Regular School Board Meeting

Speaker 34music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music

Carolyn Pitchesgood evening ladies and gentlemen tonight is monday october 6 2025 and this is the regular meeting of the city of Fairfax school board please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I

Speaker 40pledge allegiance to the flag

Kristina Cecereof the United States of America and to the Republic for which it

Speaker 40stands one

Kristina Cecerenation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all

Carolyn Pitchesokay we do not have any changes to the agenda this evening and we do not have any new announcements so we will begin with the adoption of our agenda may have a motion please madam

Sarah Kelseychair

Carolyn Pitchesmoose kelsey

Sarah Kelseyi move that the city of fairfax school board adopt the agenda as written and distributed may have a second

Lauren Bartelmei second okay

Carolyn Pitchesms kelsey moved and this Bartolme seconded. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. None opposed. The motion passes unanimously. Okay. We'll move on to presentations of the school board. We do not have anybody signed up for citizen participation. Okay. We'll move on to our student representative report.

StudentMs. Lucas. Good evening. At Fairbanks High School, homecoming season is in full swing. They're themed around the popular musical Mamma Mia. Festivities include a parade, tailgate, and dance, celebrating the school and its alumni. The girls' flag football has officially started, and winter sports teams are holding interest meetings and Green Day practices. Last Friday, the military tailgate, featuring a pink-out theme, honored current and former service members, followed by an exciting home football game against South Cadley. Despite the loss, the game was thrilling. At Katherine Johnson Middle School, parents gathered for the first PTA meeting. The school honored military families during the Blue Star Welcome Week, and students enjoyed

and new cafeteria menu items. Picture Day Makeup Day is October 24th, and the first quarter ends October 31st for all schools. At Daniels Run Elementary School, the schools shared its State of the School Project school's report, showing how funds are supporting both academics and emotional growth. Families are also weighing in on the school's start time survey. They had a wonderful field day in October, and it was a huge hit with help of family, community, and even George Mason's student volunteers. It was an exciting event for all the students including the pre-K program. At Providence Elementary, updates included new mentorship programs, classroom innovation labs, and even student gardening projects

that bring learning to life. Across all the schools, the themes are clear. Stronger community voices, more focus on student well-being, and continued transparency about resources and programs. Thank you so much.

Carolyn PitchesThank you, Ms. Lucas. Do any board members have any

Kristina Cecerequestions for Ms. Lucas? mr phillips do you have any questions for mrs okay

Carolyn Pitchesthank you that was great um now we are going to move on to the superintendent selection process update and we have dr phyllis pojardo with us this evening welcome dr pojardo all

Phyllis Pajardoright thank you uh madam chair school board members mr phillips and staff and students good to see you again and i am happy to provide you regarding the superintendent search process so for tonight we really are looking at what's been happening in terms of the status of the activities that you already approved regarding this process and I will be sharing with you the profile of the new superintendent according to stakeholder input so first the activities you should feel very proud that everything on the left side has been completed so we are halfway through this mission that you decided to accept and uh it's been uh great working with you but it has been a busy uh set of months in terms of august and september if you take a look

at the arrow. The arrow is pointing to October because now we are squarely into the October activities that were approved and tonight I'm presenting to you the profile of the superintendent and then over the next several weeks you will be engaged in your interviews of candidates then finalists and then by the time I come back in November I won't be saying who the new superintendent will be but if all things go as planned and we are able to progress this process sometime in November you will be announcing a new superintendent and that is a good thing and Mr. Phillips has a bigger smile or maybe he's actually sad I'm not quite sure maybe a little a little bit of both but again And I think it's worth noting you are halfway there.

And you've done the work, you've engaged with the community, and it's been a good thing. So now let's talk about the profile of the new superintendent. In terms of doing the work and getting public input, there were almost 100 stakeholders that engaged either in the online survey, a one-on-one interview. they completed either the virtual forum or the in-person forum because we gathered input from a variety of ways. And here were the things that were cited, and I rolled these up into six top themes. One, no surprise to you, folks want someone who acts with honesty, integrity, transparency, and fairness. We would want that in every single leader. Folks want people who have experience, you know, have done the work, have put in the work,

kind of given some of the financial challenges that are before us, someone that has been fiscally responsible, as well as that can navigate and address complex change, not just the next ordinary technical change, but something that is very complex, because there are plenty of things that we cannot even predict or project right now additionally folks are interested in folks who are innovative who are visionary future focused and who have had a proven record of improving student achievement all right so as we go into what are the priorities given the fact that these are the top qualities that have been cited then obviously the priorities are around continuing with the academic excellence and student

achievement so really looking at our data looking at how our students are performing instructionally academically looking at programs that you have supported and funded that do close gaps and make things accessible for our students and certainly moving to the next one budget management you've talked about that our stakeholders are talking about making sure that whoever you hire knows one that they're going to come into a season of budget development and that they will really need to just get right into that and you know work through a variety of things including looking at the tuition and the continued cost the cost of the renovations even though a bond has passed and just being mindful of that so the fiscal responsibility and the budget management

is an important priority the facilities and safety again not a surprise to you given the fact that you have some aging facilities that the community has already passed a bond to renovate the schools. The safety of the students are continuing to be important to folks also, so secured vestibules and even other facilities enhancements that you may not have considered as of yet. The mental, emotional, and physical well-being of our students. Now, I can make an assertion that based upon probably more recent events, this bubbled up toward the end. I think when I gave you the preliminary input that this was not a theme, but as we continued to keep information open, it became more pressing that folks thought of this.

and then staff retention this is retention of your teachers of your principals of your city school staff also people want people to be able to if they're effective to stay because there is a cost of the churn of turnover in the board itself in principals in teachers and as I said in your staff as well so future updates next time we are together in public it should be the announcement of your superintendent I did not put a date on that you certainly have a regular school board meeting scheduled in November but depending on how things work out you may end up doing a special meeting just to announce the superintendent and folks can continue to check the website for updates this be posted itself on the website and certainly if there are questions they can reach out

to us via that email and with that I am finished with your superintendent search update for October.

Carolyn PitchesThank you Dr. Pajardo. Do any board members have questions or comments for Dr. Pajardo? We just spent a good amount of time with Dr. Pajardo. Thank you. Mr. Phillips do you have any questions?

Dan PhillipsstaffDr. Pajardo was reading my mind when she said I'm eager for the new decision.

Carolyn PitchesThat's all. Thank you. And I do believe, Ms. King, that our November meeting is the third, November 3rd. Okay. I'm trying to think. I did have a question. When people mention staff retention, I'm curious. They do understand that we don't have any. can help provide things that might make it more amenable to stay in city schools, but we don't have any control over the actual instructional and operating.

Phyllis PajardoI think, Madam Chair, that some of that was, which the superintendent does have input into the selection of the principals of schools, which do, in fact, have people, I mean, you know, there's plenty of research out there that who is leading your school makes, you know either teachers and staff want to stay more or not as as well but they are clearly understanding fcps staff fcps employs the staff of people in city schools but the city itself city city school staff was also mentioned in terms of the retention and that superintendent really does I mean that's the people that he or she will work with closest. But thank you for reiterating.

Carolyn PitchesYeah, no, I was just curious what the commentary was around staff retention, like specifically.

Phyllis PajardoYeah, so it was as it relates to city school staff and the fact that there has been some turnover in staff positions. I mean, you know, there have been retirements. I mean, I think after I left, there were two other retirements, so three of us pretty much exited within the same year okay and now there's been a superintendent turnover and who you hire people are thinking could impact whether staff continue to stay or not and then it was mentioned staff in schools and thus input and the support of the superintendent's influence with FCPS regarding who those principals are that are serving in the four city schools.

Carolyn PitchesOkay, great. Thank you. That clarifies that for us. Okay. Thank you. And we will see you tomorrow.

Phyllis PajardoThat

Carolyn Pitchesis right. I had

Phyllis Pajardoalmost forgotten

Speaker 31about

Phyllis Pajardothat.

Carolyn PitchesThank you very much, Madam Chair. Thank you. Have a good evening. Thank you, Dr. Bajardo. Okay. Our next presentation is the capital funds budget presentation from Mr. Phillips. acting superintendent okay

Dan Phillipsstaffthank you chair pitches and board for the opportunity to talk about our capital improvement program or plan for FY 27 through 31 and it's pretty pretty straightforward and just as you know it's a really important time for our schools as we begin the process of planning our renovations and taking on some other major projects so if you just follow along with me the CIP timeline so we have a presentation and public hearing tonight we'll have a second part of a public hearing or second public hearing in November on that same November 3rd night and then potentially some board action to follow if things are heading in the right direction and then later either late in this year early next year we'll have a presentation for mayor and

City Council and for the Planning Commission and update them on on our on our wishes and goals for the year ahead this can you go to the two slides forward actually back up for one second we pulled some pictures up there of you can see the current Providence and the old Germantown the old Leighton Hall and the current Daniels Run I just thought those were cool pictures to see as we get ready to undertake this next renovation that's what they looked like before the last school board had such a big renovation so somebody 25 years from now will be looking at these same photos with a third picture of each I'm sure they'll be doing some other newfangled thing, but something like that. The next slide then, Ms. King.

So typically at this time of year, we talk about the capital programs or capital improvement plans, projects that we want to do, and we also talk about this ongoing maintenance. And I'm going to share a little bit about ongoing maintenance with you tonight. So we typically include this as part of the CIP. The city budget team this year is going to make an adjustment. And from this year forward, the funds that we request for ongoing maintenance, the things list will move to the operating budget so now they're in CI or last year they were in CIP I'm sharing it tonight kind of for continuity just so you can get a picture of it one more time next year when the new superintendent is here that he or she or they'll be presenting that as part of the operating budget rather

than the capital improvement budget and it makes sense it makes sense to do it that way and we appreciate the support from the budget team as they work on this project and so again tonight just for your information you can flip to the next slide and you see the the items at the top are those ongoing maintenance things you know there's a some funding for unforeseen maintenance carpet and tile is always a big one for us concrete repairs painting paving and then roof warranties and work and if you look across you know everything after this year is either the same amount or a reduction and as we get into future years you know different circumstances will change what those numbers look like anticipating as we get into FY 28 29 30 and beyond the renovations at the school

will take the place of some of that some of that need some of the things that we we might need to replace will be actually done as part of the renovation and for the carpet and tile project I think you know this already but we've finished Daniel's run all together and we're nine classrooms away from Providence so eventually that becomes just a maintenance and repair for tile we'll take the word carpet off and it'll just be our tile account but those are And then the big projects and two of these are kind of gigantic, but let's just talk about all of them real quick We know we have the Fairfax high school softball field and the initial intent was to do that as a turf field And there's been a lot of conversations about how we should do that

So we're going back right now and actually getting another estimate on some different materials And so we'll have some options to look at as we move forward The number you see there right now is the estimate for right now I think by the end of this week I may have some updated things that we can sort of talk about and work through and then also just fall back on rely on if we if we get into conversations and want to do something different and the softball field is not for FY 27 but in FY 28 but but again the planning will start now and the kind of the wish list items will start now the two big items both as part of the bond renovation the Fairfax High School roof as you can see There's nothing in FY27, but you can see it's starting in FY28 and beyond.

That's the bulk of it. That item actually will go into FY32 also to complete the project, but this budget only goes through FY31. But you can see it's, you know, it's just like you'd imagine. There's an escalating expense, and then it starts to drop down as the project gets underway and moves forward. Second big bond item, and those are the big ones, the things that are going to drive a lot of our conversations decisions for the next next three or four years honestly the elementary school renovations right now in FY 26 we've got funding already to do planning we've talked about that a lot and FY 27 you see it really starts to jump up and the planning starts turning into action and then it goes kind of forward from there

really hitting a stride in FY 29 and 30 you know substantial funds that we're talking about there and by that point hopefully all the decisions will be made and those will all be actions when we get to FY 29 and then there's a turf replacement project now typically in the past that turf replacement for the Fairfax High School field at the stadium has been in the Parks and Recreation budget the city budget team wants to transfer that to us and for a lot of different reasons it does make sense at one point in time parks and recreation needs were greater than 50% of the action that took place on that field, but now it's kind of flipped, and it's mostly school activities. And they still have lots of FPYC events and things like that, but it's more high school

than Parks and Recreation, so they've asked to move that back to us. And we are due for a turf replacement in the next couple of years for sure. And there's testing that goes on every year to make sure that things are safe, and there's maintenance that goes on to make sure things are safe right now, but we are nearing the end. great but but there's a lot under the surface that needs to be re reworked and that's not a full-on stadium replacement it's turf replacement so it's not an outrageously expensive amount but it you know it is a substantial amount and then finally on this list is just picking up and moving forward with the restaurant it's called the restaurant entrance modification because that's what it

started as but the lower rest room rest

Speaker 15we're not putting in a rest

Dan Phillipsstaffwe're not building any restaurants sorry sorry

Speaker 40guys

Dan Phillipsstaffsession stand is as close as we're Restroom. Maybe I should have eaten before the meeting.

Speaker 10I'm planning ahead

Dan Phillipsstafffor when I get home. But no, the restroom entrance, and it's really just restroom renovations at the lower concession stand there at the stadium. And with the funding received last year and the more modest amount we're asking for this year, we should be able to do something that makes things more convenient for folks on the visitor's side, opens up an ADA opportunity that doesn't exist right now. It just generally helps out. And it's also taken into consideration staffing needs so that it's not a major, you know, the problem we've always talked about is the entrance to the ladies' room being around the other side. And this would fix that. And I think that's kind of our main goal. So those are the big items.

And really, I just open it up to questions if you have any from there.

Carolyn PitchesBefore we go to questions, can you just clarify for everybody? parks and rec has always had turf replacement in there as you stated has it been well advertised to council and other the other departments that we are taking that over that this is not an extra at you know right we are and what happens to the $20,000 that we typically put aside for parks and rec for the upkeep of the turf. Right.

Dan PhillipsstaffWell, the maintenance was something that kind of would have gone on during that time. There's also an additional amount that FPYC contributed and we've contributed. And with those fundings, we're still working through it. From our end, we haven't spent them. They're still they're still available

Speaker 15you know but they're in they

Dan Phillipsstaffgo back into the city coffers every year which is what

Speaker 15happens with the operating

Dan Phillipsstaffbudget with the parks and recreation transfer I think that work lies ahead of us just making everybody aware this isn't a new ask for us it's something that we're picking up that would have been through parks and recreation at the end it's all city money but it is important to make it make sure that everybody understands it's not just an item we came up with that we want to do this is something that if it wasn't moving over to us it would be in parks and recreation and the amount would be the same

Carolyn Pitchesokay maybe at the the budget meeting presentation

Dan Phillipsstaffall

Carolyn Pitchesthe departments are there the schools can sit at the table with parks and rec and and explain that yeah because I know that that is a well watched yeah well

Dan Phillipsstaffit is and I end the conversation about what kind of turf we're looking at and all those things yeah I talked about it in other places and Stacy Summerfield the director of parks and immigration is just wonderful to work with we talked about the idea of doing this as a joint project initially and I think it makes it cleaner for the budget team if it's from one department but we all know in spirit that if we're at 51 and they're 49 we're still working on it together and sharing responsibilities and things like that so I think just making that clear as we move forward will be important

Carolyn Pitchesokay and you should probably speak to you mentioned the different materials that we're looking at the softball field one I would ask why are we looking for something other than turf just because the baseball field is turf and correct You have to make sure title nine. That's correct Um, and what those material like what are the materials we're looking at and why are we looking at

Dan Phillipsstaffwell? I think the Catherine Johnson fields They're not Catherine Johnson fields the Cutter Park fields that Catherine Johnson Johnson uses is a parks and recreation project And there's been a lot of conversation about whether those should be turf or whether they should be grass fields And, you know, they did a lot of talk in the last year with city council. Maybe it was two years ago now where they had people come in and talk about the health risks and things like that with turf. And, you know, so that's something that could come up again. The folks that are giving us the estimate are going to give us different turf options and a grass total. And it's not one that we have to use, but it'll just inform us.

And, you know, it's better to have the information and not use it than not have it, I think. Okay,

Carolyn Pitchesso it's basically like we are just finding out what the options are.

Dan PhillipsstaffJust gathering information because it's not that hard to do. It comes from the same company.

Carolyn PitchesRight. And I do know that at one time, a couple of superintendents ago, we did look at when we did the press box at the softball field, we looked at, you know, re-putting new grass. Infield or

Dan Phillipsstaffoutfield, right.

Carolyn PitchesYeah, and they determined at that time It just wasn't a great

Dan Phillipsstaffarea for that. Area.

Carolyn PitchesIt didn't do well

Dan Phillipsstafffor

Carolyn Pitchesgrowing grass.

Dan PhillipsstaffThe thing that's interesting, and I don't want to spoil the fun ahead, but

Speaker 11the grass

Dan Phillipsstafffield that is on the opposite side of the current softball field would actually make a really nice surface also. But we have to make sure that it's not really outrageously expensive that change. You know what I mean? So there's an option right there. We spent

Carolyn Pitcheshundreds of thousands of dollars on the press box and all the new other things.

Dan PhillipsstaffCan

Carolyn Pitcheswe move that?

Dan PhillipsstaffTo me, it looks like we can. We just turn it around because it's not concrete. I drove down there the other day. I was having a conversation and someone thought it was concrete and in the ground, but it's not. It doesn't look like to me that it would be an impossible thing to do. But by the end of the week, I'll probably know what the company that might do it would think. And then we can go from there.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Ms. Barlmay, do you have any questions about the CIP?

Lauren BartelmeI guess I'm just curious as far as the maintenance and projecting out multiple years and the costing the same, kind of rectifying that with inflation and potentially increasing costs.

Dan PhillipsstaffI think, you know, in my limited time doing this, it's been interesting. I think that there's still some funds left over, sometimes year to year, and sometimes there's a big project that kind of eats into those funds. I think that

Speaker 34we

Dan Phillipsstaffmay well adjust them when we get, you know, if things change. Plus, the needs will change. And I think with that renovation, we're probably safe with these numbers, knowing that two buildings will probably get that same care without coming out of this fund. But it's, you know, it's something we have to look at every year. I think, you know, just the spirit of the big borrow for the two elementary schools and knowing that a lot of that. And also that some of these projects are kind of like they're ongoing, but there's nothing really burning right now that we're expecting to be a big, you know, with the carpet and tile, you could save up some money and you knew it was going to come in chunks. But with some of these others, like concrete repairs, we have great partners in the county.

And a lot of times they help us with those things also. So, but it's a good, it's something that bears watching as we move forward.

Carolyn PitchesThank you. Thank you. Ms. Kelsey, do you have any questions?

Sarah KelseyYeah. Just a clarification. Sure. with the turf, the turf replacement, is that just the football field or is it football and baseball?

Dan PhillipsstaffIt's just football. Just football. Just the field in the middle of the stadium. And it would take in some track and field elements also. Okay. So the kind of things that are down at the end of 1M zone and maybe around the corner.

Sarah KelseyOkay. Yeah. And then on the roof. Fairfax High School roof. Fairfax High School roof. Sure. or why is the pricing so different year from year is that the because they've already kind of figured out the sections and that section happens to be bigger or okay or more HVAC

Dan PhillipsstaffI should have said this earlier actually this the the estimates for the elementary school renovation and the roof came during the time of the facility conditions assessment and they sort of gave us cash flow elements for what it would take when we were doing the project and I think when you look at the FY29 number, it's probably a bigger section. The way the current roof was set up and done through the puff roof and with the warranties, it's five sections, five phases. This would just be the replacement of one phase at a time.

Carolyn PitchesIt's likely the M&M section.

Dan PhillipsstaffProbably.

Sarah KelseyThat's what my guess was, too. but I just kind of okay and then that's all though gonna be covered under the bond correct

Dan Phillipsstaffyes okay yeah thank you sure thank you miss Kelsey

Carolyn Pitchesmiss Hickman I

Amit Hickmanjust want to say that sitting on prab I had the opportunity to see the CIP and it was reflected vice versa right opposite of what you did so I think that it's great that both that that committee already has that information and knowledge and I assume will be shared in a very similar manner public my only the questions that we get similar to Ms. Kelsey's question is just to add FHS stadium turf for placement. I know it's one word. Good point. Might just avoid any additional. We can do

Dan Phillipsstaffthat for

Amit Hickmansure. Thank you.

Carolyn PitchesEven though we just did the other turf, we would hope people would think that.

Sarah KelseyIt's my sports.

Carolyn PitchesOh yeah. Stadium

Dan Phillipsstaffwill clarify.

Carolyn PitchesThere's no stadium, not the baseball.

Dan PhillipsstaffThanks Ms. Hickman.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Ms. Sessori.

Kristina CecereYes. I have two questions. I'll stick to two questions. So I did a little math, and I was noticing that the elementary renovations plus the high school roof replacements is about $201 million. And our bond is $220,000 because the $3 million that we had for this first year is coming out of a different pot of money. Yes. Planning for this year is correct. Yeah, exactly. Give back money. What's that? Give back money. Yes, exactly.

Carolyn PitchesYes.

Kristina CecereSo that gives about 20, excuse me, about 10% of the bond amount. That's just kind of like a buffer. Is that fair to assume? It's actually

Dan Phillipsstaffreflected in the roof cost in 20, in 32. That was, okay. Not the full amount, but, you know, and when we did the bond planning, escalations were built in predicted escalations so we won't know the full story till we get out there but I think I think we mr. Blattenburg took a lot of time to make sure we were taking advice that was going to put us on the good side of that not the other side so we wouldn't have to come back and look for more money

Kristina Cecereawesome and then my second question is thinking about our roof replacement schedule would there be any assumption that their roof repair and warranties amount would decrease because we have it 65 across those years with that just be is like a we're just

Dan Phillipsstaffwell the

Kristina Cecerebudgeting that or what did that what would that look like

Dan Phillipsstaffit it when we get beyond the repair it will and it's possible that it could a little bit but the you know they're ongoing repairs that happen every year and those are going to get older it's almost hard to predict what we're going to need so we've kind of just stuck with that kind of looking out for right now but again as we make the changes when we're done hopefully there's a substantial reduction in 32 and 33 and beyond but for now we stuck with those thanks

Carolyn Pitchesokay mr. Phillips the speaking of the roof warranties like some of them are going to expire yeah what's the first year of expiration is it 29

Dan Phillipsstaffi'd want to go back and look but 29 is what comes to mind i'm almost positive it's 29 and by that point the section that will have done prior to that we would do the one that's expiring first we do them in those orders

Carolyn Pitchesokay and i am assuming there's no hvac

Dan Phillipsstaffno um

Carolyn Pitchesis that because we're anticipating that there will be renovations and we aren't going to

Dan Phillipsstaffcertainly at schools. I think the middle and the high school, we've done some work over the last couple of years already, stuff that was actually happening before I got here, even in my assistant role. And so, you know, it's potentially something that could be added back in next year.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. And can I'm going to play devil's advocate here. Let's say age something, a chiller or something breaks at the high school or a unit breaks at the middle school, how are we going to address that? It's

Dan Phillipsstaffa great question. We actually have funds remaining. So the CIP funding doesn't. I think I said something that was incorrect when I was talking about the $20,000 for the turf. When it was in, the CIP did not go back into the city funding. Same thing is true for HVAC funds. FOR FUNDS THAT WE GOT AND WE DIDN'T SPEND FOR PREVIOUS PROJECTS, THEY STAY WITH US. EVEN MOVING THIS TO THE MAINTENANCE, TO THE OPERATING BUDGET, THOSE FUNDS ARE GOING TO STAY IN PLACE. SO THERE'S STILL FUNDING AVAILABLE. IT'S JUST NOT REFLECTED AS NEW MONEY THAT WE NEED.

Carolyn PitchesOKAY. AND WERE WE LEAVING OUT, I'M JUST TRYING TO SO EVERYBODY UNDERSTANDS WHY WE LEFT OUT, LEFT HVAC. I MEAN, TYPICALLY WE ALWAYS HAVE HVAC ON OUR CIP.

Dan PhillipsstaffI think last year's CIP showed it expiring, I think, this year, and it was probably with the plan for the renovation. Now, we still have an opportunity to add it back in, I think, if we want to. I mean, that would be, I think it's a great question. I'll tell you what, let's do this. Can I explore it a little bit further and get some more information? This is not done.

Carolyn PitchesThis is a draft.

Dan PhillipsstaffIt's a great question, and it makes me curious, too. So let me get a little more information.

Carolyn PitchesAbby do you have a question sorry miss Lucas no okay all right thank you mr. Phillips thank you we will move on to our Fairfax Academy update and we have miss Andrea cook miss Amy hard and miss Suzette Murphy here from the Academy this evening. Welcome. How are you guys?

Speaker 34Thanks for

Speaker 27having us here. Amy is our career experience specialist, familiar face, and then Suzette Murphy is our game design teacher. So we added that program since it's fourth year? This is the fourth year. Wow. I'm sure it's very popular. It is super popular, and she is our original teacher who has built the program from the ground up. So she'll get to fill you in a little bit on that. We can go to the next slide. Just some generic academy updates for the year that I always like to give you. We're holding at just over 1,400 enrollment. That's about the same as we've been the past two years. We just don't have any more space. That's where we are. But we're holding strong. We had some wait lists this year.

We were able to fulfill a lot of wait list requests, not all of them, but we do get the ability to work through those as students have conflicts or move out of the area or some students just change their minds. We also are reinvigorating our dual enrollment. We used to have many moons ago music computer tech was a dual enrolled class. So we've had to go back to the drawing board for that class and in those conversations started conversations about other classes. So this year we've partnered with Marymount University and they are offering our fashion careers level one class. have a non-dual enrolled section as well. So we were lucky to have 20 students who were super excited to do fashion as a dual enrolled option. And then we also added our pre-professional musical

theater class. That's the senior class has an honors weight this year. So just

Speaker 21some basic curriculum updates. And I'll let

Speaker 27Suzette dive into game design.

Suzette MurphystaffSo game design is $180 billion than film and music combined. It's just huge. I think that it's something that can go into a lot of different industries because it covers art, it covers technology, coding, programming, working in a 3D space, all of those things that kind of go branch out to a lot of different things. So it's really good for our students because even if they don't want to do necessarily just game design, it still gives them a work into other things that they might be interested in, like architecture, planning, programming, all of those things. So what we do in our classes is we build a fully playable game from start to finish. They make every part of it. They do the coding, they create the artwork, they do the sound

design, they write stories for it, they spend some time planning, we spend a lot of time getting in groups. With my advanced class they work in 3D, now that they've done first part, now they can work in 3D and they already know Unity, which is our game engine, so they can bring that in as well. We do collaborate in teams and write stories, player experiences, that sort of thing. So some of the impacts are critical thinking, obviously teamwork. We are aligned to CTE and industry standards. certification so it's a professional certification that they can put on the resume that they can add to their colleges and

Speaker 21at the end

Suzette Murphystaffthey also have a little bit of portfolio they will have made a game the 3d class I let them pick a focus so that it can be a portfolio that they piece that they want if they want to just focus on 3d or if they want to just focus on animation or just coding they can do that

Carolyn PitchesCan

Speaker 21I see you over there?

Suzette MurphystaffYeah, sure. So these are just some examples from some games from last year. So this is just screenshots that I use. You can go to the next one if you want. I mean, it's kind of loops, yeah. But this is like a side-scroller. Another little guy. Yeah, right? She's in my advanced class now.

Speaker 34Yeah,

Suzette Murphystaffthat's cute. This one is probably more coding focused. The student really liked all these cool things. It's a difficult coding piece.

Carolyn PitchesI think this, so that's

Suzette Murphystaffwhen they make their games. play each other so we all walk around and play each other's games and then talk about them as kind of a fun day for us. It's just another game. I thought it was cute.

Speaker 27I'm

Speaker 28going to care for you.

Suzette MurphystaffI'm trying not to. Those are acorns, yeah. It's in the forest. But they're generally somewhat like this. So the first series, I only let them do 2D, so all of them kind of look like that. I don't think I can put any 3D ones on there.

Speaker 27I'm going to dive in for a few highlights that Suzette didn't highlight for you from what I've seen. It's amazing how much collaboration happens in this class. The kids are always working together in groups, but on top of that, I've always been impressed with how much Suzette does to really thoughtfully pair students together and make sure that they're working successfully. There's always a little friction, but she has such great strategies and responses to students about how to just navigate that and I think it's such a huge part of the creative industry that sometimes we forget to teach in high school and she's doing it in class so it's really really awesome the students learn unity but they also do 3d rendering

in Maya we are the only school in all of Fairfax County that's offering the second level the advanced game design class so there are a few other high schools that offer game design the level one class but we're the only school that does the advanced class which was super important to us it's a lot of fun to go in if you want to come play the kids games on that day we can send you an and they're so proud of the work so.

Amy HardstaffCool.

Speaker 34Very

Amy Hardstaffcool. Sure, sure, sure. Hi, I'm Amy. Good to see everybody again. The biggest takeaway, I tend to go too fast and get too excited about things. It's my third year here at Academy and now I finally think I figured out a little bit of what I can do, should do, maybe don't want, like I'm starting to carve it out a little bit more. The most exciting things that are happening is more cross collaboration between our programs, which sometimes don't seem like they are connected. And we're still like trying to navigate ways to be like, oh, but they are. At least, I mean, the soft skills piece, of course, and the industry readiness piece, of course. But then some of the actual content, we're finding interesting overlaps.

Thanks so much to the funding that you all are providing. exciting. We can go for it. So tomorrow everyone is invited, should you like to come, to the FHS auditorium at noon. We are having our first artsplosion. So this is our arts programming. So we have our musical theater program, our dance program, and our music and computer technology program coming together to build community and to learn from industry professionals. So we have a panel of three pros coming in to kind of do a Q&A and facilitate a great discussion about these professionalism skills, which is a new rubric that we're using this year. It's not graded, but it's really to ready them for like, that's not going to hack it in the real world.

So it is really career focused and very important. And sometimes we learn that stuff only through experience. And so we're trying to give that to them now so they know what to expect later. Our relationship continues with Trilogy Sound Studios as well as is venturing out to a couple other music production spaces in Northern Virginia. So we'll see what happens there. We've recently formed a new partnership with Arena Stage and we're trying to do sort of the show business part with them. We have a partnership with Signature Theatre which focuses mainly on the skills and opportunities for musical theatre performers. but arena stage is going to expand that more because as a former theater teacher and performer

myself I'm like there are so many other jobs that you could be preparing for and a lot of these kids don't even know what that list is much less have some experience there so our focus with them is bridging a relationship with some other performing arts schools like Duke Ellington and coming together and having our kids meet their kids but then also expanding into like how do you do arts administration, what other jobs are available within that professional theater world. Expo is going to be big this year. We have a bit more funding and we are so excited about that. It's really allowing us to invite people from out of town because that money will pay for their travel. So whereas before they're like I totally do this for free but on my dime I can't come

down from New York on my one day off. And so we get to have all of them come in. We're forming stronger bonds with different programs at George Mason, which feels very city-specific, but also just it's such a resource. I mean, they bring everybody in. Their dance program with Center for the Arts is bringing in the Jose Limon dance troupe, which is one of my favorite of all time. And they're doing a master class at our school. And I'm like, I'm going to be taking that master class? That's crazy. Our ambassador leadership program continues to grow. This year we had over 115 applicants for the Ambassador Program, and that leadership training kicks off on Thursday. These are kids from every single program and every single base school that we've got.

And they are out there to represent Academy, but also learn public speaking skills along the way. They're going to be firming up their resumes and their interview skills and all of those types of things while continuing to celebrate what we're doing at Academy. And we're also taking some trips. New York trip, which is what we used to do, I guess, back in the day before I got there, which makes perfect sense for so many of our arts-focused groups, but as well pulls in that communication group with our critical languages. There are so many opportunities for things for them to see and explore up in New York. Our Korean program right now is looking at taking a spring break of next year trip to Korea.

So we're seeing what's happening there. We can move to the next one if you don't mind. So Expo now happens throughout the entire month of November, which is great because we can give all these artists and guest speakers their pick of what day works for them instead of trying to force them into one day. We also ensure that every single class has a workshop or a guest artist or guest speaker throughout the month. And we are expanding to do a lot more hands-on stuff because now we can afford a little bit more than just someone donating their time. So thank you for that. All right, and we can, and one of the coolest things is Mason has a game design program that we're trying to build a partnership with.

But in their game design program, they do soundscapes. They do composing for game design, which pulls in our musical and computer, music and computer technology kits. But also they do movement and acting with Boris Willis, who used to be one of my professors. That's a total movement-based workshop. So we're trying to get those three things happening at once in November.

Speaker 27Okay, I think that

Amy Hardstaffmight be it. Yeah, I'll hand it back to you.

Speaker 27So a lot of what Amy was able to talk about is because of the city of Fairfax. So thank you for that partnership, your support financially, and just being part of this community just helps us dream. We don't have to just do the bare minimum. We really can think of some really cool extra things that otherwise we

Amy Hardstaffwouldn't have the time and space for.

Speaker 27Future forecasts, we're always dreaming and looking at what's next. So we're looking at more dual enrollment classes. to us. It can be a little bit of a challenging partnership as to what school has what where and working through those different professors but we have a few on the cusp that we'll be excited to announce when those get official so stay tuned. And then we're also looking at expanding our courses. I feel like that's always what I'm asked. So what's next? What's next? It was game design so now it's been four years so I need to keep dreaming. Social media marketing is no longer with us so looking at something to fill that space. We're really looking heavily into the trades. That's a

that we've seen as our population has evolved at Fairfax High School, but also just with other programs at other academies getting full, what can we offer on this side of the county that would really benefit a lot of students? We're also looking at how do we bridge our critical languages and our arts? So there's some interesting conversations in there that we might be able to jump in on that we're having with central office. We haven't quite landed on anything, but we think there's some cross-sections somewhere that we can definitely be a part of here in the city of Fairfax by doing that.

Amy HardstaffI think that,

Speaker 27oh, little season highlights. So our musical in January, don't come opening night. Come

Speaker 22opening night, but don't come opening night.

Speaker 27Is How to Secede in Business Without Really Trying. We're really excited to kick that off on January 31st. We continue with our Dance Benefit Concert and End of Year Showcase. MCT Fest is now at Fairfax High School. We piloted that last year. It was super successful, so we're doing that again. Passion in Motion, Save the Date. We're not quite sure when yet. We're working with Spotlight to pick a date. And then we're rebranding our Academy Awards this year. It's been the same for 25, 26 years. So it's time for an update, kind of a rebrand. So we're going to do an Awards and Banquet. And it's a little earlier in May. We're hoping that that allows more of our families to be able to attend and also keeps very busy people in attendance as well.

So Save the Date, May 11th. Come join us. We don't know quite what it will look like, but we're excited. So we have some cool thoughts going. Thank you means

Amy Hardstafffood.

Speaker 27Yeah,

Amy Hardstaffright? That means more people. Yeah.

Speaker 27So. And we have a logo rebrand. So you'll see a few images pop up still based upon our original logo that Yolanda did for us a million years ago. But we have our little hashtag and we have a little new FA going around. So you'll see that pop up.

Carolyn PitchesThank you. Thank you. Ms. Barlney, do you have any questions?

Lauren Bartelmebut there's a lot of really cool stuff. That's right. Kind

Speaker 27of a cool job. Thank you. Yeah, it's fun.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Kelsey.

Sarah KelseyI have so many questions, but they're more because how do I attend these classes? Because they sound really awesome, which it sounds like some of you are already attending the classes coming up. I would like to say, though, this is just watching that little brief bit about graphic design. like it blows my mind because that coding to me just seems very difficult and to watch these kids do it my question to you would be is how many games do they actually do in is it a semester class year class it's

Suzette Murphystaffa year-long class so it's broken up to where I teach them a little something so they're only making one big game that's three it has to be three levels long okay um but then And they're doing several personal projects that aren't whole games. It's just a piece here and a piece there. And then put it all together.

Sarah KelseyAnd it's probably just growing up in the age where there wasn't any of this stuff. Just baffles me. I do really like the fact that you guys are adding that dual enrollment though because it's great that these courses are getting them ready for the careers they want, but also getting them already that foot into the door in college is really great. I guess my only other question to you guys is when do you sleep? Because this is a lot of stuff and it sounds like there's a lot coming. And so thank you though. You guys are, it's always fun to see all the great things you guys have coming.

Carolyn PitchesThank you, Ms. Kelsey. Ms. Heckman.

Amit HickmanYes, I was just wondering, Amy, do you mind touching on the middle school and elementary career days?

Amy HardstaffSo we have been invited to, it's only my third year, but KJ always invites us on career day and we love to go. This year I'm taking ambassadors with us because it's usually just me and I'm not as exciting as a

Speaker 2016-year

Amy Hardstaff-old. So we speak with them about not just my job as a career experience specialist, but then what does Academy do for getting you ready for this career and how do you pick that and how do you navigate that? So we're working with Fairfax County because they have these career explorations that they've now implemented in middle school and through Naviance and through other things. And so we're trying to target more the kids whose results are pointing in our direction. And so we're inviting them to come over and do some tours and stop in on some classes and things like that. For elementary schools, it's been the same. We have an open invitation. It's hard to get them over all the time, but I've been able and lucky enough to go over and talk to them

and to see a group full of second graders like,

Speaker 22I'm going to be an actor.

Amy HardstaffIt's really exciting to say, yeah, you absolutely are, and not to just go, isn't that cute? We're like, of course you are, and so this is what you need to do. Make sure that you take PE online, whatever it is, right? So it's been exciting. We do hope that that reach gets them earlier because oftentimes what happens and the catch can be that by the time they are old enough and ready to come into our program they haven't necessarily planned along the way and their families haven't been in the know about how to ensure that they're going to have sort of some extra space and some extra wiggle room to take some academy courses. So that is our goal for the next year or two is to start getting in there a little bit

earlier.

Amit HickmanThank you. I love that and I appreciate it because I think the majority of parents are not not at the age that there were academies or if there were they were very very specific technical academies when they were growing up so I mean letting people know ahead of time that this exists or

Amy Hardstaffthey're not thinking about planning what their high school what classes they're going to take exactly so that's have that

Amit Hickmanthat

Amy Hardstafflittle bit of um seeing it early and so inviting them to shows inviting them that's kind of recruitment as well as like come join us for all these events great I love that.

Amit HickmanAnd

Amy HardstaffI

Amit Hickmanalso just want to say I saw some evidence of the cross collaboration on the Instagram post with musical theater and dance. And I just loved how you guys presented that. Yeah, we're

Amy Hardstaffdoing some class swaps where classes are going to other spaces and taking that class. And we hope to do that with our critical languages and dance as well by bringing in some guest artists that are doing traditional Chinese dance or whatever. And then having that swap, I think, would be really exciting.

Carolyn PitchesThanks. Ms. Essary.

Kristina Cecerework you guys bring um i had an opportunity to see meet the teachers during um i think it was a parent night uh back in the spring when i first came on the board and it's just i mean it's amazing to walk in and see the work that the kids are doing and same tonight too um so i know that virginia is adjusting their graduation requirements like it's going to be kind of staggered and whatnot So not impacting kids graduating this year and whatnot, but focusing on enlistment, employment, and college enrollments. And just thinking about all the amazing work that you guys are doing, what does that look like for those graduation requirements? And especially building in those conversations from elementary and middle and whatnot.

Speaker 27Yeah, no, the three E's are definitely a huge conversation that we've had in all of our academy conversations across all six academies. And that's one of the things that really started solidifying the thoughts and the conversation that we had about introducing trades is how do we make sure more of our students are meeting that employment option and then the DE also. So we're really trying to target any classes that we look at to be those sequential electives because a lot of our classes have been one-offs at one point, but making sure students have that option and opportunity. And I think it's a really natural fit because it also helps them. I always say, I want kids to find their why. letting them have some exposure.

And even if they take one of our classes and say, nah, that's okay. Or I really like to dance, but I don't want to be a performer. So we're trying to really embed all of those conversations into all of our course planning and then also just how we're addressing our classes. We're not traditional CLTs, but we do three sub-CLT groups by our contents. So our teachers can have those conversations. Suzette happens to be our CLT facilitator for our CTE Academy courses. So one thing that we've been talking about there is credentialing exams. So we are offered the workplace readiness exam, but what is there that's specific to the career pathway that would support our students, no matter how inorganic or organic it is?

So we've had some really cool conversations about students can take a certain, like, Adobe license, but once they pass one, they could technically take others. Even if it's not a literal translation, they could study on their own, and we can support them. So we're trying to build those types of experiences in, even if the course isn't acknowledged by the state as one of the three Es.

Kristina CecereI have one more question if I may. So often I hear students I chat with concerns around how AI is taking over some of these foundational courses and whatnot. You know, being a software programmer and whatnot. I imagine those conversations are being had in your classrooms too. What does that look like? those academy courses, how can they perhaps think beyond the box of what that looks like for them when they enter the workforce?

Suzette MurphystaffSo me personally, this is something that I lean into a lot with my students and just in general. AI is here. It's not going anywhere. We have to accept it. And finding ways for students to use it in a way that's educational and isn't replacing learning. I think that knowing that how I use it is just as important as what I'm using it for or like trying to get answers. So for instance in my class with coding I'm like it's okay if you use AI to help you with a line of code but it's up to you to know where it goes and how to use it within the script because you can't just throw it in there. You have to actually know what you're doing to some degree. So I'm okay with that. I'm okay with you using it for to help you

come up with an idea of what a character should look like because you can't draw it yourself. You aren't sure. So using AI to help yourself with that creativity and then going from there. I think that that's kind of where we have to go with it. Finding ways for them to use it that's healthy. That still progresses they're learning and that goes in the workforce as well I think.

Amy HardstaffYeah we've had conversations about just like creative ownership of things right in live theater there's not a whole lot of AI happening in that moment but how do we still use it and responsibly and really helpfully in creating their resumes in finding auditioning materials it is like I talked to their class I was like, why aren't you just using AI for that? And they're like, AI. Well, just to put in 18-year-old monologues that are blah, blah, blah, and have them give you a list to start from. Like, they're just searching the racks for you. So it's nice to kind of see them, all of us, including, you know, the teachers being sort of green and, like, how do we use this helpfully, responsibly. But we also have some speakers that are coming in to speak with MTI.

I'm sorry, MCT and with fashion about some of those copyright, some of those questionable gray areas that are still being explored right now and how to make sure that the work that you're doing and you're producing is authentically yours and then how to protect it.

Carolyn PitchesLucas, do you have any questions?

StudentYes, excuse me. Yes, what is your most popular course that students take at

Amy HardstaffIt's game design. Clearly it's game design.

Speaker 27You know, it depends upon the year. So we kind of see waves fluctuate a little bit. Right now the class with like the longest wait list is Arabic. We

Speaker 21really could use a second teacher. I

Speaker 22don't have a classroom

Speaker 27or staffing, so you know, I throw that out tongue in cheek. But we've seen our languages surge a lot. ASL a couple years ago was the most popular so it has the most students but we also can seat more students. Next up would be fashion. We've really seen a huge insurgence for our fashion program since Miss Barry joined us so but all of our classes we're actually getting more and more our total enrollment requests continue to go up so everything's in a healthy upward trend at this point. Are

Speaker 40you sure?

Carolyn PitchesYou said no before I even said Mr. Murray. Okay. So there's really nothing left to ask, but your awards, what do you guys think? I'm curious. What ideas do you have for your, is it going to be?

Speaker 27So the Academy Awards has been the same. you describe what it is for people who may not have gone okay awesome it's an award show so we have um usually an emcee we've had lots of different people local celebrities to um one year two of our teachers who had just retired recently um dr phil did she i think she hosted one year um francis ivy hosted from fcps and mecky banning so we've kind of like tried to hit different people and some celebrities and everything in between um we felt like the show had gotten a little stuffy, a little formal for the day and age that we're in. So last year we tried some new things, having our teachers talk more. We really are just seeing that more of our kids want time to kind of mingle at the end of the year. We want to be able to celebrate more

students' work than just the three or four awards we're giving per program as well. So we're looking for time and space to almost put on a mini show and also have some food and break some bread and laugh and share some memories so something like that okay

Amy Hardstaffa little bit more intimate with time to build community less of an assembly more of a party just like everybody together you know being able to high five each other instead of just like oh we got to get through the next thing and what's that you know it just it was getting a little cold

Carolyn Pitchesokay all right just clear do you want to go back okay but this is it take two seconds okay i'm

Sarah Kelseyvery literally will because i was Flipping. Out of your enrollment, do you by chance know how many of those are city kids or like Fairfax high school kids?

Speaker 27So we're about 40% Fairfax high school. I feel like I pulled the city number from somewhere, and I feel like it was like 25% city, 20, 25.

Speaker 31It

Carolyn Pitchesalso depends on how, like, if they're there 25% of the time, 50% of the

Speaker 27time. Right, right. no absolutely if you wanted more specific numbers I could pull that okay no

Carolyn Pitchesthat's okay

Speaker 27thank you

Carolyn Pitchesokay we're gonna let you leave oh oh

Kristina Ceceremr. Phillips I'm so sorry

Dan PhillipsstaffI usually say I don't have any questions but tonight I do

Amy Hardstaffjust

Dan Phillipsstaffreal quick just a couple real quick questions first with your career series what sort of speakers and professions are you looking for just for our community in case there's someone listening or someone we run into Oh,

Amy Hardstaffno, absolutely. So we're trying, we always are trying to think outside of the box of like some, some of the, some highlights in the past have been instead of just having dancers come in and teach dance, which is what they get every time, they're just now getting like guest artists, which is wonderful. But we had a dance therapist come in, right? Or you'll have somebody that comes in and they own their own dance line. And so they want to talk about building dance costumes and how you can get involved in that even if you're not a seamstress, right? So we're looking for everything across all of our programs. Our biggest need tends to be with the languages. It doesn't feel as obvious, and especially right now, it's hard to find the volunteer support.

Well, I mean, the time might be easier, but it's hard to connect with certain people that might be connected to certain areas of our government where those language skills are super valuable, right, and really helpful. So pulling in, and those kids tend to also be looking for that. They're like, well, can we have somebody come in and talk to us about getting into Ivy League schools? And I was like, what does that have to do with Chinese? They're like, we're Chinese five. We have goals and we want to do this. So at the same time we say, yes, we're going to do that. We're also going to have somebody from the Cultural Center up in Maryland come down and do a tea ceremony with you. We're also going to have an Arabic calligrapher come in with you as well as a dancer that's going to come in with you

and not just have it be sort of State Department or, you know. But any of those, photography, I've, you know, it's hard for me to sometimes unblock. Same thing with game design is that I go, well, then bring in other photographers. But it's like, no, there's more to that. What about studio owners and operators? What about people that use photography medically in order to, you know, like things that are just like, oh, I didn't think about those skills being aligned. But, yes, I will gladly this week send a long list to our dear friend, Carrie. of like anybody who has a touch on any of these, it's very exciting to get things that are like, I never would have thought about that. You know, we've had a lot of deaf performers come in,

which has been a nice little crossover. But again, unless it's coming from performing, I'm always like, anybody got people? Because those are my only pocket people, right? I'm like, oh, what else is happening out there? And city-specific is a big bonus for us.

Dan PhillipsstaffWe'll try to spread the word for sure, and thank you for that. Thank you. What are the biggest obstacles and I think I know the answer but to adding a trade program to the school you mentioned it I know we've talked about it. I think there's an obvious answer three. Okay. Thank you

Speaker 27Money Space and an instructor Which is also tied to that money it's hard for people to step away some time from their career sure what we're paying right Right. Space for a lot of the trades that we've explored is a huge commitment just from a footprint standpoint. And then, of course, just to build out any spaces, depending upon what we're looking at. It's kind of wild.

Dan PhillipsstaffThank you. Thanks for the great things you do for kids. Thank you.

Amy HardstaffThank you, Brad.

Carolyn PitchesYou wouldn't necessarily have to have space. I was just thinking about this and may I shouldn't say it out loud. um like space at the high school because we have spaces other spaces in the city like think about the office space that's not being used like i'm wondering like the county

Amy Hardstaffhas

Speaker 27done

Amy Hardstaffthat

Speaker 27for many yeah construction is one of the models that comes like they have to be off-site so there are logistical layers to that but nothing that's not insurmountable

Carolyn Pitchesokay well i have an electrician if you need an electrician to to come and what about like tattoo artists because that

Speaker 27might be against her effects really but

Carolyn Pitchesthe electrician

Speaker 12is a great idea

Speaker 27the electrician is great tattoo artist you mean for a guest speaker well

Carolyn Pitchesyeah because a lot okay

Amy Hardstaffbecause

Speaker 27fine

Amy Hardstaffart yeah the only i mean we're using it in game design we use it in fashion for sketching but I agree with you I was thinking

Carolyn Pitchesa lot of kids go into I mean the apprentice and tattoo shops after especially

Speaker 27just

Carolyn Pitchesgoing through art programs

Speaker 27being like a business owner too a lot of our students are interested in kind of that small business

Amy Hardstaffmy art small business owner like Marlo or any yeah so

Carolyn PitchesJames Marlo is a good friend of mine I've known him since I was 19 and he owns like he I think three shops and I have another friend Jason Hobby owns Classic Tattoo down in Richmond he owns two shops I'm just saying like it is an up and coming I mean it has been for years but it's another outlet for kids who maybe don't want to go the college route either and

Amy Hardstaffit has an apprenticeship program

Carolyn PitchesExactly. Like electricians have journeymen programs.

Amy HardstaffThe way that that scaffolds is important for a lot of our artists.

Carolyn PitchesSo anyway, I was just thinking

Amy Hardstaffout loud.

Speaker 27Keep thinking. No, keep thinking out loud.

Carolyn PitchesWhat?

Speaker 27Ms. Cessary? We're going to have to be the first

Amy Hardstaffacademy

Kristina Cecereto offer. You asked my question about thinking about location. Oh, like after, yeah. Yeah, thinking about location, just there's, so from what, I'm just going to parrot what Ms. Pitches said, in that when it comes to location, because I know that's the big piece. We don't have enough room at Fairfax to expand, even though we would love to, right? But thinking about locations in the city, even would even, is there any restriction within FCPS to partner with businesses who may have that space to offer those?

Lauren BartelmeI'm just,

Kristina Cecereyou know. We can always have those conversations. Okay.

Speaker 27Thank you.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Hickman. Sorry. No, I just didn't know if you were.

Amit HickmanI did. I was debating it. Is there Fine Arts Academy in FCPS, or is it more? We

Speaker 27are the most

Amit Hickmanartistic. But we don't have, like, pottery, ceramics.

Speaker 27No, those are all base school standard course offerings. We used to have graphic design, and then that went to all base high schools, which is one reason why we started game design. What about interior design?

Amit HickmanWhat is

Speaker 27that? Funny story. in the fall of 2008, which is my first year at the Academy. They tried to offer interior design, and we didn't have enough students, and they all ended up taking dance instead.

Amit HickmanThat's fascinating. I'll be very curious.

Speaker 27There were like five kids signed up.

Amit HickmanI'd be very curious if that has changed in the past years, being that I know some seventh-grade girls who that's what they're going to be when they grow up. Also,

Amy Hardstaffa lot of the apps they're playing now.

Amit HickmanYes. My

Amy Hardstaffdaughter is just in Toka world designing.

Amit HickmanYes.

Amy Hardstaffof every little

Amit Hickmanroom that she... Even in Roblox and all those things. And there is that connection with the game. Does that... Yeah. No, there's...

Amy HardstaffI think that one's about to

Amit Hickmanhappen. It's coming. Thank you. Yeah, of course.

Amy HardstaffI'm going to take that one.

Carolyn PitchesOkay, now we're going to let you go.

Speaker 27Thank

Carolyn Pitchesyou so much. But these are all good conversations.

Speaker 27Yes, no, absolutely.

Carolyn PitchesThat we should continue to have.

Speaker 27Happy

Carolyn Pitchesto

Speaker 27shoot us emails with anything you think of or any questions. We're always around the corner and come visit. Okay.

Carolyn Pitchesthe 23rd um school board member mcdaniel is coming he he i'm i may attend with him

Amy Hardstaffexcellent and we're happy to see any of you all tomorrow or thursday anytime from noon to two just pop into the auditorium we're going to be there playing and you know having some fun

Carolyn Pitchesyeah all right have a great night you guys thank you

Speaker 27so

Amy Hardstaffmuch

Speaker 34thank you

Carolyn Pitchesokay we don't have any pub well we're having a public hearing for the proposed five-year capital improvement plan but I assume there's nobody who would like to speak at our public hearing action items okay let's move on to action items the approval of the September 15th regular September 15 2025 regular meeting minutes may I have a motion please

Speaker 21Madam Chair.

Carolyn PitchesYes,

Sarah KelseyMs. Kelsey. I move that the City of Fairfax School Board approve the minutes of the September 15, 2025 School Board regular meeting as printed and distributed.

Carolyn PitchesOkay, hold on. Let me put you down. Ms. Kelsey. Okay, may I have a second?

Amit HickmanSecond.

Carolyn PitchesOkay, Ms. Kelsey moved. Ms. Hickman seconded. the City of Fairfax School Board approved the regular meeting minutes from September 15th of 2025. Are there any changes, additions, modifications, anything? Okay. Being no additions or corrections, everyone in favor of the motion signify by saying aye.

Speaker 34Aye.

Carolyn PitchesNo members are opposed, so the motion is unanimous. Okay. So the next action item is full-time. This is, and I'm going to need you to read this in the segment. I forgot to tell you. Sorry. reading and approval of the full-time employment resolution for the assistant superintendent position. Ms. Hickman, can you please read the resolution?

Amit HickmanWhereas at its meeting held on October 6, 2025, the City of Fairfax School Board, the employer, has changed the position criteria for assistant superintendent to a full-time position effective the first day of July 2025. Now, therefore, be it resolved, one, the position will be a full-time position for which tenure is not temporary or provisional appointment and any person hired in this position will be an eligible employee as defined in section 51.1-125 and 51.1-132 of the code of virginia two the employer acknowledges that pursuant to section 51 point is 51.1-125 51.1-132 51.1-135 1.1-155, 51.1-206, and 51.1-217 of the Code of Virginia membership into the Virginia Retirement System, VRS, is compulsory for any person hired in this position.

Three, the employer agrees to report any person hired in this position to VRS immediately upon employment. Four, the employer acknowledges that a VRS retiree cannot be employed in this position reports the individual to VRS is actively employed and five the employer acknowledges that pursuant to section 51.1 dash 124.9 it may be liable for any overpayment of benefits resulting from their employers failure to report a full-time employee to VRS okay may

Carolyn Pitcheshave a motion madam

Kristina Cecerechair

Carolyn Pitchesnecessary I

Kristina Ceceremove that the city of Fairfax school board approved a full-time employment resolution for the position of assistant superintendent as written see me as read written and distributed okay may have a second

Lauren Bartelmesecond okay

Carolyn Pitchesmiss sestry move miss bartlemy seconded city of fairfax school board approved the resolution for the full-time employment of our current acting superintendent for the assistant superintendent position as read printed and distributed are there any changes modifications or additions okay being no additions or corrections All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Lauren BartelmeAye.

Carolyn PitchesNo members are opposed. The motion passes unanimously. We'll move on to superintendent matters. Mr. Phillips.

Speaker 15Thank

Speaker 8you, Mr. Chair.

Dan PhillipsstaffI just want to, just a couple quick points of thanks. I want to just thank our community for their engagement and support related to the situation with the football team. And I just think that, you know, it's an emotional issue for a lot of us. And I just think it's a great lesson for our students that shows that when we work together good things can happen And so hopefully we're heading in good directions more than anything else though I want to make sure our students know that we're supporting them And I think I'm sure I'm not alone in that I think I commend our football players for their resilience as we work toward a resolution I just love the way they've rallied to support each other and I want that to continue no matter what

Results we end up with and also want to thank our principals at all of our schools in particular dr DR. A, sorry, for her resolve and just tireless work to protect our students and look out for them. I just think it's so important. And I think, like I said, it's emotional, but I think now we're all heading in the same direction, and I appreciate that and the people who have been involved in it. So thanks for that. Two more quick shout outs. One to the City Public Works folks for doing a cleanup around our little Sisson house. It just looks so great, and we appreciate it so much. And they were so happy when they were doing it, We just love them for and appreciate it and then more good note the giant Daniels run vestibule is done

So there we go The glass was in today when I went by that's good news

Carolyn Pitchesand that's very early.

Dan PhillipsstaffYes, it is it's earlier than February for sure Thanks,

Carolyn Pitchesthank you. Mr. Phillips. We'll move on to board matters I'll start with necessary

Kristina CecereThank you I had the honor of attending the student council induction at Providence Elementary this week and just an amazing example of democracy at even the youngest level seeing kindergartens all the way up to sixth graders in the gym and being part of that process and choosing a class president and such or a school president also want to iterate what Mr. Phillips said about the football situation and whatnot and I just really to thank Dr. A for her leadership and guidance in that situation and just iterate that that like you said that we are definitely behind the students and just want to thank them for their their just it's a very tough situation so thank you.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Hickman.

Amit HickmanI just want to thank the Daniels Run PTA for their open invitation to their meeting. It was my first PTA meeting as a non-parent at Daniel's Run in 10 years, so it was really fun to have a chance to still go back and do that. In addition to the thank yous that have been said and the understanding of the work that's gone behind the scenes of making sure that we are fully supporting our football team, my parents, I wanted to say a thank you to the students on the team who, despite everything I was going through, really played their hearts out on Friday and the passion not just the players on the field, but also the students in the stands who were there to support their team. And it was really a great showing, very impressive from all our students.

So you can pass that on for me to them. Thank

Carolyn Pitchesyou, Ms. Eggman. Ms. Kelsey.

Sarah KelseyI'll just ditto all that. And then I would like to say that I am really looking forward to homecoming, not this week, but next week. and the parade and all the activities and celebrating our football team that night as well as the other teams as they play this week or next week, sorry, during the homecoming week. Also, good luck to a bunch of them, KJ students. They are starting their sports like the cross-country team and doing some of those activities and they have their first meets coming up, so good luck to them. And then also just wanted to remind everybody that there is, on the 28th of October, the boundary review meeting at Fairfax High School to discuss what's upcoming in the next phases and stuff.

And to wish everybody a safe and fun Halloween.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Barlby.

Lauren BartelmeI just wanted to thank you, Mr. Phillips, for all your work on the Daniels Run vestibule. and that's i know a lot went into working with fcps and making that happen so thank you and i also wanted to reiterate what everyone else has said about our board being in support of the football players so we stand with you guys and and are supporting you thank you

Carolyn Pitchesokay well i won't um reiterate everything but um i will say that uh the city of fairfax school board is behind our football players and we are hoping for a good outcome a fair outcome for our student athletes and we have shown that support through to VHSL if there's nothing else before the board I am going to adjourn the meeting at 750. Thanks. Thank you.

Speaker 34Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Speaker 40Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. T3 is a traffic engineering firm. We work on the things that make traffic flow better and safer. So for example, we'll do a big traffic study for a roadway widening project where we look at traffic 20 years out to make sure that a project will accommodate traffic in the future. We really picked the city of Fairfax primarily because it was very centrally located. It's very walkable. You could have places to eat for staff at lunch. It's a nice area. We like working with the city and the people there. Knew the traffic engineers there and this seemed like a really good place for us. We often get engineering interns when they're students at George Mason that we then hire

as full-time engineers once they graduate. It's been a big draw for us. We started T3 with three partners back in 2006. you can imagine that engineering is a very male-dominated industry. And so as three women starting the firm, there would be no glass ceiling because we're the ones that were renting the ceiling. And we wanted to be able to work on things that we thought were interesting and really to determine our own fate. Recently, we worked on the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel over in Hampton Roads. And our little tiny company worked on doing the huge traffic study to determine that would be enough for the future traffic and what would need to be done at each of those interchanges to make sure that the traffic flowed well. We think of the express

lanes now on I-66 that have affected the city greatly. That's something that we worked on reviewing plans for the Virginia Department of Transportation. Because we're located right here in the city, we've also been successful in winning work and contracts directly for the city of Fairfax to provide those traffic engineering services. We care about it. We work here, we live here, we drive these roads, so it's important to us to make sure that the signals are timed correctly and that the bike lanes are on the roads where we want to go. This is a nice centrally located spot for our staff. So this is, to me, it's just been an excellent location for us.

Speaker 17I always knew I wanted to work with dogs since I was little and so right after I graduated high school I enrolled in the veterinary program and I was also walking dogs. As I was doing the dog walking and getting to know clients in the area, starting to just accommodate whatever needs that these pet care owners had, which also included the overnight care. cage-free facility that's 100% cage-free with 24-hour staff. So it's a really safe and fun environment. So you're really going to find us to be more like a family vibe when you come in. We were really happy to have the facade and interior improvement grant so that they can help with funding for our improvements. We actually sponsor the Westmore Fairfax City

Dog Park in the area. We also collaborate with another local city rescue organization called Mutt Love Rescue and we foster dogs here at the facility. We've been really happy to be part of this community. You know we've got a really great team here from our management team to our playgroup attendants, groomers, dog trainers and so it's a really great place to come and we're really happy to contribute to the community. We're happy to you know to be a part.

Speaker 46Nova Labs is a maker space, but what that really is, is if you imagine a gym that instead of tools to work out, it is a facility that has tools to make. Sewing machines, 3D printers, laser cutters, woodworking, metalworking, etc. But the more important part is really the community. The City of Fairfax was very welcoming. We looked at a number of locations in a number of parts of Northern Virginia, and it was really a big part of the receptivity and support of the City Council, the EDA, that really is what drove us to select here. And we needed an opportunity to get closer to universities like George Mason, but they have also allowed us to really expand and improve upon the facility. There is a facade

interior improvement grant and what we were able to do with that was new flooring, new lighting, knocking down walls, and it really was a transformational experience going to a really large inviting space where you feel yourself wanting to imagine the next big thing. Beyond that, the city was able to provide a grant for a fantastic mural that highlights a number of the capabilities that our community provides within the facility.

Speaker 22So when I first joined here I just came into sew as a hobby. Being around other people here that are also small business owners and entrepreneurs has been really insightful and encouraging just to see how other people have started their businesses here. It's like a big community.

Speaker 46And the community is what powers us. So the community itself is one of being very open, being fearless about the desire to make.

Speaker 47Niamh is a Sanskrit word. In our context, it means convention, principle. We do information centric work solutions end-to-end to support our clients mission primarily focus on federal government however we have presence in commercial sector as well we have a niche skill doing rapid predictive analytics in terms of disaster related losses before or after the disaster it was March 2020 there was an earthquake in Utah and FEMA used the tool that we managed to understand the impact of that earthquake. I enjoy working in Fairfax City because of the vicinity and all the benefits we get. The transit close to Tyson's as well as close to our Washington DC clients plus all the other options we have for dining

where I can meet my clients. We have a talent pool that are very very much involved in this kind of analysis. How fortunate I am to work with the people I work with. They joined me in our mission and we are having a lot of fun.

Speaker 45Main Street Bank started out as a long vision for me. We started Main Street Bank in 2004. Twenty years later now we're at two billion dollars in total assets and we only have six locations. There's five in Northern Virginia here and then just one in DC. And our Fairfax City headquarters and location is kind of the epicenter of what we serve. So it's a perfect location with just robust opportunities. It's a nice central point. Small businesses thrive here. It's been a really good place to have a bank. We've gotten very involved in the community. We've been involved in the Renaissance Housing Program for 10 years now. That allows qualified individuals that need to have their homes rehabbed for different reasons, they can apply to that,

and we are the bank that works with them to do that. And we just recently became the bank for the tax assistance program. Individuals fall behind and they need help paying their taxes. We can assist with that, and it's paid over a period of time as opposed to just that lump sum payment that's due. Both of those programs, I think, have been very nice. We've been able to help Fairfax administer those programs, but we've also benefited by having that visibility and getting some good additional customers as well. When you come into a community bank, I think the biggest difference is every day you can see that you've impacted somebody's life. You're making a difference in the community. You see a building going up that you financed. You see somebody able to start a new restaurant.

It's that small-town feeling again that you get when you're making a difference and you can see the difference that you make.

Speaker 7NextGenID is an identity assurance provider for establishing an irrefutable identity at the highest identity assurance level provided by NIST, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the government.

Speaker 44Our primary initial go-to-market is with the federal government, whether it be large departments looking to deploy new alternative ways to do identity proofing, enrollment, and credential management.

Speaker 7We are establishing a nationwide network that has begun here in Fairfax. We literally started here in the Willowwood building with a kiosk in the lobby. Our founder and CEO actually started his career in the same building in the same space here. The area and economic development provided us great opportunities in terms of location. We're close to all of the easy access points and highways for commuting, and we have tremendous pools of talent with George Mason University. The area is ripe with government contractors and companies that are in our space and in our industry. Everything starts with the people. The people that we have here at NextGenID are just a phenomenal team, group of people is producing a product that is bar none the best that the country and the world has

seen and together those people and the product will solve the identity crisis.

Speaker 2So Wawa, obviously the first thing people see are the 12 gas pumps outside. While you're waiting for your car to get charged or filled up with gas, you can come in, grab a hot coffee, grab your lottery tickets, grab the milk and eggs you need on the way home. You can get and cheese, all kinds of good stuff. We do individual box lunches. We've sent out catering orders that are just three box lunches. The third party platforms, DoorDash, GrubHub, that is something that the people of Northern Virginia definitely have found very attractive. We partner with the Lamb Center to feed people who might be going hungry. The Lamb Center is definitely a relationship that we're very proud of. We are one of the busiest food service stores

that Wawa has in Virginia and when you're serving fresh food you're gonna produce more than you time to time. It's awesome. Another really important relationship for us is with the Fairfax City Police. Whenever we have the opportunity to help them out and have their back, it's something we try to jump on. I think we're a little bit of a community hub. A lot of people start their day here or end their day here or we're just part of their routine at some point of the day.

Speaker 36I've been coming to Fair City Mall since my children were babies. I have seen businesses come and go for the entirety of 40 years. The kinds of shops and the kinds of shopping that people want evolves over a period of time. So J.Crew has moved into a space where people, when they come to this mall for other things, find J.Crew. to find that they are here.

Speaker 21We offer a variety of different styles, whether that's casual wear, business wear, vacation wear. We carry swim, we carry a lot of our cover-ups here as well. Anytime a customer comes in, one of the things that we do is basically we get to talk to our customers and have that one-on-one experience to see exactly what they're looking for. Trying to build outfits for them and trying to make them feel confident is one of our keys here.

Speaker 36Law firms, legal firms are a very core part of our business base. What we have to offer the attorneys who have offices in our city is that we know who they are. I like to say that we offer concierge level support to all the businesses that are in our city and that includes the law firms. We have a geographic advantage being right across from Fairfax County Courthouse and the Judicial Complex.

Speaker 43The convenience of the location, of walking things over to the courthouse, checking something out, the ability to tell a client that something's been filed, not having to worry about how much time it takes. Location, location, location.

Speaker 1I've worked with Fairfax City Economic Development Office for six or seven years, so I am very familiar with the offices. I'm also very familiar with all the work that they do in Fairfax City and all the different opportunities, restaurants, businesses, the walkability of Old Town Fairfax. Being in Fairfax City, being so close to the Fairfax County Courthouse, which is where most of our businesses transacted at, has been essential. So many of our clients are based in Fairfax City or Fairfax County, so the proximity to so many of our clients has been really beneficial and it's helped us grow our client base.

Speaker 6Fish Window Cleaning is the number one professional window cleaning company in the

Speaker 44United States.

Speaker 6In business for 40 years, off and on we've been servicing Northern Virginia for over 20. One of our biggest opportunities for our customers, we're in, clean your place, and your window is totally fresh and clean before your first customer comes in and that's a value that we give to them.

Speaker 36I think it's interesting that they did in fact move from one side of Fairfax to the other. They are small businesses and to me that is a good healthy sign that this Fairfax City location and the support that our businesses get are Strong enough and valuable enough for them to look for different locations within our city limits The

Speaker 6space that we had was very very small So it's really more of the office for our employees. We've been growing Fairfax City was able able to support us. The city is is vibrant walkable area for the employees, for them to have just more of a community and family type of environment. And so I like being in the Fairfax City with this offered a little bit more of what I wanted to provide to our employees.

Speaker 36I have been familiar with Merrill Norman products since I was a very tiny child because it is the only makeup my mother ever put on her face. And she was born in 1928. Merrill Norman started in 1931. And when it was my turn to ask to wear makeup, she would allow me to wear makeup, but only Merrill Norman makeup because it was not about cosmetics. It was about skincare. People who come here to shop for Merrill Norman products come from all over Norman, Virginia because there aren't that many Merrill Norman stores. So this is a real accolade to the EDO because people are going to come here specifically to buy these cosmetics and because we have such great parking right outside the front door they are going

to stay and shop at our other downtown retailers so it is a win-win for everyone involved.

Speaker 39Merle Norman is a cosmetic company it was created by Merle Norman in 1931 which was amazing for a woman back then because women were not allowed to own anything let alone their own companies. We want to make sure that that the product that we show you fits your needs. I really chose this location for the parking because it's calm and you can get a parking place. So the city was great. They had both the FIG and the LIFT programs that really helped us get off the ground to move here. So it's been really great.

Speaker 11We live in the neighborhood. We live in the community and friends, neighbors were always asking me when we were going to open in this neighborhood. So really we were just looking for the right spot. And when these locations came available right across from Woodson High School, we knew it would be a great spot. This is our 19th block. This one is special for that reason. Today we are dedicating to Corey and Edward who tragically lost their lives on the D.C. plane crash. They went to Woodson High School. So we today are dedicating this ribbon cutting to their honor. One of our core values is small acts can make big impacts.

Speaker 36This is like no other restaurant we have in the city, simply because they specialize in very specific things. And you can come and dine in, and that is going to work for some people who are looking for breakfast or the students who look for something after school. It's healthy. There's a price point that students can afford, and I think that's going to make it a destination place people who live here in the city.

Speaker 11What ultimately made us successful was our commitment to high quality smoothies and acai bowls. Everything's blended from scratch. Also, then our commitment to people and people development. I always tell people that we are a leadership development company disguised as a smoothie shop. We want to make sure they're getting something out of their experience here that they can take with them for the rest of their lives. And that's what really inspires and motivates me in having purpose in what we're doing in our business.

Speaker 34It's all the good.

Speaker 30We're constantly looking at the menu and adding new items from what it used to be Zoot. Our menu has completely changed. So going forward, we're constantly doing research to bring more healthy items to the table.

Speaker 36Where else can you find this? I'm telling you, nowhere else except Z Eats here at Scout on the Circle in Fairfax City. This

Speaker 39is a

Speaker 36great restaurant because it has a variety of things. It's not just a salad place. It's not just grain bowls. And it has things like mac and cheese, and it has soups. And it's at a price point where you can come and bring your family, or you could even come on a date and not break the bank. When

Speaker 30I found this location, I loved it just from the start. And I had looked at 20 or more locations. Before this, the city is really helpful to get businesses started. I love the area. I still love it. And now meeting the people is the perfect choice.

Speaker 18You and Luz on your way? Luz bailed on us again. Oh my gosh. That's like the fifth time this month.

Amy HardstaffSays she wants to be alone.

Speaker 18Yeah, I think she's going through a hard time. Should we do something? I feel like she might need someone to talk to. She'd freak. But we need to do something. Because losing a friendship is better than losing a friend.

Speaker 14Which one of these isn't like the other?

Speaker 12Please, lock your vehicles, folks. Hmm.

Speaker 40Oh, my God. T3 is a traffic engineering firm. We work on the things that make traffic flow better and safer. So, for example, we'll do a big traffic study for a roadway widening project where we look at traffic 20 years out to make sure that a project will accommodate traffic in the future. We really picked the city of Fairfax primarily because it was very centrally located. It was very walkable. You could have places to eat for staff at lunch. It's a nice area. We like working with the city and the people there. We knew the traffic engineers there, and this seemed like a really good place for us. We often get engineering interns when they're students at George Mason that we then hire as full-time engineers once they graduate.

It's been a big draw for us. We started T3 with three partners back in 2006. You can imagine that engineering is a very male-dominated industry, and so as three women starting the firm, there would be no glass ceiling because we're the ones that were renting the ceiling and we wanted to be able to work on things that we thought were interesting and really to determine our own fate. Recently we worked on the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel over in Hampton Roads and our little tiny company worked on doing the huge traffic study to determine that would be enough for the future traffic and what would need to be done at each of those interchanges to make sure that the traffic flowed well. We think of the

express lanes now on I-66 that have affected the city greatly. That's something that we work on reviewing plans for the Virginia Department of Transportation. Because we're located right here in the city, we've also been successful in winning work and contracts directly for the City of Fairfax to provide those traffic engineering services. We care about it. We work here. We live here. We drive these roads. So it's important to us to make sure that signals are timed correctly and that the bike lanes are on the roads where we want to go. This is a nice centrally located spot for our staff so this is to me it's just been an excellent location for us.

Speaker 17I always knew I wanted to work with dogs since I was little and so right after I graduated high school I enrolled in the veterinary program and I was also walking dogs. As I was doing the dog walking and getting to know clients in the area, starting to just accommodate whatever needs that these pet care owners had, which also included the overnight care. We are the only cage-free facility that's a hundred percent cage free with 24-hour staff, so it's a really safe and fun environment. So you're really gonna find us to be more like a family vibe when you come in. We were really happy to have the facade and interior improvement grant so that they can help with funding for our improvements. We actually sponsor the

Westmore Fairfax City Dog Park in the area. We also collaborate with another local city rescue organization called Mutt Love Rescue and we foster dogs here at the facility. We've been really happy to be part of this community. You know we've got a really great team here from our management team to our playgroup attendants, groomers, dog trainers and so it's a really great place to come and to the community. We're happy to, you know, to be a part.

Speaker 46Nova Labs is a maker space, but what that really is, is if you imagine a gym that instead of tools to work out, it is a facility that has tools to make. Sewing machines, 3D printers, laser cutters, woodworking, metalworking, etc. But the more important part is really the community. The City of Fairfax was very welcoming. We looked at a number of locations in a number of parts of Northern Virginia and it was really a big part of the receptivity and support of the City Council, the EDA, that really is what drove us to select here. And we needed an opportunity to get closer to universities like George Mason, but they have also allowed us to and improve upon the facility. There is a facade interior improvement grant, and what we were able to do with that was

new flooring, new lighting, knocking down walls, and it really was a transformational experience going to a really large inviting space where you feel yourself wanting to imagine the next big thing. Beyond that, the city was able to provide a grant for a fantastic mural that highlights a number of the capabilities that our community provides within the facility.

Speaker 22So when I first joined here, I just came into sew as a hobby. Being around other people here that are also small business owners and entrepreneurs has been really insightful and encouraging just to see how other people have started their businesses here. It's like a big community.

Speaker 46And the community is what powers us. So the community itself is one of being very open, being fearless about the desire to make.

Speaker 47Niamh is a Sanskrit word. In our context, it means convention, principle. We do information technology-centric work, solutions, end-to-end to support our client's mission. Primarily focus on federal government. However, we have presence in commercial sector as well. We have a niche skill doing rapid predictive analytics in terms of disaster related losses before or after the disaster. It was March 2020 there was an earthquake in Utah and FEMA used the tool that we managed to understand the impact of that earthquake. I enjoy working in Fairfax City because of the vicinity and all the benefits we get. The transit close to Tyson's as well as Washington DC clients, plus all the other options we have for dining where I can meet

my clients. We have a talent pool that are very, very much involved in this kind of analysis. How fortunate I am to work with the people I work with. They joined me in our mission and we are having a lot of fun.

Speaker 45Main Street Bank started out as a long vision for me. We started Main Street Bank in 2004. 20 years later now, we're at $2 billion in total assets, and we only have six locations. There's five in Northern Virginia here, and then just one in D.C. And our Fairfax City headquarters and location is kind of the epicenter of what we serve. So it's a perfect location with just robust opportunities. It's a nice central point. Small businesses thrive here. It's been a really good place to have a bank. We've gotten very involved in the community. We've been involved in the Renaissance Housing Program for 10 years now. That allows qualified individuals that need to have their homes rehabbed for you know different reasons they can apply to that

and we are the bank that works with them to do that and we just recently became the bank for the tax assistance program individuals fall behind and they need help paying their taxes we can assist with that and it's paid over a period of time as opposed to just that lump sum payment that's due both of those programs I think have been very nice we've been able to help Fairfax administer those programs but we've also benefited by having that visibility and getting some good additional customers as well. When you come into a community bank, I think the biggest difference is every day you can see that you've impacted somebody's life. You're making a difference in the community. You see a building going up that you financed.

You see somebody able to start a new restaurant. It's that small town feeling again that you get when you're making a difference and you can see the difference that you make.

Speaker 7NextGenID is an identity assurance provider for establishing an irrefutable identity at the highest identity assurance level provided by NIST, National Institute of Standards and Technology, and the government.

Speaker 44Our primary initial go-to-market is with the federal government, whether it be large departments or agencies that are looking to deploy new alternative ways to do identity proofing, enrollment, and credential management.

Speaker 7We are establishing a nationwide network that has begun here in Fairfax. We

Speaker 11literally started

Speaker 7here in the Willowwood building with a kiosk in the lobby. Our founder and CEO actually started his career in the same building in the same space here. The area and economic development provided us great opportunities in terms of location. We're close to all of the easy access points and highways for commuting and we have tremendous pools of talent with George Mason University. The area is ripe with government contractors and companies that are in our space and in our industry. Everything starts with the people. The people that we have here at NextGenID are just a phenomenal team. And that group of people is producing a product that is bar none the best that the country and the world has seen.

And together, those people and the product will solve the identity crisis.

Speaker 2So Wawa, obviously the first thing people see are the 12 gas pumps outside. While you're waiting for your car to get charged or filled up with gas, you can come in, grab a hot coffee, grab your lottery tickets, grab the milk and eggs you need on the way home. You can get candy bars, mac and cheese, all kinds of good stuff. We do individual box lunches. We've sent out catering orders that are just three box lunches. The third party platforms, DoorDash, Grubhub, that is something that the people of Northern Virginia definitely have found very attractive. We partner with the Lamb Center to feed people who might be going hungry. The Lamb Center is definitely a relationship that we're very proud of.

We are one of the busiest food service stores that Wawa has in Virginia. And when you're serving fresh food, you're going to produce more than you need at times of time. It's awesome. Another really important relationship for us is with the Fairfax City Police. Whenever we have the opportunity to help them out and have their back, it's something we try to jump on. I think we're a little bit of a community hub. A lot of people start their day here or end their day here or we're just part of their routine at some point of the day.

Speaker 36I've been coming to Fair City Mall since my children were babies. I have seen that businesses come and go for the entirety of 40 years. The kinds of shops and the kinds of shopping that people want evolves over a period of time. So J.Crew has moved into a space where people, when they come to this mall for other things, find J.Crew. And I think a lot of people are surprised to find that they are here.

Speaker 21We offer a variety of different styles, whether that's casual wear, business wear, vacation wear. If we carry swim, we carry a lot of our cover-ups here as well. customer comes in, one of the things that we do is basically we get to talk to our customers and have that one-on-one experience to see exactly what they're looking for. Trying to build outfits for them and trying to make them feel confident is one of our keys here.

Speaker 36Law firms, legal firms are a very core part of our business base. What we have to offer the attorneys who have offices in our city is that we know who they are. I like to say that we offer concierge level support to all the businesses that are in our city, and that includes the law firms. We have a geographic advantage being right across from Fairfax County Courthouse and the Judicial Complex.

Speaker 43The convenience of the location, of walking things over to the courthouse, checking something out, the ability to tell a client that something's been filed, not having to worry about how much time it takes. location, location, location.

Speaker 1I've worked with Fairfax City Economic Development Office for six or seven years. So I am very familiar with the offices. I'm also very familiar with all the work that they do in Fairfax City and all the different opportunities, restaurants, businesses, the walkability of Old Town Fairfax. Being in Fairfax City, being so close to the Fairfax County Courthouse, which is where most of our business is transacted at, has been essential. So many of our clients are based in Fairfax City or Fairfax County, so the proximity to so many of our clients has been really beneficial, and it's helped us grow our client base.

Speaker 6Fish Window Cleaning is the number one professional window cleaning company in the

Speaker 30United States.

Speaker 6in business for 40 years. Off and on we've been servicing Northern Virginia for over 20. One of our biggest opportunities for our customers, we're in, clean your place, and your window's totally fresh and clean before your first customer comes in and that's a value that we give to them.

Speaker 36I think it's interesting that they did in fact move from one side of Fairfax to the other. They are small businesses and to me that is a good healthy sign that the Fairfax City location and the support that our businesses get are strong enough and valuable enough for them our city limits.

Speaker 6The space that we had was very very small so it's really more of the office for our employees. We've been growing. Fairfax City was able to support us. The city is vibrant, a walkable area for the employees, for them to have just more of a community and family type of environment. And so I like being in the Fairfax City with this offer a little bit more of what I wanted to provide to our employees.

Speaker 36I have been familiar with Merrill Norman products since I was a very tiny child because it is the only makeup my mother ever put on her face. And she was born in 1928. Merrill Norman started in 1931. And when it was my turn to ask to wear makeup, she would allow me to wear makeup, only Merrill Norman makeup because it is not about cosmetics. It was about skin care. People who come here to shop for Merrill Norman products come from all over Northern Virginia because there aren't that many Merrill Norman stores. So this is a real accolade to the EDO that we have this shop in our city because people are going to come here specifically to buy these cosmetics. And because we have such great parking right outside the front door, they are going to stay

and shop at our other downtown retailers. So it is a win-win for everyone involved.

Speaker 39Merle Norman is a cosmetic company. It was created by Merle Norman in 1931, which was amazing for a woman back then because women were not allowed to own anything, let alone their own companies. We want to make sure that you're happy. We want to make sure that the product that we show you fits your needs. I really chose this location for the parking because it's calm and you can get a parking place. So the city was great. They had both the FIG and the LIFT programs that really helped us get off the ground to move here. So it's been really great.

Speaker 11We live in the neighborhood. We live in the community. And friends, neighbors were always asking me when we were going to open in this neighborhood. So really, we were just looking for the right spot. came available right across from Woodson High School, we knew it would be a great spot. This is our 19th block. This one is special for that reason. Today we are dedicating to Corey and Edward, who tragically lost their lives on the DC plane crash. They went to Woodson High School. So we today are dedicating this ribbon cutting to their honor. One of our core values is small acts can make big impacts.

Speaker 36This is like no other restaurant we have in the city, simply because they specialize in very specific things. And you can come and dine in, and that is going to work for some people who are looking for breakfast or the students who look for something after school. It's healthy. There's a price point that students can afford. And I think that's going to make it a destination place for lots of different groups of people who live here in the city.

Speaker 11What ultimately made us successful was our commitment to high-quality smoothies and acai bowls. Everything's blended from scratch. Also, then our commitment to people and people development. I always tell people that we are a leadership development company disguised as a smoothie shop. We want to make sure they're getting something out of their experience here that they can take with them for the rest of their lives. And that's what really inspires and motivates me in having purpose in what we're doing in our business.

Speaker 30We're constantly looking at the menu and adding new items from what it used to be Zoot. Our menu has completely changed. So going forward, we're constantly doing research to bring more healthy items to the table.

Speaker 36Where else can you find this? I'm telling you, nowhere else except Z Eats here at Scout on the Circle in Fairfax City. This is a great restaurant because it has a variety of things. It's not just grain bowls and it has things like mac and cheese and it has soups. And it's at a price point where you can come and bring your family or you could even come on a date and not break the bank.

Speaker 30When I found this location, I loved it just from the start. And I had looked at 20 or more locations before this. The city is really helpful to get businesses started. I love the area. I still love it. And now meeting the people is the perfect choice.

Speaker 18You and Luz on your way? Luz bailed on us again. Oh my gosh. That's like the fifth time this month.

Speaker 33Says she wants to be alone.

Speaker 18Yeah, I think she's going through a hard time. Should we do something? I feel like she might need someone to talk to. She'd freak. to do something. Because losing a friendship is better than losing a friend.

Speaker 14Which one of these isn't like the other?

Speaker 12Please, lock your vehicles, folks. BIRDS CHIRP Ah, ah!

Speaker 13Oh, my God. Hiza is a Asian street food focus and then we pair with 24 different craft beer. So you come in today and drink whatever you like, and two weeks later, it could be completely different draveless. What we normally offer is something that you don't easily get at the grocery store or any mall. So we built a lot of relationship directly with the brewery. So that way, you know, we constantly have something a little bit different and you can find something you like. And then on the food side, we serve mostly Taiwanese-focused Asian street food. One thing I always tell people is that we are not just selling food or just beer, it's about the experience. Our staff, they can easily tell you what is good and what is pair well with the food that you're eating. This year we celebrated

our seven-year anniversary in February. It is an amazing community that we are in. We started in 2018 and then 2021. Asian festival in Maine slowly built from one block to four blocks and we grew from six to eight thousand people to like about 25,000 people and everybody who attended it or culture, enjoy the food. People keep coming back every week to support us so I'm very grateful for that and also fortunate that customers became like good friends now and I feel like I make a good decision to start a business in Fairfax City. I care more about making the Fairfax City more livable.

Speaker 4Vactari is a research and rapid prototyping business in the utility industry formed by four brothers all located in Parafix and we formed the company a little over 20 years ago. AI is what differentiates our products from our competitors so our customers will have unique issues or problems they want to solve and we have become experts in the field of using AI unique problems. Our close relationship with George Mason University allows us to quickly apply cutting-edge research into product development. This is especially important for products that use AI and machine learning components where the academic research is constantly improving the technology. So we started at Mason Enterprise Center and then quickly grew before we branched out

and actually leased office space. Users' data and privacy are protected. The data we use to build our models is meticulously collected and filtered using strict guidelines. So this is different from those models where the data is collected in an unsupervised manner.

Nicole LiberatoreMy name is Nicole Liberatore. I am the owner of Visnona Bake Shop. Visnona Bake Shop is a small artisan Italian bakery. We specialize in Italian pastries. It's rainbow cookies, spagnoli cookies, biscotti. We are most well known for our cannoli. We've got, it'd be like 10 to 15 different flavors at a time on the roster. Visnona means great-grandmother in Italian. It's named after my great-grandmother, Phyllis, who lived in New Jersey. My earliest food memory is of all the cookies she would bake, and so it was very natural Nona and like capture her energy. A lot of the recipes that we use are family recipes. For us baking is a lot of how we show love when you have your hands in flour and butter to just like remember those really beautiful memories.

Everything is made from scratch and it's all made by hand in the kitchen in the back. So we keep it small and delicious just like your grandma makes it. My biggest challenge as a woman and a business owner is being taken seriously. People often don't assume that I'm the owner. They assume that like I work here but I'm not in charge. So I think a lot of it is knowing your space, taking it up, not being afraid to be authoritative. We love being in Fairfax City. The city itself is such a community. It's really special to be able to meet people and build relationships with people who are so excited to support local and support small and support women owned. And then also Fairfax City just being a special place for us because that's where we met.

family, having those two things together. We love being here.

Speaker 9DPI Adaptive Fitness is an accessible adaptive gym. It was created off of the thought process of having a space for participants or patients who are transitioning out of physical therapy to have a space to continue working on their rehab or to supplement their physical therapy or even discharged from physical therapy services.

Speaker 23We noticed that there was a need for more fitness going on in our community, especially after we go into physical therapy. Insurance only covers for three months. So really how it works is three months on, three months off. And what happens between those three months is that some of the people kind of decline. Our mission is to continue that fitness going so when they do go back to their physical therapy, even better.

Speaker 9We've become the international hub for adaptive boxing and there's no other club in the U.S. right now that has been able to make it as big as we have. In the city of Fairfax alone, we've had two adaptive boxing exhibitions right up the street at Providence Park. We're really trying to grow this sport and with a goal of getting it into the Paralympics. The city of Fairfax definitely had the best accessible adaptive space for us. We needed a space that close proximity to the metro access services, being close to 66, being close to D.C., those were all things that we took into account when finding a space. The city of Fairfax has been so accommodating when it comes to some of the needs that we

have had. So having the city help us with getting wider curbs so that when we leave the gym and we go down to hang out together after a workout, the curbs are so wide that a Power Wheelchair user, a manual wheelchair user, myself, we can all go down to the local stores right So it's really been awesome to have the city help us in that way.

Speaker 23We would love to invite anybody. We'd love to see new faces. You can go to our websites and you'll see all our events there.

Speaker 33Sun and Moon Yoga is a place for a holistic way of practicing yoga. We just celebrated our 30th anniversary. What we offer is the kind of yoga that anybody can do. Every single

Amy Hardstaffbeing is welcome here.

Speaker 33We emphasize things like meditation. We offer monthly sound baths. We do therapeutic specialty workshops for people who are dealing with a hip problem or ways that yoga can support their running practice or their golf game. Our specialty workshops are a really key part of what keeps the flow of the ways yoga can be helpful, alive for people in the community. I think what differentiates us is the idea of how we perceive yoga as a very holistic experience and tradition. We're emphasizing it as a way of healing, as a way of connecting, and as a way of being in a very complex world at a very complex time in the best way we can show up. Fairfax City is so special. The ability to offer a yoga class and then afterwards say like, let's go get coffee at DeClue or let's go get a delicious meal at Hamrock's and be able to just walk around the corner and do that.

Like that's what community life is about. That's why we love being here.

Speaker 29The Minority Business Development Agency is a bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Been around since 1969, provide business consultations to minority businesses. They actually provide grants to non-profits, for-profits, or educational institutions to operate business centers. We actually help companies navigate through local, county, state, and the federal levels of contracting. open the doors to those agencies or organizations that need their services. The number one challenge for minority business and small business is access to capital. Our model is we connect with a plethora of resource partners. Mason Enterprise Center operates the Small Business Administration Small Business Development

Center, PEX Accelerator, and a CDFI Community Development Financial Institution out of Springfield. So we all work together. We have banks that we can refer folks to. introductions. One of the key initiatives is not to get money, but it's to provide education. They get certificates saying that they went to this course and increased their financial literacy.

Speaker 3So we're a classic IT services government contractor. We do everything from software to applications, tests, and deployment, to systems engineering. We're an employee-owned company. It really creates an environment where everybody's working together as part of a team. So we first came to Fairfax City in 1999, just up the street. What attracted us was the easy accessibility to the highways, and then we've stayed for the convenience. Everything is here right in town. In 2019, we were awarded the ESOP Association's nationwide employer year award and that really emphasized we only succeed when everybody succeeds. So we participated with Food for Others a few times over the years. The specific program we do is their power pack lunch program. We go out and put together

lunches for students and we made donations to groups in Fairfax that support students in the STEM programs and in programming efforts in the high schools. We are proud of the work we've done and we're very pleased to have been here in Fairfax City for 25 years.

Speaker 14Shopping local in Fairfax City just got much easier with the Fairfax City Flex Card. The Fairfax City Flex Card is an e-gift card program where 100% of all gift card sales remain within Fairfax City, and you can use it at participating businesses. From retail, restaurants, and spa services, you'll always find a place to use your FlexCard. So go to fairfaxcityconnected.com slash flex today to learn more and to purchase your own Fairfax City FlexCard. Shop small, shop local, and gift a FlexCard.

Speaker 15Fairfax City is the ideal location to start and grow a business. Centrally located in the DC metro area, businesses have convenient access to major hubs in the region with the city's affordable commercial spaces and proximity to government agencies and international markets. Experience the perfect blend of small town charm and a vibrant business environment with a walkable downtown and a free bus system. Access a pool of highly skilled talent across various industries thanks to the city's proximity to prestigious universities and research centers. Fairfax City is the ideal location to start and grow a business. Centrally located in the D.C. metro area, businesses have convenient access to major hubs in the region

with the city's affordable commercial spaces and proximity to government agencies and international markets. Fairfax City Economic Development supports businesses in making connections to win work, build strategic partnerships with government agencies, and a range of services from real estate selection to workforce development. Our team helps businesses integrate into a thriving community with networking and collaboration opportunities. Fairfax City is the ideal location to start and grow a business. Centrally located in the D.C. metro area, businesses have convenient access to major hubs in the region, access a pool of highly skilled talent across various industries, thanks to the city's proximity to prestigious universities and research centers.

Fairfax City Economic Development and Northern Virginia Community College present Upskill Fairfax City, Free tuition assistance for Fairfax City residents and employees. Gain certifications in IT, healthcare, and more. Register now at upskillfairfaxcity.com.

Speaker 36This is a momentous occasion because this is yet another mural in the city of Fairfax. This is a collaboration. The public art adds a

Phyllis Pajardodimension to our city that we can't get in any other way.

Speaker 36People are drawn to art. People are drawn to color. what would otherwise be a plain building into something that has created a visual that is memorable for people. And they associate that visual with our city. Visitors who come down this street for the very first time and look at our historic buildings, they're looking at this beautiful mural that has folk art themes in it. All of those efforts are going to combine to make this a tourism destination, and murals are gonna be one aspect of that. Camp Washington is an interesting spot in Fairfax City, right at the point where Route 50 and Route 29 become Fairfax Boulevard. Tate Bakery is actually one of the core new businesses in this part of this shopping center.

Urban walkability is what businesses like Tate were built to meet. who walk here, stay here, meet people here. Part of the reason people are going to come across the street and want to spend time in Camp Washington at this location is because they are here.

Speaker 20I'm super excited for us to be here. The reason we came here is because we want to connect with the community. Literally we are the place that wants to offer gathering places for different people. Customer service, guest service, taking care of people and making you feel like it's an extension of your home We are thrilled to be in this neighborhood. We're excited for you to share our fresh baked bread and croissants and cheesecakes and the work that goes into the coffee. We're so excited to make all of that stuff super fresh. We're excited for the neighborhood and the growth that is to come. And we're excited to partner. And we're just thrilled to be here.

Speaker 35BCA ensures there's a good balance between the community and businesses. the guidelines are respected and followed. That's something that's very dear to my heart, to make sure the balance is kept. People respect the guidelines that were set by the city a long time ago. They don't encroach into their neighbor's property. I loved having to keep an eye on things to make sure the balance is kept, whether it's the lighting from a baseball stadium or traffic for a fast food restaurant. everybody's passionate about something. Mine was guidelines and zoning. My advice is to find out what you're passionate about because if you want to give back to the community that's the best way. It's very gratifying when you give back but yet at the same time you're improving your own knowledge.

To me I've always felt good about giving back but when you give back nobody comes and says thank you but you just feel good inside.

Speaker 8I volunteer for the EDA because I've been very fortunate to be very successful in my business and it's a great opportunity to give back to the local business community. I know of all the local businesses I've met and have befriended a lot of local business owners as well, so it's just a great opportunity to give back. Economic development drives innovation, it drives prosperity and so the city is very supporting those local businesses. They know that small businesses are really the backbone of the economy, of the local economy, and as well as the national economy. So I think that the city really believes in supporting those efforts. There's a lot of challenges that the EDA has faced. For example, post-pandemic there was obviously not only an issue in Fairfax City but across the nation of

leases and businesses kind of returning back to normal. And the city started these new grant programs, the Lyft grant and the FIG grant, to help attract some of those businesses and get that economic engine going. They do all sorts of programs. There's also a gift card program, and all these events and programs are really aimed at promoting local businesses. The EDA and the Economic Development Office is full of people that really care about businesses in the city.

Speaker 10Every time I move to a place I feel like I want to get involved somehow. I use the parks all the time. I'm heavily invested in after-school programs. That's what I do for a living. So I like the idea of being able to be involved with a board that oversees the Parks and Rec Department. I figured that was a good way to get involved in something that I'm actually interested in. PRAB is really just a way for the citizens of the city of Fairfax to have a representative taking a look at the programming, the facilities, the way the Parks and Rec department is operating and really just asking questions like when a new initiative's coming up, how is this gonna impact our city budget? How is this gonna impact the parks that we already love?

Like what are we gonna do to improve the great facilities that we already have? And I think PRAB's role is to just be that community voice and give feedback and ask questions about initiatives that are coming down the pipe. In our city, the parks and the facilities that we have high point. There's something that people really enjoy and people really use a lot. People fall in love with the city of Fairfax because of those facilities and amenities and parks and things like that and they think oh I want to move to the city now. So I think being able to make sure that we're offering top-notch amenities for the people that live here it's a great way to attract businesses and attract residents and just really grow the city in a positive way. So it's

important to you know if you have the opportunity to step up and help out and just be a part of the community.

Speaker 28When I saw that the Commission on the Arts had an opening, I realized this would be a good way in. I could, you know, give some of my expertise, or at least my time, to the Commission, but also get to know some people that maybe I wouldn't get to know otherwise. We want to make the arts a central thing in Fairfax, make Fairfax as it were famous for the arts. People are emotional beings and the main way we express emotions I think is through the arts. One of our main challenges is publicity. How do we get the word out about what's going on? We meet just once a month and so it's not a huge, huge commitment, but it is something that makes a difference. For me, it has been an opportunity to interact with a diverse set of people who I normally would probably not even have met

and work together towards a common goal, and I think that's very exciting.

Speaker 31When I saw that they were looking for board members, I thought, well gee, I had just retired from Fairfax County Health Department and I've always worked with older adults and people with disabilities so I said well I'd love to continue my work and do that as a volunteer. One of the main objectives of Fairfax Village in the City is to provide extra help if they need a ride to the doctor, if they need to have their leaves raked or a light bulb put in. Volunteers will sign up to do that. The service is here and there's people in the community that want to provide the service because they want to volunteer and feel like they're helping their community and giving back. Not only do we provide services to the members,

but we also provide information. It's also a good time to meet your neighbors and you can socialize with people at that time. I've lived in Fairfax City since 1992. I had mentioned to my husband when we were looking to buy a back in Fairfax City because I enjoy living in Fairfax City so much. I like the community feel of Fairfax City. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.