Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Teacher pay and foreign language cutbacks are also concerns as Fairfax County School Board looks for another $30 million in reductions for next year's budget.
If push came to shove, Jane Lipp would give her right kidney to keep an instructional coach at her school. The principal of South County High School, which has a 49 percent minority population, said that's the kind of sacrifice she'd make, drama aside, to keep a position that's been 'instrumental" in helping her teachers push the school's diverse student body to succeed. More than a dozen of the 40 speakers who addressed the school board Tuesday night in a public hearing about Fairfax County Public Schools' budget spoke about the role coaches play in the day to day lives of teachers and students, including their help toward narrowing student achievement gaps. The public hearing comes as the school board prepares to adopt a $2.5 billion …
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Officials will sit down soon to discuss how to get kids early education -- and fast.
With more than 800 children on the waiting list for pre-kindergarten services, Fairfax County’s School Board and Board of Supervisors are committed to formulating a plan to solve the problem, they said Tuesday. Head Start provides early education and pre-kindergarten classes to kids from low income families, better preparing them to enter Fairfax County Public Schools. The program is funded by a mix of federal, state and county sources, but sequestration has the Board of Supervisors on edge and the Fiscal Year 2014 budget doesn’t include any funding for expansion of the program. For this reason, Supervisor Cathy Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill) has formally requested the two Boards sit down and find a solution. “High quality early education that …
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Superintendent from Lubbock, Texas will step in as leader of Fairfax County Public Schools on July 1.
Karen Garza was officially appointed Thursday as the next superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools. Garza, currently the superintendent of the Lubbock Independent School District in Texas, will start July 1. The school board approved Thursday a four-year contract for Garza, through June 30, 2017. Read: New Fairfax Superintendent: 'I Am A Constant Learner' In remarks after the unanimous vote, Garza said her primary focus will be on teaching and learning, "for that is our core work." "To our stakeholders, our employees, our parents and our business and community partners, I pledge to be responsive and accountable to all Fairfax County schools stakeholders," she said. Garza also said she planned to be "very visible," noting the best …
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Fairfax County School Board, community members, share hopes for Karen Garza, likely the system's next superintendent.
Hours after Fairfax County Public Schools announced Karen Garza would likely become its next superintendent, school board leaders and other stakeholders spoke to the number of "unique qualities" they looked forward to seeing at the head of the system — chief among them, her ability to work collaboratively to find solutions. In a county that's home to a "highly demanding community and high expectations and different groups with strong voices who are not shy about expressing their opinions," that's an incredibly coveted trait, school board chair Ilryong Moon told Patch. "It's good to have a superintendent who believes in collaborating with a wide number of groups and does it well," Moon said, noting the former elementary school teacher was …
Karen Garza, currently a superintendent in Texas, will likely become the next leader of Fairfax County Public Schools.
A "strategic planner, a systems thinker, a stellar manager, and a highly effective communicator" is how the Fairfax County School Board described Karen Garza, the Texas superintendent leaders announced as their preferred candidate for superintendent Wednesday. Garza, who for the past four years has led the 30,000-student district of Lubbock, Texas, will assume the role pending final negotiations and a board site visit to the Lubbock Independent School District (ISD). She will become the system's first female superintendent as she takes the place of current Superintendent Jack Dale, who retires June 30. Garza was selected from 47 applicants for the position, and came out ahead of the 18 other candidates who were interviewed largely because…
School board agrees on a number of measures to re-evaluate teacher workday, but associations say teachers "need relief now."
Fairfax County School Board members agreed Monday on four initiatives to address the system's years-long teacher workload issue, including the creation of a committee charged with returning to the board with recommendations on reducing teacher time demands by the end of the month. But the board did not agree on specific actions to relieve teachers in the short term, as teachers associations and some school board members had hoped. More analysis and discussions, they said, are "not enough" — and continuing for much longer without concrete action will begin to impact student achievement, if it hasn't already, they said. "I'm not happy. ... This has been the No.1 issue in my tenure," Michael Hairston said of his time as president of the …
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Debate heats up as school board weighs community and staff recommendations before coming school year.
Two weeks after a community committee detailed 52 recommendations to overhaul discipline practices systemwide, Fairfax County Public Schools staff has presented its own proposal for policy changes. But the plan leaves out two programs some see as key to a years-long push for reform — sparking a debate Monday on what role both groups would play in how the system moves forward. Staff leaders backed many of the ideas put forward by the 40-member Ad Hoc Community Committee on Student Rights and Responsibilities, including initiatives to make the discipline handbook easier to understand, keep students in school as they appeal a suspension and give principals tiered, age-specific approaches to a range of offenses. But staff members said they …
Monday, April 8, 2013
School board agrees on a number of measures to re-evaluate teacher workday, but associations say teachers "need relief now."
Fairfax County School Board members agreed Monday on four initiatives to address the system's years-long teacher workload issue, including the creation of a committee charged with returning to the board with recommendations on reducing teacher time demands by the end of the month. But the board did not agree on specific actions to relieve teachers in the short term, as teachers associations and some school board members had hoped. More analysis and discussions, they said, are "not enough" — and continuing for much longer without concrete action will begin to impact student achievement, if it hasn't already, they said. "I'm not happy. ... This has been the No.1 issue in my tenure," Michael Hairston said of his time as president of the …
Friday, April 5, 2013
Fairfax County school board to talk with next round of candidates in coming weeks as Superintendent Jack Dale prepares to retire.
The Fairfax County School Board will continue to narrow its field of superintendent candidates in the next two weeks as it prepares to name a new system leader by May. At its meeting Thursday night, the school board approved a motion to discuss, consider and interview candidates for the division's superintendent "at one or more undisclosed locations" between April 5 and 19. Outgoing Superintendent Jack Dale announced in 2011 his plans to retire June 30 of this year. Last fall, the board selected Hazard, Young, Attea and Associates — the same consulting firm that found Dale in 2004 — to lead the current search process. While the board has focused more on community engagement in this search than in the one it used to hire Dale, it decided to…
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Replacement for Superintendent Jack Dale should be in place by May, school board members said Monday as they explored the kind of relationship they wanted with the system's new leader.
Fairfax County School Board members are on track to have a new superintendent chosen by the end of April. After a work session Monday afternoon, School Board Chairman Ilryong Moon (At Large) said the Board was keeping to the schedule outlined in November 2012, hoping to publicly announce the new leader of one of the country's largest school systems in May. “We are having our first round of interviews this week,” Moon said, adding that he and his colleagues were planning to hold interviews Wednesday and narrow the pool down to approximately three finalists by Sunday. Those chosen will interviewed a second time, and the Board will then choose its preferred candidate, Moon said. During the work session, the Board explored the relationship …
Gail Ritchie
9:08 am on Thursday, May 16, 2013
The best way to counter ignorant, hateful, inaccurate information is to provide accurate information. So: 1. Instructional coaches are 11-month employees, so their salaries reflect an additional month of salary. Many of us are long-time employees, so some of that salary reflects longevity and years of experience (from which all the teachers and students at our schools benefit). And FCPS … more ›