About Our People

Posted on May 6, 2009

About Our People

* Deirdre Lavery, who has served as principal at Glasgow Middle School since 2004 and has been a Fairfax County Public Schools employee for 22 years, has been named the FCPS 2009 Principal of the Year and is the recipient of the Washington Post Distinguished Educational Leadership Award. Lavery is one of 21 principals–representing the public school systems in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area and private schools–selected by the Washington Post for the award.

Lavery began her career as a special education teacher at Frost Middle School in 1987. She was named department chair at Frost in 1990, and in 1996 moved to Belle Willard Center to become a specialist in contract services. She worked as an assistant principal at Groveton Elementary in 1998 before being named principal at Twain Center in 2000. She was named to head Glasgow Middle in 2004.

As the principal of an International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years school with high numbers of students living in poverty, families who have limited proficiency in English, and many students with disabilities, Lavery empowers her staff to take leadership roles in an effort to help all students succeed. Nominator Robert Harrison, who is the IB Middle Years coordinator at Glasgow, says that Lavery lives by two main rules: students seldom rise above the highest expectations that we hold for them, and a school never rises above the philosophy and practice of its principal. “Mrs. Lavery believes that when you teach with excellence, test scores will follow, and that even then, they are only one marker of achievement,” says Harrison.

Test results from the 2007-08 school year found Glasgow “warned” in math after grade-level math tests were introduced to meet the demands of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which nearly doubled the number of students pursuing and achieving in accelerated and advanced math. Because these students’ end-of-course high school tests do not count toward a middle school’s state accreditation, Glasgow’s middle school math proficiency rate dropped below 70 percent. Under Lavery’s leadership, staff members wrote grant proposals, rotated positions, completed extensive professional development, and established new supervisory procedures. “We developed what our state oversight team deemed the best response and action plan they had ever seen. Although our (state appointed) intervention team leader said it could not be done, in just a year we were again fully accredited,” explains Harrison.

Also nominated for FCPS’ 2009 Principal of the Year award were Daniel Parris, principal of Rocky Run; Alice Alexander, principal of North Springfield; Cynthia Botzin, principal of Braddock; Christina Dickens, principal of Annandale Terrace; and Roberto Pamas, principal of Holmes. (view press release)

For more information about FCPS' employee awards, go to http://www.fcps.edu/DHR/employees/awards/index.htm.

* Brian Hull, principal of Colin Powell Elementary School and a 25-year employee of Fairfax County Public Schools, has been selected as Virginia’s 2009 National Distinguished Principal by the Virginia Association for Elementary School Principals (VAESP).

Previously, Hull was named the FCPS 2008 Principal of the Year and recipient of the Washington Post Distinguished Educational Leadership Award. As the first and only principal of Colin Powell Elementary, Hull is known as a hands-on administrator whose frequent positive recognitions for students and staff members are welcome and sought after by members of the school community. Parents have praised him for building a strong school community and for improving communication with minority parent communities.

Faculty and other staff members commend Hull for encouraging them to think outside the box to ensure that every child is challenged to learn and for supporting and motivating young educators to become administrators.

Hull was nominated and selected by his fellow principals during a statewide search process conducted by VAESP. Criteria, set by the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) and the U.S. Department of Education, require nominees to be active principals of schools where programs are designed to meet the academic and social needs of all students and where there are firmly established community ties with parents and local business organizations.

Hull joined FCPS in 1984 as principal of Bush Hill Center, a program for students with physical challenges. He served as assistant principal of Brookfield Elementary School, acting principal of the former Jermantown Elementary School, then as principal of Brookfield, Willow Springs, and Franklin Sherman Elementary Schools before being tapped as principal of the new Colin Powell Elementary School in 2003. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Westfield State College in Massachusetts and his master’s in education from George Washington University. He has completed postgraduate work at the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and George Mason University.

* Greg Walsh, social studies teacher at Falls Church, has been named one of three winners of the 2009 American Civics Education Teacher Award (ACETA), sponsored by the Center for Civic Education. Falls Church High School is a Fairfax County public school.

Walsh began teaching five years ago after working for two decades as a trade association executive and a trial attorney. In those careers, he encountered concepts and principles he had learned in high school social studies classes including democracy, citizenship, community, public service, equal protection, and due process. “It struck me that students, particularly high school students, would benefit if the excitement of that interaction—of the polling place, the Congress, or the courts—were brought to the classroom for them to experience directly,” says Walsh. “The prospect of being a part of that excitement prompted me to change careers.”

Using the philosophy that students learn by doing, Walsh has his U.S. and Virginia Government students participate in a two-week simulation of the U.S. Senate, drafting their own bills, electing Senate and party leaders, forming standing committees, conducting markups, holding floor debates, and voting. To study the executive branch, the class simulates a National Security Council meeting, and, for the judicial branch, they simulate appellate arguments on civil rights, due process, and equal protection issues. This year, Walsh introduced a new course—Law in Action—in which students work as teams in the roles of judges, jurors, attorneys, and reporters who analyze, write, argue, and listen to cases.

Walsh sponsors the Falls Church Model United Nations Club and has coached students for the National High School Moot Court competition. This past fall, he provided support to several students interested in organizing a mock presidential debate. (view press release)

* Linda Martin, advanced academic resource teacher at Dogwood, has been selected to attend the 2009 Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy. This year’s Academy is scheduled for July 19 through 24 at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, N.J.

Over 1,600 teachers applied to attend the Academy. The selection panel based their decision on qualifications, dedication to inspiring students at an early age, and an overall commitment to enhancing the teaching profession.

The Mickelson ExxonMobil Teachers Academy was launched in 2005 to provide third- through fifth-grade teachers tools to enhance curricula, an opportunity to network with other educators, and discover innovative ways to teach math and science to students.

Ken Halla * Two staffers at Hayfield Secondary recently completed their doctorates. Latoria Fleming (left), high school counselor, earned her Ph.D. in counselor education from North Carolina State University. Her dissertation topic was "The Evolution of Cultural Competence in Transracial Adoptive Parents." The focus of the study was to measure changes in cultural competence over the first five years of adoption in parents who adopted children of a different race from their own. Ken Halla (right), high school social studies chair, earned his Ph.D. in political science from George Washington University. His dissertation was titled “Hispanics: The Typical American Voter? Comparing the Voting Behavior of Hispanics, Whites and African-Americans.”

Charity Fisher In addition, two other Hayfield staffers Charity Fisher (right), social studies teacher, and Mary Spatz (left), chemistry teacher, were chosen by the Educational Testing Service to be advanced placement readers in world history and biology, respectively. Fisher is the first Hayfield staff member to be selected to grade AP exams for that subject. Halla was also chosen to be an advanced placement reader for U.S. government.

* Several FCPS employees have recently authored books. They include:

Lee-Allison Sibley (top), Spanish teacher at Langston Hughes, who published Jordan's Jewish Drama Queen, which is about teaching in the Middle East and changing perspectives through education, and takes the reader on a journey into the very soul of Arab life in Amman, Jordan
Tish Howard (middle), principal of Washington Mill, who coauthored Poverty is Not a Learning Disability, Equalizing Opportunities for Low SES Students, which offers an in-depth look at schools that have realized effective results in remarkable time frames, the authors challenge educators and parents to consider how low expectations can affect student achievement—and emphasize optimism as a necessarytenet of schools' day-to-day teaching and learning programs and school-community relationships.
Mary Woods (bottom), librarian at Graham Road, who was the coauthor of a seven book series, The Seven Natural Wonders of the World. This follows the seven title series The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Natural Wonders titles focus on the incredible variety of geography throughout the world. Each book focuses on a different continent and explains how the wonders were formed. The Ancient Wonders series also focuses on the continents and gives a look at the civilizations that built these architectural wonders.

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What Type of Information Is Used in About Our People?

The following categories of items will be published:

Employees who receive regional, state, or national awards for their professional accomplishments.
Employees elected to serve on regional, state, or national education organizations.
Employees who give presentations at regional, state, or national meetings.
Employees who publish articles or books.
Those who successfully defend doctoral dissertations.
Those who receive grants or are selected for scholarships that involve travel or the sharing of ideas.

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