I am the first to admit I am not a Meren Stan, but seeing the conversation she just posted I’m appalled. Who in this day and age calls women bimbos and then doubles down on it when confronted?! I can post her commentary but the screen shots are in her FB post.
“What I sent the Bimbo”: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay defunds High School Crossing Guards, then Criticizes Board Member Melanie Meren about Her Objection
Crossing guards will no longer be stationed on roadways to public high schools in Fairfax County, and I think this is the wrong decision for our community. My position aligns with my years of advocacy for public safety investments near our schools to prevent traffic incidents harming children and adults.
On May 5, the Board of Supervisors approved a budget that eliminated these crossing guards. I protested this cut in my latest newsletter, on May 7. On May 13, the Chairman sent me texts criticizing my public statement and demanding an apology.
Chairman McKay then called me a “bimbo” in an apparent text to the County Executive, Bryan Hill, that I was included on. When I asked him to confirm if I was “the bimbo”, Chairman McKay doubled down: “Yes because everyone here is angry as heck and it costs the schools.”
As shocked as I was to be degraded by the highest-level countywide elected official in Fairfax County, I am more concerned about the Chairman’s sense of entitlement about having unilateral authority on public spending.
To be clear: the Board of Supervisors does not fund anything. The taxpayers fund the government, and our elected officials are stewards of public dollars. When the Board of Supervisors makes decisions about how to spend public monies, they must answer for those decisions. Attempts to stifle criticism and accountability are not signs of strength, but weakness.
I will continue speaking truth to power and standing up for student safety. I hope others will show up and speak up to do the same.
Melanie Meren
Hunter Mill District Representative
Fairfax County School Board
From the 5/7/26 newsletter:
This month, on Thursday, May 21, the School Board will adopt publicly the final budget for School Year 26-27, which is Fiscal Year (FY) 27. The FCPS budget relies heavily on local funding approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, who transfer funds to FCPS based on the School Board’s request made on February 26.
FCPS faces a budget shortfall between our transfer request and what the Board of Supervisors have allotted to FCPS, a difference of $43.8 Million. Supervisors have kept this proposed allotment level since February, including during their budget markups on Tuesday, April 28 that would be the opportunity for any final adjustments.
The Board of Supervisors also upholds the recommendation of County Executive, Bryan Hill, to shift the $4 Million responsibility to FCPS from the County’s Health and Human Services youth gang-prevention program - the Middle School After-School Program (MSASP). Basically, the Board of Supervisors is indicating how FCPS should spend its funding, which is not how the budgeting is supposed to happen.
Lastly, the Board of Supervisors denied funding for high school crossing guards! So in the exact locations with the newest drivers, safety precautions are being removed! Our teen drivers and pedestrians are Fairfax residents who have a right to public safety services that enforce safe transportation where thousands of people commute daily. That the County Executive continues to balance the budget on the backs of our kids’ safety, and the Supervisors allow this, is truly a neglect of public safety services in Fairfax County. I do thank Hunter Mill Supervisor Walter Alcorn, for rejecting the budget markups, and Franconia District Supervisor Rodney Lusk, for trying to protect the high school crossing guard program.