School Board Regular Meeting

Carolyn PitchesAll right, good evening. Tonight is Monday, February 9th of 2026, and this is a regular meeting of the City of Fairfax School Board. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Kristina CecereI pledge allegiance to the flag

Carolyn Pitchesof the United States of America and

Kristina Cecereto the

Carolyn Pitchesrepublic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. there are no changes to the agenda this evening we have one announcement on school board clerk appreciation week as February 16th through the 20th and I want to take a moment to publicly recognize Barb King and the incredible role she plays in our division. Barbara's truly the glue that holds our office together. She's consistently kind, collaborative, and thoughtful, and she's an exceptional ability to anticipate needs before they're even expressed. She goes above and beyond to gather information, support our work, and ensure everything runs smoothly in the City of Fairfax School's office. Barbara's

deeply respected as well as she's very well liked by our school administrators faculty staff parents and for a very good reason quite simply we could not do this work without you Barb we are so grateful for everything you do for our students our staff and all our schools so I want to present you with Okay, the first item on the agenda is the adoption of the agenda. May I have a motion, please?

Sarah KelseyMadam Chair. I move that the city of Fairfax School Board adopt the agenda as written and distributed.

Carolyn PitchesMay I have a second? Second. Thank you. Ms. Kelsey moved. Ms. Sessori seconded. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. None opposed. So the adoption of the agenda passes unanimously. Okay. We are going to start with citizen participation, of which we have none. Shocking. Okay. And next we have our student representative report, Ms. Lucas. yes

Studentgood evening and happy February so as we kick off 2026 with a fresh energy and new beginnings the Fairfax City Schools continue to thrive enthusiasm learning and community connection the third quarter is underway finally after the snow and the students staff and families are making the most of every moment at Fairfax High School winter sports continue strong with basketball wrestling swim and dive gymnastics and indoor track teams competing in games and meets throughout the month on January 30th the school and do we have school on the 30th or was it snowed out snowed out never mind fortunately we did not in Katherine Johnson the rising ninth grade families attended curriculum night at Fairfax High School on January 12th to explore

high school pathways and course options and then students also participated in from January 8th to 13th, demonstrating their progress in the key academic areas. And then their weekly newspaper kept families informed on ongoing events and family engagement opportunities in preparation for the new quarter. At Daniel's Run, the Daniel's Run singers shown brightly performing in the Woke Children's Choral Festival in Manassas the previous weekend. And the school emphasized wellness and readiness aimed at winter weather alerts. FCPS math week January 12th through 16th brought fun free at home math games stories and activities for K through 6 families promoting English and Spanish while contributing to the district's three million minute math goal the month

included emphasis on stem steam sustainability tied to EcoSchools USA and family engagement throughout title one initiatives Providence of families enjoyed interactive flexible math resources during the dedicated week fostering a joyful learning at home wishing everyone a wonderful rest of the winter season and continued success in the new quarter and bright pathways ahead in 2026 Thank

Carolyn PitchesYou miss Lucas does anybody have any questions for miss Lucas okay moving on we're gonna go with the amended five-year CIP plan dr. Wright

Dustin WrightstaffThank you, Chair Pitches, and thank you, Ms. Lucas, for that great update. I'll just take a moment of privilege before we get started and echo all the words that you shared about Ms. King and all that she does for our school division and our school community. We are very, very lucky. I've only been here about two months, and I've been able to recognize that impact right away. So a big thank you, Ms. King. so for members of the board and the public tonight i'm sharing a brief update to the fiscal year 2027 2031 capital improvement plan for the city of fairfax schools and this is a plan that the board previously reviewed in october and then adopted in november these updates include an overall structure and set of priorities for our cip that remain the same

The updates are limited in technical nature and intended to better align timing and funding sources with our current needs and available balances. I will highlight those specific changes as we move through the next few slides. I will begin by grounding us where we are in the overall CIP process and timeline. So on the next slide you will see the timeline for the CIP process. It was presented with a public hearing in October and approved by the board on November The updated version we are sharing tonight reflects refinements based on additional internal review of maintenance needs and existing balances. With that context, I want to briefly revisit how we are thinking about routine maintenance within our budgeting framework here in the City of Fairfax schools and the City of Fairfax government overall.

all. This slide shows examples of routine recurring restorative maintenance work such as carpet and tile, concrete repairs, HVAC repairs and replacement, painting, paving, and roof maintenance. Now a key concept behind the updates is continuing to move these type of reoccurring items out of the CIP and into the operating budget whenever possible. Doing so provides more predictability year to year and allows the CIP to focus more squarely on large-scale capital projects this shift in budgeting practice is also occurring within our city government partners and alignment in these practices between our two organizations is critical so the changes you'll see on the next side reflect that shift in practice and so

with that in mind I'll walk through some of the specific line item updates to the CIP and so these are the changes from what was initially approved by the board in November. All of the updates on this table, the things that are new are shown in italics on the slide for ease of reference. There are two primary changes. The first is the roof replacement funding, and that has been shifted from fiscal year 28 to fiscal year 27 to better align with facility condition information and anticipated needs. The second primary change is is what I was referring to on the last slide, where the FY27 maintenance requests in several categories have been reduced because we currently have existing balances in those accounts.

So you'll see in that FY27 column a change in what was requested because we have existing balances. These reductions do not eliminate maintenance work, rather they reflect the use of available balances and the continued transition of routine restorative maintenance And as I mentioned, that's happening both on the school side and the city side. The selected school projects and overall long-range priorities in the CIP remain unchanged. So with that, I wanted to walk through these updates transparently so the board is aware of what has changed and why. And I'm happy to answer questions about the timing shifts, the maintenance reductions, or any individual light items. Thank you so much.

Carolyn PitchesThank you, Dr. Wright. I'm going to start with Ms. Bartlemay. do you have any questions regarding the updates i'm

Lauren Bartelmenot at this time okay

Carolyn Pitchesmiss kelsey

Sarah Kelseyno but i may have a go back in a second

Carolyn Pitchesmiss hickman

Amit Hickmani'm okay no

Carolyn Pitchesquestions necessary i

Kristina Cecerejust wanted to i know we talked a little bit about the bond and the roof and such during our fantastic retreats this past Saturday. I wanted, for transparency, I just wanted to kind of if you could provide some clarification as to why we are shifting the roof by one year, just for the public to understand that shift.

Dustin WrightstaffThat is a wonderful question. I appreciate you highlighting that. What was adopted in um well what was presented in october and then adopted november it had the roof work beginning in fiscal year 28 so no funding and no work happening for the next year i think in all the bond funded referendum projects that had all that work beginning in fiscal year 27 so starting this summer so if we stay on the the path that we're currently working through and there's approval from our city council partners that'll allow us to have the ability to start working on the roof in this upcoming school year

Kristina Cecerethank you

Carolyn Pitchesokay thank you before we go to the next item on the agenda I'd like to

Kristina Ceceredo

Sarah Kelseyyou

Carolyn Pitchesokay

Sarah Kelseyokay

Carolyn Pitcheswell you didn't

Sarah Kelseyyou said

Carolyn Pitchesyou might have a go back I didn't Sorry,

Sarah KelseyI just wanted

Carolyn Pitchesto double

Sarah Kelseycheck. Can you explain also, that I'm noticing on this, because I thought back, the turf replacement and the restroom entrance, those are more than what I see from previous. I just wanted to double check, is that where the estimates like that we're getting now more, is that why they've increased or?

Dustin WrightstaffYeah, so that's a great question. I can't speak to exactly the numbers that were put in there because it was before I was here, but the original one had $600,000 for the turf field, and this one has $750,000. That aligns with what the city put in their CIP earlier this fall, excuse me, their proposed CIP earlier this fall. And the same thing with the bathroom expansion numbers. It was essentially the same, but they had it allocated across different years. total of the bathroom numbers, but what you see there with the $750,000 for the turf field and the $90,000 for the bathroom expansion exactly models what the city CIP proposed earlier this fiscal year. Okay.

Sarah KelseyI was just double checking because my brain, I was like, something doesn't look right. Thank you.

Carolyn PitchesYeah. The turf is typically $750,000. I think that's what it was when we replaced it the last time, which was 15 years ago was we allocated okay I'll just say thank you to mr. Phillips and dr. Wright for their work on those and being flexible with our CIP changes before we go on to the next item I just I didn't I want to recognize that we have Stacey Hall and Rachel McClellan from the City Council with us I in it I thought that they were for planning and then I looked up and they were still there. So thank you for staying. We love having audience members. All right. We are going to move on to the renovation updates. Dr. Wright, you're

Dustin Wrightstaffback. All right. Thank you, Chair Pitches. And so tonight this is exciting because we get to provide some updates on some important work that's happening around the renovations that were, again, part of this bond-supported within the city of Fairfax schools. And just for clarity for the public, you know, the large majority of this work is scheduled to begin, you know, starting this summer, but we did some funding was allocated earlier before the process. So we had the ability to get started on some of the design work during this fiscal year. And we'll talk about what some of that looks like today. But this is intended to provide a snapshot in the city of Fairfax schools. And we continue to be grateful to the residents

of this community and to our partners in the city government for their strong support of this work. I'll briefly review how we arrived at the point we are tonight, share some information about contracts and early design work and outline what is coming next. And I would also share for the benefit of the public, it's our intention as a city school staff to provide one of these updates at each of our regular board meetings moving forward. So hopefully this will be a regular cadence reliable source of updates for our community in terms of what we'll cover this evening I'll walk through the history and context of this renovation initiative I'll talk about the contract awards and some initial work that's been

happening with the design teams and then I'll close with an overall look at the renovation journey and some timeline information before opening up for questions so let's look at the next slide and begin with how we got here if for all of our longtime city of Fairfax residents, a lot of this is going to be very familiar, but you can see that in the late 90s, we shifted from four elementary schools to two elementary schools. Fun fact, at one point, there were six elementary schools, and I recently learned that in the city of Fairfax of various sizes, and so now we're at two wonderful schools at Daniels Run in Providence. And you can see that as we move through the next decade, renovations at our middle school and our high school.

And then really where we're talking about tonight is what started happening in 2023, where there was a facilities conditions assessment done of all four of the school buildings plus green acres. In 2024, there was a referendum on the ballot with 69% approval from the community to primarily focus on updating our two elementary schools and doing some work at Fairfax High School. And then what we're gonna really get into the specifics the City of Fairfax School Board awarded design contracts to two firms to begin working on the schools and that's where we are

Kristina Cecerethis evening

Dustin Wrightstaffso what you'll see next is who we awarded the contracts for and in September of this year mostly architects was awarded a design contract for Daniels run and architecture Inc was awarded a contract for Mosley excuse me for Providence Both of these firms are very well-regarded firms. They went through a competitively procured RFP process, and they have lots and lots of both of these firms. I would say it's appropriate to share that they're mostly known for their work in the K-12 sector, and our early work with them has been wonderful. I'll now speak a little bit about Daniel's Run. I think, again, if you're a part of the community, you know this, school with approximately 800 students. Originally opened in 1956 and then this is all new information

for me and I worked there for almost two years but you can see additions in 84, 89, 2000 and with significant improvements in 1987 and 2001. So it's a building that is nearly 70 years old overall with various additions over the years and you can see some of the basic details on the size of the building and the size of the property. Now we'll look at similar information of her Providence Elementary School again a pre-k through six with a slightly larger enrollment similar timelines in terms of being open and similar timelines for basic improvements a slightly larger building in terms of square footage and then a larger piece of property and please note that this includes all of the baseball fields that are on that property as well. So what I would like to

understand a little bit about the work that has been done by our design teams and I'll share at this moment a big thank you to Miss King Miss Dorsey and especially mr. Phillips for they've been doing a lot of the work with these design firms and so you can see on the screen some of the things that have happened there's been community meetings with school staff and families to get input on what's what are some of the priorities what are some of the big hopes and dreams they have for each building we've had members of either the subcontractors observing school operations during key times, arrival, lunch, recess, dismissal, kiss and ride at Providence, you know, kiss and ride at Daniel's Run, all areas that we want to try and continue to refine.

And then they've met with principals, school-based staff over that time. And then finally, we've tried to prioritize what's important to us here in the city, student safety, efficient use of space, LEED, sustainability programs, capacity, parking, and cost

Amit Hickmanefficiency.

Dustin WrightstaffAnd so as we look just ahead, we want to talk about what are some of the things that are going to happen next. And so as the screen moves up, we are excited that we're going to be conducting tours of previous renovation projects. And the we in that statement is members of our staff and hopefully some members of our school board. One of the most exciting next steps is be able to look at some initial design concepts from the firm. So these are kind of rough sketches of what could be possible to say, hey, are we moving in the right direction? And then there'll be additional community engagement meetings with staff, with members of the community to provide some feedback on those conceptual designs.

And we're hoping to have some of those dates finalized in the next week or so. and then finally i want to take a moment here to share there's a dedicated section of our website the city of fairfax schools website that is going to have specific updates on each of these renovations not just the overall work but the each specific school as we go through this will be able to share updates designs key dates and other information that is important not only for for this board and our city council partners, but also for the community and most importantly, the students and families at each school. And so all of this fits into a longer renovation journey. And we just wanna talk about that in closing before we move into some questions.

And what you're seeing on the screen right now is a look at that website that I was just referring to. And a big thanks to Carrie Dorsey for helping us provide this great resource for our community. I think it's going to be a reliable place to find information there'll be a frequently asked question site and I would also point out that there's going to be a place where they can submit questions so they can get a prompt and a accurate response on any any question they have related to these projects so now we'll take one final look at this renovation journey and you can kind of see some of the key steps that are going to happen between now and hopefully a occupancy date of September 2030 there's

in that time, but you can see some of the things that we've done already. We've awarded that contract. Right now we're in that conceptual design phase. And the next part is the schematic design. And hopefully that's where we'll be at the end of the school year. And then you're going to go into a design development, construction documents and permitting phase that allows our firms to really get into the details and the nitty gritty. This wall is gonna be 10 feet, four inches tall and six inches thick. they'll specify the exact type of concrete that's gonna be used. It's that level of detail that we're not at now, but we will be when we get into that construction documents phase. And then that helps us with the permitting

and all the work that we need to do. And then we go through a bidding process for our contractor construction and then eventual occupancy. So just at the start of a very exciting journey, but hopefully this will be a reoccurring forum for us to be able to provide everyone updates on this exciting work. I'll conclude this update and I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Thank you, Dr. Wright. I'll start with necessary. Nothing at this time. Okay. Ms. Heckman.

Amit HickmanNo questions just to request that when we do have the chance to, we've did some school tours previously before this whole process started, but that we're having opportunities to school to see schools of similar scale and size, and then maybe some that have some exciting new innovations that, we might not have thought of.

Dustin WrightstaffYeah, thank you so much. I think that's a great way to frame those type of visits.

Carolyn PitchesYeah, I'd like to put Innovation Elementary on the list, if we could.

Dustin WrightstaffOkay, great.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Kelsey. I'll just ditto

Sarah Kelseywhat they said.

Lauren BartelmeMs. Bartome. I don't have any questions, but ditto. And I'm excited to see what's coming.

Dustin WrightstaffAll right. Thank you so much.

Lauren BartelmeJust

Carolyn Pitchesso the public knows, we've had many conversations around this, so our questions have been mostly answered by Dr. Wright. Okay, moving on, we will move to the public hearings. This is the FY2027 public hearing for the superintendent's proposed budget, which has been advertised sufficiently. is there anybody who signed up miss King no okay thank you okay action items we will start with first action item being the approval of our minutes from our January 5th 2026 meeting the clerk has provided these minutes is there a motion madam

Kristina Cecerechair

Carolyn Pitchesyes necessary I

Kristina Ceceremove that the city of Fairfax school board approve the minutes of the January 5th 2026 school board regular meeting as printed

Carolyn Pitchesget a second second miss sessori move miss hickman seconded city of fairfax school board approved the minutes from the January 5th 2026 regular school board meeting as printed and distributed any additions modifications or changes okay

Kristina Cecerebeing none all

Carolyn Pitchesthose in favor signify by saying aye aye aye no numbers are opposed the motion passes unanimously we will move on to our next next action item which is the five-year capital improvement plan modification may I have a motion please madam

Amit Hickmanchair miss

Carolyn PitchesHickman

Amit HickmanI move that the city of Fairfax school board approved the amended capital improvement program presented by the superintendent on February 9th 2026 including the addition of the HVAC project and updates to other project timelines and cost estimates these amendments shall replace the corresponding sections of the CIP approved on November 3rd, 2025.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. May I have a second?

Lauren BartelmeSecond.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Ms. Hickman moved. Ms. Bartle may second it. All those in favor, signify by saying aye.

Lauren BartelmeAye.

Carolyn PitchesThose opposed? None are opposed. Motion passes unanimously. Okay. Next action item is the approval of the FY2027 superintendent's proposed budget. May I have a motion, please?

Kristina CecereMadam Chair.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Sessori.

Kristina CecereI move that the City of Perfect School Board approve the FY 2027 school board budgets as printed and distributed.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. May I have a second? Second. Okay. Ms. Sessori moved. Ms. Kelsey seconded. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. None are opposed. The FY 2027 superintendent's budget passes unanimously. Okay. We will move on to superintendent We're back to Dr. Wright.

Dustin WrightstaffThank you, Chair Pitches. And during this time of the superintendent matters, I'd love to share a few brief updates and reflections as we close this evening. I'll start by sharing some immense gratitude for all of the work that was done in our schools to make sure that they could open and open safely. And this work was done by our custodial teams, facility staff, and our city partners. And I would throw a quick shout out to our, some of our Department of Public Work partners here in the city that provided some key help at our city of Fairfax schools. storm initially came and then even up until a couple days ago they were clearing they brought in a skid steer to clear a sidewalk that comes in the back

of Daniel's run to help some of our walkers get in there so we really appreciate all that I'm also grateful to the broader community for their patience and support as we worked and to ensure safe conditions for students and staff and the collective efforts made a real difference I was talking to someone earlier this evening we were kind of comparing nothing's perfect here and in but as we've looked around the DMV area, you can tell not only the great work that's happened in our community and the community pride, but just, you know, we're very fortunate for the resources that we have. So a big thank you there. I wanted to give the community and the board a quick update on some of the entry plan work that I've tried to do as the, as I'm continuing to enter into

this role. We've talked a lot about here in these first couple of months, wanting to do a lot of listening and learning and trying to shift that now to doing some sense making and aligning of what I'm hearing from the community. Trying to think about the themes of what I've heard and align some of our leadership and governance structures to those themes. And then trying to hear, think about what are some of the emerging priorities we're hearing from our stakeholder groups. I'm really, really grateful for all the people and groups that I've met with, for their openness and thoughtfulness, specifically towards the needs of our staff, our family, our community, and most importantly, our students.

things I've done in the last few weeks and I'll continue targeted outreach and engagement with key partners is meet with our city manager or police chief our fire chief city leaders and department heads former school board members I've spent a lot of time meeting with some of the leaders in our partner at Fairfax County Public Schools not only have I spent time with our city principals but I've been meeting with some of the feeder elementary principals whose students are not in the city as elementary students but then they come and just continuing to establish those partnerships. And then I'm most excited here in the next month or so, I'll be spending a lot of time meeting with students. Miss Dorsey has created quite the itinerary

of meeting with high school leadership students during lion time, avid students in Katherine Johnson, all the way down to kindergarteners. And I think there's a book I'm gonna read to them called If I Built a School. And I think it'll be a good foundation to get some great input. if you've ever spent any time with a kindergartner, they have the best input. Let's see, just a few other things. I want to encourage families and staff, community members to attend one of the community listening sessions. We had one last Wednesday night at Fairfax High School and we'll have another one this Wednesday at Katherine Johnson. These are informal sessions and they're opportunity to ask questions, share what's working well here in the city

and then offer ideas of how we can continue to grow. be another one next week that's a virtual session so if you're not able to make it out to one of those events we have virtual session next week and the details of all that are on our website and are in our close-up newsletters finally it's been a great month in our schools at daniel's run i was really excited because i got to meet with our elementary principals to do some planning for the spring and i also attended the daniel's run pta meeting last week at providence I was at their orchestra concert and then I attended their book festival and it is a it's a must-attend event It's modeled after the National Book Festival and there are guest authors and there was you know a cartoon clinic

There was even a cartoon drawing contest between a professional Artist who's a friend of mine, Mr. Lynette, and then one of the administrators and I don't I think Mr. Lynette went easy on him and let him win but It was great At Katherine Johnson, I was there for their rising 7th grade curriculum night, both as a superintendent and as a parent. I was able to be one of the toughest judges of the debate competition in Mr. Long's civics class. They had a great conversation about free speech. Finally, at Fairfax High School, I was able to attend their Saturday school program, their community curriculum night, a boosters meeting for the athletics program, a girls basketball game, a PTA meeting, and then last Friday night it was the Athletics Hall of Fame induction where

10 alumni members from NFL players to baseball players that are now doctors in Seattle and everything in between from students who graduated a few years ago to all the way back to alumni from the class of 1967 were inducted. And it was a great way to kind of see the history of our, our wonderful city and all the different impacts going through our schools have. So I was really excited to do that and follow that up by attending the academy's performance of how to succeed in business without really trying. So it's been really exciting. And I'm going to close with one final thing because chair pitches shared that it is school board clerk appreciation week next week, but it's also school board appreciation month.

So I want to take a moment to publicly thank each of you for your service to the City of Fairfax schools And I include Miss Lucas as well our student representative We are grateful for the role you play in planting seeds of success for our students and ensuring that every learner has the resources opportunities and support needed to grow Thrive and reach their full potential on behalf of our students staff families and community. Thank you for your leadership Your commitment to public education and your steady focus on what is best for our kids grateful for the opportunity to serve alongside you and deeply appreciate the strong roots you continue to provide for our city of Fairfax schools so happy

school board appreciation month as well thank

Carolyn Pitchesyou dr. right okay we will move on to board matters miss Bartle may

Lauren BartelmeI wanted to congratulate the students from Fairfax Academy on on their show how to succeed in business without really trying I heard rave reviews on this past weekend miss Kelsey

Sarah KelseyI just want to say I'm looking forward to the Providence band and choir concert tomorrow night as well as later in the month the histories and humanities fair that includes both elementary schools and Katherine Johnson kind of looking forward to seeing what those kids put together because most of it's done on their own

Amit HickmanI have the perfect audience or I want to speak for myself and also on behalf of the school board to express our support for the Willard Sherwood Center this project represents a strong partnership with the county and provides an important opportunity to create a central hub for community engagement spaces like this can play a meaningful role in giving the children in our city a safe structured to participate and to spend time together in positive ways. Vienna Community Center is a great example of how a similar shared space can successfully bring students and families together while supporting healthy constructive involvement outside of the school day. And I'd like to recommend that if this project was to pass, that it would be used as a model for our own city.

So thank you and good luck to all of you who will be making this decision.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Sessori.

Kristina CecereI will second that, Ms. Hickman. Thank you. I will add that just a quick good luck to the swimmers of Fairfax High School and their regionals this weekend at Oakmont. So other than that, I'm looking forward to the band concert tomorrow night at Providence as well. Thank you so much.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. I have one thing that I would, I've been holding off on making any comments about this topic, but Fairfax County Public Schools recently announced that the external investigation into Hayfield Secondary School and Fairfax High School's football programs has been completed. It is my hope FCPS will now release the full report so that our city community, as well as the county taxpayers, have the opportunity to understand what was learned through this process. This investigation has implications not only for these two schools, across the county moving forward. It also directly affects current employees who have been placed on administrative leave for an extended period and are still waiting for clarity on how FCPS intends to proceed.

I believe that transparency is essential for public trust, accountability, and for ensuring that any lessons learned meaningfully inform future practices. Our community deserves to see the findings, get resolution, decisions moving forward for not only coaches and families but for student athletes as well so I would ask that report and resolution from this investigation be swift thank you all right is there anything else before the board okay there's nothing else before the board I will adjourn at 741 Thank you.