The renovation and expansion of Dranesville Elementary School is slated to begin next year — despite some lingering concerns.
The Fairfax County Planning Commission voted unanimously on Wednesday (Oct. 4) to approve a nearly 44,000-square-foot addition to the school at 1515 Powells Tavern Place in Herndon.
Woodson High School may soon drop “W.T.” from the beginning of its name.
The Fairfax County School Board launched a formal process last week to consider renaming the school just outside Fairfax City, adding it to a growing list of local institutions and landmarks whose monikers have been reevaluated in recent years.
The Coalition for TJ is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to consider its lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology’s admissions policy, which was revised in 2020 with the goal of diversifying the student body.
In the petition filed Monday (Aug. 21), the advocacy group argues that the changes approved by the Fairfax County School Board discriminate against Asian students, who saw their share of the magnet school’s incoming classes drop from more than 70% to closer to 60% in the past few years.
Fairfax County Public Schools has officially announced that it will not implement the Virginia Department of Education’s recently finalized model policies regarding transgender and nonbinary students.
Yesterday (Tuesday), FCPS Superintendent Michelle Reid released a statement confirming that FCPS won’t adopt the new guidelines after a “detailed legal review” found that its current policies are “consistent” with state and federal law.
After months of review, the Virginia Department of Education has released a final set of policies guiding public schools on how to treat transgender students — including many that contradict the policies currently used by Fairfax County Public Schools.
Released Tuesday (July 18), the “model policies” generally direct schools to require that students use names, pronouns and facilities, such as bathrooms, based on their legal sex as designated in their official school records. All local public school systems are obligated by state law to adopt a version of the policies.
Another boundary adjustment is in the works for schools in McLean.
Just two years after tweaking the McLean High School boundaries, Fairfax County Public Schools has proposed a study aimed at relieving crowding at Kent Gardens Elementary School (1717 Melbourne Drive), which is currently at 121% capacity — one of the highest rates in the system.
(Updated at 11 a.m. on 6/27/2023) The Fairfax County School Board voted 9-1 last night (Monday) to raise member salaries to $48,000 with an additional $2,000 for the board chair, starting Jan. 1, 2024.
Aiming lower than what staff proposed, the raises are comparable to compensation for other paid school boards governing large school systems elsewhere in the country and raises approved in previous years, Mount Vernon District School Board representative Karen Corbett-Sanders said.
(Updated at 4:20 p.m.) The current admissions process for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) does not discriminate against Asian American students, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has ruled.
A majority of the three-judge panel backed the Fairfax County School Board’s argument in support of admissions policy changes intended to increase diversity at the prestigious magnet school, reversing a lower court’s ruling that sided with the Coalition for TJ.
Fairfax County Public Schools is proposing some notable updates to its student policies.
At last week’s school board meeting, school officials laid out a number of proposed revisions to its Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook, including how cases of bullying are handled, what’s interpreted as appropriate clothing, and the potential for increased punishment for substance misuse.
The influx of federal money that has helped buoy Fairfax County Public Schools and other school systems around the U.S. as they emerged from the first year of the Covid pandemic is starting to run out.
Facing a September 2024 deadline, FCPS officials presented a plan to the school board last Thursday (April 27) for spending approximately $57.5 million remaining from the $188.8 million in Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) awarded by the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021.
