Fairfax County Public Schools officials are planning to use a traditional model for the division’s first new high school to open in 20 years.
The county school board discussed the latest updates in planning for a new high school on the western end of the county during a work session last week (Oct. 7).
Poe Middle School is getting closer to having an Advanced Academic Program (AAP) center of its own, and other middle schools could soon follow suit.
The Fairfax County School Board voted unanimously last Thursday (Sept. 25) to begin engaging with the community on a plan to open a new AAP center at Poe (7000 Cindy Lane), which would be the first middle school in the Annandale High School pyramid to offer full-time advanced academic services.
Fairfax County school leaders are paying careful attention to start-of-school enrollment figures, attempting to determine if the Trump administration’s immigration policies are leading some families to keep their children at home.
“Some students are a bit reluctant to be in school at this time,” Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid told school board members during a Sept. 25 report on the first month of classes.
The new school year is just over a month in, but several Fairfax County School Board members are still thinking about a summer break that some families have lamented was too short.
“Something has to change,” Mason District Representative Ricardy Anderson said at the Sept. 25 board meeting.
Fairfax County Public Schools has managed to significantly reduce its bus driver vacancies, which in turn is bumping up on-time rates.
As part of her “Opening of Schools” report, Superintendent Michelle Reid reported last Thursday (Sept. 25) that 96% of bus routes were completed on time to start the current school year — a figure that astounded some School Board members.
County leaders have now joined School Board members in pushing for more early budget collaboration, to avoid repeating an impasse that soured relationships last spring.
At a Sept. 16 meeting of the Board of Supervisors’ Budget Policy Committee, County Executive Bryan Hill said school leaders needed to develop a “budget of reality” for fiscal 2027.
Some Fairfax County School Board members hope closer collaboration with their Board of Supervisors’ counterparts will make for smoother future budget processes than was experienced earlier this year.
Fairfax County Public Schools needs to convince local elected officials and the broader community that “we are being as strategic as possible with every dollar,” Mason District School Board member Ricardy Anderson said during a school board work session on Tuesday (Sept. 9) about budget planning and communications strategies.
Fairfax County Public Schools is rolling out advanced weapons detectors to all middle and high schools, but is that enough to keep schools safe? At least one member of the school board says no.
“Technology can identify a weapon or observe a fight, but it requires a human to intervene to seize the weapon or stop the fight,” Mount Vernon District Representative Mateo Dunne told FFXnow.
Competing rallies outside at Luther Jackson Middle School in Merrifield yesterday (Thursday) quickly commanded attention away from Fairfax County’s first school board meeting of the new academic year.
Dozens of activists from pro-LGBTQ+ group FCPS Pride showed up to applaud the school board for supporting transgender students, while the anti-abortion organization Students for Life of America gathered to condemn Fairfax County Public Schools officials over recent allegations of employees helping students obtain abortions.
Many Fairfax County School Board members initially celebrated the purchase of the now-defunct King Abdullah Academy building in the Herndon area, but that excitement is now being tempered by a simmering conflict over what form the proposed new high school should take.
There are a range of models available, from traditional or traditional-with-academies types of school to a magnet program similar to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
