New F.C. School Is Nearly Finished, But Reopening Next Week Unlikely | Falls Church News-Press Online

The new school will replace the old George Mason High School in Falls Church and will open in the next few weeks, but despite the recent announcement of a reopening plan, in-person learning is still not allowed.

Dr. Peter Noonan, the principal of the Falls Church Public School, visited the soon-to-be-completed facility to the news bulletin on Tuesday, showing a bright and open feeling, highlighting the compactness of Mason’s old buildings and the filthy nature of certain places.

"Opening a new school is inherently challenging," Noonan said. "But carrying out this work in the context of a pandemic makes the challenge even more daunting."

The new main entrance will have an old wall and pavilion on one side, and an international IB curriculum on the other side, with professionally completed graphics describing the history of the school system in detail. Behind the newly opened hall is the new theater, which has a stage that can accommodate 140 spectators and 600 spectators, and the rear projection lighting system used in Hamilton and other Broadway works.

Noonan hinted that the first performance in high school will be the misfortune and quirk we encountered when trying to communicate in the past 10 months.

The new stadium was completed during the News-Press tour, and Noonan said it can hold up to 1,500 people. Next to the large glass part of the back wall of the gym is a terrace area with views of the football field. Noonan hopes that the sports hall will one day be used as a graduation venue, allowing families to choose to hold a more intimate ceremony.

Core courses are held between the third and fifth floors. The lounge area is equipped with sofas, chairs and long tables to fill the gaps in the classroom. For example, there is an atrium on the third floor, which is a gathering area with many seats. Noonan suggested that the language and literature teacher Brian Walsh's classroom is located on the periphery of the atrium, and he might want to use this area as a class space to recreate scenes from the books they are reading.

On the ground, the black boxes of theater students are even equipped with simulated catwalks, so the production staff can get used to controlling the lights of the show. The wrestling room that was about to be completed and the spacious weight room were shrouded in the coolness of a new tunnel strike nearby leading to the football field.

Noonan said that the new school can accommodate 1,300-1,500 students, which is a significant growth space for the current 900 students. As there are redundant "unarranged rooms", the term of the school district mayor can be used, and this is not specifically designed for one person. Teacher or course, there is space. Noonan also said that if enrollment reaches a certain level, teachers can share classrooms during the break.

In the present and now, Falls Church school does not have to worry about admission challenges, because of the lack of FCCPS reopening, about 60 students have chosen home school. Noonan said that he expects more people, but believes that once the pandemic is over, the school system will rebound.

This goal seems to be farther away than some people expected.

Noonan announced a new reopening plan on December 29. The first group of special populations and English as a second language learners will return this Tuesday, and the second group of basic-age children (K-5) will return at 1 Come back on the 12th. The first group of middle and high school students (6-11 years old) will return on January 21. Seniors in the new high school will be allowed to return one week earlier than January 12.

But it all depends on whether the virus data is good. With 10% of Covid-19 tests positive in New York City, more than 200 new cases per 100,000 people, and a heavy burden of regional and local transmission, Noonan plans to issue another notice to ease expectations of reopening.

"From today's data, it is hard to believe that we can open next week," Noonan said on Tuesday. "We really think that given the extra time after the winter vacation... we don't think people will travel. And we assume that house prices in Falls Church will drop because people will urge it. But unfortunately, what we see Yes, the data for Falls Church is actually worse than before the break."

According to Noonan, even if measures are taken to mitigate the virus, teachers are afraid to come back again. However, infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci and other national leaders whose school system has been seeking guidance,

"If you look at the data, the spread between children and between children is not very large at all, as people might suspect."

Dr. Kevin Pham, a visiting health policy analyst from the Heritage Foundation’s conservative think tank, said that one of the surprising surprises of the pandemic is that schools, and more specifically young children, It has not been proven to be the main medium that caused the pandemic. disease.

He clarified that the community transmission data used by Falls Church schools is often related to the way the virus spreads in schools.

But Pan said that the spread of the coronavirus runs counter to what we usually think of schools as hot spots, especially because it is related to seasonal flu outbreaks.

Noonan himself pointed out that according to the data he checked, children under the age of 12 rarely spread or severely contract the virus. This is why the reopening plan is subdivided into cohorts so that schools can choose which groups of students are safe enough to return to face-to-face learning.

Although he does not believe that a complete school should be reopened as it did before the pandemic, Pam pointed out that no children going to school will affect their studies.

It is said that once the June school year ends, students will lose an average of 5 to 9 months of study time. Pham believes that perhaps the worst part is that the virus has caused the school system to change its focus.

Pam said: "Usually, adults will take on the responsibility of maintaining social security." "However, in the case of school closures, we let our children bear the responsibility of protecting the safety of our adults. That is really unfair. of."