The superintendent of Falls Church City Public Schools announced that she will resign at the end of her contract, making Lois Berlin the third area schools chief to announce her exit in less than three months.
Berlin will have served for seven years when her contract expires in June 2011, a long tenure for her position. During her reign over the small school system, Falls Church boasted the highest SAT scores and highest graduation rate in Virginia; its 2010 SAT scores were the highest in both Virginia and in the history of the district.
“I am fiercely proud to be your superintendent. We have accomplished much, and we will continue to accomplish great things during this school year,” Berlin wrote in a letter to staff and parents. “I am a proud Hippo, Tiger, Husky and Mustang [the schools’ mascots] and will remain forever so.”
District Chancellor Michelle Rhee announced her resignation on Oct. 13 after Mayor Adrian Fenty lost the Democratic mayoral primary to her long-time critic, Council Chairman Vincent Gray. Her three and a half years in the job made Rhee a veteran in a district that turned out schools chiefs in matters of months.
Montgomery County Superintendent Jerry Weast said that he will retire at the end of this school year, concluding 12 years of efforts to close the “achievement gap” in Montgomery’sdiversifying schools. Weast is the second longest-serving superintendent of the 25 largest school districts.
