Posts Tagged ‘Fairfax County School Board’
Fairfax School Board Is Sued Over National Merit Secrecy
Fairfax Schools Monitor has sued the Fairfax County School Board to compel the release of its factual findings concerning the National Merit “commended student” controversy. The suit was filed on April 27 in the Fairfax County General District Court under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act. (“FOIA”). Background In December 2022 an article in the…
Read MoreFairfax School Board Acts to Streamline Its Meetings
The Fairfax County School Board took a positive step at its April 13, 2023 meeting by adopting procedures to reduce virtue-signaling speeches by Board members. There are some ambiguities about the new guidelines, but the overall effect should be to reduce the time devoted at Board meetings to formalities so that more time can be…
Read MoreStrategic Plan and “Equity Policy,” Part 2
This article reports on the development of a new Strategic Plan for Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), and the role of “equity” in it. A subsequent article will discuss FCPS’s simultaneous development of a separate but related initiative, the “Equity Policy.” Development of the Strategic Plan The Superintendent of FCPS initiated a planning process in…
Read MoreNew Strategic Plan and “Equity Policy” for Fairfax County Public Schools
This article, and several others that will follow, will report on the development and content of two important initiatives for Fairfax County Public Schools (“FCPS”): a new, multi-year Strategic Plan, and a formal Equity Policy. The two are closely related and will operate hand-in-hand in practice. The term “equity” will be defined in the Equity…
Read MoreFairfax Schools Hide Academic Awards from Families — Another Update
In December 2022 it was revealed that the elite Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (“TJ”) in Fairfax County, Virginia, had withheld National Merit “commended student” awards from students and their parents. TJ’s leaders explained at the time that they did this so the feelings of other students wouldn’t be hurt; they added:…
Read MoreFairfax Library Outbids Fairfax Schools for Critical Race Theory Speaker Kendi
In September 2020 Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) paid a controversial author $20,000 for a one-hour Zoom call. Ibram X. Kendi sat in his home, at times with his daughter on his lap, responding to softball questions from an FCPS administrator. FCPS was rightly criticized, on this site and elsewhere, for shelling out such a…
Read MoreVirginia General Assembly Panel Considers Youngkin Model Transgender Policy
On December 19 a committee of the Virginia General Assembly voted 5-4 to oppose the Youngkin administration’s proposed Model Policy for dealing with transgender issues in Virginia public schools. The vote was meaningless. Here’s why. The Youngkin administration’s Department of Education published a draft of a Model Policy in mid-September and established a 60-day period…
Read MoreDecember 15 — Two Opportunities to Make Your Voice Heard
Next Thursday, December 15, citizens of Fairfax County will have two opportunities to tell the School Board what’s on their mind. At 6:00 p.m. there will be a one-hour hearing on the subject of Collective Bargaining. Twenty-five two-minute speaking slots are available. Fairfax Schools Monitor has been very critical of the Board’s process for considering…
Read MoreSchool Board Proposes Combining Boys & Girls in Sex-Ed Classes — Part 2
As previously reported, the Fairfax County School Board is considering amendments to its sex-education curriculum for 4th to 8th graders. See “School Board Proposes Combining Boys and Girls in Sex-Ed Classes in Grades 4-8,” Nov. 28, 2022. Sex education at these grade levels has traditionally been provided separately to boys and girls, but the proposal…
Read MoreSex Education Proposal — Addendum
The link in my last post to the School Board’s sex education survey apparently didn’t work for some of you. You can go to the survey by clicking HERE. Reminder: The deadline for responding to the survey is this Thursday, December 1, at 4:30 p.m.
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