Things You Find Odd About NoVA (Fairfax: insurance, attorneys, schools)

[ACWhite]

How much people love their professional football team, even though it doesn't win that many games, year after year.

[JD984]

Originally Posted by Yankeesfan

FCPS at some point decided that new schools would be named after women or minorities, or else something geographic. Whether the policy was official or just "understood," I don't know.

FCPS does some bone-headed things at times, but as far as I'm aware adopting an "official" moratorium on naming schools after DWMs is not among them.

Montgomery County loves to name its new schools after people who are still alive, which always struck me as a bit premature (though we do have Colin Powell ES in Fairfax). They'll probably open Sotomayor ES and Kagan MS next year!

[Tiger Beer]

Originally Posted by wsamon

The requirements to get into section 8 / income restricted housing differs in each city. In the DC area, the income limit is actually quite high and stretches into what most areas of the country would consider a decent middle-class wage. In Alexandria City, I think that you qualify if you're a single person making $45k or less, or a family of four that makes $64k or less. So it's very possible that someone with schooling that is either just starting out or in a lower-paying career could still qualify. It's also not a free pass. It's just cheaper, subsidized housing. You still have to pay, and it's still expensive in this area relative to many other areas of the US. I really don't understand how people like janitors and bus-drivers live around here...

That is high. But I guess you have to make some kind of residency commitment to qualify. Like a year in the area, and than if still low paid, you can get your name 'on the list', and maybe 5 years later? something like that?

I'm just guessing from that very little I know about Section 8 / income restricted housing. Is that about right?

[Yankeesfan]

Originally Posted by Jesco White

I think it's odd how many places in New England are named after old english towns or places. How could anyone name something after a country that tried to brutally repress and tax our colonies to death.

Actually that's the policy in Kingstowne! If you drive through and look at street signs or check out a map you'll see it.

[wsamon]

Originally Posted by Tiger Beer

That is high. But I guess you have to make some kind of residency commitment to qualify. Like a year in the area, and than if still low paid, you can get your name 'on the list', and maybe 5 years later? something like that?

I'm just guessing from that very little I know about Section 8 / income restricted housing. Is that about right?

I don't really know how it works. Thankfully I made more than that as soon as I started my first job after college I just remembered seeing the numbers when I was apartment hunting and then looked them up today.

[stpickrell]

Originally Posted by Nas Escobar

The name "Fairfax" Is applied to a county but the namesake city Fairfax does NOT belong to Fairfax County and operates as a separate city with higher taxes, even though the city is smaller than Arlington and in theory belongs to the county as every public building for Fairfax County's government is in the City Of Fairfax.

Northern Virginia Property Tax Rates by Local Jurisdiction for 2010-2011 | Virginia Real Estate News

Fairfax City has a residential tax rate of $0.96, while the county has $1.105 (counting the stormwater fee).

[novaslasher]

I think its odd how Fairfax schools have half days every Monday for teacher planning/prep. In Houston, I never saw this happen. Teachers there are given a free period during the day for planning and meetings. Usually, at that time the students leave the class for art, library period, gym or music.

I don't have any kids, but I imagine this must be a great inconvenience for modern day families. I mean, its probably not a big deal for those with stay-at-home parents, but how common are stay at home parents nowadays? It seems like quite an added hassle/expense for working families.

I wonder if this is just a strange regional tradition or a result of a powerful teachers union?

[CaliTerp07]

Originally Posted by novaslasher

I think its odd how Fairfax schools have half days every Monday for teacher planning/prep. In Houston, I never saw this happen. Teachers there are given a free period during the day for planning and meetings. Usually, at that time the students leave the class for art, library period, gym or music.

I don't have any kids, but I imagine this must be a great inconvenience for modern day families. I mean, its probably not a big deal for those with stay-at-home parents, but how common are stay at home parents nowadays? It seems like quite an added hassle/expense for working families.

I wonder if this is just a strange regional tradition or a result of a powerful teachers union?

It's only the elementary schools that do it (and I'm not even sure if it's all elementary schools). The idea is to give teachers a solid block of prep time to get stuff taken care of, vs. 20 minutes every day. I know that personally, I am much more productive with 2 hours to accomplish a bunch of tasks as opposed to 10 minutes here, 30 minutes there. They make up for it with slightly longer days the other 4 days.

I agree that it's unique though--I'd never heard of it before either. My elementary schools in California did have class dismiss 30 minutes early on Thursdays for weekly staff meetings, but 2:00 vs 2:30 isn't much of an issue.

Parents--is the 2 hours that big of a deal? I'm guessing kids from dual income families probably go to after school care each day anyway, since not too many parents can get off work at 3 to go pick up their kids, so it just juggles where the hours in day care are spent each week--but it's still the same block of time.

[TripleH1978]

Originally Posted by novaslasher

I think its odd how Fairfax schools have half days every Monday for teacher planning/prep. In Houston, I never saw this happen. Teachers there are given a free period during the day for planning and meetings. Usually, at that time the students leave the class for art, library period, gym or music.

I don't have any kids, but I imagine this must be a great inconvenience for modern day families. I mean, its probably not a big deal for those with stay-at-home parents, but how common are stay at home parents nowadays? It seems like quite an added hassle/expense for working families.

I wonder if this is just a strange regional tradition or a result of a powerful teachers union?

In Jacksonville (Duval County), Florida the elementary schools have half days every Wednesday. My friend is a 4th grade teacher, but also "teaches" extended day. She doesn't get the benefit of the half-day because the children that are in the extended day program are sent to her class room for supervision. In essence, she gets more work since she has to plan for her class AND for her extended day students.

So, it's something that is done elsewhere - but it never made sense to me either.

[Alicia Bradley]

Originally Posted by stpickrell

Northern Virginia Property Tax Rates by Local Jurisdiction for 2010-2011 | Virginia Real Estate News

Fairfax City has a residential tax rate of $0.96, while the county has $1.105 (counting the stormwater fee).

Thanks stpickrell. Not only does Fairfax City have *lower* property taxes than the county (and is incidentally not part of the county, unlike, say, Vienna (Town), where residents must pay double taxes [still, though, I'd do it]), they do all sorts of neat stuff that I pretty much took for granted before I moved to unincorporated Fairfax Co. three years ago: trash, snow, landscaping (of public areas), historic society, festivals, etc.