Metro Tragedy Hits Home for Alexandrians
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WWW.ALEXTIMES.COM JANUARY 22, 2015 | 1 Vol. 11, No. 4 Alexandria’s only independent hometown newspaper JANUARY 22, 2015 Metro tragedy hits home Local students share their experience of the L’Enfant for Alexandrians Plaza incident BY SUSAN HALE THOMAS “There’s smoke in the tun- ple started coughing, and it was nel,” the conductor announced. getting worse. … He kept say- Around 3:14 p.m. last Tues- “Remain calm. We’re going to ing stay calm and there was no day, their Yellow Line train be headed back to the platform fire. But, the train was filling came to a stop in the tunnel in just a second.” with smoke. between the L’Enfant Plaza “He kept saying that over “He kept telling us not to Metrorail station and the bridge and over again,” said Joey open the doors and we would over the Potomac River. Peterson, a Gonzaga College be going back to the platform, FILE PHOTO The boys, on their way High School sophomore. Pe- but we had to wait for clear- Citing growing enrollment and a need to remain competitive with other home from school, thought it terson was with six classmates ance [because] there was a jurisdictions on teacher salaries, Alexandria Schools Superintendent was just a delay, something Alvin Crawley proposed a $260.5 million budget for fiscal 2016 last heading home to Alexandria train behind us at the station. week, a 2.5 percent increase over last year’s appropriation. Metro riders are accustomed after a long day of school. They were trying to get that to. Then they noticed smoke “Eventually it got harder train out of the way. People outside the train. and harder to breathe,” the Crawley proposes $260.5 Something was wrong. 16-year-old student said. “Peo- SEE METRO | 6 million schools budget Proposal requests sibility to ask for what the additional $9.2 million school division needs,” he from city council said. “And certainly one of the major drivers in the $9.2 BY SUSAN HALE THOMAS million, is the $4.6 million as- Alexandria City Public sociated with the compensa- Schools Superintendent Alvin tion step increase, given our Crawley presented a $260.5 teachers have not had a step million fiscal 2016 budget increase since 2012.” to the city school board last City Councilor Justin Wil- week, a 2.5 percent increase son said it is unsurprising from 2015’s $252.8 million that ACPS are requesting the approved figure. funds, but that the city still Crawley said ACPS will faces a number of difficult de- ask the City of Alexandria cisions about how to allocate for an extra $9.2 million — its limited resources. the city is facing its own $16 “We are expecting $4 to million budget deficit — over 5 million in new revenue for last year’s $191.8 million the whole city,” he said. “On city contribution to help pay top of [ACPS], Metro is ask- for teachers’ first pay raise in ing for $5 million, the police three years. The proposal is a are asking for something in COURTESY PHOTO 4.8 percent increase over last the range of $2 million and Alexandria resident Joey Peterson, 16, was on his way home from school in D.C. last week when his train year’s funding request. stopped outside of the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station and filled with smoke. The smoke killed another Alex- andrian, Carol Glover, and left Peterson and his friends terrified. “I think I have a respon- SEE SCHOOLS | 7 SEE CARTOONIST | 6 2 | JANUARY 22, 2015 ALEXANDRIA TIMES Christine Roland Garner I Sell More Because I Do More! Celebrating 25 Years Celebrating 25 Years ince Celebrating 25 Years Since 1988 Since 1988 The Time To Sell Is Now. Let Me Put My 25+ Years of Experience to Work for You! The Time To Sell Is Now. Let Me Put My 25+ Years of Experience to Work for You! 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