Superintendent Reid departs for controversial position overseeing Fairfax County, Virginia schools

This month, Northshore School District (NSD) Superintendent Michelle Reid left Washington to become the superintendent for Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia. She begins the role on July 1.

The change marks a substantial leap for Reid’s career–FCPS has over 180,000 students to Northshore’s 24,000. It is the 11th largest school district in the U.S., according to 2016-17 data from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Reid’s selection has been publicly opposed by the Fairfax County NAACP, the Fairfax Alliance of Black School Educators (FABSE) as well as local parent groups and students in the district.

Critics have raised concerns about Reid’s qualifications and how she was selected for the superintendent position. FABSE and the Fairfax NAACP said they felt the process was rushed and were disappointed not to have been able to give more input.

“We are very concerned about the likelihood of success for a new superintendent who has no professional experience in any capacity with a school district of the size and diversity of FCPS,” the Fairfax NAACP said in a statement.

According to the district’s website, “36.8 percent of FCPS students are White, 27.1 percent are Hispanic, 19.8 percent are Asian, 10 percent are Black, 5.9 percent are two or more races, 0.3 [percent] are American Indian and 0.1 percent are Native Hawaiian.”

In comparison, 52% of NSD students are White, 23% are Asian, 13% are Hispanic/Latino, 9% are two or more races, 2% are Black/African American, 0.2% are American Indian/Alaskan Native and 0.1% are Pacific Islander, based on 2020-21 data.

Reid said that she believes NSD and FCPS are not as different as they may seem.

“I think the communities are very similar,” she said in an interview with the Weekly in May. “Both communities have very high expectations of families. The schools have excellent reputations in Fairfax County, just as Northshore schools do. I think that there's strong community support in both communities.”

Reid began her role as superintendent of Northshore in 2016. Previously, she worked as the superintendent of the South Kitsap School District, and held several positions in the Port Angeles School District. She received her doctorate degree in Educational Leadership from the University of Washington.

In 2021, Reid was named the National Superintendent of the Year by AASA, The School Superintendents Association.

“One of the things I'm most proud of is our work towards becoming a more just school district,” she said. “I think our racial educational justice work really has supported each and every one of our students, our staff, the families they return home to, and our community.”

The Fairfax NAACP statement notes racial disparities in NSD student achievement visible in publicly available data on Washington State Report Card.

The statement points out that in fall 2021, 43.9% of Black/African American NSD students and 42.3% of Hispanic/Latino students passed their English Language Arts (ELA) exams, compared to 78.2% of Asian students and 65.5% of White students. In math, only 25.4% of Black/African American students and 22.6% of Hispanic/Latino students passed, compared to 74% of Asian students and 49% of White students.

“Based on the publicly available data, we see no evidence of closing achievement gaps in Northshore despite the very small populations involved,” the statement reads.

Several groups, including the Fairfax Republican Party, criticized Northshore’s handling of the pandemic, noting that it was one of the first districts in the country to close and one of the last to reopen.

Reid, however, states that she is proud of the district’s pandemic response.

“We made sure we took care of one another during our really darkest hours,” she said. “We made sure our families were fed and had technology and internet access. Even though there were inequities that were eliminated, we worked through them as a community and came together to problem-solve. And I’ll be forever grateful for that.”

Michael Tolley has been named Interim Superintendent for NSD for the 2022-23 school year. His contract begins July 1, the district said in a statement.

This fall, the district will begin its search for the next long-term superintendent.