All,

I share with you below my thinking about upcoming elections. As you might expect. my feelings are heavily driven by hopes for continued community use of the Wilson School and Playfields.

Special election for County Board. (Voting 6AM-7PM, on April 8, at our normal voting place, Rosslyn Firestation on Wilson Blvd)
At the RAFOM-NRCA candidate night on March 11, I asked about plans for Wilson School. The two strongest candidates (Alan Howze, John Vihstadt) both indicated some degree of support for continued public use of some portion of the site. John Vihstadt emphasized his recognition that the Rosslyn community needs, and does not, have adequate playspace. I’m inclined to support John for this reason. (I also like the fact that he is an outsider to the one party monopoly which has controlled Arlington for the last several decades.)
No hope from the other two candidates: Mr Holbrook used my question to declaim on teacher salaries; Ms. Murphy favored dense development at Wilson with ‘green roofs.’

School Board, Democratic Party caucus. Voting on Saturday May 17 at Washington and Lee HS, 11AM-7PM, (near the Central Library).
The Democratic Party of Arlington selects its nominee for School Board via a ‘caucus.’ Caucus voters must indicate that they expect to cast their general election vote for the caucus winner.
For those North Rosslyn residents who are ok with this process, I’d recommend that they vote for Barbara Kanninen*. Her long-standing position on Wilson School is that the School Board should try to use the facility for education, particularly given our current school capacity crisis. Here’s what she says on her website:
“Can we find new uses for older school and county buildings, such as the Wilson School, Lee Center, and Madison Center? These buildings seem like good possibilities for dealing with the imminent overcrowding in our middle schools. While they are smaller than our current middle schools, I'd like to think about identifying programs that might fit. As I discuss below, middle school is a challenging time, and smaller programs might be a positive way to deal with this challenging stage.”
http://www.barbarakforschoolboard.com/issues.php

Mark Antell,

*Greg Greeley and Nancy Van Doren will also be on the caucus ballot.