Republican Joins Clerk Race
A Republican has announced his candidacy for the office of Clerk of the Circuit Court for Arlington County, an office that has been in Democratic hands for the better part of the last century.
Mark Kelly, a local lawyer and former Capitol Hill staffer, will be running for the Clerk’s position, which deals with court records and jury duty as well as land deeds and probate.
Kelly will be running against current Arlington County Board Chairman Paul Ferguson (D) who announced earlier this year that he would be stepping down from the Board to run for the Clerk of Court position.
The current Clerk of Court, David Bell (D), is retiring after more than 30 years in the position.
In a statement announcing his candidacy, Kelly said, if elected, he would conduct a review of the Clerk’s office to streamline its functions and would emphasize integrating new technology — including an upgraded Web site — to make the Clerk’s office more accessible to the people.
"Arlington voters deserve an alternative to one-party control of each and every constitutional office and they certainly deserve an alternative to Mr. Ferguson's track record in office," he said.
Kelly received his law degree from Regent University, founded by televangelist Pat Robertson, in 1996. He served in the office of former U.S. Rep. Jim Ryun (R-Kan.), who was defeated in 2006, for ten years and worked full-time on several of Ryun’s reelection campaigns.
Kelly and his wife Keirsten have lived in Arlington since 2000 with their three children.
School Board Member Honored
Arlington Public School Board Member Sally Baird will be honored during this year’s 32nd annual Capital Gay Pride Parade.
The Capital Pride Planning Committee said in a statement that it is honoring Baird, along with five others, for her "extraordinary efforts to bring full equality to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities."
Baird, who is openly gay, was elected to the School Board in last year’s elections. She was the first lesbian elected to public office in the history of Virginia.
Prior to her election to the School Board, Baird was active in the Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance and worked to organize Arlington’s homosexual families.
Baird will be recognized in the Capital Pride Parade in Washington on Saturday, June 9.
Newsweek Ranks Arlington Schools High
Three of Arlington’s four public high schools are in Newsweek Magazine’s list of the "100 Top High Schools in America."
H-B Woodlawn was ranked 12th in the nation, up from 13th in 2006 but down from 5th in 2005. Washington-Lee was ranked 31st and Yorktown was ranked 56th.
The three Arlington schools also accounted for three of the top four high schools in Virginia, according to the rankings.
In its May 21 issue Newsweek ranked the best high schools in the country according to a formula based on the number of college preparatory test takers at a school.
The formula takes the number of students who take Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests at a school and divides that number by amount of graduating seniors at the school.
Superintendent of Arlington Schools Dr. Robert Smith said in a statement that "Our administrators and teachers are committed to providing their students access to advanced learning opportunities through rigorous courses such as [Advanced Placement] and [International Baccalureate] classes along with the encouragement and assistance needed to ensure that students succeed and excel."
The May 21 Newsweek article and the complete list are available online at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8573372/site/newsweek/.
Send Father's Day Photos
Every year at this time, the Connection puts out the call for photographs of fathers and their children, grandfathers and their children and grandchildren.
Father’s Day is Sunday, June 17, and once again the Connection will publish a gallery of Father’s Day photos, celebrating the fathers who make so many things possible in families, communities, schools and other institutions in local neighborhoods.
Send in photos as soon as possible, including information about whom is in the picture, the date the picture was taken, the ages of the children and sentence or two about what is happening and where the photograph was taken. Be sure to include your town name and neighborhood.
We will do our best to return photos that include a self-addressed-stamped envelope for that purpose, but please do not send us any photos that cannot be replaced.
Send photos to The Connection, Father’s Day Photo Contest, 7913 Westpark Drive, McLean, VA 22102. Or e-mail them to photoArl@connectionnewspapers.com