User:KevinPuj/Sandbox

Retirement of Elizabeth V. Lodal

From 2000-2006, Elizabeth V. Lodal served as the principal of Thomas Jefferson. In the spring of 2006, Lodal announced her retirement after 40 years as a public school educator and principal of four Fairfax County secondary schools. This occurred after a year in which Lodal publicly stated the percent of Asian students out of students involved with cheating and theft that had recently occurred at TJ. After a negative response from the Asian community, Principal Lodal wrote a letter in the Parent, Teacher and Student Association Newsletter clarifying her remarks. In an interview, she stated that her retirement had nothing to do with her remark regarding Asians. During her tenure, Lodal advocated an increase in the diversity of the school; she pushed for new admissions procedures designed to increase acceptance of minority students, which the school board passed in 2004. Upon her retirement, Lodal received numerous accolades for her career and successful tenure at TJ, including praise from the Governor of Virginia, the Fairfax County School Board (which named a second facility in the school system for her), the TJ PTSA, and local newspaper editorials. She was appointed by Governor Kaine to be a delegate from Virginia on The Education Commission of the States. Dr. Evan M. Glazer, former director of Roanoke Valley Governor's School for Science and Technology, was chosen as her replacement.