The Falls Church City Public Schools’ new superintendent as of July 1, Terry J. Dade commands an office on the fourth floor of a building near the heart of Falls Church that has big windows overlooking one of the newly-completed large scale mixed use development projects, the accumulation of which in the last two dozen years have generated the revenues that have enabled the The Little City to pay for a brand new state of the art high school, provide competitive pay for school employees and generally enhance what is universally recognized as one of the finest school systems in America.

Mr. Dade fills, as he readily acknowledged in his exclusive interview with the News-Press last week, big shoes. His immediate predecessor, Dr. Peter Noonan, made a bigger than life impact on Falls Church in his eight years here; more than just its schools, the entire community. Noonan continues to live in the Little City with a daughter still in the school system. He’s not done with his career in public life, he confided in another News-Press interview, but he’s handed off his no mean catalogue of school system achievements to Dade.

Dade brings an impressive resume of accomplishments in the education field to his new job. He is friendly, affable and engaging, has no overblown ego and while understandably somewhat intimidated by the work of his predecessor, stands eager and enthusiastic about how he hopes he will be able to handle the reins of his new assignment here.

It promises to be a challenging year, with classes beginning throughout the system in just over a month already. That’s because, if nothing else, the level of federal job layoffs and contract cancellations will be hitting everyone in this region with major shortages in revenues, businesses and governments alike. Unemployment numbers are already up, and restaurants are reporting major drops in their levels of business.

All that, plus an expected increase in enrollment and the need to follow through on  collective bargaining agreements with teachers and staff will be tasking Dade and his School Board with some, as they say, “interesting” responsibilities.

But Mr. Dade has an accumulated record of experience that suggests he is more than fit for the job. He brings more than 25 years of educational leadership, much of it connected to Northern Virginia, where he grew up and went to Herndon High School, being part of its storied football history.

He served as an Assistant Superintendent for Region 3 of the Fairfax County Public Schools from 2015-2019 where he significantly reduced the number of schools under accreditation warnings or FOCUS accreditation evaluation from 12 to 1.

Before that, he was principal at the Graham Road Elementary School near Falls Church, where he led the school to achieve the highest Farm-to-Reading and Math SOL pass rates in the entire Fairfax County Public Schools system. Under his leadership, teacher retention improved dramatically, rising from 65 percent to 89 percent.

He comes now from the Cornwall Central School District in New York, overseeing five schools and roughly 3,200 students, a size comparable to Falls Dade brings a strong emphasis on academic excellence, innovation and inclusion and collaborative community engagement. He is also known for fostering student-centered cultures, cultivating vision-driven teams and implementing instructional innovation that ramps up both achievement and equity.

He said, “I am honored to join this exceptional learning community…I look forward to building upon FCCPS’ outstanding legacy while working collaboratively with students, families, educators and community members to shape an even brighter future for our schools.”

He was the unanimous choice of the Falls Church School Board. Board chair Tate Gould said, “We are thrilled to welcome Terry Dade. His exceptional leadership experience makes him the ideal leader to guide our district forward.”

On the social media site Linkedin, the announcement of his new job elicited 166 comments of support and congratulations from mostly fellow educators.

Following graduating from Dogwood Elementary and then Herndon High in 1994, where he played football, he got his BA in Psychology and Master of Teaching in Elementary Education from the University of Virginia and an MA in School Administration from Trinity University and is currently completing his Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership at Manhattanville University, with an expected graduation in May 2025.

He and his family of five children have just recently found a home in Vienna, Virginia, and he is spending a lot of time since taking the job just three weeks ago meeting one-on-one with school principals and central office staff, City Council and School Board members, the chief of police, heads of PTA and Booster organizations and community leaders.

He said that Dr. Noonan “has been generous with his time” helping with the transition, and, what do you know, we’re only a few weeks away from the start of the new school year in mid-August.