Greetings All,
The end of the week has arrived with yet another touch of winter. Despite the mere thought of another weather scenario, this bout of snow was not bad at all. When arriving on campus this morning, I actually had to admire how beautiful the white capped landscape looked. In the interest of full disclosure, I am not an ardent snow lover, but the entire perspective was serene. It is always more palatable to admire post card perfect versus Ice Station Zebra if you get my drift.
The weekend building hours are posted below, but before I get to that please allow me to focus briefly on two local incidents that impacted our area during the past week. The first incident certainly struck a chord with me and I know many others. That incident involved the fatal shooting of Prince William County Police Officer Ashley Guindon during a violent domestic disturbance call. This tragedy was compounded by the fact that Officer Guindon was a rookie officer who was literally beginning her first hours on the street. I cannot tell you how heartbreaking that was to hear. She held degrees in aeronautical engineering and forensic science, so policing was certainly not a lone career option. Despite that fact, she chose to do a job that we can all recognize is becoming increasingly more difficult to do. There are many proud family ties to law enforcement throughout the Holton-Arms Community.
The second unfortunate event of the week involved a tragic accident right down the street from us on River Road. That accident resulted in the deaths of three members of the same family while leaving a fourth family member badly injured. In acknowledging that incident, we once again recognize the increasing challenge that continues to confront this entire metropolitan region. That issue observes rapid growth and development outpacing needed advances in infrastructures. More specifically with respect to River Road, we can see how the volume of traffic has grown on this major county thoroughfare over the years. That growth is only going to continue with potential development slated for the Westbard area. Holton-Arms remains actively engaged with community partners and stakeholders in assessing the impact of exterior traffic upon our campus. Hadley Gouldman '16 and the Upper School recently exhibited a true spirit of engagement in supporting a petition aimed at preventing such incidents. Please exercise caution on River Road, particularly in reference to navigating turns at places that are not controlled by traffic signals.
Our thoughts and condolences go out to all of those who have been impacted by these two tragedies.
The weekend building hours for March 5-6, 2016 are posted below. Please note that while the building will officially open at 7:00 a.m. on Saturday, security personnel will be on campus a bit earlier in support of SAT testing for that day. On behalf of all my good friends in the Facilities Department, I would like to wish all of my colleagues an enjoyable and safe weekend.
Thank you everyone and take care.
Ken
WEEKEND BUILDING HOURS FOR 3/4-5, 2016
Saturday, March 5th, 2016 - 7:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 6th, 2016- 10:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m.