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Melanie Meren is an education policy professional, parent, and community advocate who believes that strong schools make a strong community.

Melanie is the current Hunter Mill Representative on the Fairfax County School Board, since being elected in 2019.

Melanie’s Plan for Fairfax:

• Learning: Educate all children for their own personal success that cultivates their paths beyond school and into adulthood.
• Employment: Fortify our teaching force through appropriate compensation, vital instructional resources and support, and reasonable expectations on teachers’ time.
• Safety: Offer safe, human-centered spaces and facilities that inspire learning and create connections among school, community, and the natural environment.

Melanie’s results for Hunter Mill – and Fairfax County – since 2020

Learning:

• Outdoor learning spaces for all students: Obtained $6 Million in state construction funds to place an outdoor learning space in every school! 
• Improving literacy instruction for all students: Championed the bi-partisan Virginia Literacy Act of 2022; approved $$$ for adoption of science of reading and new language arts resources. 
• Examining access and quality of instruction and special education: Authorized audits of academic programs and of special education services to analyze where to best invest in student success. 
• Funding staff positions to support technology use in learning: Obtained funding for one full-time School Based Technology Specialist (SBTS) per elementary school, where previously it was a part-time position. 
• Bringing recess to all middle schools. Revised the recess policy.

Employment:

• Raising pay for educators, instructional assistants, substitute teachers, and bus drivers.
• Hiring the 2021 National Superintendent of the Year, Dr. Michelle Reid, to lead Fairfax Public Schools in 2022. 
• Hiring public health expertise: Led effort to direct the Superintendent to hire an expert in public health, in response to on-going COVID era needs. 
• Raising pay for educators, instructional assistants, substitute teachers, and bus drivers; led effort to achieve pay parity for Elementary school principals with their Middle & high school colleagues  

Safety:

• Improving safe routes to schools: Flint Hill, McNair Upper, and Wolftrap Elementary Schools all received traffic safety upgrades. 
• Securing school building entrances: Led the effort to fund entry-way security vestibules at all eligible schools. 
• Codifying students’ safety and well-being: Crafted and approved policies, including about restraint & seclusion; wellness; nondiscrimination of students identifying as LGBTQIA+; and staff process for reporting suspected child abuse.

Melanie is uniquely qualified to continue serving as your School Board member.

As a parent of two children in Fairfax County Public Schools and a resident of Fairfax County since 2005, Melanie experiences the opportunities, challenges, and realities of raising a family here.

As a community leader, she has advocated for responsible public school funding since 2015.

Her career in education public policy and programming means she deeply understands our public education system.