Superintendent's Weekly Reflections

Hello Team FCPS,

What another fabulous summer week!! There are so many positive and inspiring opportunities to share with one another. It is great to be a part of welcoming staff back this week as we plan and prepare for an incredible year ahead!!

As promised, the conversation I hosted last week with FCPS’ Director of Cybersecurity VJ Rao is now ready for a listen! It is important information about how we can all protect FCPS – and ourselves – from cyber threats. Starting this week, the FCPS cybersecurity team will be helping all of us learn specifically about phishing emails: how to spot them and why recognizing them is so important. Be sure to watch our “Know Before You Click” video to learn more. Thank you for your attention to this important topic and working to keep us all safe and secure.

Monday, I met with the Fairfax Association for Elementary School Principals (FAESP) and spoke with them about the importance of their work. Our elementary schools start the journey for students to the mountaintop of educational excellence. This work sets the tone, and the path to success, for the rest of these students’ time in public education. Something else I shared was a reminder about the strong start goals in our 2023-2030 strategic plan that support pre-K programs, kindergarten readiness, our English Language Learners, and early access to advanced enrichment and instruction, including our goal of all third graders reading. I’m so excited for them to have this foundation and can’t wait to see the young people they will grow into and the contributions they’ll make to our communities!

Anticipation is in the air as we move closer to the first day of school. South County High School was full of energy for the Great Beginnings Summer Institute where we welcomed more than 1,200 new teachers to our amazing school system.

Throughout this four-day induction program, our mentors and staff introduced new educators to each other, our central office support team, and to our curriculum. I look forward to meeting many of our new staff members when I am out visiting schools again this year. My heart beats strongest in schools!

On Wednesday I met up with our South County High School Color Guard team. They were gracious enough to take some time out of their rehearsal schedule to demonstrate their routine – I was impressed not only by their skill but also by the way they worked so seamlessly as a team. Go Stallions! I cannot wait for the fall sports season to kick off!

In the last few weeks, all schools participated in School Improvement and Innovation Plan (SIIP) summer workshops. We had more than 80 members of Team FCPS involved in the development of the plans, including representatives from:

• Department of School Improvement and Supports
• Department of Special Services
• Equity and Cultural Responsiveness
• Instructional Services
• Information Technology
• Leadership Development
• Office of Research and Strategic Improvement
• Region leaders
• School-based administrators
• Title I

Thank you to everyone who participated for their collaboration and assistance in aligning SIIP to our 2023-30 strategic plan. Together, all things are possible! Links to the presentations, resources, and new data tools are available on the SIIP Hub site.

Wednesday at Lewis High School I attended a showing of “The Right to Read,” a documentary produced by LaVar Burton about the fight to increase literacy among our most vulnerable learners. Thank you to the Fairfax Alliance of Black School Educators’ (FABSE), the Virginia Alliance of Black School Educators (VAABSE) and the NAACP’s Fairfax County Branch for co-hosting this event alongside FCPS’ Minority Student Achievement Oversight Committee (MSAOC) and the Instructional Services Department. If you have the opportunity to watch this important documentary, I highly recommend you do so – you can see the trailer here. The National Assessment of Education Progress labels “below basic” reading ability as that which falls below the lowest performance level – the inability to read. The nationwide statistics are sobering. Students at the “below basic” fourth grade reading level include:

• 56% of Black students
• 50% of Hispanic students
• 57% of American Indian/Alaska Native students
• 70% of students with disabilities
• 67% of English Learners
• 52% of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch 

At FCPS, we’ve been working hard to close this critical educational equity gap. Goal 3 of our 2023-30 strategic plan is “Academic Growth and Excellence,” and one of those measures is students reading on grade level by the end of third grade. Research shows that adults who struggle to read are more likely to be unemployed, underemployed, and incarcerated. In today’s world, literacy is vital for a productive and meaningful future. This work matters!

Friday I spoke to our Food and Nutrition Services (FNS) team. They play a vital role in ensuring our students have access to nutritious, delicious food that fuels their growing minds and bodies. Thanks to the dedication and passion of everyone in FNS, our students are able to start and end their days without hunger – this work matters! Last year, FNS served more than 18 million meals to our students, including 60,000 of our students who qualify for free or reduced-price meals. This year, they’ll be exploring more ways to incorporate student voice into our school menus. I’m very excited to announce that there will be salad bars starting the first day of school this year at every elementary, middle, secondary, and high school in FCPS! Salad bars help us offer a variety of nutritious choices every day and encourage our learners to build meals based on a foundation of colorful fruits and vegetables. We are committed to healthier food and nutrition options and there will be more news ahead on this topic ;>)

Saturday I joined the Youth Artificial Intelligence (AI) Summit in Tysons, hosted by Girls Computing League, an organization founded by an FCPS graduate and led by many current and former FCPS students. What an exciting and energizing morning! I was joined by about 300 middle and high school students who are eager to become the next generation of AI technologists, innovators, and leaders. We have so many inspiring students leading important work each and every day.  More to come on this important topic…

This week we are launching a new section in my weekly reflections titled We are Listening. I want to make sure that you are aware that we are hearing from you and where we can, we are doing our best to be responsive. My PDE changes is our first of the series I would like to share excited news about.   

We are Listening

Jay Nocco, Director, Professional Growth and Career Development, recently shared that many of you have expressed concerns with the growing number of our annual required trainings. While we have an obligation to make sure all employees complete the state, federal and locally mandated trainings, we aimed to make sure you were not overburdened in doing so. Based on your feedback, the FCPS leadership team reviewed all trainings to verify the requirement and advocated to streamline the requirements. If you have started your trainings, you may have noticed that many have a 15-minute maximum duration for online courses, and most of the annually required trainings now have a pre-test option. Instead of completing a training, for some, you can attest that you understand your responsibilities as an employee. Some trainings now have an “inline player,” which seamlessly integrates the content in the same MyPDE window, and a feature that allows you to speed up the narration, pause, play, and even zoom to fit. These improvements are all designed to make your experience better. Our commitment to continuous improvement based on your feedback is evident in the optional course survey at the end of each training. Your voice matters, and we are committed to making our division better for our students, communities, and all our employees.

Becca N. Ferrick, Head Librarian at Mountain View High School shared -- “It is evident from my own experience this week that the MyPDE team took valuable teacher feedback to heart and worked tirelessly to implement changes that have improved clarity, reduced the amount of time required to complete trainings, and scheduled trainings over the course of the school year rather than all up front. Last year, I was met with a list of required trainings that spilled over multiple pages and took me two days to complete. Most of that list did not indicate why those trainings were required or by whom, did not rank them in terms of importance or deadline, and did not offer any way to demonstrate my understanding from previous years’ trainings. This year, my list was just over one page long and took me less than two hours to complete. The MyPDE team has scheduled required trainings in chunks so that I only have to complete a portion of them in August and can plan to take on several more reasonable chunks throughout the year. The team clarified which trainings were required by local, state, and federal guidelines. And pre-tests were available for nearly every training, allowing me to demonstrate my knowledge before having to complete the same trainings I have completed so many times before. Thank you to the MyPDE team for reaching out to teacher associations to gather recommendations about how to improve this process and for working so diligently to get those improvements in place before the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year!” 

Saturday afternoon, I had the opportunity to stop by and support our Family Partnerships and Community Support Team as they welcomed students and families to a Back to School event at Bailey’s Community Center. 

It was great to visit with so many of our students and their families. We also had FCPS transportation staff and early childhood staff present who were busy sharing important back to school information. I was especially excited to see one of our Braddock ES students ready to head back to school in a week. Go Eagles!!

Finally, I recently had an opportunity to learn more about one of our recent FCPS graduates and his journey.  I want to thank Dr. Nardos King for sharing this inspiring journey and being an inspiring educational leader.  In every student lies a universe of potential, a spark waiting to be ignited. I am confident that all of our educators and support staff understand and believe in our students’ capacity to reach the stars, to chase dreams, and to sculpt realities previously only imagined. We know that each child, regardless of their background, deserves our resolute commitment. Our role is not just to impart knowledge, but to cultivate resilience, to nurture passions, and to guide students through their journey. When we stand by them, see them for their boundless possibilities, and equip them with the tools to achieve their aspirations, we don't just teach; we help them reach their full potential. Second Lt. James Wrobah is a graduate from the Bryant High School Class of 2019. His teachers believed he could and so he did! Please take a moment to watch a short video about this outstanding young man, and as you prepare for the new school year, let’s continue to imagine the possibilities.

As we think about going back to school, I want to take a moment and recognize that it is a transition we need to thoughtfully support. "Going back to school is a transition for everyone," says Lynn Bufka, a practicing psychologist who also works at the American Psychological Association. "No matter the age of the child, or if they've been to school before." In thinking about how to have the best start of school ever, I want to share that it is a great time to review school routines, organization of materials, and bed times as we know that rest and healthy routines support successful experiences. Even for us as adults I think ;>)

Let’s enjoy this time together,

Warmest regards,

Michelle Reid, Ed.D.
Superintendent
Fairfax County Public Schools