Article Text
Fairfax County Public Schools entered the week of March 10 with Pi Day celebrations approaching, students earning peace awards and schools preparing for a packed stretch of academics, athletics, arts and community events.
Students from 27 FCPS schools were selected for the 2025 Student Peace Awards of Fairfax County. Established in 2006, the awards recognize young people working as peacemakers and encourage the community to view peace as both a goal and a way of achieving change.
One of the week’s standout students was Irving Middle School eighth grader Sai Kintali, who was recognized by the America Book of Records after solving 50 puzzle cubes in 6 minutes and 50 seconds. In November, he completed the same challenge in 8 minutes and 24 seconds for recognition from the India Book of Records.
Sai began solving the puzzles about four years ago after finding a cube at home and watching instructional videos online. He now practices for one to two hours each day.
He said the activity has strengthened his concentration, listening skills and academic performance, helping him progress from struggling to focus during tests to earning all A’s. His next ambition is to meet the standards required for a Guinness World Record.
At Lynbrook Elementary School, sixth grade ambassadors from the Student Leadership Program welcomed visitors and discussed leadership, community service and the responsibilities of the superintendent.
Classroom stops showed students applying phonics skills, using music and visuals to identify weather, analyzing word problems involving bags of soccer balls and experimenting with batteries, light bulbs and conductive materials. Sixth graders also worked independently and in small groups to strengthen reading comprehension.
The next stop was Mantua Elementary School, where fourth graders debated whether drones should face greater regulation and used written evidence to support their positions. Other students compared pounds, ounces, kilograms and grams, while fifth graders studied the Industrial Revolution.
In art class, students drew scenes inspired by Shel Silverstein’s “Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out,” imagining the results of leaving their chores undone.
Athletics took center stage Tuesday evening when South Lakes High School and Hayfield Secondary School met in a varsity boys basketball state playoff game before a packed gym. Students, staff, community members and winter cheerleaders helped create a lively postseason atmosphere.
Later in the week, a visit to the warehouse at the FCPS Forte Center offered a look at the operations that keep supplies moving throughout the school system. Senior Manager of Warehouse Operations Angela Brown explained the receiving, pulling, packing and science-kit preparation processes.
Science Kitting Supervisor Justin Petitt described how instructional materials are assembled, while Pony Supervisor Ronnie Presley explained the delivery service that distributes items across FCPS.
The transportation training center also demonstrated how new employees are prepared and existing staff members are recertified. Assistant Director Traci Kubo-Carrera and the training team presented tools that included a board used to teach school bus lighting systems.
A tour of the test kitchen covered recipe development, breakfast-kiosk planning and efforts to expand scratch cooking. FCPS is also working to increase the number of cafeteria share tables, which allow unopened food to be made available rather than discarded. Food and Nutrition Services leaders Shawn Sawko and Melissa DeAngelo are overseeing work on healthy menus and meal delivery across the division.
On Thursday evening, FCPS representatives attended Teach for America’s Pulse of Education event at the Aspen Institute in Washington, D.C. Region 2 Assistant Superintendent Megan Vroman, a Teach for America alumna, spoke on a panel and reflected on her experience with the nonprofit, which recruits college graduates to teach for two years in underserved public schools.
National School Breakfast Week brought another food-focused event Friday morning at Key Middle School. Jenn Knepper and Tim Jones from the Office of Food and Nutrition Services invited students to taste possible additions to school breakfast menus and provide feedback.
Among the items sampled was roasted peach overnight oats. The testing was part of a wider effort to make breakfasts both nutritious and appealing, while incorporating student input under Goal 2 of the 2023-30 Strategic Plan.
Friday night produced a dramatic result at South Lakes High School. The Seahawks won their boys basketball state playoff game in the final seconds, securing a place in the State Championships. Woodson High School also won on the road and advanced to the championship weekend.
Saturday began with a meeting in Great Falls about the ongoing school boundary review. Community members discussed the importance of education and its role in the area’s future.
At Lake Braddock Secondary School, hundreds of teacher candidates attended an FCPS job fair and met with human resources employees, principals, assistant principals and school staff seeking to fill positions across the division.
The arts took over later at Edison High School, where students in grades two through six performed the musical “Imagine a Dragon” as the Rose Hill Elementary School Players. Fifth grade teacher Natalie Rubertone and first grade teacher Danny Adams directed the production, with parent Haley Spence serving as producer.
Mantua Elementary School also hosted the finals of its long-running basketball league Saturday afternoon. Students competed before a crowded gym as families—including some with multiple generations connected to the league—cheered from the sidelines.
FCPS was represented Sunday at the Regeneron Science Talent Search Public Exhibition of Projects by Ray Zhang of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Zhang was one of 40 finalists in the national pre-college science competition.
His project examined biofilm composition in clinical isolates of fungal Fusarium and the development of a treatment aimed at inhibiting its growth through multiple antifungal targets. Teachers Brian Kennedy and Laura Locklear were also recognized for supporting science instruction at the school.
The week’s reflections also marked Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day on March 8. The 2025 theme, “Accelerate Action,” emphasized the urgency of overcoming systemic barriers and advancing gender equality. Current projections cited for the observance indicate that full gender parity could remain more than a century away without faster progress.
With Pi Day arriving March 14, schools across FCPS were also preparing activities centered on the mathematical constant representing the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter—bringing another celebration of student learning to an already eventful week.