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Ann Monday, Superintendent, City of Fairfax Schools

COLUMN = EDUCATION

Educational leader and City of Fairfax resident Ann Monday became superintendent of the City of Fairfax Schools on July 1, 2007. She retired on June 30 as the assistant superintendent of instructional services for Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), a district she has worked in since 1973 when she became a teacher at Kilmer Intermediate School in Vienna.

She then served as chairperson of the English department at Chantilly High School from 1976-1980, when she became an administrative aide at Marshall High and subsequently a sub-school principal at Lake Braddock High School.

In 1984 she was appointed the assistant principal at Fairfax High until 1987, when she became associate principal at Robinson Secondary School. After a stint as the principal at Longfellow Middle School from 1990-1992, she became the principal at Robinson, where she was responsible for managing more than 4,000
students and 300 staff members.

In 2003, Monday was tapped to become Cluster VI superintendent, and was responsible for 24 elementary and secondary schools.

The following year, she took on a division-wide leadership position as the FCPS assistant superintendent of instruction, responsible for all instructional programs from pre-K through adult education.

FOR MORE INFORMATION visit the City of Fairfax Schools website, www.cityoffairfaxschools.org. Or contact Superintendent Ann Monday by email, amonday@fairfaxva.gov.

Persist and persevere, and you will find most things that are attainable, possible.”

– Lord Chesterfield

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

– Thomas Edison

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which obstacles vanish.”

– John Quincy Adams

Nobody talks about entrepreneurship as survival, but that’s exactly what nurtures creative thinking.”

– Anita Roddick, founder, The Body Shop

You’ve got to be willing to crash and burn. If you’re afraid of failing, you won’t get very far.”

– Steve Jobs

Never cut what you can untie.”

– Joseph Joubert

The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something.”

– Nolan Bushnell, founder, Chuck E. Cheese's

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.”

– Thomas Carlyle

The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. The greatest failure is to not try.”

– Debbi Fields, Mrs. Fields Cookies

An entrepreneur tends to bite off a little more than he can chew hoping he’ll quickly learn how to chew it.“


– Roy Ash, co-founder of Litton Industries

In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

– Albert Einstein

When a dog runs at you, whistle for him.”

– Henry David Thoreau

The best hobbies are the ones that take us furthest from our primary occupation.”

– Dr. Evelyn Vogel, Dexter

Don’t wait for someone else to lead you to your right life; that privilege—and responsibility—is yours alone.”

– Martha Beck

If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise.”

– Robert Fritz

The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Find somebody to be successful for. Raise their hopes. Think of their needs.”

– Barack Obama

The only way to compel men to speak good of us is to do it.”

– Voltaire

The music is all around us. All you have to do is listen.”

– August Rush

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”

– Dalai Lama

Are you willing to help other people succeed even when it’s not a requirement of your job to be of assistance?”

– Steven Schussler

Ripeness is all.”

– William Shakespeare

4oz tequila + 1oz TripleSec + 2oz lime juice + 1oz simple syrup (sugar=water), 1 cup crushed ice. Shake + dance around the kitchen.

– Avenida Margarita

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing.”

– Maya Angelou

Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better.”

– Edgar W. Howe

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.”

– Robert Louis Stevenson

You often meet your fate on the road you take to avoid it.”

– Goldie Hawn

Once you find something you love to do, be the best at doing it.”

– Debbi Fields, Mrs. Fields Cookies

There are children playing in the street who could solve some of my top problems in physics, because they have modes of sensory perception that I lost long ago.”

– J. Robert Oppenheimer

I can’t go back to yesterday—because I was a different person then.”

– Lewis Carroll

If you want to be busy, keep trying to be perfect. If you want to be happy, focus on making a difference.”

– Lisa Earle McLeod

A person who learns to juggle six balls will be more skilled than the person who never tries to juggle more than three.”

– Marilyn vos Savant

Things don’t change. You change your way of looking, that’s all.”

– Carlos Castaneda

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

– Leonardo da Vinci

Part of your destiny is to live in the zone of maximum satisfaction.”

– Martha Beck

A man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out.”

– Chinese Proverb

The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled.”

– Andrew Carnegie

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”

– Leo Jozef Suenens

Remember that it’s okay to ask for help when you’re stumped, because sometimes you really can’t be expected to handle everything alone.”

– Martha Beck

Passion makes perfect.”

– Eugene Biro

The quality of your life is directly related to the amount of uncertainty you can comfortably live with.”

– Tony Robbins

I’m not afraid of storms,
for I’m learning to sail my ship.”

– Louisa May Alcott

If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

– John Quincy Adams

I always maintained that the greatest obstacle in life isn’t danger, it’s boredom. The battle against it is responsible for most of the events in the world — good or ill.”

– Dr. Evelyn Vogel, Dexter

Pretend that every single person you meet has a sign around his or her neck that says, ‘Make Me Feel Important.’ Not only will you succeed in sales, you will succeed in life.”

– Mary Kay Ash

No longer talk at all about the kind of man a good man ought to be, but be such.”

– Marcus Aurelius Antoninus

I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than any other ability under the sun.”

– John D. Rockefeller

But all the while I was alone, the past was close behind, I seen a lot of women, but she never escaped my mind, and I just grew, tangled up in blue.”

– Bob Dylan

Always look at what you have left. Never look at what you have lost.”

– Robert H. Schuller

The good ideas are all hammered out in agony by individuals, not spewed out by groups.”

– Charles Brower, Advertising Hall of Fame