Sunday, April 10, 2005; Page C04

Virginia transportation officials proposed three possible routes for a highway that would link the outer suburbs of Northern Virginia, the first step in building a north-south connector through the fast-growing area.

The tri-county parkway would connect the Dulles corridor with communities in Loudoun, Fairfax and Prince William counties. Two of the proposed alignments would link Route 50 in Loudoun and Interstate 66 in Prince William, swinging to the west of Manassas National Battlefield Park, and a third would curve east of the park and extend south to Manassas.

Transportation officials said the cost ranges from $177 million for the cheapest alternative to $548 million. The state says it doesn't have money to build any of the options. If money appeared today, officials said, construction could start in 2012.

The Prince William County School Board hired the superintendent of an Upstate New York school system to lead the county's 66,000-student system.

Steven L. Walts, 50, who has led the 14,000-student Greece, N.Y., schools since July 1998, was awarded a four-year contract to run Northern Virginia's second-largest district.

Former America Online executive Ruben Moreno Jr., 36, pleaded guilty in Alexandria federal court to defrauding the Dulles-based Internet company of $100,000 through a phony contract for an outside consultant who did no work and then shared the fees with him, prosecutors said.

Moreno's plea was the culmination of a two-year investigation into the theft at AOL. The company that received most of the money was controlled by Moreno and another former AOL executive.

Democrats and Republicans on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors said they are supporting an additional 3-cent trim to the advertised 10-cent reduction in the real estate tax rate, which would lower the rate to $1 per $100 of assessed value.

The supervisors called the proposed reduction "historic," noting that the tax rate would be a record low in Fairfax. Still, property tax bills would be higher because of skyrocketing assessments -- $408 higher than last year on the average home.

Meanwhile, Loudoun County supervisors approved a tax rate cut of 6.75 cents as part of a $967 million operating budget.

Prince William supervisors are debating a bigger cut, perhaps 15 cents.

A popular Reston elementary school principal was charged with two misdemeanor counts of failing to report suspected child abuse by an 88-year-old volunteer at the school.

Fairfax County police served two summonses on Ricki Harvey, 55, at Dogwood Elementary School. Dogwood was one of the schools where the volunteer, Kenneth Bayer, worked as an assistant until his arrest March 3.

Police said they began investigating Harvey after receiving several complaints that the principal was informed about suspected "inappropriate contact" with children at the school. Harvey, who has denied the allegations, will stay on as principal while the investigations are pending.