Partnership Update
May 2024
Thank You, Teachers and Staff
Today is the last day of Teacher Appreciate Week. Don't forget to thank your favorites.
From FCPS, thank you to all our partners who support our teachers. We're fortunate to have such an engaged and generous community.
 Above and Underground with Clark Construction
Liberty Middle School students enrolled in AVID coursework recently participated in a career showcase conducted by Clark Construction. Career showcases are occurring in 6 of our middle schools — Herndon, Holmes, Johnson, Key, Liberty, and Whitman — as part of the Ignite Partnership with Think Big for Kids.
During Liberty Middle School’s showcase, students were presented with a multitude of career pathways and interesting facts about the industry that don’t immediately come to mind when you say “construction jobs.”
- To keep the students thinking and engaged, they were asked questions, like “why would Clark Construction hire a drone pilot?” Answer: to better see as a building rises — above ground work.
- And, “why is it important to run electrical conduit above water pipes, and water pipes above sewage lines,” Answers: to maintain the safety of electrical conduit and to keep water clean — underground work.
Watch this short video about some of the interesting careers offered by Clark Construction and what students learned about landing one of those jobs.
AVID, which means Advancement Via Individual Determination, is a non-profit organization that provides professional learning for educators to close opportunity gaps and improve college and career readiness for students, especially those traditionally underrepresented in higher education.
AVID in Fairfax County Public Schools serves students in 35 schools.
Thank you Clark Construction, Think Big for Kids and our partners at the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority for all of the connections and support of student learning.
 Support for Student Summer STEM
Thank You I-66 Express Mobility Partners
I-66 Express Mobility Partners (I-66 EMP) has made a $2,750 donation to Fairfax County Public Schools through Educate Fairfax to provide needs-based scholarships for ten K-5 students to participate in Tech Adventure Camp this summer.
“We’re extremely pleased to receive this donation from I-66 Express Mobility Partners,” said Dr. Lynette Henry, Educate Fairfax’s executive director. “This money will give 10 deserving students facing economic hardship the chance to experience Fairfax County Public Schools Tech Adventure Camp and inspire their future careers.
Tech Adventure Camp gives students the opportunity to explore STEAM, culinary, health, trades, business and marketing and more.
I-66 Express Mobility Partners has been a strong supporter of FCPS for a number of years. Examples of financial support include:
- $25,000 donation in 2023 to support the Educate Fairfax Innovators Fund ($20K) and Kids in Need ($5K). The $20K award helped to provide much of the nearly $30K needed to cover all STEAM-related Teacher Grants in 2023-24.
- $30,000 donation in 2019 to support STEM activities at Stenwood and Marshall Road elementary schools during the time period when construction on I-66 was impacting those schools.
Thank you I-66 Express Mobility Partners for making a difference in the lives of our students.
We look forward to continuing this partnership and achieving even greater successes together in the future.”
Donations to Educate Fairfax by individuals are also welcome. Make your donation now or anytime. The Educate Fairfax online donations webpage is always live.
 Effective and Efficient - NCS-GrandInvolve
Ignite Partner NCS-GrandInvolve is accepting volunteers age 55+ to support classroom teachers and student learning. GrandInvolve volunteers engage with FCPS students in a variety of ways, including supporting reading and math, providing Social Emotional Learning (SEL), and kindergarten readiness.
Through a collaborative partnership between the county and FCPS, a potential barrier to volunteering was overcome. Until recently NCS-GrandInvolve volunteers were asked to have background checks completed by Fairfax County and Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS).
Now, NCS-GrandInvolve volunteers only need to complete the FCPS background check process. This change will ease the onboarding for NCS-GrandInvolve volunteers, allowing them to more efficiently move through the process and be placed in schools faster so that they may start the highly rewarding work of supporting students and teachers.
Learn more about the program's goals, volunteer qualifications, and locations — and become an NCS-GrandInvolve volunteer today.
 Capital One Celebrates 2024 Coders Programs
Throughout May at Glasgow, Herndon, Poe and Whitman middle schools, the Capital One Coders mentor teams gathered to celebrate and honor student produced coding projects.
With a nearly one-to-one Capital One volunteer to FCPS student ratio, the coding lessons always generate unique student creations for the participating students.
Built over an eight-to-ten week period, the student projects helped them understand coding concepts through Bootstrap Cards, Carousel, CSS, HTML, Hrefs and more.
The judged categories at culminating events include:
- Best Overall
- Most Creative
- Best Design
- Most Readable
- Most Technical
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The Capital One Coders program was launched in Fairfax County Public Schools and Henrico County Public Schools in 2015 and has served 22,000+ students in 13 communities in the United States, and more in the United Kingdom and Canada.
Often students participating and completing the program are given their own computer to take home so that they can continue coding and learning.
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Thank you Capital One and Capital One’s volunteer associates for supporting student learning in Fairfax County Public Schools. Your engagement and dynamic programming matters.
 Connect with a Green Team and Connect with a Students
Business and community groups are encouraged to partner with a school to support their environmental initiatives with a Get2Green Ignite Partnership.
Get2Green is FCPS’ environmental stewardship program, and supports green teams at schools with hands-on environmental projects to improve the sustainability of the school and community.
Get2Green collaborates with many community partners to engage students in Food Sharing programs, recycling, establishing wildlife habitats, planting native plants and trees, and more! This year Get2Green Leaders at each school are leading environmental work by organizing and advising Green Teams to change the culture of the school to one of sustainability. Get2Green partners with the National Wildlife Federation EcoSchools program that serves as a framework and awards points to schools for engaging in stewardship action.
FCPS currently has 118 schools who have an active action plan with EcoSchools and are on their way towards achieving recognition of bronze, silver, gold or the top award of Green Flag!
During a late April School Board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Michelle C. Reid presented FCPS' Get2Green initiative during the Academic Matters segment.
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Her presentation and slides offer additional information on the program. View the presentation slides.
All of these actions at schools help to develop our students as ethical and global citizens and address the challenges of climate change. A partner can support the programming by bringing expertise, extra ideas and hands, and resources.
 FCPS Students Take Future Business Leaders of America Top Honors
Business leaders seeking high quality future hires should start by reviewing the winners of the 2024 Virginia Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) State Leadership Conference held recently in Reston.
Two hundred students from FCPS high schools competed in 55 events ranging from 3D Animation and Accounting to Banking and Financial Systems, Cyber Security to Computer Problem Solving, Digital Video Production to Public Speaking, and more.
Top honors and categories are listed here.
For more information, contact Stephanie Holt at seholt@fcps.edu.
 We’re Open for New Business and Community Partners
Businesses and community groups are encouraged to learn more about our Ignite Partnerships program, which offers eight ways for partners to engage with FCPS.
Our Ignite Partnership Value Proposition offers meaningful incentives for businesses and community groups who satisfy the Ignite Partnership agreement requirement.
Learn more about the Partnership Agreement Process and explore our list of partners.
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