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Virginia’s Largest District Currently Favors ‘Equity’ Over Merit

Ms. Lundquist-Arora is a Fairfax parent and leads the county’s Independent Women’s Network chapter.


Fairfax County resident Stephanie Lundquist-Arora sent the following open letter to Superintendent Michelle Reid on January 24, 2025:

Dr. Reid,

On January 21, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” The associated guidance that the U.S. Attorney General and Secretary of Education are tasked to issue within 120 days of the order will require educational agencies receiving federal funding, including Fairfax County Public Schools, to align their policies to uphold merit-based standards and eliminate “illegal DEI and DEIA policies.”

As a concerned parent and citizen, I have a few questions about how you intend to align our school district’s policies with this executive order.

  • Do you intend to eliminate DEI-focused administrative positions, departments, and policies in the district’s headquarters at Gatehouse and in the schools themselves? In fiscal 2025, for example, the budgetary allocation for the Office of Experience and Engagement and the Office of the Chief Equity Officer, both heavily engaged in DEI initiatives, totaled $13.8 million.
  • Meanwhile, there is also an “Equity Lead” staff officer and multiple “Student Equity Ambassador Leaders (SEALS)” in each school. Will those programs and related positions also be eliminated?
  • The district’s strategic plan centralizes and prioritizes “equity” and “equal outcomes.” In order to comply with the executive order, does district leadership have plans to redraft a strategic plan that prioritizes merit?
  • In order to prioritize merit rather than equity, will the district return to the merit-based admissions system for our magnet school, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology?
  • Will the district change its policy on equity grading which was intended to reduce student gaps and eliminate class rank?
  • Will the district revise its code of conduct to remove clauses specifying the consideration of students’ demographics in the consideration of offenses?
  • Will district leadership reconsider its equity-based restorative justice system and return to traditional punitive measures to reduce student violence and misbehaviors in schools?

Thanks for your time and consideration. I look forward to working with the district leadership to make sure that our local public schools are in line with national directives. Together, all things are possible.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Lundquist-Arora

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Hayfield football scandal exposes incompetence of superintendent

Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author, and the Fairfax chapter leader of the Independent Women’s Network. This piece originally appeared in The Washington Times.


The Hayfield Secondary School football recruiting scandal has shown us that there is absolutely no oversight of Michelle Reid, superintendent of the Fairfax County School Board in Virginia, from our elected school board members, the county’s Board of Supervisors or the internal auditor general.

It has also highlighted that Ms. Reid is either incompetent or ill-intended. Addressing Hayfield’s mass recruiting violation was a test of Ms. Reid’s leadership, and she failed.

What began as a local injustice regarding fairness in high school sports has echoed in warning nationwide. The scandal is not just about school athletics; it’s about poor district leadership.

After school administrators hired coach Darryl Overton this past January, 31 students transferred to Hayfield Secondary School in time for football season. Many of them were Mr. Overton’s former players from across county lines. Hayfield students, parents and staff posed questions about the many student-athlete transfers to their school. Such a significant number of talented football players transferring to one public school within months of one another is undoubtedly suspicious.

Fairfax County residents looked to the district’s senior leaders to investigate the matter. Ms. Reid announced that the district would conduct an internal investigation in early May.

Two months later, when Ms. Reid’s internal “confidential investigation” regarding residency checks was still ongoing and summer training had already begun, other high school football coaches drafted a letter to raise their concerns about fairness in Hayfield’s recruiting process.

At the end of August, mere days before the season opener against West Springfield High School, Ms. Reid announced that her investigation had cleared Mr. Overton and school district administrators of wrongdoing.

One school board member, Mateo Dunne, didn’t buy it.

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