Success at SkillsUSA Competition
Students in the SkillsUSA District 5 Chantilly Academy, A Governor’s STEM Academy, were honored at the 49th Annual SkillsUSA State Leadership and Skill Conference held in Roanoke on April 20 and 21.

Turbo Tutoring Scholarship
Turbo Tutoring, the local SAT accelerated prep company, awarded its first scholarship (for $500) to Kelly Duncan.
Karen Garza Hired as Superintendent of Fairfax County Public Schools
FCPS Board lauds Garza’s “openness” and “willingness to engage” community.
The Fairfax County School Board unanimously approved educator Karen Garza of Texas to be the next superintendent of the 181,000 student district at its April 18 school board meeting.

Editorial: Value-added Evaluation?
TJ admissions illustrate growing gap between “haves” and “have-nots.”
More than 181,000 students attend Fairfax County Public Schools. So why do the 480 students who were accepted for next year’s freshman class at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology seem so important? Fairfax County Public Schools have a single elite magnet school, Thomas Jefferson, and TJ is frequently referred to as the top high school in the country. Dramatic disparity in the makeup of admissions at TJ is an indicator of disparity in early identification of students as gifted and talented, of access to advanced classes and enrichment, and in the basic education that the Fairfax County Public school system offers to all of its students.
Ambassador Scholarship Recipient
University of Mary Washington student Shirley Martey of Centreville, is the recipient of the 2013 Ambassador Summer Scholarship from the Taiwan-U.S. Sister Relations Alliance (TUSA). Martey, chosen to represent the Commonwealth of Virginia, is the first UMW student to be awarded the scholarship.
Chantilly Robotics Team 612 Honored
Chantilly Robotics Team 612 was presented with the 2013 Judges Award at the DC FIRST Robotics Competition, held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on March 29-30. Each year FIRST challenges students, working with adult mentors, to design a robot to play an original game, and to design and build it in exactly six weeks. This year at the DC FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Regional Competition, robots built by 59 teams faced off in a game called “Ultimate Ascent.”
School Notes CV 4/10/2013
Email announcements to centreview@connectionnewspapers.com. Deadline is Thursday at noon. Photos are welcome. Carolina Sosa, a sophomore at Westfield High School, was among 50 girls from 23 states and Puerto Rico to participate in the ANNpower Vital Voices Leadership program.
Mulch Sale Supports After-Grad Party
Mulch Sale Supports After-Grad Party The Centreville High School community rallied around its seniors and bought thousands and thousands of bags during the annual mulch sale March 15-16. The result: 13,500 bags of mulch sold and delivered in two days.
Centre View School Notes April 3
School notes for students from the Centre View area.

‘Hats Off to Being Bully-Free’
Colin Powell Elementary School held an Anti-Bullying Week, March 18-22.

National Recognition
Artwork by two students from Saint Timothy Catholic School, Josh Romero and Erin Costello, was selected along with 23 other drawings by the national office of the Missionary Childhood Association for its annual Christmas Artwork Contest.
Westfield High Holds International Night
Featuring a variety of performers representing countries throughout the globe, Westfield High will hold its annual, International Night program this Friday, April 5, at 7 p.m., in the school theater.

‘They’re Not Bad Kids; They’re Just Teenagers’
Westfield SRO talks about keeping students safe.
Authorities say children are safe in Fairfax County schools, but it requires continual vigilance to keep them that way. So the Sully District Police Station’s Citizens Advisory Committee recently hosted a community meeting on the topic.
The Facts about MathCounts
Open to sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders, MathCounts involves solving various types of complicated math problems.

Chantilly Takes State Forensics Championship
In a close competition, the Chantilly Forensics team won the Virginia AAA title on Saturday, March 23.