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Meeting Recap: Recognizing Our Custodial Staff, Bringing Quantum Computing to FCPS, and More (September 24, 2026)
Dear Neighbors,
Thursday’s Board meeting covered a range of topics, including educational technology in Kindergarten, expansion of Universal Design for Learning practices, and recognizing the work of our 1,400 custodians who maintain more than 29 million square feet of property on a daily basis.
We also took a number of actions at this meeting, including banning license plate readers on FCPS property, as well as purchasing the first-ever quantum computer at a K-12 school in the entire world.
As always, I welcome your inputs and questions on every issue before the Board, and those that you feel I should bring forward. You can email me at Braddock@fcps.edu. You are also welcome to attend School Board meetings (schedule) and register to share your thoughts with us during community participation (sign-up).
Yours In Service,
Tom Dannan
Braddock District Representative
Fairfax County School Board
Table of Contents
September 24, 2026 Meeting
Recommendations for Pre-K and Kindergarten Tech Device Use
We started off with a presentation from the Superintendent on her recommendations for device use within Pre-K and Kindergarten (we will vote on these at our October 8 meeting).
This briefing came out of our request from July, when I worked with my colleagues to amend a motion to bring forth recommendations on this topic.
Her briefing focused on the work of the Educational Technology Review Committee, the state requirements for reading intervention for students who score in the high-risk range on the Virginia Language and Literacy Screening System assessment, how Lexia works and how it has been used in FCPS. Dr. Reid also shared her recommendation to allow limited use of Lexia for Kindergarten students needing additional reading support while allowing families an option to opt-out of Lexia use.
 I squeezed a lot of questions into my limited time, including sharing thoughts from a range of educators with whom I’ve spoken about on this topic. As always, I want to focus on the “main thing,” namely, improving literacy for our youngest learners. I recognize that that requires a thoughtful, nuanced approach.
The research I’ve read around programs like Lexia is largely unclear, and I’ve heard a range of thoughts from educators, which boils down to the point that I think we need to trust educators and provide them the training and tools to teach our kids. FCPS has already made a lot of progress towards being more intentional about our technology usage, including removing some minimums for usage and enhancing our digital literacy curriculum.
Related, I expect to pick back up on the educational technology policy work via our Governance Committee in the coming months, and will continue to share updates here.
You can view the full presentation on BoardDocs.
Motion to Prohibit ALPR Systems
I was in support of the Board's vote to direct the Superintendent to prohibit the installation, procurement, or leasing of ALPR systems, including, but not limited to, Flock cameras, on property owned by the Fairfax County School Board; provided that nothing in this motion shall prohibit or restrict the installation, operation, or continued use of speed cameras or school bus stop-arm cameras. View more on BoardDocs.
Academic Matters: Training our Educators on Universal Design for Learning
The Superintendent provided a briefing on FCPS’ work to improve current practices and general education classroom access through Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which is an educational approach that emphasizes proactively minimizing barriers to learning, with the goal to meet the needs of every student.
Her briefing focused on recent training and ongoing support to teachers to better implement UDL, including summer workshops, team cohorts, and other professional learning opportunities.
 One comment jumped out to me from the video, “In a place where we think we need to separate to support each kid, we don’t need to separate them. We just need to be more creative in how we reach each student."
Implementing UDL includes how we are refining special education service delivery models to ensure students with disabilities are educated in the least restrictive environment.
In my remarks, I highlighted my appreciation of how FCPS leadership engaged with teachers on the ground on how to adapt resources, giving them space to improve these.
You can view the full presentation on BoardDocs.
 The most recent Strategic Plan update touched on Pillar C of FCPS' Strategic Plan which is, “Diverse, Adaptive, and Supported Workforce." Her presentation highlighted the efforts of our FCPS custodians, who play such a vital role in all of our schools. She addressed how essential the school-based custodians were last winter when we were affected by the snow-crete, and mentioned some statistics about how custodial staff play such a major part in maintaining a warm, safe, clean, and welcoming environment for our students, including:
- over 230 schools and offices are served by approximately 1,400 custodians;
- over 29 million square feet are maintained daily;
- over 14,000 classrooms and 1,200 restrooms cleaned daily; and
- over 3,300 acres of land is maintained.
You can view the full presentation on BoardDocs.
FCPS Plans to Host First K-12 Quantum Computer
The Board voted to approve the purchase of an operational quantum computer to be housed at Skyview High School. This was a unique opportunity for FCPS to use funds set aside for creating instructional programs at the new high school–in partnership with the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority and Connected DMV–to give our students unprecedented access to work directly with this important and emerging technology.
Govenor Spanberger and the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority are both leaning into quantum, and state officials count more than 1,100 quantum-related jobs open across Northern Virginia. Companies in our own backyard are investing heavily in quantum.
While quantum theory has been taught at FCPS for decades, our students will now be able to have direct access to more meaningful educational experiences in this field, better preparing them for the future.
In my questions, I asked Dr. Reid to clarify the source of the funding, the curriculum to be developed, and how our students can meaningfully benefit from this purchase.
The machine will arrive at Skyview HS in December 2026 and the first student cohort will start in Spring 2027. It is important to note that FCPS is already planning ways that students across FCPS, not just those at Skyview HS, can benefit from this resource. In addition, the Board passed a follow-on motion that directs the Superintendent to prioritize Lewis HS should it be viable to add additional quantum computers to FCPS schools.
You can read more about the Quantum Computer purchase here.
Instructional Program Monitoring Report
The School Board maintains thirteen Executive Limitations (if you’re interested, you can see them on pages 16-33 of the Board’s Strategic Governance Manual) that are designed to ensure that the Superintendent operates the division to achieve Strategic Plan goals. The Superintendent provides an annual report to the Board on each of the executive limitations and the Board votes on whether she has demonstrated compliance with that executive limitation. These votes are designed to provide the Superintendent with immediate feedback on her work. The executive limitation reports along with the Strategic Plan goal reports are effective ways for the Board and the community to monitor the efforts and progress of the division.
Dr. Reid presented her work on EL-9 to deliver an instructional program that meets our strategic goals. The report starts with new practices that support her compliance with the instructional program executive limitation but also shares ongoing work that demonstrate compliance with this executive limitation. Some of the new work includes:
- a Standards Alignment Plan in English language arts and grades 3-6 math to strengthen alignment among curriculum, assessment, and instruction;
- the launch of five Montessori early childhood classes;
- actions to support increased access to advanced math in elementary school; and
- improvements in accessibility including health education lessons for students with disabilities, Universal Design for Learning (also featured in the Academic Matters segment) and the Inclusion School Leadership Team Cohorts.
I firmly believe that we need academic rigor and high standards coupled with sufficient resources for our students so I appreciated the lengthy report full of details about our instructional program. I was interested in learning more about our math programs, including factors students should consider when enrolling in Algebra in 6th grade and how the new math textbooks are being used.
Proclamation Honoring National Literacy Month
 The Board proclaimed September 2026 as National Literacy Month to reaffirm our commitment to promoting reading and literacy as the core foundation for student academic success, job preparation and ability to compete in a global economy. I was happy to second this motion, as FCPS has made great strides in advancing literacy in recent years, including the Equitable Access to Literacy Plan which works to identify systemic barriers, provide a solid foundation in literacy and train teachers in evidence-based literacy practices. FCPS has seen results from these changes, including increases in Grade 3 SOL Reading pass rates.
At the beginning of this meeting, Dr. Reid shared some great statistics that complement this proclamation.
- In the SY 25-26, there were over 3,387,000 books checked out by students and staff.
- Third graders checked out the most books last year with a total of 535,829 books across FCPS, which is an average 43 books per third grader last year.
- The top five book series were Dog Man by Dav Pilkey, Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney, Elephant and Piggie by Mo Willems, Branches by Jessica Young, and National Geographic Kids by Eric Zweig.
- Of the top ten single titles, seven were from the Dog Man series, and the other three were graphic novels by Raina Telgemeier.
Looking Ahead: October 8th Meeting
Upcoming Regular School Board Meetings
- Thursday, October 22nd
- Thursday, November 12th
All meetings are broadcast live on Channel 99 (Verizon channel 11) and on the FCPS website. Recorded meetings are also posted on the FCPS YouTube channel. You can also visit the community participation webpage to sign up to speak at Regular meetings or public hearings.
The views contained within this newsletter reflect the views of the individual school board member who is the publisher of this newsletter and may not reflect the views of the Fairfax County School Board.
© Fairfax County Public Schools, Fairfax County, Virginia
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