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Fairfax County Public Schools students earned 809 honors in the 2025 Regional Scholastic Art Awards, leading a busy week that also brought the final community meeting of the first phase of a countywide school boundary review.
Students in grades 7 through 12 received 210 Gold Key awards, 235 Silver Key awards and 364 honorable mentions. Entries covered disciplines ranging from drawing, photography and sculpture to architecture, fashion, animation and mixed media.
Four FCPS works were nominated for the best-in-show American Visions Award: Cindy Chan’s Pearfections of a Woman from McLean High School, Chloe Dehn’s Looming from Madison High School, Hurie Ikram’s Faith from West Potomac High School and Alan Wang’s The Road Not Taken from McLean High School.
Gold Key artwork is scheduled for display at Northern Virginia Community College’s Ernst Community Cultural Center in Annandale from February 17 through March 13. The Silver Key ceremony is set for March 4, followed by the Gold Key ceremony on March 5.
Boundary review remains in its first phase
FCPS also completed the last community boundary review meeting of Phase 1 after receiving input from more than 2,500 employees, family members and other community participants.
The comprehensive review will remain in Phase 1 through the spring while FCPS and its consultant collect and analyze data. No boundary changes have been proposed.
The school division will next identify major themes from the public feedback and use them to develop draft boundary scenarios. Those scenarios are expected to be released for additional community review during Phase 2.
Meanwhile, 96% of school-based employees who responded to a recent Intent to Return form said they plan to come back to FCPS for the next school year. The annual transfer period for licensed instructional employees remains open through April 4, and two job fairs will be held each month through the end of the instructional hiring season.
Superintendent Michelle Reid also met Tuesday with the Fairfax County Council for Economic Opportunity at the Fairfax County Government Center. The Board of Supervisors established the council to advise county leaders about economic opportunities and the local business climate. Its membership includes supervisors, business leaders, workforce organizations, economic development partners and FCPS.
Reid discussed the role of mathematics in a strong education and FCPS efforts to prepare future leaders and innovators. She also acknowledged the disruptions caused by winter weather and the flexibility required to keep teaching and learning on track.
Students recognized for leadership, service and perseverance
On Thursday, Reid visited Centreville High School to recognize National Honor Society members for their academic performance and commitment to service. She emphasized that leadership depends on action, responsibility and helping others. Principal Erik Healey and the Centreville staff were also recognized for supporting the students.
That evening, Oak View Elementary School held Kindness Night, an event centered on making schools and communities safer, healthier and more inclusive through everyday acts of compassion. Students assembled bags and made scarves for people in need, wrote encouraging notes to first responders and created friendship bracelets for classmates and friends.
Reid later attended Lake Braddock Secondary School’s production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. The show featured student performers with support from school employees and families under Principal Lindsey Kearns.
On Friday morning, Bryant View High School held its winter graduation ceremony. The school serves students who may have experienced interruptions in their education, have family or child care responsibilities, are multilingual learners, are returning at an older age to complete graduation requirements or need schedules compatible with work.
Graduates overcame a range of challenges to earn their diplomas. Their plans include military service, higher education and entering the workforce. Bryant View will begin its second semester while preparing for another graduating cohort in June.
Fairfax Academy’s Elite Dance Company also performed Friday at the Gatehouse Administration Center. Led by dance director Meredith Barnes, the company includes dancers from the Fairfax Academy for Communications and the Arts. The academy offers Dance 1 through 4, Broadway Dance and Hip Hop, with instruction intended to help students develop their artistic voices and transferable life skills.
The academy and other groups were scheduled to appear at the Move to Mend annual dance benefit concert at Fairfax High School on February 21 at 7 p.m.
Friday evening brought a girls basketball matchup between Oakton and Centreville high schools, supported by the schools’ coaches, trainers, staff members and winter cheer squads.
On Saturday, Mount Vernon High School presented Walking the Winds: American Tales. The production consisted of four short plays honoring the cultures, traditions and histories of Black and Latino communities through storytelling, music and movement. Theatre arts teacher and director Renee L. Charlow described the program as a celebration of folktales, family traditions and resilience.
Attendance recovery program wins federal recognition
The state superintendent of public instruction also announced an update involving chronic absenteeism calculations under Virginia’s new School Performance and Support Framework.
In 2024, the Virginia Department of Education introduced in-person flexible instructional time, allowing students to recover missed hours. In addition to giving students time to make up work, recovered days could count in a school’s chronic absenteeism calculation for state accountability purposes.
The new announcement confirmed that the U.S. Education Department had agreed to recognize the model in Virginia’s federal accountability plan.
Attendance and absenteeism are key measures under Goal 2 of the FCPS 2023-30 Strategic Plan, which focuses on students feeling safe, supported, included and empowered. FCPS continues to stress that regular attendance offers the greatest academic and social benefits and that recovered hours cannot fully replace missed classroom instruction.
Even so, the flexible instructional program gives students another opportunity for academic practice, stronger relationships with school employees and direct support from teachers.