Author: Martha Kennedy

Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a contributor for IW Features, The Federalist and the Washington Examiner, a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author and the Fairfax chapter leader of the Independent Women’s Network. Her articles have also appeared in National Review, Fox News Digital, The Daily Signal and Townhall. Originally appeared on The Washington Times.

Fairfax County Public Schools has spent more than $12 million in legal fees so far this academic year.

As part of this jaw-dropping bill, the district has paid attorneys up to $1,850 per hour to “independently investigate” multiple scandals plaguing it.

This year, for example, 13 brave girls at Fairfax High School stepped forward to alert school administrators that Israel Flores Ortiz — an adult illegal immigrant from El Salvador who was enrolled as a junior at the school — sexually assaulted them in the hallways during school hours.

In April, Mr. Ortiz was sentenced to 360 days in jail for multiple counts of assault and battery. After his arrest, Fairfax County Public Schools leaders hired law firm McGuireWoods to conduct a comprehensive review of this matter.

In a statement Monday that came as no surprise, Superintendent Michelle Reid, who earns $445,353 this year, announced, “The external investigation confirmed that our administration acted promptly and appropriately to stop this behavior.”

Of course it did.

Indeed, Fairfax High School’s serial groping case is not the first time a Fairfax-subsidized “independent” investigator has found no wrongdoing by school or district administrators.

In fact, a finding against the very people paying the bills would be the more surprising outcome.

It is like a candy company funding a study on the relationship between sugar consumption and Type 2 diabetes. The public is assured that the process is objective, the experts are independent and the conclusions are evidence-based. Then the study finds little cause for concern. Nothing to see here.

This pattern extends well beyond Fairfax High School. When school officials delayed notifying students at Thomas Jefferson High School of their National Merit Scholarship “Commended” status in 2023, Fairfax County Public Schools hired a law firm to investigate.

When Hayfield High School faced allegations of football recruiting in 2024, district leaders brought in outside counsel. When a teacher raised concerns regarding a student abortion scandal at Centreville High School, the district once more turned to attorneys.

The most serious problem is that these firms are often presented as neutral fact-finders when they are anything but. At the same time King & Spalding was conducting an “independent” investigation for Fairfax County Public Schools, the firm was also representing the district in a related whistleblower lawsuit — a clear conflict of interest that raises serious questions about the credibility and impartiality of its findings.

Monique Miles, the whistleblower’s attorney, said, “King & Spalding can’t be both neutral fact-finder and defense. There is an inherent conflict of interest in King & Spalding representing FCPS as counsel in both matters.”

Not surprisingly, all these “external” investigations concluded that Fairfax leaders acted appropriately. Yet the public record suggests a much more complicated reality.

In the Fairfax High School case, for example, records obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request indicate that school administrators failed to make Title IX referrals after multiple students reported being sexually assaulted in a school hallway.

At the end of the day, Fairfax County residents deserve greater transparency and accountability from their school system. Instead of spending taxpayer dollars on expensive investigations that appear designed to validate predetermined conclusions, district leaders should focus on addressing misconduct and restoring public trust.

Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a contributor for IW Features, The Federalist and the Washington Examiner, a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author and the Fairfax chapter leader of the Independent Women’s Network. Her articles have also appeared in National Review, Fox News Digital, The Daily Signal and Townhall. Originally appeared on EdNews Virginia.

Fairfax County’s school board members are scheduled to vote today on the fiscal year 2027 $4.1 billion budget. Although there will be a $197 million increase in funds from last year, district leaders are still pointing to what they describe as a $28 million “budget gap,” referring to the county’s Board of Supervisors not transferring FCPS’s full requested amount. 

Rather than addressing administrative bloat, district leadership is shifting resources away from classrooms to close the so-called “budget gap.” A Freedom of Information Act request revealed that FCPS spent $272 million on salaries for 2,346 non-school-based administrators in fiscal year 2026.  Meanwhile, the district plans to reduce school reserve staffing by $8.8 million, eliminating 70 positions, which raises serious concerns. As class sizes increase in Fall 2026, some grades may require additional teachers, but reducing reserve staffing will limit flexibility to respond to enrollment shifts and will ultimately contribute to larger class sizes and reduced instructional support.

Increasing administrative spending while simultaneously cutting school-level resources and increasing class sizes raises serious concerns about fiscal priorities. And a 36% increase in the superintendent’s salary since 2019, as shown in the table below, has not coincided with improved student outcomes. In fact, since 2019, Fairfax County Public Schools’ average SAT score has declined by 35 points.  

*Estimated 4% increase

While the table shows a 55% rise in per-pupil spending since 2019, that growth has not been matched by measurable improvements in student academic outcomes. Overall, spending trends are increasingly out of step with performance outcomes. 

As the school board considers another multi-billion-dollar budget today, the central issue is not whether FCPS is receiving more funding, but whether those resources are being deployed in a way that directly supports classrooms and student achievement. Without an alignment between spending decisions and measurable academic outcomes, continued budget growth is becoming an exercise in scale rather than effectiveness—where more money is spent, but not in ways that improve results for students. 

The district urgently needs a comprehensive, independent, external audit of its budget.

Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a contributor for IW Features, The Federalist and the Washington Examiner, a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author and the Fairfax chapter leader of the Independent Women’s Network. Her articles have also appeared in National Review, Fox News Digital, The Daily Signal and Townhall. Originally appeared on EdNews Virginia.

On March 23, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Superintendent Michelle Reid announced that she is enlisting the services of yet another law firm, McGuireWoods, to “investigate” the district’s latest scandal — allegations that an 18-year-old illegal immigrant fondled the genitals of several female students in Fairfax High School. The district’s legal bills are mounting.

In her announcement, Reid said she retained “an independent outside law firm to conduct a comprehensive review of this matter.” The district’s contract with McGuireWoods, however — authorizing attorneys’ fees of up to $1,850 per hour — suggests a role less “independent” than described.

“McGuireWoods was retained by Client on March 19, 2026, to conduct a confidential, attorney-client privileged investigation concerning allegations of sexual harassment and/or assault of students at Fairfax High School,” the contract states. “The investigation has been undertaken for the purpose of providing legal advice to Client.”

READ THE CONTRACT (OBTAINED THROUGH FOIA):

Newly released figures reveal that even before FCPS’s contract for McGuireWoods to provide legal advice, not “conduct an independent investigation,” on the matter of alleged sexual assault in Fairfax High School took effect, February 2026 became the district’s costliest legal month on record at $3.8 million — driving total legal spending for fiscal year 2026 to more than $12 million.

One firm in particular, King & Spalding, accounted for $3.1 million of the district’s legal expenses in February alone, and $7.5 million so far this fiscal year. The district’s division counsel, John Foster, signed a contract with the firm agreeing to pay attorneys up to $1,850 per hour to investigate allegations related to an abortions-related scandal at Centreville High School.

Before that “independent” investigation was completed, the district retained the same firm to represent it in a lawsuit filed by a whistleblower.

Reid’s contract to run Virginia’s largest school district began on the first day of fiscal year 2023. Since then, the district’s legal expenses have risen substantially — totaling roughly 50% more from fiscal years 2023 through 2025 than during the previous three years under her predecessor. In a district marred with scandal, and fighting the federal government for boys’ “rights” to use girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms at school, fiscal year 2026 is on track to set a new record for the highest legal expenses in the district’s history.

At a time when Fairfax County Public Schools is confronting repeated controversies, its reliance on costly outside legal firms has pushed spending to unprecedented levels. With fiscal year 2026 on pace to set a new record, taxpayers are left to weigh whether these escalating legal bills reflect necessary accountability — or a pattern of reactive governance, poor leadership, and efforts to obscure internal failures.