Three Businesses Named to Honor Roll for Fairfax Schools Support

The Fairfax County School Board nominated three Northern Virginia businesses to the Virginia School Boards Association (VSBA) Business Honor Roll for their support of public education in the region.

The three businesses — Branch Banking and Trust Co. (BB&T), Bechtel Global Corp., and Cox Communications — were recognized at a recent Fairfax County School Board meeting.

The VSBA Business Honor Roll is announced each spring. Its mission is to give school districts throughout the commonwealth an outlet with which to recognize the businesses it has leaned on in trying to provide the highest quality education possible for local students.

For Fairfax County, these businesses could be leaned on even more heavily in the coming years, as FCPS faces a modest budget cut for the coming school year followed by a massive budget cut anticipated to clear $100 million for the 2016-17 academic year.

This year’s honorees have been integral parts of FCPS for far longer than just the last school year.

BB&T was honored for its support of several Fairfax County public schools through many years of service. That support was inspired by the company’s Lighthouse Projects initiative, which encourages the BB&T family to share support for the community in the form of financial donations and/or service hours.

The company purchased library books for multiple schools and helped develop a landscaping beautification project at Cedar Lane School, a courtyard at Greenbriar West Elementary School and a woodland outdoor classroom with vegetable garden beds at Dogwood Elementary School.

Bechtel Global Corporation, last year’s FCPS Business Partner of the Year, was recognized for its rsupport of Lake Anne Elementary School.

The company funded a book-fairy program, enabling students lacking the necessary funds to purchase a book at the school’s annual book fair. It also took part in a program that funds summer camp experiences for 80 local children who otherwise could not afford it.

Betchel also helped fund a holiday assistance program that supported 65 Lake Anne families and a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education program. It supported for Read Across America Day, and made/gathered donations of school supplies, clothing, snacks, lunches, and field trips for local students.

Cox Communications was recognized for its multi-year support of FCPS television programming through franchise fees and for producing programming. In the early part of the 21st century, Cox began airing FCPS “smart” public service announcements on its cable channels, with an estimated value of $1 million per year of free air time.

Since 2013, Cox has partnered with Fairfax County schools to promote Connect2Compete, a program that provides high-speed Internet access to qualifying low income families. To date, more than 650 families in the county have signed up for the program.