School news roundup

Students in the Environmental Club at Woodson High School (above) raise vegetables for local food pantries. Belvedere Elementary School has a similar program.

These school news items and photos are from Fairfax County Public Schools.

Back to school – The vast majority of students plan to return to in-person learning for the 2021-22 school year, which starts Aug. 23, Superintendent Scott Brabrand reported to a school board work session June 15. Students will attend school five days a week. 

Students who want to stay with virtual learning had to have a health-related reason. FCPS has so approved 307 applications from students who want to be enrolled in virtual education for the upcoming school year. Another 75 applications are under review. 

One in four students who had transferred to homeschooling or private schools during the COVID pandemic have committed to return to FCPS in 2021-22, Brabrand said.

Students vaccinated – According to Brabrand, 4,591 students in grades 7-12 registered for a COVID vaccine at one of the 56 middle and high schools participating in a student vaccination program. There were 10 host sites, including Annandale High School. 

Among Fairfax County residents age 12-17, 56 percent have had at least one vaccine dose, and 22 percent are fully vaccinated. Among residents age 18+, 72 percent have had at least one dose, and 61.6 percent are fully vaccinated. 

Boundary change – The Fairfax County School Board’s agenda for the June 17 meeting includes a boundary adjustment for elementary schools in the Justice High School pyramid. 

The board will consider a recommendation to relieve overcrowding at Glen Forest Elementary School by moving students from Sleepy Hollow to Beech Tree, from Belvedere to Bailey’s and Bailey’s Upper, from Parklawn to Belvedere, and from Glen Forest to Parklawn. 

A star student from Annandale – Annandale High School senior Abia Zahir was awarded an Amazon Future Engineer scholarship. She will receive $40,000 to continue her postsecondary education and will be offered a paid internship with Amazon following her freshman year. She plans to study computer science at Virginia Tech. 

Zahir was part of Glasgow Middle School’s FIRST and VEX robotics teams. She participated in the Capital One afterschool coding program, won an award for “Best Creative App,” and was also a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) educator in the STEM Impressionists afterschool program. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, she was part of a team of students that created a 10-week Scratch class for students in India.  

Zahir

Rally for schools – The Fairfax County Democratic Committee is hosting a “Rally to Support Our Schools” Thursday, June 17, 6 p.m., at Luther Jackson Middle School before the school board meeting. The FCDC notes “the institution of public education is under attack across the country.” Some parents are up in arms against the teaching of “critical race theory,” which they see as teaching white kids to feel guilty. 

“No matter your background, race, ability and learning level or gender identity, public schools are for everyone,” the FCDC states. The committee promotes the concept of “intersectionality,” which looks at how the intersections of institutions and systems can produce oppression and how people can disable hierarchical exclusions and coalesce around more expansive agendas for social justice. “It is the opposite of – and resistant to – the vulgar, ugly, divisive, and exclusionary identity politics of white male victimization fomented by libertarian authoritarianism,” the committee states. 

Masks for the summer – FCPS has updated its guidelines for face masks for summer school and other school-based activities. 

All students, faculty, staff, and visitors must wear masks indoors regardless of vaccination status. Social distancing is not required, however, indoors. Fully vaccinated students and staff do not have to wear masks outdoors if they can maintain at least six feet of social distancing. 

FCPS hasn’t determined the mask policy for the 2021-22 school year; it will depend on guidelines from the CDC and Virginia Department of Health. 

Special education teacher Darling Lievano helps out during a general education class at Beech Tree Elementary School.

Student winners – Angel Nguyen, Derek Castillo, and Henry Barrera-Vallejos of Falls Church High School and Brenda Leveron of Annandale High School are among eight FCPS students who won scholarships to George Mason University. The students were enrolled in the FCPS College Success Programs’ Early Identification Program, which provides mentoring and other college prep services to first-generation college-bound middle and high school students. 

Grow Your Own – FCPS teachers Aimee Cabrera and Darling Lievano were each awarded a $7,500 grant from the Virginia Department of Education as part of the Grow Your Own Teacher pilot program. 

The program supports low-income high school graduates who went to college in Virginia and are now teaching in a high-need public school in the same district they graduated from. 

Cabrera, a graduate of Annandale High School, is a second-grade teacher at Mount Eagle Elementary School. Lievano, a graduate of Lake Braddock Secondary School, teaches special education at Beech Tree Elementary School.