Coraggio Consulting
City of Fairfax Regular School Board Meeting, Monday, October 6, 2025

Date: Monday, October 6, 2025
Place: City Hall, City of Fairfax, Virginia
Length: 8h 0m (video)
Official meeting video (city, Granicus): https://fairfax.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4335
Agenda: https://fairfax.granicus.com/AgendaViewer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4335
Minutes: https://fairfax.granicus.com/MinutesViewer.php?view_id=13&clip_id=4335&doc_id=f284a97b-c274-11f1-89ef-005056a84798

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-12. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:01] Good 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.

[00:00:52] I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, we do not have any changes to the agenda this evening, and we do not have any new announcements.

[00:01:15] So we will begin with the adoption of our agenda. May I have a motion, please? Madam Chair. Ms. Kelsey. I move that the City of Fairfax School Board adopt the agenda as written and distributed. May I have a second? I second.

[00:01:33] Okay, Ms. Kelsey moved, and Ms. Bartolme seconded. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye, none opposed. The motion passes unanimously. Okay, we will move on to presentations of the school board. We do not have anybody signed up for citizen participation.

[00:01:51] Okay, we'll move on to our student representative report. Ms. Lucas. Good evening. At Fairfax 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.

[00:02:08] 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 Cali. Despite the loss, the game was thrilling.

[00:02:24] 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 a new cafeteria menu items. Picture Day Makeup Day is October 24th, and the first quarter ends October 31st for all schools.

[00:02:41] At Daniels Run Elementary School, the school 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 the help of family, community, and even George Mason's student volunteers.

[00:03:01] It was an exciting event for all the students, including the pre-K program. At Produmance 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.

[00:03:23] Thank you so much. - Thank you, Ms. Lucas. Do any board members have any questions for Ms. Lucas? Mr. Phillips, do you have any questions for Ms. Lucas? - Thank you, that was great.

[00:03:40] Now we are going to move on to the superintendent selection process update and we have Dr. Phyllis Pajardo with us this evening. Welcome Dr. Pajardo. All right thank you Madam Chair, school board members, Mr. Phillips and staff and students good to see you again and I am happy to provide you with another update 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

[00:04:17] 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 it's been great working with you. But it has been a busy set of months in terms of August and September. If you take a look at the arrow, the arrow is pointing to October

[00:04:53] 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

[00:05:29] 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 bit of both, but again, 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.

[00:05:53] 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.

[00:06:20] 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

[00:06:57] 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.

[00:07:24] 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.

[00:07:41] 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.

[00:08:04] 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.

[00:08:33] 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 upon to renovate the schools the safety of the students are continuing to be important to folks also so secured vestibules and and even other facilities enhancements that you may not have considered as of yet.

[00:09:10] 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.

[00:09:39] 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.

[00:10:05] 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.

[00:10:28] And folks can continue to check the website for updates. This presentation will be posted itself on the website. And certainly if there are questions, they can reach out to us via that email.

[00:10:46] And with that, I am finished with your superintendent search update for October. Thank 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. Mr. Phillips, do you have any questions?

[00:11:04] Just that Dr. Pajardo was reading my mind when she said I'm eager for the new decision. That's all. Thank you. And I do believe, Ms. King, that our November meeting is the 3rd, November 3rd. Okay, I'm trying to think.

[00:11:22] I did have a question. When people mention staff retention, I'm curious. They do understand that we don't have any. I mean, we 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.

[00:11:47] I 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 well.

[00:12:09] But they are clearly understanding FCPS staff, FCPS employs the staff of people in city schools. But the city itself, city school staff, was also mentioned in terms of the retention.

[00:12:27] And that superintendent really does. I mean, that's the people that he or she will work with closest. But thank you for reiterating. Yeah. No, I was just curious what the commentary was around staff retention, like specifically.

[00:12:44] Yeah. 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.

[00:13:04] 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 the input and the support of the superintendent's influence with FCPS regarding who those principals are that are serving in the four city schools.

[00:13:32] Okay, great. Thank you. That clarifies that for us. Okay, thank you. And we will see you tomorrow. That is right. At our next. Yes. I had almost forgotten about that. Yes. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Thank you. Everyone have a good evening.

[00:13:47] Thank you, Dr. Bajardo. Thank you. Okay. Our next presentation is the capital funds budget presentation from Mr. Phillips, our acting superintendent. Okay, thank you, Chair Pitches and board, for the opportunity to talk about our capital improvement program or plan.

[00:14:05] for FY 27 through 31. And it's 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 this year or 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

[00:14:44] um miss king if you go to the two slides forward there actually back up for one second just to just 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 and just thought those were cool pictures to see as we get ready to undertake this next uh next renovation that's what they look back look like before the last school board had such a big renovation so somebody 25 years from now we'll be looking at these same photos with a third third picture of each school or I'm sure they'll be doing some other newfangled thing but something

[00:15:20] like that the next slide then Miss King so typically at this time of year we talk about the capital programs or a capital improvement plans projects that we want to do and we also talk about this ongoing maintenance and I'm gonna share a little bit about ongoing maintenance with you tonight but just 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 you see on this 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

[00:15:58] of it one more time next year when the new superintendent is here he or she or they'll be presenting that as part of the operating budget rather than the capital improvement budget and it 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

[00:16:33] 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. But we're anticipating as we get into FY28, 2930 and beyond, the renovations at the school will take the place of some of that need. Some of the things that 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 finished daniel's run all together and we're nine classrooms away from providence so eventually that becomes just a maintenance and repair for

[00:17:13] tile we'll take the word carpet off and it'll just be our tile account but those are the ongoing maintenance things and then the 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.

[00:17:34] 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 and rely on if we get into conversations and want to do something different.

[00:17:55] the softball field is not for FY 27 but in the 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 FY 27 but you can see it's starting in FY 28 and beyond that's the bulk of it that item actually will go into FY 32 also to complete the project but this this budget only goes to FY 21 31 but you can see it's you know it's just like you'd imagine there's an escalating expense and then

[00:18:32] 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 and 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

[00:19:10] 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 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 and they still are they still have lots of FPYC events and

[00:19:47] things like that but it's more high school than 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.

[00:20:04] It still looks great, but there's a lot under the surface that needs to be reworked, and that's not a full-on stadium replacement. It's turf replacement. So it's not an outrageously expensive amount, but it is a substantial amount. And then finally on this list is just picking up and moving forward with the restaurant.

[00:20:23] It's called the restaurant entrance modification because that's what it started as, but the lower restrooms. We're not putting in a restaurant. We're not building any restaurants. Sorry. Sorry, guys. The session stand is as close as we're going to get to a restaurant. Restroom. Maybe I should have eaten before the meeting. Less Mr. Phillips is.

[00:20:39] I'm planning ahead for when I get home. But no, the restroom entrance. And it's really just restroom renovations. at the lower uh 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 to do something that makes things more convenient for folks on the visitor 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

[00:21:19] 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 before we go to questions can you um let's 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

[00:21:52] you know right we we are um and what happens to the twenty thousand dollars that we typically um put aside for parks and rec for the upkeep of the turf right well the 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 with with from our end we haven't spent them they're still they're still available you know but they're in they go back into the city coffers every year which is what happens with the operating

[00:22:29] budget with the parks and recreation um 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 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 okay maybe at the the budget meeting presentation all the departments are there the schools can sit at the table with parks and rec and and explain

[00:23:05] that yeah because I know that that is a well-watched yeah well it is and and the conversation about what kind of turf we're looking at and all those things yeah talked about it in other places and Stacey Summerfield the director of Parks and Recreation 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 there are 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

[00:23:39] important okay and you should probably um speak to you mentioned the different materials that we're looking at the softball field one um i would ask why are we looking for something other than turf um 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 well i think the katherine johnson fields uh they're not katherine johnson fields the cutler park fields that katherine johnson johnson uses is a parks and recreation project and there's been a lot of conversation about whether there should be turf or whether

[00:24:17] they should be grass fields and the you know the the 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 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's 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 so it's basically like we we are just finding out what the what the options are because gathering information because it's not

[00:24:54] that hard to do it comes from the same company you know right 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.

[00:25:11] In field or out field, right. Yeah, and they determined at that time that it just wasn't a great... Area for that? Area. It didn't do well for growing grass. The thing that's interesting, and I don't want to spoil the fun ahead, but the grass field that is on the opposite side of the current softball field would actually make a really nice surface also.

[00:25:42] But we have to make sure that it's not really outrageously expensive to make that change. You know what I mean? So there's an option right there. We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the press box and all the new other things. Can we move that? To me, it looks like we can. We just turn it around because it's not concrete.

[00:25:59] Yeah, 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. Okay.

[00:26:15] Ms. Barlemy, do you have any questions about the CIP? I 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.

[00:26:31] I 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 we may well adjust them when we get, you know, if things change, plus the needs will change.

[00:26:52] 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 us move

[00:27:30] forward thank you thank you miss Kelsey do you have any questions yeah um just a clarification i think you answered it but uh with the turf yeah the turf replacement is that just the football field or is it football and baseball it's just football just just the just the field in the middle of the stadium and and it would take in some track and field elements also okay so the kind of things that are down at the end of one end zone and maybe around the corner okay um and

[00:28:02] then on the roof um fairfax high school roof yeah i don't want to say placement or um 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 i should have said this earlier actually this uh 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

[00:28:35] project and I think you know when you look at the FY 29 number it's probably a bigger section and the roof the way the current roof was set up and done through the puff roof and with the warranties it's five sections five phases okay and so this would just be the kind of the replacement of one phase at a time okay yeah okay it's likely the M&M probably that's yeah that'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 yes okay yeah thank you sure thank you miss Kelsey miss Hickman I

[00:29:13] just 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 to the public my only suggestion is to reduce the questions that we get similar to miss Kelsey's question is just to add FHS stadium for a good point I know it's one word good point might just avoid any addition we can do that for sure thank you even though we just did the other turf we would hope people would think

[00:29:47] that oh yeah the stadium will clarify it yep there's no stadium not the baseball. Thanks, Ms. Heckman. Okay. Ms. Sessori. Yes. 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 because the $3 million that we had for this first year is

[00:30:25] coming out of a different pot of money. Yes. Planning for this year is correct. Yeah, exactly. is that money what's that give back yes exactly yes um so that that gives about 20 excuse me about 10 percent of the bond amount that's just kind of like a buffer is that is that fair to assume or it's actually reflected in the roof cost in 20 in 32 that was not the full amount but you know and and when we did the renovate uh the the uh bond planning lots of cost escalations were built in

[00:31:00] 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. Awesome. 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?

[00:31:28] because we have it 65 across those years with that just be is like a we're just well the budgeting that or what did that what would that look like it 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 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

[00:32:04] stuck with those thanks okay um mr phillips the speaking of the um roof warranties like some of them are going to expire yeah what's the first year of expiration is it 29 i'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 we'll have done prior to that, we would do the one that's expiring first.

[00:32:32] We'd do them in those orders. Okay. And I am assuming there's no HVAC. No. Is that because we're anticipating that there will be renovations and we aren't going to apply to it?

[00:32:47] Certainly at the elementary 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 it's potentially something that could be added back in next year.

[00:33:06] Okay, and I'm going to play devil's advocate here. Let's say 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?

[00:33:23] It's a 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. That, when it was in, the CIP did not go back into the city funding. Same thing's true for HVAC funds.

[00:33:40] 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.

[00:33:56] Okay. That makes sense. 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. I think last year's CIP showed it expiring, I think, this year, and it was probably with the plan for the renovation.

[00:34:17] 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. This is a draft. But it's a great question, and it makes me curious, too.

[00:34:33] So let me get a little bit of information. Abby, do you have a question? Sorry, Ms. Lucas. No. I'm all good. Do you have a question? No. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. Phillips.

[00:34:49] Thank you. We will move on to our Fairfax Academy update, and we have Ms. Andrea Cook, Ms. Amy Hard, and Ms. Suzette Murphy here from the Academy this evening. Welcome. How are you guys?

[00:35:06] Thanks for having 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. So just some generic academy updates for the year that I always like to give you.

[00:35:38] So 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. So that's where we are. So, 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.

[00:36:02] 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. We have a dual enrolled section and we 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

[00:36:37] the senior class has an honors week this year. So just some basic curriculum updates and I'll let Suzette dive into game design. So game design is a 180 billion dollar global industry so it's more than film and music combined. It's just huge. I think that it's something that can go into a lot 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

[00:37:17] 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

[00:37:51] done the 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.

[00:38:10] So some of the impacts are critical thinking, obviously teamwork. We are aligned to CTE and industry standards. I do offer the Unity certification. So it's a professional certification that they can put on their resume, that they can add to their colleges.

[00:38:28] And at the end, they also have a little bit of a 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 yeah sure so these are just some examples from some games um from last year and so this is just screenshots um that i use you can go to the next one if you want kind of loops yeah but it's just this is like a side scroller um another little guy

[00:39:08] yeah right she's in my advanced class now yeah um this one is probably more coding focused so the student really liked all these cool things um it's a difficult coding um i think this so that's when they make their games i let everybody play each other so we all walk around um and play each other's games and then talk about them it's kind of a fun day for us

[00:39:47] it's just another game perfectly yeah i thought it was cute Those are eight clones, yeah.

[00:40:09] 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. I'm going to dive in for a few highlights that Suzette didn't highlight for you.

[00:40:26] 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.

[00:40:41] 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 that'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.

[00:40:59] 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. And 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 invite.

[00:41:16] It's great to just walk around, and they're so proud of the work. Cool. Very cool. Sure, 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've figured out a little bit of what I can do, should do, maybe don't want.

[00:41:40] 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.

[00:41:57] 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 this year for Expo. It's going to be very exciting.

[00:42:14] 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.

[00:42:37] 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.

[00:42:53] 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.

[00:43:14] 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 Theater, which focuses mainly on the skills and opportunities for musical theater performers.

[00:43:32] 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.

[00:43:47] 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?

[00:44:06] 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

[00:44:45] 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. We'll all continue to celebrate what we're doing at Academy. Okay, and we're also taking some trips. We're looking at a

[00:45:22] combined 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's so many opportunities for things for them to see and explore up in new york our korean program right now is it is looking at taking a spring break of next year trip to korea so we're seeing what's happening there and we can move to the next one if you don't mind um 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

[00:45:59] 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 music and computer technology kids,

[00:46:38] 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. Okay, I think that might be it. Yeah, I'll hand it back to you.

[00:46:54] So 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 wouldn't have the time and space for.

[00:47:12] So future forecasts. We're always dreaming and looking at what's next. So we're looking at more dual enrollment classes. That's something that's really important 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.

[00:47:33] 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.

[00:47:49] That's a big need 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 the 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.

[00:48:06] 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 and also give back to the community here in the city of Fairfax by doing that.

[00:48:23] i think that oh little season highlights um so our musical in january don't come opening night come opening night but don't come opening night um is how to succeed in business without really trying uh we're really excited to kick that off on january 31st um 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 fashion 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

[00:48:56] academy awards this year 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 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 We're excited.

[00:49:19] If you have any ideas, let us know. We have some cool thoughts going. Thank you. It means food. Yeah, right? That means more people. Yeah, so. 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.

[00:49:43] Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Barley, do you have any questions? I don't have any questions, but there's a lot of really cool stuff. It's kind of a cool job. Thank you. Yeah, it's fun. Ms. Kelsey.

[00:50:00] I 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.

[00:50:19] 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 a year-long class. Okay. 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.

[00:50:45] But then they're doing several, like, personal projects that aren't whole games. It's just a piece here and a piece there, and then kind of put it all together. And it's probably just growing up in the age where there wasn't any of this stuff, you know. It just baffles me.

[00:51:01] 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 it's always fun to see all the great things you guys have coming. Thank you Ms. Kelsey. Ms. Heckman. Yes I was just wondering Amy do you mind touching on the middle school and elementary career days?

[00:51:41] Sure so 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 16 year 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

[00:52:16] 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 like second graders like, I'm going to be an actor.

[00:52:43] it's really exciting to say yeah you absolutely are and not to just go isn't that cute like we're like of course you are and so this is what you need to do make sure that you take PE on like 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

[00:53:22] start getting in there a little bit earlier. Thank you. I love that and I appreciate it because I think the majority of parents are 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 they're not thinking about planning with their high school what classes they're going to take exactly so that's have that that little 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 um and i also just want to say i saw some evidence of

[00:53:58] the cross collaboration on the instagram post with musical theater and dance and i just loved how you guys presented that and we're yeah we're doing 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. Thanks. Miss Essary. I always love seeing what work you guys bring. I had an opportunity to see meet the teachers during I think it was a parent night

[00:54:33] 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 like kids graduating this year and whatnot but focusing on enlistment employment and college enrollment and just thinking about like 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 so yeah no the three e's are definitely a huge conversation

[00:55:12] 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 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. So letting them have some exposure. And even if

[00:55:47] 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 offer the workplace readiness exam, but what is there that's specific to the career pathway that would support our students, no matter how inorganic

[00:56:25] 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 e's and then i have one more question if i may um so often i hear students i chat with concerns around how AI is taking over some of these foundational courses and whatnot,

[00:57:01] you know, being a software programmer and whatnot. I imagine those conversations are being had in your classrooms, too. What does that look like? So as kids are walking into those academy courses, how can they perhaps think beyond the box of what that looks like for them when they enter the workforce? So me personally, this is something that I lean into a lot with my students. And Just in general, AI is here.

[00:57:26] 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.

[00:57:44] 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.

[00:58:01] So I'm okay with that. I'm okay with you using it 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.

[00:58:18] 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 their learning and that goes in the workforce as well i think now 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 taught to their class either i was like why aren't you just using ai for that and they're like

[00:58:53] 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 they, 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 to, with mti i'm sorry um mct um 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

[00:59:31] the work that you're doing and you're producing is authentically yours and then how to protect it lucas do you have any questions yeah um excuse me yes uh what is your most popular course that students take at academy it's game desire it's clearly it's game design um you know it depends upon the year so we kind of see waves fluctuate a little bit um right now the class with

[01:00:03] like the longest wait list is arabic we really could use a second teacher i don't have a classroom or staffing so you know i throw that out tongue-in-cheek um but we've seen our languages does surge a lot um asl a couple years ago was the most popular so it has the most students but we also can seat more students um next up would be fashion um we've really seen a huge insurgence for our fashion program since miss barry joined us so um but all of our classes we're actually getting more and more our total enrollment requests continue to go up so everything's

[01:00:36] in a healthy upward trend at this point are you sure you said no before i even said mr murray okay um so there's really nothing left to um to ask but your awards the how what do you guys think like i'm curious like what ideas do you have for your your is it going to be so the academy awards has been the same why don't you describe what it is for people who may not have gone okay

[01:01:11] 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 becky 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 um 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

[01:01:50] 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 a 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 it you know it just it was getting a little cold okay all right just do you want to go back okay

[01:02:25] but this is it take two seconds okay I'm very literally will because I was flipping um out of your um enrollment do you by chance know how many of those are city kids or like Fairfax high school kids uh so we're about 40 percent fairfax high school i feel like i pulled the city number from somewhere and i feel like it was like 25 city 2025 i'll put up it also depends on how like if they're there 25 of the time 50 right right no absolutely if you wanted more specific numbers i

[01:03:01] could pull that okay no that's okay thank you okay we're gonna let you leave oh oh mr phillips i'm so sorry i usually say i don't have any questions but tonight i do just real 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 no absolutely so we're trying we always are trying to think outside of the box of like some some of 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

[01:03:39] 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,

[01:04:16] 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? You know, 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 um but any of those photography i've i've you know i i it's hard for

[01:04:54] me to sometimes unblock the 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.

[01:05:12] But yes, I will gladly this week send a long list to our dear friend Kay 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.

[01:05:31] 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. We'll try to spread the word for sure, and thank you for that.

[01:05:46] Thank you. And one last question. What are the biggest obstacles, and I think I know the answer, but to adding a trade program to the school? You mentioned it, and I know we've talked about it. I think there's an obvious answer. Give me three. Okay, thank you. Two are connected. We did not set this up, but go ahead.

[01:06:02] money space and an instructor which is also tied to that money uh it's hard for people to step away sometimes from their career with what we're paying yeah right um space for a lot of the trades that we've explored is a huge commitment um just from a footprint standpoint um and then of course just to build out any spaces depending upon what we're looking at it's it's kind of wild thank you thanks for the great things you do for kids thank you thank you very much you wouldn't necessarily have to have space i was just thinking about this and maybe i shouldn't say it out loud

[01:06:39] 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 has done that for many yeah construction is one of the models like they have to be off-site so there are logistical layers to that but nothing that's not insurmountable okay well i have an electrician if you need an electrician to to come and what about like tattoo artists because

[01:07:16] that might be against rifex county really but the electrician is a great idea great tattoo art you mean for a guest speaker well yeah because a lot okay because fine art 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 a lot of kids go into I mean the apprentice and tattoo shops after especially just going through art programs being like a business owner too a lot of our students are interested in kind of that small business my art small business owner like Marlo or any yeah so James Marlo is a good

[01:07:54] friend of mine great i've known him since i was 19 um and he owns like he i think three shops um and and i have another friend jason hobby owns classic tattoo yeah down in richmond he owns two shops i'm just saying like if it's no that 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 so yeah And it has an apprenticeship program.

[01:08:27] Yes, exactly. Like electricians have journeymen programs. The way that that scaffolds is important for a lot of our artists. So anyway, I was just thinking out loud. Keep thinking. No, keep thinking out loud. What? We're going to have to be the first academy to offer.

[01:08:42] 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 um what miss 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 um but thinking about locations in the city even would would even is there any restriction within fcps to partner with businesses who might have that space to to offer those i'm just you know we can

[01:09:17] always have those conversations okay thank you miss hickman no i just didn't know i did i was debating it is there fine arts academy in fcps or is it we we are the most artistic but we don't have like a pottery ceramics no those are all base school standard course offerings um we used to have graphic design and then that went to all base high schools which is one reason why we started game design interior design what is that funny story in the fall of 2008 which is my first

[01:09:56] 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 that's fascinating i'll be very curious there were like five kids signed up i'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 a lot of the apps they're playing now yes my daughter is just in toka world designing yes aspect of every little room even in roblox and all those things and there is that connection with the game does that like there's yeah yeah no there's i think that one's about to happen it's coming

[01:10:33] thank you yeah of course okay now we're gonna let you go but these are all good conversations yes no absolutely that we should continue to have happy happy to shoot us emails with anything you think of or any questions we're always around the corner and come visit okay well i think on the 23rd school board member mcdaniel is coming he he i'm i may attend with him excellent 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 yeah all right have a

[01:11:13] great night you guys thank you so much okay we don't have any public well we're having a public hearing for the proposed uh five-year capital improvement plan but i assume there's nobody who would like to speak at our public hearing um action items okay let's move on to action items the approval of the september 15th regular september 15 2025 regular um meeting minutes may i have a motion please madam chair yes miss sir kelsey i move that the city of fairfax school

[01:11:50] board approve the minutes of the september 15th 2025 school board regular meeting as printed and distributed. Okay, hold on. Let me put you down. Ms. Kelsey. Okay, may I have a second? Second. Okay, 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. Aye.

[01:12:24] i know members are opposed so the motion is unanimous okay so the next action item is full time this is a and i'm going to need you to read this miss hickman i forgot to tell you sorry um reading and approval of the full-time employment resolution for the assistant superintendent position miss hickman can you please read the resolution whereas 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

[01:12:58] july 2025 now therefore be it resolved one the position will be a full-time position for which tenure is not restricted as to 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 51.1-125,

[01:13:29] 51.1-132, 51.1-135, 51.1.1-155, 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.

[01:13:54] 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 unless the employer reports the individual to VRS is actively employed. And five, the employer acknowledges that pursuant to section 51.1-124.9 it may be liable for any overpayment of benefits resulting from their employer's failure to report a full-time employee to vrs okay may i have a motion madam chair um is necessary i move that the city of fairfax school board approve the full-time

[01:14:31] employment resolution for the position of assistant superintendent as written see me as read written and distributed okay i may have a second second okay miss sestry moved 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 aye no members are opposed the motion passes unanimously

[01:15:08] we'll move on to superintendent matters um mr phillips thank you mr chair pitches i just want to just a couple quick uh points of thanks i want to just thank our community for their engagement and support related to the situation with football team and i just think that uh 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.

[01:15:41] 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 I also want to thank our principals at all of our schools, in particular, Dr. I, for her resolve.

[01:15:59] Yeah, 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've been involved in it.

[01:16:16] So thanks for that. Two more quick shout-outs. One to the City Public Works folks for doing a cleanup around our little assistant house. It just looks so great, and we appreciate it so much. And they were so happy when they were doing it, and we just love them for it and appreciate it. And then one more good note, the Daniel's Run vestibule is done.

[01:16:33] So there we go. The glass was in today when I went by. That's good news. And that's very early. Yes, it is. It's earlier than February, for sure. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Phillips. We'll move on to board matters. I'll start with Ms. Cessary.

[01:16:51] Thank 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.

[01:17:20] Also want to iterate what Mr. Phillips said about the football situation and whatnot, and I just really want to thank Dr. A for her leadership and guidance in that situation and just iterate that, like you said, that we are definitely behind the students um and just want to thank them for their their um just it's a very tough situation so thank you uh miss hickman i just wanted to thank the daniels run pta for their open invitation to

[01:17:57] their meeting it was my first pta meeting as a non-parent at daniels run in 10 years so it was really fun to have a chance to still go back and do that um in addition to the thank yous that have been said uh 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 um very impressive from all our

[01:18:35] students so you can pass that on for me to them thank you miss hickman miss kelsey um i'll just ditto all that um and then i would like to say that i am really looking forward to homecoming not this week but next week um and the parade and all the activities um and celebrating our football team that night um as well as the other teams as they play this week or next week sorry um during the homecoming week um also that um good luck to a bunch of them kj students they are starting

[01:19:14] their sports like the cross country team um and doing some of those activities um and they have their first meets coming up so good luck to them um and then also just wanted to remind everybody that there is um on the 28th of october the boundary review meeting at fairfax high school um to discuss what's upcoming in the next phases and stuff um and to wish everybody a safe and fun halloween miss burlby um i just wanted to thank you mr phillips for all your work on the daniels run

[01:19:50] um vestibule and that's i know a lot went into working with fcps and making that happen so thank you um and i also wanted to reiterate what everyone else has said about our board being in support of the football players um so we stand with you guys and and are supporting you thank you okay well i I won't reiterate everything, but I will say that 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

[01:20:25] athletes, and we have shown that support to VHSL. If there's nothing else before the board, I am going to adjourn the meeting at 7.50.

[06:49:29] is a traffic engineering firm. We work on the things that make traffic flow better and safer.

[06:51:19] 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.

[06:51:36] 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. 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

[06:52:12] 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

[06:52:52] 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

[06:53:12] located spot for our staff so this is to me it's just been an excellent location for us. I 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

[06:53:50] that these pet care owners had, which also included the overnight care. We are the only 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 gonna find us to be more like a family vibe when you come in.

[06:54:08] 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 Perfect 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.

[06:54:28] We've been really happy to be part of this community. 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.

[06:54:43] We're happy to be a part. Nova 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.

[06:55:06] Sewing machines, 3D printers, laser cutters, woodworking, metalworking, et cetera. 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.

[06:55:26] 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.

[06:55:58] 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. So 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.

[06:56:21] It's like a big community. And the community is what powers us. So the community itself is one of being very open, being fearless about the desire to make. Niamh is a Sanskrit word.

[06:56:39] 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.

[06:56:54] 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.

[06:57:15] 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, D.C. 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.

[06:57:37] 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. Main Street Bank started out as a long vision for me.

[06:57:56] We started Main Street Bank in 2004. Twenty 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.

[06:58:14] 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

[06:58:49] they need help paying their taxes we can assist with that and it's 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.

[06:59:08] 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.

[06:59:26] 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. NextGenID 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.

[06:59:54] Our 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. We are establishing a nationwide network that has begun here in Fairfax.

[07:00:16] 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.

[07:00:34] 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.

[07:00:52] 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.

[07:01:09] And together, those people and the product will solve the identity crisis.

[07:01:23] Well, 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.

[07:01:43] 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 gonna produce more than you need at times of time. It's awesome. Another really important relationship for us is with the Fairfax

[07:02:19] 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. I've been 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

[07:02:58] things, find J.Crew. And I think a lot of people are surprised to find that they are here. We 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. 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.

[07:03:23] Trying to build outfits for them and trying to make them feel confident is one of our keys here. Law firms, legal firms are a very core part of our business space. What we have to offer, the attorneys who have offices in our city, is that we know who they are.

[07:03:45] 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. The 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.

[07:04:09] Location, location, location. I'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.

[07:04:28] 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.

[07:04:56] Fish Window Cleaning is the number one professional window cleaning company in the United States. In 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.

[07:05:13] And that's a value that we give to them. I 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 to look for different locations within our city limits.

[07:05:31] The 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. 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. I have been familiar with Merrill Norman products since I was

[07:06:08] a very tiny child because it is the only makeup my mother ever put on her face and she was born in 1928. Meryl Norman started in 1931. And when it was my turn to ask to wear makeup, she would allow me to wear makeup, but only Meryl Norman makeup because it was not about cosmetics. It was about skincare. People who come here to shop for Meryl Norman products come from all over Northern Virginia because there aren't that many Meryl 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

[07:06:47] going to stay and shop at our other downtown retailers so it is a win-win for everyone involved merle 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 fit 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

[07:07:24] helped us get off the ground to move here so it's been really great we 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

[07:08:04] 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 this 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 what ultimately made us successful was

[07:08:40] 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.

[07:09:19] We'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 where 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 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

[07:09:55] or you could even come on a date and not break the bank when 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 uh to get businesses started i love the area i still love it and now meeting the people It's the perfect choice.

[07:10:16] You and Lou's on your way? Lou's bailed on us again. Oh my gosh. That's like the fifth time this month. Says she wants to be alone.

[07:10:35] Yeah, 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.

[07:10:53] Which one of these isn't like the other?

[07:11:03] your vehicles folks. Free is a traffic engineering firm. We work on the things that make traffic

[07:13:59] 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.

[07:14:16] 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, 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

[07:14:53] 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

[07:15:30] 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 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

[07:15:58] excellent location for us. I 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.

[07:16:25] 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 100% cage-free with 24-hour staff.

[07:16:44] 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.

[07:17:02] 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. 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.

[07:17:25] We're happy to, you know, to be a part.

[07:17:38] Nova 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.

[07:17:56] 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.

[07:18:13] 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 and Terry 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.

[07:18:33] 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.

[07:18:50] So when I first joined here, I just came in to 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. And the community is what powers us.

[07:19:07] So the community itself is one of being very open, being fearless about the desire to make. Niamh is a Sanskrit word. In our context, it means convention, principle.

[07:19:25] 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.

[07:19:47] 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. They enjoy working in Fairfax City because of the vicinity and all the benefits we get.

[07:20:03] 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.

[07:20:19] 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. Main Street Bank started out as a long vision for me.

[07:20:38] We started Main Street Bank in 2004. Twenty 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.

[07:21:00] 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.

[07:21:22] 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.

[07:21:40] 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.

[07:22:00] 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. NextGen ID 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.

[07:22:35] Our 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.

[07:22:51] We 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.

[07:23:10] 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.

[07:23:26] 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.

[07:23:51] And together, those people and the product will solve the identity crisis.

[07:24:07] Well, 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.

[07:24:25] 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 platform store dash scrub hub 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

[07:25:01] 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. I'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, 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

[07:25:39] this mall for other things, find J.Crew. And I think a lot of people are surprised to find that they are here. We 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. 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

[07:26:07] trying to make them feel confident is one of our keys here. Law 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 the convenience of the location

[07:26:42] 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 i'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.

[07:27:10] 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. Fish Window Cleaning is the number one professional window cleaning company in the United States in business for 40 years.

[07:27:43] 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 windows totally fresh and clean before your first customer comes in and that's a value that we give to them. I 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 the support that our businesses get are strong enough and valuable enough for them to look for different locations within our city limits. The space that we had was very very small so it's really more of the office for our employees. We've been growing. Fairfax

[07:28:21] 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 offered a little bit more of what I wanted to provide to our employees. I have been familiar with Meryl 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

[07:28:57] 1928. Meryl Norman started in 1931 and when it was my turn to ask to wear makeup she would allow me to wear makeup, but only Meryl Norman makeup because it was not about cosmetics. It was about skincare. People who come here to shop for Meryl Norman products come from all over Northern Virginia because there aren't that many Meryl 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

[07:29:34] involved. Merle 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 fit 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 Lyft programs that really

[07:30:07] helped us get off the ground to move here. So it's been really great. We live in the neighborhood.

[07:30:24] 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 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. This is like no other restaurant we have in the city

[07:31:01] 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. What 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.

[07:31:32] 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. We'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

[07:32:11] constantly doing research to bring more healthy items to the table. Where 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 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 I found this location I loved it just from the start and I had looked at 20 or more locations before this

[07:32:47] the city is really helpful to get businesses started. I love the area I still love it and now meeting the people is it's the perfect choice you and lose on your way lose bailed on us again oh my gosh that's like the fifth time this month says she wants to be alone yeah 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

[07:33:27] but we need to do something because losing a friendship is better than losing a friend

[07:33:33] which one of these isn't like the other your vehicles folks that is uh asian street food

[07:36:40] 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 driverless 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 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

[07:37:18] eating this year we celebrated our seven-year anniversary in February it is amazing community that we are in we started in 2018 and then 2021 Asian Festival of 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 will have a good time they learn about Asian culture enjoy the food people keep coming back every week to support us so I'm very grateful for that and also fortunate that customer became like good friend now and I feel I make a good decision to start a business in Fairfax City I care more about making the Fairfax city is more livable.

[07:38:12] Victari is a research and rapid prototyping business in the utility industry formed by four brothers, all located in Fairfax, 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 to solve those unique problems.

[07:38:41] 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 have meticulously collected and filtered using strict guidelines.

[07:39:18] So this is different from those models where the data is collected in an unsupervised manner. - My name is Nicole Liberatore.

[07:39:35] I am the owner of the Sonona Bake Shop. The Sonona Bake Shop is a small artisan Italian bakery. We specialize in Italian pastries, rainbow cookies, spagnoli cookies, biscotti. We are most well known for our cannoli. We've got like 10 to 15 different flavors at a time on the roster.

[07:39:53] Bisnona means great-grandmother in Italian, 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 to name Bisnona and like capture her energy. A lot of the recipes that we use are family recipes.

[07:40:11] 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.

[07:40:33] 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.

[07:40:50] 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, that's where we started our family. Having those two things together, we love being here.

[07:41:12] DPI 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 discharge from physical therapy services.

[07:41:33] We 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.

[07:41:52] Our mission is to continue that fitness going so when they do go back to their physical therapy, they're either where they left or even better. We'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.

[07:42:11] 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 was ground level, that had close proximity to the Metro Access Services.

[07:42:33] 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 down the street.

[07:43:00] So it's really been awesome to have the city help us in that way. We 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. Sun and Moon Yoga is a place for a holistic way of practicing yoga.

[07:43:27] We just celebrated our 30th anniversary. What we offer is the kind of yoga that anybody can do. Every single being is welcome here. We emphasize things like meditation. We offer monthly sound baths.

[07:43:44] 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.

[07:44:06] 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.

[07:44:27] Fairfax City is so special. The ability to offer a yoga class and then afterwards say like let's go get coffee at Duclue 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.

[07:44:51] The Minority Business Development Agency is a bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce. I've 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.

[07:45:13] We actually help companies navigate through local, county, state, and the federal levels of contracting. We try to 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.

[07:45:28] Our motto 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.

[07:45:44] So we all work together. We have banks that we can refer folks to. We actually make the 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.

[07:46:05] We're a classic IT services government contractor. We do everything from software engineering and development to applications, tests, and deployment to systems engineering.

[07:46:24] 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. attracted us was the easy accessibility to the highways and then we've stayed for the convenience.

[07:46:41] Everything is here and right in town. In 2019 we were awarded the ESOP Association's Nationwide Employer of the Year Award 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

[07:47:16] 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. Shopping 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 flex card so go to

[07:47:52] fairfaxcityconnected.com slash flex today to learn more and to purchase your own fairfax city flex card shop small shop local and gift a flex card fairfax 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

[07:48:32] research centers fairfax 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 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 real estate selection to workforce development.

[07:49:01] 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 DC 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.

[07:49:23] 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, health care, and more. Register now at upskillfairfaxcity.com. This is a momentous occasion because this is yet another mural in the city of Fairfax.

[07:49:47] This is a collaboration. The public art adds a dimension to our city that we can't get in any other way. People are drawn to art. People are drawn to color. We are distinguishing 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.

[07:50:16] All of those efforts are going to combine to make this a tourism destination and murals are going to 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

[07:50:53] Tate were built to meet the demands of people 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. I'm super excited for us to be here.

[07:51:12] 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 is exactly what Tate is about. 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 that stuff super fresh. We're excited for the neighborhood and the growth that

[07:51:43] is to come and we're excited to partner and we're just thrilled to be here. BCA ensures there's a good balance between the community and businesses. We want to make sure the guidelines are respected and followed. That's something that's very dear to my heart to make sure the balance is kept.

[07:52:07] 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.

[07:52:26] 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 I volunteer for the EDA because I've

[07:53:02] 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 focused on supporting those local businesses.

[07:53:27] They know that small businesses are really the backbone of the economy, of the local economy, 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.

[07:53:50] and the city started these new grant programs, the LIFT 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.

[07:54:09] The EDA and the Economic Development Office is full of people that really care about businesses in the city. Every time I move to a place, I feel like I want to get involved somehow.

[07:54:25] I use the parks all the time. 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 who is 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 is coming up, you know, how is this going to impact our city budget how is this going to impact the parks that we already love like what are we going to do to improve the great facilities that we already have and i think prab's role is to just

[07:55:04] 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 are a 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 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 is 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

[07:55:40] opportunity to step up and help out and just be a part of the community. 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

[07:56:11] 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

[07:56:48] together towards a common goal and I think that's very exciting. When I saw that they were looking for board members, I thought, well gee, I had just retired from Fairfax County Health Department and have 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

[07:57:24] leaves raked or a light bulb put in. Volunteers will sign up to do that. The services 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 home that I wanted to to look back in Fairfax City, 'cause I enjoy living in Fairfax City so much.

[07:58:03] I like the community feel of Fairfax City.

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