xxxx xx May the year ahead INSIDE: Louise Archer Elementary to get a makeover • Page 5 hold nothing but happy surprises! Thanks to everyone who has helped us through 2020. 3 11 16 We appreciate your Q&A: FLINT HILL MCC HOSTS HOOPS SEASON business! HEADMASTER REVAMPED EXPECTED TO ANNOUNCES HOLIDAY FINALLY START Sun PLAN TO DEPART CELEBRATION THIS WEEK Gazette Sun Gazette GREAT FALLS McLEAN OAKTON TYSONS VIENNA VOLUME 42 NO. 11 DECEMBER 24-30, 2020 Homes Market Is Ending Year Favoring Sellers In Boost to Buyers, However, More Homes Coming Across Market in Region As crazy as 2020 has been in oth- homeowners opting to cash in on seven different offers for one client of Realtors (NVAR) and principal FAIRFAX HOME er respects, the local real-estate mar- sales prices that spiral ever higher), in the $400K range before winning broker of CR Copeland Real Estate SALES SOLID IN ket will be ending 2020 as it began: the sheer number of sales in the area out the eighth offer during the brief in Fairfax. NOVEMBER AS favoring sellers. is keeping buyers on their toes, ready Thanksgiving break,” said Reggie NVAR CEO Ryan McLaughlin PRICES REACH Despite an increase in avail- to make a move. Copeland, secretary-treasurer of NEW HEIGHTS. able inventory (owing, in part, to “I personally wrote a total of the Northern Virginia Association Continued on Page 19 – Page 8 A HOLIDAY TRADITION FOR THE COMMUNITY The McLean stake of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which includes the Arlington congregation, held a Living Nativity on Dec. 11-12, drawing thousands who drove by in a new arrangement necessitated by the COVID pandemic. Israel, Elias and Hyrum Painchaud portray Wise Men. See a story and more photos on Page 4, and a slide show of photos at https:// sungazette.news/photos. VIRGINIA PAYNE PHOTOGRAPHY ONLINE https://sungazette.news l On Facebook: sungazettenews l On Twitter: @sungazettenews @sungazettespts Local Postal Customer Postal Local GET A $10 BONUS CARD GET A $25 BONUS CARD Order online at for every $50 Gift Card Purchase!* for every $100 Gift Card Purchase!* glorydaysgrill.com/gifts PERMIT NO. 260 NO. PERMIT EASTON, MD EASTON, PAID Free shipping witih online gift card purchases until 12/31/20 totaling $100 or more. U.S. POSTAGE U.S. PRSRT STD PRSRT *Bonus card valid for future visits between 1/1/21-2/28/21. Available at VA, MD, NC and WV restaurants for a limited time. Order in store or online. “Since losing my mother to pancreatic cancer, my goal has been to ensure that everyone facing a pancreatic cancer diagnosis knows about the option of clinical trials and the progress being made.” -Keesha Sharp Photo By Brett Erickson Stand Up To Cancer and Lustgarten Foundation are working together to make every person diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a long-term survivor. To learn more about the latest research, including clinical trials that may be right for you or a loved one, visit PancreaticCancerCollective.org. Stand Up To Cancer is a division of the Entertainment Industry Foundation (EIF), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. 2 December 24, 2020 sungazette.news 1 SU2C_Lustgarten_KeeshaSharp_PSA_9.5x13_4C_NSP.indd Saved at 12-11-2020 4:04 PM from Aubrie’s MacBook Pro by Work Baby / Work Baby Printed At None Job info Approvals Fonts & Images Job 14439 Keesha Sharp Art Director None Fonts Client SU2C Copywriter None Minion Pro (Regular), Surt (Regular, Bold, Media Type Newspaper Account Mgr E. Whitaker Light), Adobe Handwriting (Ernie), Bendix Live None Studio Artist A. Jeffry (Regular), Livingston Demo (Signature), May Trim 9.5" x 13" Proofreader M. Miller Queen (Regular) Bleed None Pubs None Notes Images Pancreatic_Cancer_Collective_SU2C_Lust- None garten_Lockup_Final 0418.ai (10.39%), Keesha_BE_EP_0472_C-FINAL_4C-NSP.psd (CMYK; 333 ppi; 90.02%) Inks Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black Q&A: Flint Hill Headmaster Plans for Retirement in 2022 BRIAN TROMPETER promote our school culture. We’re totally around diversity, equity and inclusion are Sta Writer student-centered. I feel really good about right there at the forefront of what you do the people we’ve been able to hire as fac- so that everyone who walks in the school John Thomas has been delighted and ulty and staff [and] the sense of collabora- feels welcome, appreciated and valued.” inspired by students and faculty during tion and innovation. We’re a very entre- What will you do in retirement? his 15 years at Flint Hill School in Oak- preneurial school, always looking at how “I’ve always thought I ought to write ton, but he’s decided to turn over the reins we can do this better, how can we make about this or how to do that. Also, I’ve in a year and a half. sure the students are getting the very best learned how to do bronze sculptures, little Thomas informed the school’s board they can get?” gurines. That’s a great hobby and I love of trustees recently that he would be step- How do you bond with students? doing it, but I just haven’t had time.” ping down in June 2022. “I still teach [one psychology class What made you take up sculpting? “The 2021-22 school year will mark each semester] so that I can get to know “When I was in Texas teaching in Hous- my 17th year at Flint Hill, my 26th year kids not just in an administrator role, but ton, our eldest son was in ninth grade and as a headmaster and my 50th year in right in the classroom with them.” took a course called ‘Wax for Bronze.’ the eld of education,” Thomas wrote. How has Flint Hill’s reopening gone We had a great art teacher who was actu- “While words cannot express how deeply during the pandemic? ally a well-known sculptor. There’s a big I will miss this community . it is the “It’s gone well. We had a COVID re- statue down at Texas A&M called “The right time for me to step away and have sponse team that met starting in July that 12th Man” outside of their football sta- more time with my family and it is the was trying to gure out how we could dium and he had done that sculpture. I right time for Flint Hill to benet from open school. We really wanted to be on kept talking to the artist, Pat Foley, and new leadership.” campus as much as we could. Right now, the next year he let me audit the class. He Thomas came to Flint Hill in July 2005 about 85 percent of our kids have come John Thomas, who has been headmaster had me do a sculpture and from then on I and planned to announce his retirement back to campus to go to class.” at Flint Hill School in Oakton since 2005, found I just loved to try and do that.” this coming spring, but because of the How does the programming vary be- will retire in June 2022. Where do you live now and will you pandemic gave earlier notice to give the tween the school’s age groups? FREED PHOTOGRAPHY move after retiring? school more time to nd his successor. “Lower and Middle [students] come building. It’s just a beautiful facility.” “I live in a schoolhouse that is right In this edited Dec. 17 interview, Thomas ve days per week because those class- Advice for your successor? next to our Lower School campus . We discussed his years at the school and his rooms are big enough. We’ve capped class- “Leaders should be visible, available bought a place outside St. Michaels, Md., future hopes. es at 12 students and a teacher. Because of and approachable. You need to be a peo- 10 years ago. It’s not on the water, but we Why will you be stepping down? the size of our Upper School, we had to ple person. You need to listen to people can walk to the water pretty easily. St. Mi- “To spend time with my family. My go with a hybrid program. Monday and and get to know them. You need to be chaels is a cute little town with shops and great wife [Emily] has been an angel. We Tuesday, only juniors and seniors come collaborative, hearing the ideas of other restaurants and we can walk or ride our got married in the summer of 1972, right to school and freshmen and sophomores people and then supporting them, mak- bikes to it. And it’s at. As we got older, after we got out of college, so we’re almost go to their classes virtually. Wednesday ing that a reality and making sure they we gured that would be a nice, safe place at our 50th wedding anniversary. We have is a class meeting day with teacher ofce get credit for that. Make sure those areas to be.” three boys who are around the country, hours. Thursday and Friday, the ninth- two in California and one in New York, and 10th-graders are on campus and ju- and a slew of grandchildren. We want to niors and seniors [take classes] virtually.” be able to have more time with them.” How do you teach the 15 percent of stu- What was the tipping point? dents who attend classes “virtually”? “I did a major study years ago on re- “You teach with a laptop and an iPad, Looking For The Perfect Holiday Gift tirement when I was in graduate school, because you’ve got to be there for the kids For The Whole Family? and one of things I remembered from the who are at home.