With half of Fairfax County’s 12-member elected school board retiring this year, voters had a rare opportunity to change dramatically the direction of the nation’s 12th largest public school system. Unfortunately, they opted for the status quo, re-electing all remaining incumbents, including Chairwoman Jane Strauss, Dranesville. Only two reform candidates — Megan McLaughlin, Braddock, and Elizabeth Schultz, Springfield — were added to the new board whose 10 Democrat-endorsed and two Republican-endorsed members reflects Fairfax County’s political landscape.
Although McLaughlin and Schultz, both outspoken critics of FCPS and Superintendent Jack Dale, are greatly outnumbered, they now have a bully pulpit from which to prod, cajole and even shame rubber-stamping incumbents, who are tempted to rest on their laurels. The many problems facing the 175,000-student public school system are nonpartisan. None is more important than restoring public trust and choosing the right successor to Dale, who also announced he will depart in June 2013 when his current contract expires.
Dale’s tenure has been rocky, marred by parent uprisings over the proposed purchase of a luxury administration building in Merrifield while children are still being taught in dilapidated trailers; overly harsh “zero tolerance” policies linked to several student suicides; lack of parental notification in disciplinary proceedings; closure of the beloved Clifton Elementary School over the community’s strenuous objections; larger class sizes; phasing out of some high school honors courses; and attempts to fudge test scores by excluding thousands of poor-performing students from the Standards of Learning, which drew a sharp rebuke from the Virginia State Board of Education.
All of these controversial issues have eroded the trust between FCPS and the community that is essential for any well-run public education system. The school board can make great strides toward restoring that trust by hiring an independent outside auditor to make sure that FCPS is following best practices in contracting and procurement.
It also needs to find a top-notch replacement for Dale who will have to grapple with the continuing fallout from so many of his misguided policies. FCPS’ failure to meet federal testing benchmarks for the first time since 2007 is a warning that the school system’s generally high ratings cannot be taken for granted. School board members should only consider a seasoned administrator who has a proven track record of both transparency and accountability, both academic and fiscal. A lot is riding on their decision.
