Hello Team FCPS!

 Welcome back from our Winter Break, although the weather seemed a bit more like Spring Break to me! No complaints here, but I know snow lovers out there may be getting a little anxious. How many of you have heard that you should wear your pajamas backwards to get a snow day? Do you have another family tradition?

 This week I’m celebrating the concept of community in its varying forms. As I firmly believe, learning happens best in community! 

(Image courtesy: John R. Lewis HS Twitter)

Wednesday evening, I attended the awards ceremony for the new Posse Scholars. FCPS has 24 Posse Scholars this year, including students from 15 of our high schools. A special shout out to John R. Lewis High School with six Posse Scholars! Go Lancers! 

Posse was founded in 1989 because of the words of one student who said, “I never would’ve dropped out of college if I had my posse with me.” The simple concept of sending a group of students to college together has now become a program that has given more than 10,000 students scholarship opportunities and experience to support them as they find their path. Posse Scholars have a 90% graduation rate! Together, great things are possible!

Congratulations to another community – the Woodson High School esports team of Greysen, Chance, Connor, and Andrew, and their coaches Michael Kuykendall and Johnny Shu. They won this year’s Virginia High School League esports Rocket League Championship! Go Cavs!

This is FCPS’ first year competing in this new VHSL offering, where students participate in a popular, soccer-like game where players compete by driving futuristic cars. VHSL has until the end of the 2023-2024 academic year to determine if esports will become a fully sanctioned and sponsored activity under the Emerging Activity guidelines. Esports has exploded over recent years. With more than 400 million viewers globally, this is an entirely new industry with a variety of careers. Colleges and universities are developing programs, including esports scholarships, to support this endeavor. For those of us of a certain age when “pong” first became popular, few anticipated this new world of competitive gaming as an industry! I challenge us all to keep an open mind to the possibilities of careers yet imagined for our students! 

On Thursday, I visited Mountain View High School at the invitation of School Board Member Stella Pekarsky, where I was met by Principal Catherine Stone and her administrative team. The school’s motto is Family. Love. Respect, and it is easy to see that in action as soon as you set foot in the school.

Our first stop was to the classroom of environmental science teacher Susan Culik, where the lesson of the day was heat and which substances reflect heat better than others. Susan was using hands-on materials to engage students in their discovery.  

Then, we went to the History classroom of Deanna Miller, who was using emojis as a creative way to engage students as they learned about the battles of the Civil War. Thank you to Deanna and Susan for being creative in instruction to engage our students! 

Next we went to the honors economics and personal finance classroom of LaToya Prescod-Williams where students are participating in the C-SPAN StudentCam Competition. This competition has students create a video on the theme, “If you were a newly elected member of Congress, which issue would be your first priority and why?” As I sat with Chris, he showed me how he was editing his video, and I could see how the assignment challenged him and the other students in the class to think critically.  

Thursday afternoons are the time when the teachers at Mountain View meet as a group to discuss how they can help any students who may be struggling, and to get the perspectives of multiple people on what strategies may be best. This collaboration and communication allows the staff to consider the whole child, and how they can work together to have the most meaningful impact in that student’s life. Last November, we captured this wonderful video of students and staff at Mountain View talking about what community means to them. 

Earlier this week, I joined faith-based leaders for our quarterly conversations themed “Learning Happens Best in Community.” The purpose of this gathering is to engage all perspectives and see what we can learn from one another. What is some of the work that is already happening with FCPS families? How can we partner to build upon our strengths in support of each and every FCPS student, family and staff member? What are their hopes for the future of FCPS? This week, we discussed mental health training for students and how our faith-based leaders can partner in promoting these critical resources for our students.

Sometimes, community stretches across the globe, as is the case for some students at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. The students pictured above are part of a  group called Robot Uprising. They are offering robotics mentoring to students at the Anantapur Government Polytechnic College in India. The Robot Uprising Team has a mission to engage the global community and help spread the values of For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) and develop passions in STEM. Thank you for sharing your passion and knowledge with students on the other side of the world! Connections matter!

Later this month, we will begin our community forums for our strategic planning process. Our strategic plan is an affirmation of our collective purpose – our North Star. Planning teams, which include a diverse range of voices from the FCPS community, are continuing to review student achievement, access and survey data, and crafting a collective vision for the school division. Key communicators will soon receive strategic planning materials to share with their groups and networks. Preparations for divisionwide student focus groups are underway, and there will be opportunities for employees to engage in a survey and “reality check” sessions in the upcoming months. More information will be coming soon about registering for the forums. I hope you will invite your friends and neighbors to join us. 

Finally, We know that good nutrition is critical to student success and a daily offering of fresh fruits and vegetables is a great way to feed the mind! I am happy to report that salad bars are making a comeback in our elementary schools as part of lunch service in just a few weeks! Elementary schools that had a salad bar prior to the onset of the pandemic and have Title I designation will be prioritized. The Office of Food and Nutrition Services is currently working with vendors to source salad bar menu items and will start collaborating with administrators for a successful transition back to this pre-pandemic program enhancement. First on the list are Bucknell and London Towne elementary schools. I look forward to visiting a school when the salad bars are back and checking in with our students about what they enjoy most. 

I cannot close without acknowledging that our division has been in the headlines this week across our region and the nation. My letter to the community remains on the homepage of our website. In our house, we strive to judge both ourselves and others by our very best intent in serving and supporting one another. In our house, we stay in the light, and by doing so, become the light for so many others in our community and country. Today, I ask all of you to remain focused on the critical work of building community and preparing our students for those futures yet to be imagined.Your work matters!

Warmest Regards,

Dr. Michelle C. Reid
Superintendent
Fairfax County Public Schools