"There is immense power when a group of people with similar interests get together to work toward the same goals" - Idowu Koyenikan "One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone" -Shannon L. Alder

I am currently serving my second year as a School Board Member. I'm on the City's Environmental Sustainability Committee and I'm one of the Virginia School Board Association representatives. During my first year of serving on the City of Fairfax School Board, our board has achieved quite a bit, and I have learned much more about our city than I ever expected. I have directly seen the impact of new housing communities and how they impact our schools. I also learned our current government does not require proffers from new developers. This is a real detriment to our community and schools, as these funds could be used to fund schools, parks, public transportation and more. As a council member, I would make sure these discussions occur during any proposed housing meetings with developers. Fairfax County requires this for many of their projects during rezoning, and the city should too. Note - the School Board is unable to mandate this, it requires action from your City Council. By not currently requiring this, our taxpayers alone must subsidize the cost of new sidewalks, new parks and more kids in our city schools and buildings. 

During my time on the School Board, I've had the opportunity to meet teachers, staff and administration at all 4 of our city schools. I've attended band and choral concerts, student art shows, school plays and musicals, award and recognition events,  and fashion shows. I've been fascinated by the automotive education that is offered at the Fairfax Academy under the leadership of Mr. John King and I was lucky enough to attend the Advisory Council Meetings and enjoy a spectacular meal prepared by our students. I've learned about the amazing opportunities we provide at our Fairfax Academy, including dance, fashion, game design and development, many languages including American Sign Language, music/computer tech, theater, photography, TV/media production, social media marketing and more! I've had the opportunity to volunteer at the Chocolate Lovers Festival and Fall Festival, and be a chaperone at the Junior Achievement Finance Park to help 8th graders with personal financial planning and career exploration. I was a presenter at the Cappies Awards & Gala at the Kennedy Center, and I enjoyed a wonderful night of performances from many FCPS schools. I've attended many FCPS meetings and had engaging conversations with both the previous School Board and the recently elected board, and we were recently treated to a delicious meal prepared by the very talented culinary program students at Marshall Academy. The opportunities available to our city students are absolutely amazing! Our students are training for jobs and careers they don't even know exist at the moment. 

I absolutely understand the importance of showing up...showing up for our students, teachers, staff and administration. I'm often out in the community speaking with our students and families and I know that community outreach and engagement are key to understanding how our community feels about current topics. Listening to our families and community members is a vital part of my job as a school board member, and is equally important as a council member. As a council member, this time and dedication I show to our families will become time spent with our community residents, city business owners and city staff. I know firsthand how important it is for people to be seen, heard and recognized.  I will expect kindness and a respectful conversation from each resident, and in turn I will provide the same. While we won't always agree on every issue, I promise to listen with an open mind and decide what is right for the city. 

While working with the fantastic women on the City of Fairfax School Board this past year, we have achieved many things and implemented many actions taken by our previous school board members:

Fairfax High School

• Overseen the addition of turf for the baseball field and band practice field
• Overseen the Field House interior concession stand upgrades
• We are in the process of a major overhaul to the stadium restrooms, ticket booth and concession stand
• Installed new washer/dryer components to support the sports programs (summer 2023) and upgraded the weight room floor (winter break 2023/2024)
• Installed EV charging stations
• Auditorium sound enhancement & new curtain installation
• ADA renovations to the railings and steps at the stadium
• Still to come: exterior PA speakers, new stadium scoreboard, new press box 

Katherine Johnson Middle School

• Security Vestibule - to be installed in the coming months
• Front exterior painting
• New asphalt basketball courts installed
• Kutner Park turf field (joint project with the Parks & Rec  department) - initial concept design as of March 2023

Providence Elementary School/Daniels Run Elementary School

• New mechanical replacements (not all units)
• PES playground fencing
• PES Kiss & Ride lanes - installed new posts and signs to assist with traffic flow
• PES landscaping to cut down shrubbery around the marquee

I am the Treasurer of the Cobbdale Civic Association (elected Dec 2022), and I served as an at-large member for over a decade. I've been working for sidewalks to be installed in our community for nearly as long. I created our community Facebook page and worked hard to bring new events/activities to our neighborhood, including the annual Halloween Parade, house decorating contests, semi-annual yard sales and more. 

I was very vocal with our neighborhood's concerns about safety on the Jermantown Road bridge over Route 66, and the danger of attempting to leave our neighborhood due to parked construction vehicles, mounds of rocks and gravel, porta-potty, cones and more, that essentially blocked our view of traffic coming over the Jermantown Rd bridge. After many pictures, emails and conversations with the city, VDOT and Transform 66, we were finally able to get these obstructions moved and make it safer for everyone to turn onto Jermantown Road, including cars, pedestrians and bikers, especially those attempting to get to Providence Elementary School and Katherine Johnson Middle School. 

I also made efforts to engage our entire Cobbdale community on the city's major plans for the Chain Bridge Road/Eaton Place intersection, as well as the new changes for our entrance/exit. My goal was truly to engage every single resident in our community to see how they felt, and what they wanted. Working as a team with others in Cobbdale, we scheduled meetings, invited Council members to walk the route with us, and requested multiple meetings with the city's Department of Transportation staff. We requested access to the accident data and police reports the city was using to support their decisions. While we did not agree the data supported many of the proposed changes, we did our best to represent our community as a whole throughout the entire process. I initiated countless Facebook posts, surveys and community engagement to be sure we were truly representing the thoughts and feelings of as many neighbors as possible. Unfortunately, the outcome was not as the majority of our neighborhood had wanted. However, I do hope that through our diligence and efforts, we have helped the city review and expand its overall community engagement process, which should really include more direct outreach to impacted residents and neighborhoods.  

Our current board has continued to add fun new family activities to our events calendar, including the addition of a Free Little Library at Cobbdale Park, complete with monthly story time gatherings, and the adoption of Cobbdale Park which includes quarterly park cleanups. We held an invasive species event to help residents learn more about invasive species and discuss the responsibility of homeowners to manage and mitigate these plants. We're helping to support our neighbor owned businesses with advertising options on our website, Facebook page and biannual newsletter. As a community, we have continued to engage with city leadership and city staff to ensure our voices are heard for issues that directly impact our neighborhood and surrounding areas.