School news roundup

A Mayan partnership – Braddock Elementary School’s Mayan partners adorned the newly renovated school with two new murals.

Braddock has had a partnership for the past eight years with Task-Tarea, an organization of people from Guatemala who moved to the United States and wanted to continue to support Mayan village schools back home. They raise funds for Guatemalan Mayan families to provide an opportunity for girls to attend school instead of working on family farms.

In 2016, Task-Tarea invited Braddock Elementary to join a “Skype in the Classroom” program. Students at Braddock and Mayan schools in Guatemala met virtually to discuss what they were learning in science and share information about their environment, habitats, and wildlife. 

Related story: Braddock Elementary renovation completed

Braddock staff members visited Mayan schools in Guatemala in 2018, and the following year, members of Task-Tarea visited Braddock Elementary, bringing one of the students they supported who went on to attend college to become a teacher.

Task-Tarea recently returned to Braddock to present a special gift. Two Guatemalan artists created two murals. One illustrates wildlife from both countries, and the other highlights the school’s partnership with Task-Tarea.

On Sept. 21, the Guatemala Marimba Players from the Children’s Marimba Valle Verde School in Guatemala will be at Braddock to present a concert for the school community. The mural artists will be there, too, with art for sale to raise funds for Task-Tarea schools.

Exemplary schools – The Virginia Department of Education presented a 2023 Continuous Improvement Award to Annandale High School, Falls Church High School, Annandale Terrace Elementary School, and Belvedere Elementary School.

Just 93 schools statewide, including 23 high schools, received the award.

The Continuous Improvement Award is based on a school’s significant growth in SOL scores for all students or student subgroups, significant growth in graduation rates, or a significant decrease in dropout rates, using pre-pandemic and post-pandemic data.

Collect food for Annandale students – Annandale High School is partnering with Food For Neighbors’ Red Bag program. The program recruits volunteers to shop for food for secondary school pantries. The food is then distributed to students in need.  

To participate, request a reusable red bag. Food For Neighbors will drop it off at your house. Fill the bag with food items and put it outside your door on the next bag collection day.

A tag on the red bag lists needed food items and collection dates. For more information, contact Norma Foti at [email protected] or Karen Joseph at [email protected].

Red Bag event – Food For Neighbors held a massive Red Bag event Sept. 9, with more than 800 volunteers collecting, sorting, and delivering over 23,000 pounds of food and toiletries for students at 42 secondary schools in Fairfax, Arlington, and Loudoun counties.

The food was donated by over 1,700 households. Amazon donated $155,000 for the project through Amazon Fresh. Amazon volunteers helped deliver nearly 8,000 pounds of food.

The Red Bag event was held at nine sorting sites, including Luther Jackson Middle School. Volunteers from the community sorted over 4,000 pounds of food at that site for students at Falls Church, Justice, and Annandale high schools, as well as Jackson.

Food For Neighbors has registered more than 2,600 Red Bag donors and more than 2,500 volunteers. Additional volunteers are welcome, as well as grocery gift cards and monetary donations. Learn more here.

Free recycling event – The Justice High School Boosters are hosting a free community service fair for recycling electronics, sensitive documents, and bicycles on Oct. 14, 9 a.m.-noon, in the school parking lot.

Safeguard Shredding is providing a document shredding station sponsored by the Chrissy & Lisa Team at RE/Max and KVS Title. People can bring one medium box or two grocery bags full of documents.

Electronic recycling and data destruction are provided by eAssets Solutions and sponsored by ArborBuds. They will accept computers, laptops, desktops, hard drives, toner and ink cartridges, cellphones, power supplies, audio equipment, mice, keyboards, servers, typewriters, and fax machines. They will not accept monitors or TVs.

Fairfax County Public School’s Safe Routes to School program will accept bicycles of all sizes in good condition.

A new playground – Representatives from the National Association of Elementary School Principals spent their annual Day of Service helping to build a new play structure on the Weyanoke Elementary School playground. They also worked on weeding and mulching. The project was supported by Landscape Structures and Sparks@Play.

Tech careers – The Fairfax County Public Schools Department of Information Technology is launching a pilot program giving up to 1,000 high school students access to the Coursera Career Academy. Participating students can take online courses in cybersecurity, data analysis, social media marketing, application development, and many more.

While the courses can help students decide on career options, they do not count toward high school graduation requirements. For more information, contact Program Manager Scott Simmons, [email protected].