Publications by John Toler

In an “Open Letter” written April 24, Ed Hatrick, Superintendent of Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) wrote” Let me start by saying I have no intention of resigning this position.” Hatrick’s letter was issued in response to a request for his resignation from the Loudoun County Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). To date three letters have been distributed to news outlets regarding Hatrick, minority achievements and hiring practices in LCPS. The Loudoun Branch Executive Committee NAACP initiated the public dialogue with an April 21 letter calling for Hatrick’s resignation, followed by a letter from the Executive Board of the Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee (MSAAC), which countered the NAACP letter and rejected the call for Hatrick’s resignation, and finally Hatrick’s April 24 letter.

Three years after it was started, Loudoun County’s Check Enforcement Program has brought in more than $198,000, recovered in the form of restitution to victims of bad check writing. “We continue to receive positive feedback from the business community on this Program and our expectations are being met consistently each year,” said Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Plowman of the program, which he instituted in February 2006. “This past year we saw the use of the program take off as, the number of checks submitted in 2008 nearly doubled from prior years,” he added.

Although Loudoun County officials had been studying ways to address the issue of domestic violence since the mid-1990s, it wasn’t until 2004 that administrative staff began work on a plan to create a multi-agency Domestic Abuse Response Team (DART), as part of its Domestic Violence Project. 

Drivers on the roads around Dulles International Airport see signs for Willard Road off of U.S. 50 and Route 28, but few know much about the village of Willard that existed from 1900 until 1960. That’s because it’s completely gone, buried beneath the southern end of the central runway at Dulles.

Candidates is spending the 10 weeks between April 1 and June 13 raising money and awareness for and about blood cancers. The male and female candidate who raises the most money will win the local title and go on to compete for national honors. Money raised benefits LLS's mission to cure blood cancers, and to improve the quality of life for patients and their families.

The $2 million Neighborhood Stabilization Program grant received by Loudoun County on April 6 actually originated in July 2008, as part of the $4 billion Housing Recovery Act (HERA). The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development developed guidelines to implement the NSP, and states were required to apply community Development Block Grant rules as a model for the program’s eligibility requirements. Communities that acted quickly were the first considered.

This spring, pedestrians and cyclists may experience safer crossings at two mid-block bike trail crossings in Loudoun County after the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) installs zigzag pavement markings in high traffic areas to get motorists to slow down.