School notes

NVCC to close on Jan. 20

Northern Virginia Community College will be closed on Inauguration Day and all classes are canceled, a change from the published spring semester schedule.

The college is substituting holiday annual leave hours granted to it by state government to make the cancellation possible.

"Emergency planners are forecasting extreme traffic congestion for the inauguration," said President Robert G. Templin Jr., who added, "Given that we are a commuter college, it may be difficult for students and staff to get to and from classes that day. Out of consideration for the safety of our students, employees and event attendees, we have decided to close the college on Jan. 20."

The college will also be closed Jan. 19 in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a previously scheduled holiday.

More than 60,000 students are enrolled at its six campuses, including Manassas and Woodbridge.

Woodbridge students to perform concert Saturday

The Center for the Fine and Performing Arts at Woodbridge High School will present the choral cantata, "Ah, Nagasaki: Ashes Into Light" by Robert Kyr on Saturday at 7 p.m. in the school auditorium.

The work, scored for choir, orchestra, percussion ensemble and dancers, was originally commissioned for the 60th anniversary of the bombing of the city of Nagasaki, Japan. The text, sung in both English and Japanese, was written by Dr. Kry in collaboration with Kazuaki Tanahashi, a renowned Zen Buddist teacher, author and calligrapher.

The Saturday event will also feature displays of student work created specifically for the cantata performance including Japanese-inspired art and essays and poetry on peace.

Tickets to the performance are $8 and may be purchased in advance by calling 703-497-8014. Woodbridge High School is located at 3001 Old Bridge Road, Woodbridge.

Osbourn Park's yearbook, newspaper win best of show

The Osbourn Park High School school newspaper and yearbook both earned Best of Show at the 2008 JEA/NSPA Fall National High School Journalism Convention in St. Louis. The competition is held at all national and state conventions sponsored by the National Scholastic Press Association.

The "Yellow Jacket" won in the "Newspaper 1-8 pages" category, while the "Hi-Jacket" won in the "Yearbook 275-324 pages" category.

In October, the Virginia High School League ranked both publications the highest in Prince William County. For a complete list of winners, see http://studentpress.org/nspa/winners/f08bs.html

Hundreds of books donated to students

"The gift that keeps on giving" might best describe the books that Featherstone Elementary School received from customers of Borders Books in Woodbridge just prior to winter break.

"We are absolutely thrilled at such generosity," said Principal Linda Dockery. "Our thanks go out to Borders for this program that will benefit our students for years to come, and to the customers of Borders."

Chaz Foy, a Borders team member, called Featherstone librarian Pat Martin in October to let her know that Featherstone had been chosen as the school for the store's holiday book donations this year.

"She briefly told me that during the holiday shopping season, the Borders employees would ask customers if they wanted to donate a book to Featherstone Elementary School," said Martin. "They would collect the donations and we could use them in any way we chose for our school."

After meeting with Dockery to plan how the books might be used, Martin asked teachers at every grade level to suggest books that could be used as gifts for students in honor of Dr. Seuss' birthday in March. She then faxed a list of the books to Foy at Borders.

Two months later, on Dec. 18, Borders called Martin to let her know that the book donations were ready to be picked up. Martin and the entire staff were hoping for enough books for all of their 420 students. To the delight of everyone, Borders had collected about 1,700 books.

"We made two trips to Borders to pick up this very generous gift for our school and our students," Martin said. "There was a huge amount of generosity out there in our community during this rough time in our economy, and we want to say 'thanks.'"