We 💗 FCPS Families
Anthony and Melissa Pikul
They met in 2000 at the Beginning Teacher Induction Program (now known as Great Beginnings). Their engagement — which featured Smokey the puppet from Anthony’s classroom — was covered in the employee newsletter Supergram in December 2000, which Anthony still has a copy of.
Both of them teach kindergarten, Anthony at Woodley Hills Elementary School and Melissa at Island Creek.
Melissa grew up in FCPS having attended Belle View
Elementary, Carl Sandburg Middle School, and West Potomac High School. Melissa’s parents were also FCPS students attending Bucknell Elementary, Bryant Middle School and Groveton High School (now West Potomac).
Both of their children attended Island Creek Elementary and went on to attend Hayfield Secondary School.
“We are an FCPS family,” Anthony says.
The top photo is from the 2000 Supergram. The bottom photo is more recent.
Heather and Rob Walnock
Heather and Rob Walnock met at Beech Tree Elementary School. Heather started teaching fourth grade in 2003, and Rob was teaching fifth grade in 2004. They started dating in 2006 and were married in 2010.
Rob has left Beech Tree, but now they have three children who have attended or are attending the school. “We are a Beech Tree Beavers Family!” Heather said.
Nicholas and Bonnie Rocha
Nicholas and Bonnie Rocha met while they were students at Westfield High School in 2007. She was a sophomore and he was a junior. Now they are married and have three children, and both drive school buses that service Westfield High School.
The Epperson Family
Hunter Woods Elementary School is home to three generations of the Epperson family. Cory Epperson is a fourth grade teacher. Her son Justin is a special education teacher, and her granddaughter Olivia is a third grader.
Cory is also a proud graduate of Fairfax High School and Justin graduated from Oakton.
“Being able to collaborate with my son is so cool and allows me to see the competent colleague that he is,” Cory said. “Reading books to my granddaughter’s class or seeing her at recess or in the cafeteria is a great joy for me.”
The Coe Family
Greg Coe’s mother worked at Silverbrook Elementary School as the library media specialist, and he often picked up substituting jobs there while earning his master’s degree in education.
“As I feel that any good substitute should, I would always leave a report on the day for whomever I was in for,” he said. One day, he was asked to sub for a sixth grade teacher, Ms. Kristin McGrath. “The day was fairly unremarkable but to no one’s surprise the class was quite chatty with the normal teacher out. In my report to my future wife I remarked that the class was more akin to a group of banshees than a sixth grade class. She found this comment to be amusing.”
“I would like to believe that we caught each other’s eye right away but we did not begin to see one another until I was set to begin a long-term sub job at Keene Mill Elementary and I made sure to get her email so that I could stay in touch,” Greg says. “We began to date soon after that job started in May of 2008, got engaged in 2010, married in 2012, and now we have a marvelous life and three children together.”
Kristin now works for FCPS as a school counselor at McNair Primary Elementary. Greg began his full-time career at FCPS in 2008 as a civics teacher and currently works at Rachel Carson Middle School.
The Vadala Sisters
Sisters Maria and Joanna Vadala attended Marshall Road Elementary and Thoreau Middle School, and graduated from James Madison High School. Over the years, they had “so many rockstar teachers as mentors.”
They both choose to become teachers in Fairfax County Public Schools. Maria teaches kindergarten at Fairfax Villa Elementary and Joanna is teaching seventh grade English at Stone Middle School.
The Smith Family
Steven T. Smith and Susanna Smith — pictured with their kids — met at Greenbriar West Elementary School in 2005. They were married in 2007, and both of their children have attended the school.
They are still there; Steve teaches fourth grade, and Susanna teaches kindergarten.
Marianne Crooch and daughter Lacy Bonner
When her children were young and she was single, Marianne Crooch (at right in the photo) was looking for a job that focused on kids and allowed her to prioritize her children. She found what she was looking for working for FCPS, and worked in IT until she retired in 2022.
Her daughter, Lacy Bonner (at left in the photo), graduated from South County High School. After choosing to study as far as she could from home — the University of Hawai’i at Manoa for undergrad and the University of Leeds in the UK for her master’s degree — she didn’t have a clear picture of what she wanted to do, but she returned home.
She started substitute teaching for FCPS. “I found that I really enjoyed working in schools and began to seriously consider a career in teaching,” Lacy said. “When I decided this, there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to work with FCPS. I had been given a lifetime of education from them and I wanted to be a part of passing on that experience.”
This year is Lacy’s first year as a teacher. Now that she’s retired, Marianne has picked up the torch and started substituting as she was looking for “something new and rewarding.” Conveniently, she’s been able to substitute for her daughter.
Bridget and Russ Wright
They have been married for 13 years and have a spirited fourth grader, Teagan, who attends Canterbury Woods Elementary School.
Bridget now works with the College Success Programs Team as an educational specialist with the Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) program, and Russ is the TSSPEC for Willow Oaks Administrative Center.
Orland and Lynette Henry
In 2014, Orland and Lynette along with their children, Joseph and Charisma, moved to Fairfax. Lynette became a professor at George Mason University, training school counselors, many of who are now leaders in FCPS. Orland began teaching math at Whitman Middle School. His love for teaching Math then took him on to Hayfield Secondary School where he was a part of systemic work increasing access to Algebra 1 by eighth grade.
Lynette’s desire to impact policy and processes that often marginalize children from underrepresented populations brought her to work for FCPS as a school counselor at Hayfield Secondary School before she became manager of College Success Programs.
Their children, Joseph and Charisma attended Woodson High School. Charisma graduated Woodson High School after serving as student body president and a representative on the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council. Joseph left Woodson early and finished his senior year as an IT Assistant for George Washington University Medical Faculty Associates. They both have graduated from The United States’ Military Academy, West Point, and are now serving in the Army.
Orland is now a district Title I math resource teacher and Lynette is the Executive Director of Educate Fairfax, the non-profit education foundation for FCPS.
It has come full circle for the Henrys as they are partly responsible for FCPS hiring 31 international teachers this year — including two from Barbados. The Henrys continue to enjoy their marriage of 32 years and supporting education for more than 20 years.