Falls Church City Public Schools

The Falls Church City School Board held it's Regular Meeting with a Closed Session on Tuesday, November 10, 2026.

FCCPS Chief Operations Officer Alicia Prince sits down with Juan Carlos Farfan Moretti to talk about his work with the school division.

Join FCCPS Chief Operations Officer Alicia Prince as she speaks with Alejandrina Sanchez Martinez about her work in Custodial Services at the school division.

The Falls Church City School Board met to discuss topics around School Action Plans, Equity, Revenue Sharing, Collective Bargaining, and held a closed session.

Powered by People is a podcast celebrating the people behind the work that keeps our schools moving. From the classroom to the bus lot, and from the cafeteria to the front office, our schools succeed because of the people who show up every day and make it happen.Hosted by FCCPS Chief Operating Officer Alicia Prince, Powered by People goes behind the scenes to hear the stories, expertise, and perspectives of the people who make Team FCCPS work.

Staff provides information to parents about mathematics at Oak Street Elementary School for the 2026-2027 school year.

The Falls Church City School Board received a presentation on the 2027 General Assembly Draft Legislative Program and discussed with staff technology use in schools and the FY 26 End of Year Budget Report. The Board also addressed several policies and heard the Superintendent's report and an update on enrollment.

The meeting opens with the board recognizing retiring Director of Communications John Brett for 20 years of service to FCCPS. Dr. Terry Dade and Marybeth Connelly then explain how the district will build its next five-year strategic plan. The plan covers 2027 to 2032, and the district will gather input through focus groups, town halls, and a steering committee. Board members weigh in on their own role in that process.In the second half, Dr. William Bates and Mr. Knight, our new Director of Assessment and Accountability, present a three-year look at student performance. They cover state tests, STAR benchmarks, English learner progress, locally developed history assessments, and IB and SAT results. They also answer board questions about how teachers use the data in the classroom.The meeting closes with a closed session on personnel and legal matters, approval of the consent agenda, and a preview of upcoming items.This audio has been edited to remove 23 minutes of silence while the board was in closed meeting.

Dawn Mills spent 31 years driving buses in Fairfax County, retired, and quickly discovered she hated it. So she came to Falls Church City Public Schools as a driver, fell in love with the job, and stepped up to become our transportation coordinator.Host Alisha Prince talks with Dawn about what goes on behind the scenes of every bus ride: placing new students and kindergartners on routes, managing routes all year long, and scheduling every field trip and athletics trip for every school. Dawn also shares why driving in Falls Church felt stress-free, what she loves about our polite, chatty students, and why she keeps seeing the same neighbors out walking their dogs.Plus the fun questions: the coffee creamer that gets her going each morning, the one word she'd use to describe Falls Church City, and how she'd redesign our buses if yellow weren't required. (Hint: it involves a lot of little handprints.)Powered by People introduces you to the unique people who keep FCCPS running every day.

The Oak Street administrative team sat down with families this morning, and this is the full conversation.Principal Karim Daugherty opens with her own path into the job, from teaching and the PBIS work that came before it, through her years at Beech Tree, to four years at Oak Street. She lays out what she leads by: give students real leadership opportunities, trust teachers with decisions and not just classrooms, treat parents as partners, and answer the phone.Assistant Principal Carrie Checca traces a route that runs from a small school on Long Island through twelve years in California, where she helped found a charter school and got her first taste of IB as its coordinator. Special Education Administrator Abby Poplstein, now in her second year at Oak Street, talks about student-centered data, the partnership between special education and general education teachers, and making sure every student can get to the SCA table and the safety patrol roster.The second half is a guided tour of the Primary Years Programme, and it carries well in audio. Ms. Checca explains the learner profile and why the same language follows a student from JTP through Meridian, what student agency looks like when a fifth grader chooses how to show what they learned, how the six units of inquiry pull science, math, and language arts into one central idea, and why an Oak Street teacher should never be surprised at the end of a unit.A note for listeners: the presenters work from slides throughout, including a fifth-grade unit of inquiry and the IB journey poster. The video version on the FCCPS YouTube channel shows those visuals, and the slides go out to Oak Street families in Tiger Times.Runtime: about 34 minutes.Falls Church City Public Schools | fccps.org