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Dear Sully District Families and Community Members,
I hope everyone had a great start to the third quarter! There was lots of excitement with the snowy weather last month and students did a great job finishing the first semester strong and transitioning to their new schedules. I am so proud of their hard work and am looking forward to great things in the second half of the school year.
It’s been a packed month on the School Board and I have been learning a lot about FCPS operations, and policies! One of the most important jobs of the School Board is the development of our budget. On January 25th, the Board directed the Superintendent to develop a student-focused, equitable, and needs-based Proposed Budget for FY2025, aligned to the Division’s Strategic Plan and inclusive of the board's strategic budget priorities. See updates on the 2025 Budget below. At our January 30th work session, the Board reviewed reforms to the School Board Advisory Committees and discussed the Executive Expectation process, a structure that will allow for regular and transparent oversight over the Superintendent.
I also enjoyed the Joint Board of Supervisors/School Board Retreat on January 17th and am looking forward to collaborating closely with them and continuing to build on our strong partnership together.
Inside this newsletter:
February is #BlackHistoryMonth - a time to celebrate the incredible achievements of Black Americans throughout our nation's history. I hope you will take this opportunity to join the many vibrant performances, lectures and family activities to celebrate our nation's rich cultural heritage and history. Check out this link to the Smithsonian Museum that is hosting some of these great events. Here is also a list of sites around the region that you can visit in person, or online, to reflect on an inspiring journey of hope, sacrifice, liberation, empowerment, and beauty.
I had a great time watching the opening night performance of "Cry-Baby The Musical" by our amazingly talented Fairfax Academy students, many of whom are from Sully District high schools! The dancing and singing were phenomenal coupled with flawless comedic timing! I was joined by my colleagues on the school board as well as City of Fairfax Mayor, officials and school board members. I encourage everyone to go see it - shows this Thursday through the weekend at Fairfax High School.
Opening Night of Fairfax Academy's "Crybaby The Musical"!
I am looking forward to meeting you all at school events, plays, concerts etc. in the upcoming weeks. I also wanted to encourage our community to please volunteer to be judges at our upcoming Science and Engineering Fairs coming up as well as in your local schools. These are fantastic events and we need your talents to help enrich our student experiences!
I welcome your feedback, observations, suggestions, questions, and celebrations. Don't hesitate to reach out to me through this School Board contact form or you can call or email me. Wishing everyone a successful and enjoyable second semester!
In partnership,
Seema Dixit
School Visit to Stone Middle School!
Stone Middle School Visit on January 29th, 2024
I had a wonderful visit to Stone Middle School with my colleague School Board Member-At Large Ilryong Moon and Superintendent Reid! It was truly delightful to engage with the students and observe some of the remarkable student learning experiences their teachers have created in math, science, SPED and music that reinforce the skills of curiosity, persistence and joy of learning. Thank you Principal Williams for being so welcoming and for the valuable insights that you and your staff shared with me. It was also great fun to participate in the school podcast! Go Panthers!!
Sully District Happenings
Sully District Students Move on to International Robotics Competition!
Congratulations to the Gear Shifters team comprised of Prathik Ugendran from Rocky Run Middle School, Ananya Aiyer from Katherine Johnson Middle School and Kirtishree Gnanavel from McNair Upper Elementary School who will be heading to Sydney, Australia in July 2024 as one of the FIRST LEGO League (FLL) LEGO Robotics teams representing the United States at the FLL Asia Pacific Open Championships (APOC). The Gear Shifters team clinched the first-place overall championship out of 59 teams in the highly competitive FLL- DC/Virginia States Championship, which took place on December 10, 2023.
This year's FLL theme entailed combining art and technology to create a masterpiece sharing passions and hobbies. Gear Shifters identified a real-world problem and developed a possible solution and competed with LEGO-based robots of their own design. So proud of our students representing our school division on the global stage! #STEM
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Eight FCPS Students Among Nation’s Top 300 Teen Scientists
Congratulations to Sully District student Ryan Kim from Thomas Jefferson High School and all of the eight amazing FCPS students who were among the Nation’s Top 300 Teen Scientists named at the prestigious Regeneron Science Talent Search 2024 for high school seniors. Ryan's project is titled: "Hybrid Quantum-Classical Machine Learning for Dementia Detection".
The scholars will be awarded $2,000 each, and their schools will be awarded $2,000 for each enrolled scholar. Read about the students and their projects. I am so inspired by these remarkable examples of how technology can be used to address real-world challenges and as a force for good! #TechnologyforGood
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Sully Schools Excel at School Communicators Conference!
Congratulations to the following Sully District schools who won 5 of the 11 awards for outstanding school communications at the School Communicators Conference held January 26: Navy Elementary School, Chantilly High School, Stone Middle School, Centre Ridge Elementary School and Westfield High School.
Navy Elementary School was awarded the 2024 Award of Communication Excellence in the category, "Best in Show", which recognizes a school that is excelling in web, social media, and newsletters. These awards celebrate the creation of excellent website, newsletter, and social media content that is crucial to keeping our community informed and engages readers as well. So proud of all of our schools!! Read more about the awards here.
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Teen Job Fair, Saturday March 2nd at Chantilly High School!
Fairfax County's Teen Job Fair is at Chantilly High School on Saturday, March 2nd, 2024 from 11:00am to 1:00pm and on Saturday, March 9th at West Springfield High School. The fairs are open to all teens in Fairfax County looking for employment, volunteer opportunities, or tips on building their resume.
Student registration is free and open to all teens in Fairfax County looking for employment, volunteer opportunities, or tips on building their resume.
Business registration is also free and open to any organization providing positions for students. Free table space and a complimentary table covering will be provided to registered businesses and organizations to advertise their available positions. The full list of participating businesses from last year's Teen Job Fair Series, is available for viewing.
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Sully Student wins 2023 Congressional App Challenge!
Congratulations to Sully student Archi Marrapu, an 11th grader at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, who was named the winner of the 2023 Congressional App Challenge in Virginia’s Eighth District for the creation of VOYCE, an app that helps you overcome your fear of public speaking. When asked what inspired the creation of VOYCE, Archi said "I’ve always been interested in using technology to make our communities better, and my mind automatically thought about how I could utilize this advanced technology that was available to me. I really wanted to make an impact on all types of people so that our society could hear the brightest and most diverse ideas and thoughts so we could improve our society and develop our world one voice at a time.” The Congressional App Challenge is an official initiative of the U.S. House of Representatives, where Members of Congress host contests in their districts for middle school and high school students, encouraging them to learn to code and inspiring them to pursue careers in computer science. See all the Virginia winners here. #TechnologyforGood
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Superintendent Reid's Academic Matters
During the January 11th School Board meeting, Dr. Reid presented Graduation and Diploma Outcomes during the Academic Matters segment. FCPS’s graduation rates over the course of the last 5 years are illustrated in the charts below.
Graduation Rates
The five-year, on-time graduation trends are consistently above state outcomes. Our rates have also improved more than two percentage points since 2019, compared to Virginia’s improvement of less than .5 percentage point. Looking at specific demographic groups, Hispanic students saw the greatest five-year increase in graduation rates. We are also pleased to see that central supports put in place for nine of our high schools resulted in 2.2 times stronger gains in graduation rates compared to Fairfax high schools not identified for additional supports. It is important to measure what matters to validate that we are putting energy behind programs that work, and we are glad to see these efforts have proved to be successful.
Graduation Rates: Five-year trends for Fairfax and Virginia
- Fairfax graduation rates show consistent performance above statewide outcomes for the past four years.
- FCPS graduation rates have improved more than 2 percentage points since 2019, compared to Virginia’s improvement of less than 0.5 percentage point.
- Slightly lower rates since 2021 result from the loss of statewide graduation flexibility, originally introduced during the pandemic.
Dropout Rates
Dropout rates look at students who did not successfully earn a diploma, GED, certificate of completion, or did not remain enrolled. We have significantly reduced our dropout rates over the five-year trend from 7.3 to 5.5 and now we are closely aligned with statewide rates. Our goal is always zero, and we will continue to work on this measure.
Dropout Rates: Five-year trends for Fairfax and Virginia
- Although FCPS is outperforming the state on graduation outcomes, FCPS dropout rates have been higher than statewide levels for each of the past five years except 2022.
- FCPS can celebrate a significant reduction in dropout rates over the past five years of nearly 2 percentage points.
- As with graduation rates, loss of pandemic flexibility has impacted some students contributing to higher dropout rates.
The chart below details the Class of 2023 graduation and dropout rates by high school. This chart illustrates the continuing need for additional support and innovative strategies for many of our schools and specifically for several subgroups.
Access to Advanced Coursework for High School Students
During the Academic Matters segment of the January 25th School Board meeting, Dr. Reid presented information on FCPS’ academic advising for high schoolers and advanced coursework selection. Advanced coursework is a focus of our 2023-30 Strategic Plan's Goal 3, Academic Growth and Excellence.
FCPS has advanced coursework options available for our middle and high school students. Taking rigorous and college-level coursework through advanced placement (AP), international baccalaureate (IB), and/or dual enrollment participation is linked with increased high school and college graduation rates. It also enables students to earn college credits while still in high school.
Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Update
Work is underway to develop the over $3 billion FCPS budget for the next school year – that’s Fiscal Year 2025 (“FY25”). The fiscal year in FCPS follows the same calendar of the state government’s: July 1 is the start of the new fiscal year annually.
On Thursday, February 8, the Superintendent will publicly present to the School Board her proposed budget, at the scheduled Regular Meeting. One way the Board has prepared for this presentation and on-going budget work is through our vote to approve our Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Priorities Resolution, directing the Superintendent to develop a student-focused, equitable, and needs-based Proposed Budget for FY2025, aligned to the Division’s Strategic Plan and inclusive of the board's strategic budget priorities of:
- FCPS workforce recruitment and retention to include competitive compensation with consideration for differentiated pay for hard to fill positions such as teachers in Title 1 schools and special education teachers;
- student academic success, access to enrichment and mental health supports, and the closing of achievement gaps;
- school safety and security;
- maintaining or lowering class sizes and accelerating expansion of preschool options including inclusive preschool offerings; and
- increasing universal breakfast and lunch opportunities and reducing school meal debt.
Dr. Reid’s presentation, as well as other budget documents, will be available after she presents to the School Board.
There will be a Public Hearing on the proposed budget at 6pm on February 13. If you would like to share your comments, you can sign up to speak at this link (scroll to "FY 2025 Proposed Budget Public Hearing and click "register to speak").
What Families Can Do to Fight Drug Misuse
FCPS is committed to raising awareness about the opioid epidemic with our educators, parents/caregivers, and students. Together, we can help ensure our students thrive.
What can families do?
- Show you disapprove of underage drinking and other drug misuse. More than 80% of young people ages 10-18 say their parents are the leading influence on their decision whether to drink.
- Show you care about your child’s health, wellness, and success.
- Show you are a good source of information about alcohol and other drugs. Find helpful resources on the FCPS Opioid Awareness webpage.
- Pay attention to your child and discourage risky behaviors.
- Build your child’s skills and strategies for avoiding drinking and drug use. Talk with your child about what they would do if faced with a decision about alcohol and drugs, such as texting a code word to a family member or practicing how they will say, “No thanks.”
Visit our website for more information.
FCPS to Receive $16 Million to Buy More Electric Buses
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the selection of two applicants in Virginia to receive more than $17.1 million through EPA’s first Clean School Bus Program’s Grants Competition. Fairfax County Public Schools was selected to receive $16.5 Million to purchase 42 electric school buses.
FCPS was the first school division to acquire electric buses in 2019. With the help of this EPA grant, the electric bus fleet will more than double.
FCPS has one of the largest bus fleets in the United States, transporting more than 141,000 students on over 1,600 buses each day.
Science and Engineering Fair Judges Needed!
The Fairfax County Regional Science and Engineering Fair will be held on Saturday, March 16, at Robinson Secondary School.
Each year 250 judges are required to evaluate science fair projects in a wide variety of categories ranging from plant sciences to robotics. Ideally, those volunteering to serve as category judges would hold an advanced degree or possess extensive academic and/or professional experience in their selected STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) category.
Judges Needed for the Technology Student Associations Fair
This year’s Technology Student Association’s Northern Regional Fair will take place on Saturday, March 2, at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. Engineering students from across Virginia’s Northern Region will compete in events such as robotics, flight, computer aided design (CAD), structural design, and video gaming.
Judges are needed! No background knowledge of the event or projects is necessary. Judging begins at 8:30 a.m., and judges will be provided breakfast and lunch.
Please complete this form if you are interested in being a judge.
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Family Resource Center - February Events
The Family Resource Center offers free webinars for adults to support the success of all students, including those with learning challenges, special needs, and disabilities. Register for the February discussions below:
Youth Mental Health First Aid (in-person course)
Youth Mental Health First Aid teaches you how to identify, understand, and respond to signs of mental health and substance use challenges among children and adolescents ages 12-18.
February 9, 2024, 8:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.
Family Resource Center, 2334 Gallows Road, Dunn Loring, VA 22027
Register for Youth Mental Health First Aid (in-person course) 30 spaces available.
Behavior Solution Series for Elementary and Secondary Families
Join FCPS Behavior Intervention Services Department staff to help families encourage positive communication and behavior at home. Several dates Feb 16 through May 2024!
Register for all or part of the Behavior Solution Series for Families
Transition Planning, The Younger Years: Future Planning for Elementary and Middle School Students in Special Education
Join Career and Transition Services (CTS) to learn about planning for life in and after high school! It’s never too early or too late to start preparing for your future. We want to help you start planning for a successful transition from school to life as a young adult.
February 21, 2024, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Luther Jackson Middle School, 3020 Gallows Road, Falls Church, Virginia 22042
Register for Transition Planning, The Younger Years: Future Planning for Elementary and Middle School Students in Special Education.
How to Handle Disappointing Grades: Ways to Uncover the Reasons Behind Your Child’s School Performance and How to Help with Ann Dolin
Join Ann Dolin, educator, author, and Educational Connections Founder for new strategies to tackle these sticky situations while preserving your relationship with your child.
February 23, 2024, 10-11:30 a.m.
Register for How to Handle Disappointing Grades: Ways to Uncover the Reasons Behind Your Child’s School Performance and How to Help
FBA/BIP Essentials for Families
Does your child have concerning behaviors at school? Did you know that there is a process to identify and support your child at school?
Join us to learn about the FBA and BIP process and how it is used in FCPS to support any student who experiences behavioral challenges.
- Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) is a process to determine the underlying cause or functions of a student’s behavior that impedes social, emotional, and academic learning.
- Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP) is a plan that utilizes positive behavioral interventions and supports to address behaviors that interfere with learning.
February 29, 2024 - 6:30-7:30 p.m. or (only need to register for one as they will be the same) March 1, 2024 - 10-11 a.m.
Register for FBA/BIP Essentials for Families
Families can find printable resource guides and details about the center’s free lending library on FRC’s homepage. They may also sign up to receive the FRC newsletter for updates on webinars, resources, and other information. If you have questions, please contact the FRC via email at frc@fcps.edu or call 703-204-3941.
Mental Health Resources for Students and Parents/Caregivers
This month's theme: Friendly February
Be friendly to others and give your relationships a boost. See below for daily actions to help you do this.
Go to Action for Happiness for ideas to help you take action for a happier and kinder world.
Student Wellness: Tips and Strategies
Feeling super stressed? Worried about a friend's mental health—or your own? Get tips to help manage your emotions and see what to do if you are in crisis.
Mental Health and Resiliency
Helping students to manage stress, make better choices, and develop healthy habits.
FCPS Family Resource Center
Staff is available by phone 703-204-3941 or email frc@fcps.edu to help! Offers free workshops, consultations, a lending library, and more to help adults support the success of all students, including those with learning challenges, special needs and disabilities.
No Cost Therapy for High Schoolers
High school students can access virtual mental health services at no cost through an FCPS program with Hazel Health. Their therapists are licensed and also trained in teen-specific challenges.
Students may be referred by a guardian or designated staff member and participate in weekly video therapy sessions. The therapists will work with students until they achieve their therapy goals, or they can help connect the family with long-term mental health services in the community if needed.
Learn how to opt your students in to this service.
George Mason’s Center for Community Health
George Mason University’s new Center for Community Mental Health (9900 Main Street, Fairfax) provides evidence-based, accessible, affordable, and culturally sensitive therapy and testing services to those in need, regardless of income. The Center sees children as young as age 5, and works with community members of various ages, including addressing the mental health needs of veterans.
The center’s Emotional Help Line provides free, anonymous, confidential support in both English (703-215-1898) and Spanish (703-914-3878). The line is open daily from 8:30 a.m. - 8:30 p.m. Learn more on the Center's website.
Upcoming School Board Meetings
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Thursday, February 8, 7:30pm: Regular Meeting
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Tuesday, February 13, 12:30pm: Forum
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Tuesday, February 13, 1:45pm: Work Session
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Tuesday, February 13, 6pm: Public Hearing
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Tuesday, February 20, 12:30pm: Forum
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Tuesday, February 20, 1:45pm: Work Session
Please note, times and topics are subject to change.
Visit the community participation webpage to sign up to speak at a regular meeting. Visit BoardDocs for more meeting logistics, agendas, and handouts.
Interested in School Board action items? Sign up to get an update on School Board votes the morning after the School Board meeting.
The work sessions and regular meetings will be broadcast live on Channel 99 (Verizon channel 11) and the FCPS website. Both will be recorded for future viewing and posted to the FCPS School Board YouTube channel.
Reuniones de la Junta Escolar de FCPS en Español
Para ver las reuniones de la Junta Escolar grabadas o para ver en vivo durante las reuniones regulares en YouTube, por favor vaya al canal de YouTube de FCPS en Español o escanee el código QR.
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Contacting Me
To contact me, it is most helpful if you can please use the official School Board contact form. This form prioritizes emails to me from constituents, and helps me track communication so I can be sure you receive a response. If you are unsure of your county magisterial district, you can look that information up here.
Use this link to sign up for my Newsletter and follow me on Facebook.
Quick Links
The views contained within this newsletter reflect the views of the individual school board member who is the publisher of this newsletter and may not reflect the views of the Fairfax County School Board.
© Fairfax County Public Schools, Fairfax County, Virginia
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