At the Sep. 22 school board meeting, FCPS Superintendent Dr. Jack Dale announced he will not seek to renew his contract when it expires in July 2013. He cited wanting to spend more time with his family and pursuing interests such as reading, golfing and flying as his reasons for retiring.

Dale has served as FCPS superintendent since 2004, a job which involves overseeing 194 schools, over 177,000 students and 22,779 staff members.”I have served an extraordinary 42 years in public education, and I am honored to have had the opportunity to lead this world-class school system,” said Dale. Some of his biggest achievements as superintendent include leading FCPS through a historic budget crisis and closing the student achievement gap.

“Jack Dale’s leadership will be sorely missed,” said School Board Chair Janie Strauss.

According to Langley principal Matt Ragone, Dale’s disciplinary initiatives and changes to the grading scale have had a large effect on Langley. “Old campaigns [such as the SLEEP Initiative] will also be resurrected after Dale leaves, because we will be electing a new school board soon,” said Mr. Ragone.

Additional reporting by Ruby Brown and Amanda Baird