Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Karen Garza, currently a superintendent in Texas, will likely become the next leader of Fairfax County Public Schools.
A "strategic planner, a systems thinker, a stellar manager, and a highly effective communicator" is how the Fairfax County School Board described Karen Garza, the Texas superintendent leaders announced as their preferred candidate for superintendent Wednesday. Garza, who for the past four years has led the 30,000-student district of Lubbock, Texas, will assume the role pending final negotiations and a board site visit to the Lubbock Independent School District (ISD). She will become the system's first female superintendent as she takes the place of current Superintendent Jack Dale, who retires June 30. Garza was selected from 47 applicants for the position, and came out ahead of the 18 other candidates who were interviewed largely because…
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Debate heats up as school board weighs community and staff recommendations before coming school year.
Two weeks after a community committee detailed 52 recommendations to overhaul discipline practices systemwide, Fairfax County Public Schools staff has presented its own proposal for policy changes. But the plan leaves out two programs some see as key to a years-long push for reform — sparking a debate Monday on what role both groups would play in how the system moves forward. Staff leaders backed many of the ideas put forward by the 40-member Ad Hoc Community Committee on Student Rights and Responsibilities, including initiatives to make the discipline handbook easier to understand, keep students in school as they appeal a suspension and give principals tiered, age-specific approaches to a range of offenses. But staff members said they …
Monday, April 8, 2013
School board agrees on a number of measures to re-evaluate teacher workday, but associations say teachers "need relief now."
Fairfax County School Board members agreed Monday on four initiatives to address the system's years-long teacher workload issue, including the creation of a committee charged with returning to the board with recommendations on reducing teacher time demands by the end of the month. But the board did not agree on specific actions to relieve teachers in the short term, as teachers associations and some school board members had hoped. More analysis and discussions, they said, are "not enough" — and continuing for much longer without concrete action will begin to impact student achievement, if it hasn't already, they said. "I'm not happy. ... This has been the No.1 issue in my tenure," Michael Hairston said of his time as president of the …
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Fairfax County school board to talk with next round of candidates in coming weeks as Superintendent Jack Dale prepares to retire.
The Fairfax County School Board will continue to narrow its field of superintendent candidates in the next two weeks as it prepares to name a new system leader by May. At its meeting Thursday night, the school board approved a motion to discuss, consider and interview candidates for the division's superintendent "at one or more undisclosed locations" between April 5 and 19. Outgoing Superintendent Jack Dale announced in 2011 his plans to retire June 30 of this year. Last fall, the board selected Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates — the same consulting firm that found Dale in 2004 — to lead the current search process. While the board has focused more on community engagement in this search than in the one it used to hire Dale, it decided to…
Thursday, March 21, 2013
International pilot test could offer new way to measure student knowledge, but whether the program should be expanded in Fairfax, and how, is unclear
When teachers in Fairfax County review results of the state's Standard of Learning tests, they learn whether their students passed or failed in a given subject. But beyond that, some teachers say, they don't have a great sense of what connections students are making or missing, or why. In a presentation to the school board Thursday, officials said a new pilot test given across 10 county high schools — which asked students to draw on prior knowledge and new information to solve problems across disciplines — gave teachers new information about what students actually know rather than what they can recall from their curriculum in any given year, as is often the case with standardized tests like the SOL. With it comes an opportunity to change …
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Tuesday's community dialogue asks residents, community groups for their budget priorities.
Have you got something to say about the Fairfax County Public Schools budget for Fiscal Year 2014? Tuesday is the first chance of several over the next two months to share your perspective. The community dialogue, which begins at 6 p.m. in the Gatehouse Administration Center Cafe in Falls Church, is an effort revamped this year to be more inclusive of all residents — not just specific county groups. School board member Ryan McElveen (At-large) said last year, the school board invited community groups to a similar dialogue, setting them at a roundtable for a budget presentation and then breaking them into two groups tasked with forming a list of budget priorities. This year, the board is inviting specific community groups as well as the …
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Tuesday's community dialogue asks residents, community groups for their budget priorities.
Have something to say about the Fairfax County Public Schools budget for Fiscal Year 2014? Tuesday is the first chance of several over the next two months to share your perspective. The community dialogue, which begins at 6 p.m. in the Gatehouse Administration Center Cafe in Falls Church, is an effort revamped this year to be more inclusive of all residents — not just specific county groups. School board member Ryan McElveen (At-large) said last year, the school board invited community groups to a similar dialogue, setting them at a roundtable for a budget presentation and then breaking them into two groups tasked with forming a list of budget priorities. This year, the board is inviting specific community groups as well as the community …
Thursday, March 14, 2013
“We’re just growing too much,” Superintendent Jack Dale said Tuesday as talks began between county supervisors and school board members.
Fairfax County is facing its own budget woes for Fiscal Year 2014: Property taxes could rise as much as 2 cents per $100 of assessed value, bumping the average homeowner's tax bill, and County Executive Ed Long has said raises for employees aren't likely.g But the county's struggles could also make Fairfax County Public Schools come up short on its own $2.5 billion advertised budget, officials said Tuesday as they met to discuss budget issues and priorities. It doesn't appear the county, which gives an annual transfer to the school board, can afford to give the board as much as it asked for this winter. In order to close a $169 million shortfall and prepare for the still-unknown effects of sequestration, County Executive Ed Long has …
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
At noon Friday, Patch readers can join a discussion with Fairfax County teachers' association leaders and school officials to discuss what some teachers have called an unsustainable work environment.
Some Fairfax County teachers say they've seen workloads increase for a few years now — but this is the first year it's becoming what they are calling "unsustainable." And they say they want a solution sooner rather than later. Join Patch at noon Friday to talk with the leaders of two of Fairfax County's teachers' associations, along with a school board member and an assistant superintendent about some of the issues surrounding teacher workload, including state and local testing, grading and evaluation systems and new curriculum initiatives. Readers can make comments or ask questions and get live responses throughout the course of the chat. To join: Bookmark this page and return at noon Friday, or sign up for an email reminder above. At a…
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Students from Lee, Edison, and Hayfield will perform as a group with other students from Fairfax County April 27.
Of the 66 Fairfax County Public Schools students named to 2013 All-Virginia Choruses or chosen to serve as alternates, 16 of them are students at high schools in the Kingstowne area. Students chosen will perform together April 27 at Hanover High School in Mechanicsburg. One student was chosen for the chorus from Edison High School; six were chosen from Hayfield Secondary School and; three from Lee High School will join in the performance. Edison High School: Hayfield High School: Lee High School: Virginia All-State Chorus is sponsored by the Virginia Choral Directors Association, an affiliated unit of the Virginia Music Educators Association. For the full list of students named to 2013 All-Virginia Choruses, click here.
Lee
5:42 pm on Monday, April 22, 2013
Ugh, "what about the kids?" If I had a penny for every time someone said that... Michael below is correct. I remember this being debated a year or two ago announced his Superintendent Dale announced his retirement and the search was starting. The problem is that many of the applicants are in positions where if it were known they were talking with other systems they'd either be terminated or their… more ›