed modifications to the process which bring back elements of the old APR process – namely, bring back a citizen nomination process for site-specific proposals. We would like to discuss these changes with the Sully community.
2. 7:45 -- Dominion Cove Point LNG, LP Eastern Market Access Project
• Proponent: Tim Sergeant, Dominion Virginia Power
• Action: FERC Request to re-wheel compressor
• Location: Pleasant Valley Compression Station
Impact of the Dominion Cove Point LNG, LP Eastern Market Access Project on Sully neighborhoods

Respectively submitted by

Jim Neighbors
Secretary
Sully District Council