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Fairfax County Public Schools marked a packed week of academic celebrations, student victories and community events, while preparing for significant changes to Virginia’s school accountability rules.
Pi Day festivities on March 14 brought mathematics to life across the division. At Bush Hill Elementary School, third graders rotated through six activities, including measuring circumference and diameter, creating Spirograph and compass art, writing Pi poetry, playing a card game and completing puzzles.
Parent volunteers helped with the stations, and the class shared pies ranging from homemade ham pot pie to vegan blueberry. Teacher Roby Laha also dressed as Albert Einstein, whose birthday falls on March 14.
Braddock Elementary students embraced the celebration with Pi-themed shirts and a play on the formula for a circle’s area, adding humor to the day’s math lessons.
Students earn culinary and science honors
Herndon High School won the 13th annual Real Food for Kids Culinary Challenge, where celebrity chefs, culinary professionals and local leaders judged student-created meals.
The Herndon team served gnocchi stew, garlic breadsticks and a salad made with romaine lettuce, clementines, dried cranberries, feta cheese and balsamic dressing. Its winning menu is expected to appear as a school lunch in the near future.
Jackson Middle School placed third with a meal featuring Beantastic Medley, Crunchy Munchy Salad, crispy okra and a caramelized banana parfait.
The competition connects nutrition and health with culinary training, workforce development and career preparation. Student-driven menu options also support the school division’s goal of ensuring students feel safe, supported, included and empowered.
Ray Zhang, a senior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, finished 10th among the 40 finalists in the Regeneron Science Talent Search and received a $40,000 award.
Zhang studied possible improvements in treating drug-resistant Fusarium fungal infections. His research examined how the fungus forms sticky communities of cells that resist treatment and found that a combination of drugs controlled the fungus more effectively.
Performances and community discussions
On Monday evening, students from Robinson Secondary School and Langley, Fairfax and South County high schools participated in “Failureland” at Signature Theatre in Arlington. The original comedy explored overcoming self-doubt, developing courage and reconsidering the meaning of success.
A Tuesday meeting at the Gatehouse Administration Center brought faith leaders together for a discussion about job losses, food insecurity and stress related to recent federal government layoffs.
On Wednesday, FCPS Superintendent Michelle Reid joined Fort Belvoir Commander Col. Stewart at Fort Belvoir Upper Elementary School to speak with students about the health risks of tobacco. They also filmed a public service announcement titled “Take Down Tobacco.”
That day, FCPS hosted a Quad 1 Family Vision Group meeting at Hughes Middle School. Assistant budget director Matthew Norton led a discussion about the fiscal year 2026 budget, while Assistant Superintendent of Instructional Services Noel Klimenko discussed the division’s effort to have all students complete Algebra 1 by eighth grade.
Participants also raised changes at the Department of Education, the introduction of science standards in earlier grades and expectations for age-appropriate homework.
Transition services and extracurricular access
At Thursday’s School Board meeting, Reid highlighted Career and Transition Services for students with Individualized Education Programs as they prepare for employment, further education and other postsecondary paths.
FCPS works with more than 50 businesses and community organizations to provide workplace and life-readiness experiences. Its programs include four Secondary Transition to Employment sites at Mount Vernon High School, Chantilly High School, Davis Career Center and South Lakes High School.
Davis and Pulley career centers serve students ages 18 through 22. The division also has 47 employment and transition representatives serving all high schools and several specialized campuses, along with 19 academy resource teachers supporting six career academies.
Course offerings include Work Awareness and Transition, Education for Employment and Education for Employment Opportunities. Additional planning services connect students with college visits, job-shadowing trips, career fairs and trade or technical programs.
The School Board also received an update on equitable access to electives, extracurricular programs, co-curricular activities and enrichment opportunities. Participation outside the classroom is associated with outcomes including stronger attendance, academic performance, self-esteem, mental health and a sense of belonging.
FCPS added girls wrestling and boys volleyball at all 25 high schools this school year. The programs drew 239 girls and 440 boys. Winter cheer was added the previous year.
Other recognitions included Lake Braddock Secondary School’s gymnastics team winning its 13th state championship. Reid also discussed visits to schools, the FCPS warehouse and the Transportation Training Center, as well as the School Bus Stop Arm initiative intended to improve safety as students board and leave buses.
Families focus on boundaries and belonging
On Friday, the Quad 3 Family Vision Group met at Oak View Elementary School. Chief of Facilities and Capital Programs Janice Szymanski led a discussion of the Comprehensive School Boundary Review, while Klimenko addressed reading intervention and efforts to strengthen literacy.
FCPS held its annual Family Summit at South Lakes High School on Saturday. The event, an extension of the Special Education Conference, carried the theme “Beyond Labels: Nurturing a Culture of Belonging.”
Authors, speakers and inclusion advocates Julie Causton and Kristie Pretti-Frontczak delivered the keynote presentation. They discussed inclusive education and offered evidence-based strategies for families, particularly those supporting students with IEPs and 504 plans. Attendees could also choose among more than a dozen breakout sessions.
The day continued at First Baptist Church in Vienna with the Pathways to PEARLserverance: Young Ladies Summit. PEARL represents being Precious, Empowered, Anointed, Resilient and Loved, drawing on the image of a pearl developing through persistence under pressure.
The summit emphasized civic participation, personal care and preparation for the future. Speakers included FCPS Chief Equity Officer Dr. Nardos King and television news anchor Marissa Mitchell.
At Langston Hughes Middle School, students gathered for a districtwide Carcassonne tournament through the Appian Board Game Club. The weekly after-school program, sponsored by Appian Corporation, teaches students the tile-placement strategy game in which players build roads, cities and fields and use figures known as meeples to claim features and earn points.
South Lakes repeats as state champion
Saturday ended with an all-FCPS matchup in the Virginia High School League Class 6 boys basketball championship at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
Woodson and South Lakes high schools faced each other before a large crowd of students, employees, families and community members. South Lakes won the game to repeat as state champion.
The event also provided an opportunity to recognize retiring VHSL Executive Director Dr. John “Billy” Haun and reflect on his career and influence on Virginia high school athletics.
Virginia accountability changes raise concerns
The Virginia Department of Education’s 2024 accountability system will change how schools are evaluated through the School Performance and Support Framework. The revisions affect multilingual learners, students enrolled for only part of an academic year and students whose parents or guardians refuse state testing.
Under the previous Standards of Accreditation system, multilingual learners could attend Virginia public schools for as many as 11 semesters before their Standards of Learning test results counted against a school’s performance. That timetable reflected research indicating that language acquisition generally takes eight to 14 semesters.
The new framework allows only three semesters, or 12 instructional months in a U.S. public school, before a multilingual learner’s results enter accountability calculations.
The former system also excluded the performance of students who received most of their instruction elsewhere before enrolling in a school. Under the new framework, test performance will count toward the school where an assessment is administered when the student has been enrolled there for at least half of the academic year.
Testing refusals will also carry greater consequences. Under Virginia’s original federally approved Every Student Succeeds Act plan, a student whose parent or guardian refused testing received a zero on the score report, but that zero did not count against the school’s performance.
The new system will count the zero toward a school’s overall rating when participation falls below 95%.
These changes may require schools to adjust how they explain test participation to families and how they prepare students for SOL assessments, particularly when circumstances affecting a rating are outside the school’s direct control. FCPS said it will continue supporting individual students while monitoring academic growth and achievement under its strategic plan.
Spring conversations begin
A spring series of employee conversations is scheduled through early May:
- Tuesday, March 18, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Haycock Elementary School
- Tuesday, April 29, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Providence Elementary School
- Thursday, May 1, from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Burke School
- Wednesday, May 7, from 5 to 6 p.m. at Weyanoke Elementary School
Separate community conversations will give families and other residents opportunities to offer ideas, questions and feedback.