Reply to What do I need to know about the Fairfax County School Board?

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[quote=Anonymous]What you need to know about the FCPS (Fairfax County Public Schools) School Board:  the Board sets policies and oversees the administration (the Superintendent and his crew - Principals, teachers, staff etc.) who manage the day-to-day operations of the schools).  The FCPS Board spends more than $3 Billion dollars each year - more than 53% of the Fairfax County Budget.

1)  All meetings and minutes and documents are reported on Board Docs website here: https://www.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/goto?  Video is posted to YouTube and meetings are streamed real time on AppleTV (Cable channel 21)

2)  The Board has Regular (public) Meetings every other Thursday evening at (Luther) Jackson Middle School, 3020 Gallows Road, Falls Church, VA, at 7 p.m.  There are ten slots for public comment in person (and another five for video comment submissions) - you sign up for these online at 6 a.m. on Monday morning prior to the Thursday mtg. - these go quickly if the mtg. agenda is contentious.

3)  Various work sessions and committee meetings are held at Gatehouse Administration Center, 8115 Gatehouse Road, Falls Church, VA 22042, Room 1600 - these are open to the public - work sessions are recorderded (video) while committee meetings are recorded (audio) - you can find the audio on BoardDocs, videos are posted to YouTube as well.

4)  You can FOIA (request via Freedom of Information Act) information about the schools, budgets, communications (emails on a particular subject) etc. - the coordinator is Brandynn Reaves (bareaves@fcps.edu)  Phrase your question very specifically and expect to wait 5 business days and a further 7 business days for the inevitable extension - charges may be imposed.

5)  Many questions about the budget and operations of FCPS are asked by Board of Supervisors and FCPS Board members during the annual budget cycle - these are compiled and archived on BoardDocs see Library - Budget Questions.   The Board's Calendar and Board Policies are also posted in the Library for reference.

6)  The Clerk to the Board is Ilene Muhlberg (Ilene.Muhlberg@fcps.edu  571-423-1075) - her office can be very helpful in finding information and understanding process.

7)  Each district has one Board member representing and in addition there are three at-large members (Mr. Moon, Ms. Keys-Gamarra, and Mr. McElveen) who represent the whole district.  Each of these members can be contacted by phone and email and some (though not all) hold periodic public meetings with constituents.

8)  Join the PTA.  Read the Twitter/Facebook feeds of the various Board members.

Finally, once you have learned about the Board's responsibilities, actions, and history, you can offer some informed opinions and, hopefully, inform the rest of us!  Or you can run for office - the next elections for the Board seats are scheduled for 2019.

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