'The Difference' Lands at Fairfax - Sentinel

'The Difference' is wearing a striped polo shirt and a pair of blue jean short. Silting light next to him is his lather, equally casual sporting a blue and white L.A. baseball cap.

Both are absorbing the hottest days that Southern California can remember and both are fresh from Mamma's Soul Food restaurant polishing off a plate of ox-tails and black-eyed peas.

Far removed from their Jackson, Mississippi roots; the star basketball player and the father/coach/mentor had just left Fairfax High School in West Los Angeles where Renardo Sidney, Jr. enrolled for his junior year.

For most Southern Californians, it was just a disgustingly hot day, but for coach Harvey Kitani and the defending City and Division I State champion Lions basketball team, it was very cool.

By transferring from Artesia to Fairfax, the 6-foot-10-inch Renardo Jr., coined 'The Difference' by his father, Renardo Sr., is expected to change the landscape of high school hoops in the Los Angeles City Section.

At the very least, for the next two years, Fairfax will be the hottest ticket in town and 'The Difference' is the much-celebrated Renardo Jr.

Last season, in his first season of high school ball, he led the Artesia boys to the GIF Southern Section Division II and Division III State championships.

His rare gifts as a hoop phenom were envisioned as early as the time he was a seventh grader when his father Renardo Sr. and Jr.'s grandfather was watching him play and he dunked a basketball.

The following year, he was invited to the prestigious ABCD camp for the elite high school players in the nation and he earned co-MVP. 'The Difference' wasn't even in high school then.

Still quite humble and speaking with his twisted Southern drawl, Junior sat his white Sidekick down and discussed his future with the Sentinel.

Well, sort of. What he would not openly discuss are his college choices for fear of offending someone, but as for his prep career, it will conclude in the Lions Den.

Renardo Sr. explained that the primary reason for the move was to continue to support his older son, who is attending nearby Santa Monica College, and also because he felt the academics are better than what Artesia offered.

'My other son is going to Santa Monica Junior College and my wife works at Hollywood Hills so it would be much more convient for us to live in the Fairfax area,' said Renardo Sr.

The father explained that his primary reason for coming to Southern California was marketing for his son and more exposure.

'We're in a bigger ocean and in Mississippi we were in a pond,' he explained.

Hurricane Katrina did not have the effect on their home in Jackson that Renardo Jr. will have on the high school basketball landscape.

Compared to Kevin Garnett because of the versatility to his game, he can shoot it from the perimeter with candid accuracy, rebound like a beast and block shots like a volleyball player. Oh yeah, he can also handle the basketball like Magic Johnson.

It's clear to see why 'The Difference' has drawn so much attention wherever he's gone and why Fairfax, which already was the favorite to win the City crown this year, will now be a shoo-in.

Fairfax has produced such NBA players like Chris Mills and Sean Higgins and most recently Josh Shipp and Chace Stanback at UCLA and Jarren Shipp at Arizona State, but never in their wildest dreams have they ever had anyone like 'The Difference,'

Because of 'The Difference,' Westchester will be playing for second place in the Western League and for a shot to lose to Fairfax again in the City playoffs.

Says Renaido Jr., 'My dad told that I couldd be the first player to win a state championship in the City and CIF, but I hadn't really thought about it much.

'The Difference' will not have to because when he's hoisting that City and State trophy along with his teammates Chris Singleton et al, it will then be a reality.

[Sidebar]

Sentinel Exclusive

WELCOME TO THE CITY: Renardo Sidney, the No. I ranked player in the class of 2009, altered the hoops landscape in Southern California when he announced his transfer to City and Division I state champion Fairfax.

[Author Affiliation]

BY KENNETH MILLER

Parents Put the Pressure On Fairfax School Board; Well-Run, Savvy Groups Protest Planned Cuts - The Washington Post

They have fax machines and they are furious. They have a hotline and they know who to call. They have a computer bulletin boardand they know how to push the right buttons.

They are the parent lobby in Fairfax County, and they havemobilized with speed and precision since School SuperintendentRobert R. Spillane presented his budget plan three weeks ago with$42 million in recommended cuts in jobs and programs next year.

Facing the prospect of changes in some of their favoriteprograms - from special education to gifted and talented classes,from boys' gymnastics to swim and diving teams - thousands ofparents have organized a determined campaign to save what they sayis crucial to the quality of their children's education.

'We feel cheated,' said Robert Lepley, a parent coordinator ofthe swim team at Herndon High School and a leader in the parentprotest. 'I have a weird feeling about government. When they saythey are going to do something, they will do it, unless there isenough screaming and hollering.'

There has been plenty of both this month.

The campaign to save high school swimming and diving teamsalready has claimed some success.

After parents of many of the county's 1,300 swim team memberslaunched a blizzard of mailings and phone calls to School Boardmembers, who then peppered school staff members with 30 minutes ofquestions at a meeting last week, the superintendent backed down.

'I've changed my mind,' Spillane said. 'I'm putting it in thebudget. So let's go on. Let's stop this. We can do this all night. . . . I didn't want to cut a penny of that $42 million. Let'sremember that. Let's not put everyone on the defensive here aboutwhy this {cut} and why not some other. It's back in the budget asfar as I'm concerned. Now we'll find the $300,000 someplace else.'

That didn't stop the rally staged by parents of swimmers onSaturday at the regional meet at Oak-Marr Recreation Center inOakton, where about 800 swimmers paraded while chanting slogans suchas 'Save our sport.'

Although the decision to reinstate swimming and diving teams isin the hands of the School Board, some officials say what happenedThursday night is an example of the power of Fairfax parents. Manyof the parents in Fairfax, known for the quality of its schools, areprofessionals, government workers, college-educated, savvy,politically connected and fiercely protective of their children.

'They are really well organized,' said School Board memberKristen J. Amundson (Mount Vernon), who led a parent campaign to getconstruction of an elementary school on the county's bond referendumlast year, before she was appointed to the board. 'This is a verypolitical town. I think parents in Fairfax are a very sophisticatedgroup of people . . . . There are lots and lots of people who workfor the government . . . . They know how things work.'

Like any sophisticated campaign, the swim-dive effort startedwith a strategy session - a Saturday afternoon meeting of fourfathers in the living room of Fred Hintenach, who has two childrenwho swim.

The men barely knew each other, but by late afternoon they hadcompiled a list of parents to call and mobilize as well as a memolisting alternatives to cutting the program, such as instituting afee for all sports participants or an across-the-board trim of allteams.

'It got serious very quickly in order to figure how we could beeffective in a quick window,' said Hintenach, a manager with theU.S. Postal Service.

Within a week, the men had assembled 500 parents for a meetingin W.T. Woodson High School's cafeteria, where they started aletter-writing campaign, a hot line, bumper stickers and placards,and planned Saturday's rally.

As the Fairfax School Board prepares for three nights ofscheduled public hearings next week, other parents are pounding thepavement to rally support.

Parents of children identified as gifted and talented, a lobbyknown for its strength, have mounted a letter-writing campaign.Susan Provyn, president of the 900-member Fairfax County Associationfor the Gifted, said the lobby group started about 20 years ago whenthe program for such children was in danger of cancellation. Sincethen, the group of parents has been like an army waiting in thewings to fight whenever there is the slightest rumor about gettingrid of programs for gifted children.

'We're always on the defensive,' Provyn said. 'The programs arenot popular with most people. Just think of 133,000 students andonly 20,000 are participating in GT. There is a myth {that} thesekids, because they are smart, can make it' without special programs.

A month before Spillane released his plan to eliminate positionsof itinerate teachers who teach gifted and talented students infourth through the sixth grades, the group heard rumors and sent out'alerts' to its 600 members. Provyn, a former headhunter forfinancial executives, said she knew that the messages had to besimple to be effective.

The one-page letter in bullet format with talking points 'wasdesigned for busy people,' Provyn said. 'GT BUDGET ALERT ELEMENTARYSCHOOL-BASED PROGRAM IS THREATENED . . . . WILL THE CENTERS BENEXT???'

The 14 elementary and eight intermediate centers, which acceptonly students who score at 140 or above on I.Q. tests, were not onthe list of planned cuts, but Provyn said she knew that to pique theinterest of parents she had to let them know that if one thingfalls, all could fall.

'We wanted to get people's attention,' Provyn said. 'We reallyfelt like when you start whittling away at one piece of the program,you're in trouble.'

As Provyn worked, parents of children in special education alsolit up phone lines of School Board members to let them know theywould fight if the 'most vulnerable' children in the system wereaffected.

School Board members received letters from parents of musicstudents urging that the board not cut stringed instrumentinstruction for fourth-graders.

A panel of the County Council of PTAs recently emerged from aseries of meetings with a recommendation to raise taxes to saveprograms. The council has now set up a computer bulletin board bywhich PTA members can stay informed of the latest news by usingtheir home or office computers. They also can leave electronicmessages for other PTA members.

'It's a very fast way of getting information to people,' saidMarlene Blum, president of the PTA council. 'If you have thetechnology at home, you don't have to get somebody to send it in themail. If you need the name of a legislator or supervisor, you canget it from the system. You can just type in request and maybe evenget talking points.'

The swim and dive parents started a parent hot line withrecorded up-to-the-minute briefings.

'I'd like to inform parents . . . about a crisis that is aboutto take away high school swimming and diving from the area . . . .It is vital our families act to preserve swimming and diving. Timeis short. We have two weeks to flood them with letters,' a recordedvoice said on the hot line this week. 'Letters should be from theheart, expressing your displeasure.'

Like all good lobbyists, the parents also are savvy in workingthe media. A recent news release about Saturday's rally at theregional swim meet was sent by fax to reporters and editors, and itmade sure the reader knew interviews would be offered withorganizers and team members.

Police, Fire Games to Be Close to Home; Fairfax County Will Host World Competition in 2015 - The Washington Post

However easygoing his grin, Jim Pope is not a man to mess with.The 20-year veteran of the Fairfax County Sheriff's Departmentweighs 325 pounds, works out at a gym in three-hour increments andrecently broke four world weightlifting records at an athleticcompetition second only to the Summer Olympics in size.

'I can still compete with the kids,' said Pope, a Loudoun Countyresident and master deputy sheriff who started lifting weights inhigh school.

Pope, 50, made his mark at the World Police and Fire Games, a 10-day event for first responders that, organizers announced recently,Fairfax County will host in 2015.

Held biennially since 1985, the games feature about 65 sports.They include traditional favorites, such as track and field andbasketball, and career-specific ones, such as police dog explosivesand narcotics detection.

The 2009 games, hosted by Vancouver, British Columbia, early thismonth, attracted more than 10,500 competitors, nearly twice thenumber of athletes and officials expected for the 2010 WinterOlympics, also in Vancouver.

Despite the competition's size, Pope had never heard of it untila committee toured Fairfax in 2006, during the county's first bid tobe a host city. The county lost to Belfast for the 2013 games.

Having competed as an amateur weightlifter since 1988, Pope wasintrigued enough to fly to Australia for the 2007 games. There, hewon a silver medal in the bench press and a gold in the push/pullevent, which combines the bench press with a dead lift.

Videos posted online from this year's event show Pope's record-breaking efforts in a hotel ballroom before a crowd of cheeringonlookers. He bench-pressed 418 pounds Aug. 5, demolishing the oldrecord of 352 pounds and winning a gold medal. Three days later, hewon a second gold and broke other records when he lifted a combined1,127.5 pounds in the push-pull.

'I don't go to beat somebody else; I go to compete againstmyself,' said Pope, who was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes fouryears ago and continues exercising, at least in part, to 'keep onefoot out of the grave.'

Competitors pay for their airfare and lodging, and the costs havelimited the number of local participants in the Police and FireWorld Games, said 2nd Lt. Bruce Blechl of Fairfax County police.

'There are only a handful who attend' from the county's police,fire and sheriff's departments, said Blechl, a runner who has beencompeting in the games' cross-country events since 1997. 'For thesize we have and the reputation we have, I thought we wereunderrepresented at these games.'

That might change when the games are here in 2015, said Blechl,executive director of Team Fairfax, a nonprofit group established in2005 to bring the games to the county.

The World Police and Fire Games Federation chose Fairfax overToronto and Winnipeg, Canada, to host the 2015 event. Openingceremonies will be at Nationals Stadium in the District, but most ofthe events will be in Northern Virginia, including at George MasonUniversity, Manassas National Battlefield Park and Quantico MarineCorps Base. The athletic village will be in Reston and closingceremonies at Wolf Trap. All events will be free to spectators.

'It's about showcasing Fairfax,' Sheriff Stan G. Barry (D) said,'so people actually come to Fairfax and spend time in Fairfax.'

More than 10,000 athletes are expected to descend on the regionbetween June 26 and July 5, 2015, infusing an estimated $35 millioninto the local economy.

Pope said he is looking forward to the proximity.

'It'll be less expensive,' he said.

And a home-team advantage?

Title-Starved Fairfax Raises Banner Season - The Washington Post

Fairfax is one of the oldest high schools in Virginia'sNorthern Region, but in the past six decades, the Rebels' boyssports teams haven't brought home many regional championship bannersto hang from the gymnasium rafters.

However, the school's football team Friday won its 10thstraight game, 15-14 over West Potomac in the AAA Northern RegionDivision 5 final. It was Fairfax's first regional football title andjust the second in any boys sport since the school opened in 1935.The victory moved the sixth-ranked Rebels (11-1) into a statesemifinal meeting with Patrick Henry-Ashland at Richmond Stadium onSaturday afternoon at 1:30.

'I guess the difference is getting over the hump finally,' saidFairfax Coach Tom Verbanic. 'We almost felt like we had thereputation that we could win our district, but we couldn't win ourregion.'

Fairfax's football team never has been known for saving itsbest for last. The Rebels advanced to the regional final only oneother time (1987). Since then, they twice completed undefeatedregular seasons (in 1988 and '91) only to lose in the first round ofthe playoffs.

One big reason this year has been different is quarterback GregMaddox, voted Northern Region offensive player of the year by theregion's coaches.

'Obviously, they would not be nearly as good without him,' saidLee Coach Joe Muskett. 'He is a winner. The kid knows how to getthe job done.'

Maddox, a 6-foot-3, 205-pound senior, can get the job done inseveral ways. He has completed 55-of-119 passes for 965 yards and 11touchdowns and has rushed for more than 500 yards and 16 touchdowns.After throwing only two interceptions in the first 11 games, hethrew three against West Potomac. But with the region title on theline, he led the Rebels on a 63-yard drive in the final 3 minutes 10seconds that resulted in a touchdown and decisive two-pointconversion.

When Fairfax defeated Lee, 23-6, in October, Lee concentratedon stopping the passing game, Muskett said. The Lancers limitedMaddox to 17 yards through the air, but he carried the ball for 90yards and two touchdowns on six carries. 'He's a kid who can just doit all,' Muskett said.

Maddox also draws praise for leadership and humility.

'Fairfax has played some teams that had more individualtalent, but Maddox was the difference,' Marshall Coach Dean Sislersaid. 'He elevates the players around him. ... He just has theother intangible qualities that go along with quality athletes.'

Maddox and his teammates are aware of the school's humbletradition in football.

'No one has ever {won a region title} before,' Maddox said.'The way I looked at it, if we lost, oh well ...'

But now that the Rebels are so close to a state championship,Maddox said he believes they could add a few more firsts beforetheir season ends - especially if running backs Charlie Turner andJohn Moore play well.

'I think I'm just one of the many people we have on offense,'Maddox said. 'When Charlie is running and John is running, it'salmost impossible to stop us.'

Maddox and the Rebels faced new circumstances in the regionfinal, falling behind for the first time since their only loss -17-0 to No. 1 Annandale early in the season.

Fairfax Police Chief and Safety Consultant - The Washington Post

Carroll D. Buracker, 66, a former chief of the Fairfax CountyPolice Department and chief executive of a public safety consultingfirm whose recommendations often led to major changes in policedepartments across the country, died April 22 at the WinchesterMedical Center in Winchester, Va., of complications from a stroke.He had lived in Harrisonburg, Va., since 1990 but maintainedpersonal and business ties to Fairfax.

Mr. Buracker joined the Fairfax police on New Year's Day of1966, and rose through the ranks to become chief in 1981, a positionhe held until his retirement in 1985. During his tenure, he workedto modernize law enforcement in Fairfax, adding a police helicopterprogram, installing computers in police cruisers and state-of-the-art dispatching gear, and acquiring armored vehicles for thedepartment's SWAT team. He also implemented an automated fingerprintidentification system and developed the department's own trainingfacility.

After his retirement, he formed Carroll Buracker & Associates,based in Harrisonburg. The company conducted more than 260efficiency and management studies of police, sheriff's and firedepartments; emergency medical services; 911 centers; and securityservices in more than 120 cities and counties.

He served as project manager for the comprehensive assessment ofChicago's new police-fire-EMS communications system and for anemergency dispatch study in Los Angeles. He also assessed theintegrated police and security plans for Seattle, Cleveland andelsewhere.

He became a national leader in setting standards of quality andbest practices for community policing in cities and urban countiesand was the project manager and executive producer for 'Beyond theBadge,' a community policing training video.

As a consultant, he didn't mince words. In 2005, he toldSpringfield, Mass., that its police force was 'dysfunctional,' thathe had never seen such upper-level friction between the police chiefand other senior officers, and that the city's data on crimestatistics were a shambles. Brian Buracker, his son and successor atthe company, noted that his father was invariably straightforwardbut always showed his clients how their problems could be solved.

Mr. Buracker also founded the Center for Public Safety, anonprofit company that was chosen by the Department of Housing andUrban Development to develop a comprehensive security assessment andblueprint to reintegrate a public housing development in Vidor,Tex., after black residents were forced out by the local Ku KluxKlan. The Center for Public Safety also conducted a nationwide studyof policing in federal subsidized housing.

Carroll David Buracker was born in Luray, Va., and was raised byfoster parents. He worked on farms while attending school yetmanaged to excel as an athlete at Luray High School, where helettered in four sports. A runner his whole life, he completed 12major marathons.

He served as an Army military policeman in Germany after highschool and worked briefly as a Harrisonburg police officer beforemoving to Fairfax. He received his undergraduate degree and hismaster's degree in law enforcement and justice administration in theearly 1970s, both from American University. He also graduated fromthe FBI National Academy.

He served as chairman of the Metropolitan Washington Council ofGovernment's Police Chiefs' Committee and co-chaired the developmentof the Area Emergency Disaster Plan.

As police chief, he received the Fairfax County government's twohighest honors -- the Onthank Award and the Unusual Ability Award.He also received the Gold Salute Award from the United Black Fund ofGreater Washington for his efforts to promote women and AfricanAmericans in law enforcement.

Survivors include his wife of 38 years, Patricia Blair Burackerof Harrisonburg; his son Brian, of Fairfax County, and another son,David Buracker of Alexandria.

Fairfax Board Backs Half-Billion-Dollar Rebuilding of Schools - The Washington Post

Nearly half a billion dollars would be spent rebuilding andexpanding Fairfax County's aging and crowded school system over thenext five years under a plan a majority of the Board of Supervisorsendorsed yesterday.

If voters approve the bonds to finance the program, the schoolsystem will get $487 million in construction money, including about$175 million that traditionally would have been spent on parks,roads, sidewalks and other county building projects.

Fairfax Broaches Fee Increases; Officials Seek to Avert New Budget Shortfall - The Washington Post

Fairfax residents could face new or higher fees for parkadmissions, ambulance trips and services for the elderly, disabledand mentally ill under proposals being discussed by county officialstrying to avoid another huge budget shortfall.

One of the most likely new fees, county board members saidyesterday, is a plan to impose an annual charge of about $20 perhousehold to pay for improvements in the county's storm-waterdrainage systems, including ponds and pipes that collect runoff.

'That is one we will likely be looking at very seriously,'said county Supervisor Michael R. Frey (R-Sully).

The talk of imposing an array of new or higher fees comes justmonths after Fairfax supervisors helped close a $140 millionshortfall in this year's budget by endorsing the county's largestreal estate tax increase in two decades. Already, officials arepredicting a $30 million budget gap for fiscal 1998, a figure likelyto rise if county schools want an increase of more than 4 percent infunding.

Edward L. Long Jr., director of the county's Office ofManagement and Budget, sent a memo to 44 department heads and othercounty administrators last month asking them to identify areas inwhich fees could be imposed.

'What service/program is the county providing for which itdoes not currently charge a fee, but would be an appropriate area toinstitute a fee?' Long asked.

Long and his staff are beginning to prepare Fairfax's nextbudget, which will be presented to the county board early next year.

Few specific plans for fee increases have been drafted, Longsaid, but a long list of options has surfaced, including new fees toenter certain county parks, to use meeting rooms at county librariesor to get decals to park in certain neighborhoods near Metrostations or schools. Fees also might be increased for services tothe disabled, elderly or mentally ill, and fines charged for overduelibrary books could be pushed up, Long said.

Even though the budget crunch likely will not be as severe nextyear, pressure on board members to impose new or higher fees will begreater. That is because last spring, when the board adopted thefiscal 1997 budget, most supervisors indicated that they would notback another real estate tax increase during the remaining threeyears in their term.

'When there is more pressure not to increase property taxes,then other fee generators get more attention,' Long said.

Supervisors said yesterday that they are open to consideringfee increases, particularly for services that are used by a selectgroup of residents, such as special parking districts orrecreational services.

'We will take a look at what is brought forward,' saidSupervisor Sharon S. Bulova (D-Braddock), chairman of the board'sbudget committee. 'That does not mean we will do it, but we willlook at it.'

Other supervisors warned that the board must proceedcautiously, because county residents, still smarting from the realestate tax increase, may revolt.

'If we charge a fee for everything the government provides,people are going to say, `Why do we pay taxes?' ' said SupervisorStuart Mendelsohn (R-Dranesville).

In Fairfax, fees, fines and other user-based charges nowgenerate about $59 million a year, the largest chunks coming fromfees charged for care of school-age children and to developers whoapply for county permits. That represents about 3.5 percent of thecounty's $1.69 billion budget.

Fairfax supervisors last spring approved an increase of up tonearly 18 percent in child-care fees and a 15 percent increase infees for reviewing road and sewer development plans. Fees to playgolf, ice-skate or reserve a picnic shelter also went up.

But the board rejected several other fee recommendations byCounty Executive William J. Leidinger and his staff, such as plansto charge for ambulance rides, for organized sports leagues to usecounty fields, or for county residents to use Lake Fairfax and BurkeLake parks.

Long said yesterday that some of those same proposals maysurface again. But county board Chairman Katherine K. Hanley (D)said she doubted they would win support, as board members alreadyhad decided against them.

Dorothy Tella, president of the Fairfax County TaxpayersAlliance, said her group supports the concept of fees for servicesthat are used by a limited number of county residents.