Former Fairfax County School Board member Janie Strauss, who has died at age 78, is being remembered as a community champion with a focus on improving the lives of youth.
Strauss, who served as the school board’s Dranesville District member for nearly 30 years, representing the McLean, Great Falls and Herndon areas, died at home on April 11 after a year-long battle with glioblastoma brain cancer, her family said.
In addition to her school board service, Strauss was perhaps most noted for chairing the CAPPIES, a national initiative supporting student theater and journalism.
The organization had been founded by her late husband, William, in 1999, and has an active presence across Northern Virginia.
Elected officials on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors were forceful in their praise of Strauss’s service to the community at their April 22 meeting.
“Always thoughtful, cheerful. She leaves such a legacy,” Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik said.
Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman described Strauss as “optimistic and creative.”
At a school board meeting last Thursday (April 24), Chair Karl Frisch, who represents the Providence District, noted the loss and asked the assembled audience to observe a minute of silence.
On behalf of the school board, Frisch extended “our sympathies and condolences to her family and friends during this difficult time.”
Janie Kamps was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, in late December 1946 to Howard Kamps and Mary McCoy. In her youth, she was a competitive sailboat skipper and concert pianist, her family said.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in history from George Washington University and a master’s degree in education from Harvard University, she married William Strauss in 1973, the year both graduated from Harvard.
The couple later moved to Northern Virginia, where they raised four children in McLean.
Strauss was a teacher and served as president of the Fairfax County Council of PTAs. She first served on the Fairfax County School Board from 1991-1993, when members were appointed rather than elected.
Strauss was tapped for the post by then-Board of Supervisors Chairman Audrey Moore, who wanted to mend fences with the powerful PTA group.
After the school board transitioned into an elected body, Strauss won six consecutive elections to represent the Dranesville District from 1995 to 2015:
- 1995: Unopposed
- 1999: Strauss won 55% of the vote against Michael Saliba
- 2003: Unopposed
- 2007: Unopposed
- 2011: Strauss won 52% of the vote against Louise Epstein
- 2015: Strauss won 54% of the vote against Peter Kurzenhauser
In Virginia, local school board races are officially nonpartisan, although political parties can endorse candidates. Strauss was a lifelong Democrat.
On the school board, which she chaired in 2001 and again in 2011, Strauss had “an unwavering desire to do the right thing for all students, on all levels, at all times,” Audra Sydnor, then a retired Fairfax County Public Schools administrator, said when supporting her 2011 re-election bid.
After announcing she would not seek reelection the following year, Strauss reflected on the highs and lows of her lengthy tenure in a 2018 interview with the Sun Gazette’s Brian Trompeter.
She singled out budget decisions made during recessions as the most challenging episodes of her service.
“I’ve been through three downturns, the worst of which was from 2008 on,” Strauss said. “We raised class sizes three times, held pay back and cut well over 2,000 positions.”
Strauss said she was comfortable leaving elected office and making way for new generations.
“I’m in my 70s. It’s time for younger people to become involved and be on the school board,” she said.
The death of her husband in December 2007 resulted in a more prominent role for Strauss in the CAPPIES, an organization that trains student-journalists to review high school theater productions and, at the local level, culminates in a Kennedy Center awards gala each spring.
For her community work, Strauss was named “Lady Fairfax” for the Dranesville District by the Board of Supervisors in 2021.
She is survived by her four children — Melanie (Cyril) Yee, Victoria (Jeremy) Hays, Eric Strauss and Becky Strauss — as well as five grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to the CAPPIES. Donations can be sent via Zelle to admin@cappies.com or mailed to 7252 Evans Mill Road, McLean, VA 22101, made to “Cappies – Strauss Memorial Fund.”
