Sandy Evans announces retirement from school board
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| Evans [FCPD] |
Sandy Evans, who has represented Mason District on the Fairfax County School Board for the past nine years, will not run for re-election after her current term ends in December 2019.
“I certainly make this announcement of my retirement from the School Board with mixed emotions,” Evans says in an email to the community. “While looking forward to having more time for family, favorite activities, and new challenges, I will greatly miss the energy and hopefulness of our children in classrooms, the passion of parents for their children’s education, the support of our community for their local schools, the tirelessness of volunteers and advocates, and the stellar work of Fairfax County Public Schools’ teachers, support staff, and administrators.”
“School Board work has been both enormously gratifying and greatly challenging,” Evans says. “The past decade has presented some of its deepest challenges ever, as we faced the recession’s deep budget constraints while welcoming tens of thousands more children into our schools. While we navigated through these difficult waters, and have emerged to better budget times and moderated student growth, I have appreciated the community’s guidance and support in making and keeping our schools among the best in the world.”
Evans notes she has kept her promise to be a full-time school board member and pledges to be “just as full-time and energetic in serving you in my final year on the board.”
The email recounts some of the major accomplishments of the School Board during the past nine years:
- The creation of a Portrait of a Graduate and a Strategic Plan (“Ignite”);
- The One Fairfax policy on equity and inclusion, approved jointly with the Board of Supervisors;
- Significant student discipline reform;
- A comprehensive wellness policy that includes sleep health;
- Improved school breakfasts and lunches;
- Transitioning from half-day to full-day Mondays at elementary school;
- More recess time;
- Full accreditation for all Mason District schools;
- Adding sexual orientation and gender identity to our nondiscrimination policy;
- Creation of an auditor general and an ombudsman;
- And investing substantially in better teacher pay.
“We also finally achieved later high school starts times, approved in fall 2014 and implemented in fall 2015,” Evans says. “As a co-founder of SLEEP in Fairfax, this has been and still is a particular passion of mine for the physical, mental, and academic well-being of our teen students, who now are in fact getting more sleep with all its many benefits. The 11-1 approval of my motion to enact that change, on Oct. 23, 2014, was a particular highlight of my time on the board.”
“My advocacy was also instrumental in improving parent notification when a child gets into serious trouble,” Evans says, along with better pay and benefits for parent liaisons, videotaping and posting recordings of School Board work sessions, adding a Vietnamese language program at Falls Church High School, the first public school in the county to have such a program; bringing the first International Baccalaureate Primary Years Program to Belvedere Elementary School, and changing the name of J.E.B. Stuart High School to Justice High School, “a name more representative of our values of inclusion and equity.”
“That last change was of course highly controversial and difficult but one I’m confident was the right decision by the board.,” Evans says. A group of residents unhappy with the name change filed a recall petition calling for the Circuit Court to remove Evans from office. The petition accuses her of violating FCPS rules in pushing through the name change while ignoring a majority of community members who wanted to keep the Stuart name.
“There is certainly more to do,” she continues. “It’s critical that we continue to fight to keep needs-based staffing in our high-needs schools. These extra funds provide more resources and smaller class sizes at schools with higher poverty, ESOL, and special needs students.”
Evans would like to see needs-based staffing expanded to factor in high mobility, “as many students coming in and out throughout the year also presents unique challenges to a classroom and a school.”
“We need to make sure every student has access to the level and type of instruction they need, regardless of what school they attend,” she says. “Student mental health also remains a topic of keen interest to our students and to me, as well as continuing to enhance safety and security measures.”
Two new schools in Mason District were added during Evans’ tenure on the board – Mason Crest Elementary School and Bailey’s Upper Elementary School – while several Mason District schools were renovated, including Sleepy Hollow, Beech Tree, Westlawn, and North Springfield elementary schools. Renovations are in progress at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology and Annandale Terrace Elementary School. The renovation of Falls Church High School is finally in planning, though its completion unfortunately remains years away.
“Thank you to all of our students, parents, advocates, teachers, staff and community members for your part in making FCPS an amazing place to learn and grow,” Evans says. “I’ve appreciated talking and working with you on some of the most important issues our community faces and look forward to continuing this partnership and work in the year to come.”
14 responses to “Sandy Evans announces retirement from school board”
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Thank you Sandy for your service to Mason District and for the accomplishments you have had over your term!
Sandy was great. You should run for supervisor so someone else can retire.
Thank you Sandy for your service and to Ellie for yours!
Most of your "accomplishments" cost the taxpayers too much money. Also, the JEB Stuart community opposed the name change. Why did you think their wishes did not matter? Too much ego on your part…
Whatever became of the proposed new school that was to be built at the Willston Center in Seven Corners. – Sparky
@Sparky – it remains part of the 7 corners comp plan, but there hasn't been development yet for 7 corners. I would imagine whenever things start moving for 7 corners, you will see the Willston site plans progress as well.
The good news is she's leaving. The bad news is she indicates she will still be around until Dec 2019. She and her cohort Hynes can do a lot of damage and waste a lot of $$ in a year while the school superintendent sits idly by and watches. Is it merely a coincidence that today's local news is reporting that the recall petition is moving forward in the courts???
Good riddance. Enough pandering to outsiders and ignoring the community.
It's probably not a coincidence that the filing recall petition was announced shortly after Sandy announced that she was not running for re-election. Coming on the heels of the decision by the Virginia Supreme Court last month to affirm the dismissal of the other lawsuit filed by the name change opponents, the "keepers" are desperate to keep their own names in the news, even though anyone can see that it would be a big waste of money to force FCPS to defend another frivolous legal action when the target of that action has already announced that she will be stepping down in 2019.
Interesting that many of her accomplishments are mandates from VDOE- POG, recess. As to the teacher raises- that came after the Title I designation was removed from all middle and high schools, allowing bigger class sizes (less teachers needed). So now teachers have increased class sizes with the kids who need the most support- our low income students. My school has 76% free or reduced lunch and I have 33 kids in my science classes.
While Sandy may have had the best intentions at the beginning of her tenure, the last few years have seen her repeatedly ignoring the community who elected her.
She supported a school at Baileys Crossroads next to Radley Acura, a completely inappropriate location. She folded on the community supported restructuring of the old County owned Wilston School in favor of Upper Baileys. Commercial property was removed from the tax rolls, students cannot walk to the school, there is no field,it cost Fairfax County taxpayers a bundle and will be overcrowded within a few years.
In the case of renaming Stuart, she ignored the results of a FCPS sponsored survey . a community vote and School Board policy in order to reach a desired outcome, the total cost of which has not been determined. As admirable as her motive may have been, the means used to attain her goal tainted the outcome as well as needlessly divided the community. There are times when single minded ascent to the perceived moral high ground at any cost can be messy and unfortunate, especially in the case of an official elected to equally represent diverse views.
Anyone that aligns themselves to Gross's agendas is pretty much a kiss of death. Sort of like Trumps cabinet.
Anyone remember Groveton HS and Fort Hunt HS? They no longer exist as they were merged to become West Potomac HS. In 10 years, graduates of JEB Stuart HS will draw the same blank stares as we do in response when mentioning their high school.
Groveton and Fort Hunt are totally different matters. As a matter of fact one of the school board members related her own somewhat negative experience at one of the school board meetings about when Groveton, Ft Hunt ceased to exist. Then like a lemming, she sided with Evans and Hynes and voted for the Stuart name change. The name of Stuart was changed simply because Evans wanted it changed. The school superintentent showed himself to be weak and ineffective by letting it happen. The Stuart name change caused ill feelings in the neighorhoods served by the school and cost $$ that FCPS doesn't have. And guess what. Fairfax County still has a school named Robert E Lee, and one named Mosby Woods and one whose mascot is Rebels and whose students are encouraged to exhibit "Rebel Pride" and a few more that reflect our state and county heritage whether we like it or not. Evans was allowed to break rules, make up new rules, break those rules just to get what she wanted and pander to a few whiney malcontents. Our county is better off without her and in my opinion we would all be better served if she accelerated her departure to Dec 2018 rather than Dec 2019