The Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) School Board voted 9-3 to confirm Dr. Michelle Reid as the new superintendent. Her term will begin on July 1, 2022 and end on June 30, 2026. 

Current superintendent Scott Brabrand stated that he would step down from his position at the end of this school year back in July 2021 in alignment with his contract. Since then, the search for his replacement dwindled down to two finalists, Dr. Michelle Reid and Dr. Cheryl Logan. Logan pulled out of the running the same day the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) voiced their opinions about the two candidates, including concerns that Reid did not have experience in a school district as large or diverse as FCPS. 

Reid was previously superintendent of Northshore School District, a small suburban county in Seattle. She received the School Superintendents Association (AASA) 2020-2021 National Superintendent of the Year award, in which candidates are evaluated based on their leadership for learning, communication, professionalism, and community involvement. In comparison to FCPS, Northshore School District has around 22,000 kids while FCPS has about 189,000. Additionally, FCPS (27.1% Hispanic, 19.8% Asian, and 10% Black,) is significantly more diverse than Northshore (12.5% hispanic, 16.8% Asian, 1.9% black.) These differences have made the Fairfax County NAACP, the Pride Liberation Project (a student-led LGBTQ advocacy group), and others in the FCPS community question whether Reid is capable of filling Brabrand’s shoes.

Protests about the appointment of the new superintendent have arisen in middle and high schools across the county as a result of the lack of student and community representation in the selection process of the new superintendent. 

“I have utmost confidence that once this community knows Dr. Reid for the person we know her,” FCPS school board member Rachina Sizemore Heizer. “They will also love her. I hope that our FCPS community will come together to welcome Dr. Reid.”