Wednesday, May 22, 2013
FCPD received a report of a suspect in the area early Wednesday morning.
Hayfield Elementary School and Hayfield Secondary School were in a "secure the building" status Wednesday morning after the Fairfax County Police Department received a report of a suspicious man in the surrounding neighborhood near Buckhaven Court and Welsch Court. PFC Don Gotthardt said they received the call between 9:30 a.m. and 10 a.m. The resident reported seeing a man dressed in a black sweatshirt going from house to house in an attempt to break into a residence. However, the suspect was unable to get into any of the homes. John Torre with Fairfax County Public Schools said the two schools were not on lockdown, but the buildings were secured for the safety of students, faculty and staff. Helicopter and police units covered the area …
Friday, May 17, 2013
Fairfax County School Board will hold listening sessions next week to help develop a strategic plan for digital learning.
Teachers, students and parents in Fairfax County didn't have the smoothest experience with digital learning in 2012-2013. As Fairfax County Public Schools rolled out a new online math program in Fall 2012, students and teachers complained they had difficulty navigating the books, saying there were publisher errors and inconsistencies, technology roadblocks and student difficulty in accessing the information, among other complaints, like a lack of teacher buy-in to the program. They said the program, instead of advancing learning and achievement, was pushing it back, calling the $10.4 million initiative "a big disaster" with no clear solution. The short-term solution was to re-negotiate contracts to get some hard copy books back in the …
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
The two teams played Tuesday night at 7 p.m.; Hayfield and Lee season results.
The Edison High School Eagles boys lacrosse team lost to McLean Tuesday night, 10-7, taking them out of the running for the Northern Region title. The Eagles had a pretty strong season this year with an overall record of 15-2 and a conference record of 6-1. Unlike Edison, Hayfield Secondary School ended its season earlier this month with a loss against Mount Vernon High School, 6-5. The Hawks had a rocky season this year with an overall record of 5-7 and a conference record of 4-3. Lee High School also ended its season earlier this month with a loss to W.T. Woodson, 16-1. The Lancers have had a rough season, losing a majority of their games, leaving them with an overall record of 1-11 and a conference record of 0-7. Full Northern Region …
Teacher pay and foreign language cutbacks are also concerns as Fairfax County School Board looks for another $30 million in reductions for next year's budget.
If push came to shove, Jane Lipp would give her right kidney to keep an instructional coach at her school. The principal of South County High School, which has a 49 percent minority population, said that's the kind of sacrifice she'd make, drama aside, to keep a position that's been 'instrumental" in helping her teachers push the school's diverse student body to succeed. More than a dozen of the 40 speakers who addressed the school board Tuesday night in a public hearing about Fairfax County Public Schools' budget spoke about the role coaches play in the day to day lives of teachers and students, including their help toward narrowing student achievement gaps. The public hearing comes as the school board prepares to adopt a $2.5 billion …
Coffield has been with the school for five years.
Fairfax County Public Schools recently named MPO Rudy Coffield the 2013 Distinguished School Resource Officer (SRO), according to a recent FCPS news release. Coffield was assigned to Key Middle School in Springfield for the past five years, and is being recognized for building “powerful” relationships with teachers and students, said Principal Christopher Larrick. “Teachers have commented about his ability to engage students in learning while providing open and honest information about safety in our community,” said Larrick, who cites recent conversations on how to avoid gangs and gang activity between Coffield and students. Coffield also serves as the head coach for the girls' basketball team at Hayfield Secondary School and has his …
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Officials say no funding for consultant as school board members say there is a "facilities crisis and a capacity crisis."
The Fairfax County School Board decided Monday to postpone re-evaluating how to determine the order in which county schools are renovated. Heeding the recommendation of the county’s Facilities Planning Advisory Council, Board members agreed they need more time to discuss the matter to implement any real changes. The board develops its Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) every five years, which includes new schools, renovations, capacity enhancements, additions and infrastructure management. Schools currently receive improvements in the order in which they're ranked on the system's renovation queue, driven by a list of weighted criteria ranging from how the buildings serve "Fundamental Educational Requirements (FER)," to their age and physical …
Amy Lee returns to the Lancers after teaching and coaching in Miami at Hillel Community School.
Lee High School recently announced they have hired Amy Lee as the new girls basketball coach, according to a recent news release. Lee returns to the high school after two years of teaching and coach in Miami, FL at Hillel Community School, where she contributed to building the foundation for the girl’s basketball program. Before moving to Florida, Lee was a physical education teacher and a varsity assistant for the Lancers under Harold Jackson during the 2010-2011 season. Before that season, Lee coached for three seasons at Harmony High School in Harmony, FL. While at Harmony, she helped lead the girls’ varsity team to an overall record of 49-23 and finished as runner up in the Orange Belt Conference. Lee started her coaching career in …
Monday, May 13, 2013
Superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools had surgery for an aortic aneurysm May 7.
Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Jack Dale was released from the hospital Sunday after emergency heart surgery May 7. FCPS spokesman John Torre told Patch in an email Monday that Dale had been released from the hospital to recover from surgery at home. Dale was taken to INOVA Fairfax Hospital on May 7 after telling coworkers he hadn’t been feeling well that day. He had surgery after suffering an aortic aneurysm that night. Torre said Dale was expected to return to work sometime in early June. “He is making progress and is not expected to return to work until early June on a part time basis,” he wrote in his email. Dale is planning to retire this summer. Deputy Superintendent Richard Moniuszko is managing superintendent duties …
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Democratic gubernatorial candidate laid out platform at George Mason's Arlington campus.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe said Thursday he would push to reform the state's Standards of Learning, or SOL, tests if he is elected in November. "The current, once-a-year, high-stakes, multiple-choice testing isn't working for students, parents or teachers," he told a crowd of more than 300 people at George Mason University's Arlington campus, to rousing applause. Under the current system, a fifth-grade teacher who raises a child from a first-grade reading level to a fourth-grade reading level is considered a failure, he said. Teachers who want to break up the test into smaller portions, or test at different levels based on student achievement should be encouraged, he said. McAuliffe also said he would establish a "…
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Dale underwent surgery for an aortic aneurism Tuesday evening.
Jack Dale, the outgoing Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent, underwent emergency heart surgery Tuesday evening after suffering an aortic aneurism. The Washington Post reported Wednesday that Dale, 64, was conscious and resting at the intensive care unit of Fairfax Inova Hospital in Falls Church. He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance Tuesday evening after telling coworkers he was feeling unwell, the Post reported. As of Wednesday afternoon, he was in stable condition. Hospital officials were unable to comment further on Dale’s condition Thursday afternoon. Dale is planning to retire this summer but it’s unclear whether he will return to his post after recovering from surgery. FCPS spokesman John Torre told Patch on …
Sandra
3:44 pm on Friday, May 17, 2013
The online programs they support should be tailored to what teachers and students can use. The online math books were nothing more than regular texts that were scanned and put online. They were hard to use (especially if you needed to page back and forth to find topics), and they were not downloadable and pages could not be printed. That meant that students could only access their texts in … more ›