Three years after relocating from a calm Seattle suburb to lead the Fairfax County school district in Virginia, near the nation’s capital, Michelle Reid now earns more than the U.S. president and receives a car allowance. She is currently seeking a taxpayer-funded personal bodyguard.
In a new job listing No. 25212BR on BrassRing, an online recruitment site, the Fairfax County public schools superintendent is looking to hire an “Executive Protection Agent” for the school district’s main headquarters on Gatehouse Road in Falls Church, Virginia. Applicants have until August 5 to apply.
The salary for this position ranges from $84,552 to $143,880, as per the FCPS pay scale for a “Unified Scale-Schedule B/Grade 006” position, which significantly exceeds the starting salary of around $58,000 for a new teacher in the district.
According to the job description, “The Executive Protection Agent is responsible for ensuring the personal safety, security, and operational continuity of the division superintendent across school campuses, public events, official travel, and private residences.”
Fairfax County Public Schools Division Superintendent Michelle Reid. (Fairfax County Public Schools)
This hiring takes place amid increased scrutiny of public school officials, such as Reid, in the post-COVID-19 landscape concerning issues like curriculum, contracts, budgets, and “diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies. In 2021, the Biden administration faced criticism for labeling concerned parents at school board meetings as potential “domestic terrorists,” though subsequent email records have indicated that these claims were exaggerated and politicized.
Since July 1, 2022, Reid has faced criticism for allegedly concealing scandals related to football recruiting misconduct, withholding National Merit awards from students, and most recently, not complying with Department of Education directives concerning Title IX protections for female students in sports and schools. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has recently declared that Fairfax County Public Schools and four other northern Virginia school districts, including Loudoun County Public Schools, violated Title IX by discriminating against students based on sex.
Last November, the all-Democratic school board voted unanimously to renew Reid’s four-year contract and increased her annual salary to $424,146 from $380,000, more than the salary of New York City’s education chancellor. Board members also gave her a $12,000 annual car allowance. In contrast, the U.S. president earns $400,000 annually.
Over her tenure, Reid has been notoriously suspect of leaks, which occurred this week with frustrated school district personnel anonymously raising the alarm bell over the new bodyguard position. The job description notes three times that applicants must demonstrate “discretion,” noting in one mention that applicants “must demonstrate a high level of discretion and maintain strict confidentiality in all aspects of the role.”
A third grade teacher conducts a lesson in a classroom at a Fairfax County public school in Virginia. (@fairfaxcountypublicschools/Instagram)
The hiring of a personal bodyguard for a school superintendent is unusual, say experts. The 12th-largest school district in the U.S., Fairfax County Public Schools includes 180,714 students in 223 schools, according to the U.S. Education Department’s National Center for Education Services.
Meanwhile, the third-largest school district in the country, Chicago Public Schools, is about double the size as Fairfax County Public Schools, serving 322,809 students in 643 schools, according to the latest data, and its superintendent, also called its chief executive officer, doesn’t have a personal bodyguard.
School district spokeswoman Mary Ann Ferguson said, “Chicago Public Schools does not employ a personal bodyguard position for our superintendent/CEO.”
Talk of the new job have angered local parents and school district staffers.
“Queen Reid demands all the luxuries suitable to her station. It’s all ‘equity for thee, but not for me,’” said Stephanie Lundquist-Arora, a local mother who has challenged Reid on numerous district policies.
“They are basically asking for a personal bodyguard for the superintendent,” and that “is not a normal or customary position.” – Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services
Unlike a teacher, the new bodyguard job doesn’t require a bachelor’s degree, but rather any “combination of education and experience equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, security management, or a related field.”
In the ad, Reid stipulates the job demands “exceptional flexibility,” with an “unpredictable” schedule, “driven by the superintendent’s daily activities and security needs.”
The ad notes: “Must be available for irregular hours, including early mornings, evenings, weekends, holidays, travel, and extended on-call duty.”
The job requires “knowledge of protective intelligence, behavioral analysis, and threat mitigation strategies,” not to mention “skill in surveillance detection, open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools, and incident reporting.”
Reid has a few other requirements that frame the job as a clear bodyguard detail: “Ability to remain calm and make sound decisions under pressure, especially in sensitive or high-risk situations.”
Reid seeks an applicant with “experience in threat assessment and protective intelligence, a “focus on conducting investigations and executive protection” and “completion of executive protection training.”
Steven Brasley, media outreach specialist in the district’s Office of Communications, insisted nothing was out of the ordinary.
“Fairfax County Public Schools has long provided a security presence for the superintendent at public‑facing events, as part of the broader safety framework implemented by the Office of Safety and Security,” Brasley said.
The Office of Human Resources, led by William Solomon and Chief of Safety and Security Brian Lambert, recently “collaborated” on a “new Executive Protection Agent position description,” Brasley added.
Brasley said the role “formalizes responsibility for executive protection — including personal security for the superintendent during various activities — while also supporting a wider array of responsibilities within the Office of Safety and Security that support the entire school division.”
The school district’s official explanation didn’t include any reference to specific threats Reid faces.
Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, based in Cleveland, Ohio, said, “They are basically asking for a personal bodyguard for the superintendent,” and that “is not a normal or customary position.”
He noted, “The job description is one of the shortest I have ever seen for any school security department job,” adding the job boils down to a “one-liner,” looking for “executive protection” at work, public events, travel and “private residences.”
Trump said, “It does not reference other duties which one would expect if, indeed, the job extends to other tasks. There is not even the typical ‘and other duties as assigned’ on the posted job description, which could encompass other tasks beyond the executive protection of the superintendent.”
Brasley said the new job “is designed to bolster FCPS’s work,” “identifying, assessing and mitigating risks of targeted violence against students, staff and schools.”
There is no mention of “students, staff and schools” in the job description.
Brasley said that protection of the superintendent is “a component” of the role,” but the role “participates in larger security and investigative initiatives across the district, such as the ongoing implementation of a new emergency response system and weapons screening.”
There is also no mention of a “new emergency response system or weapons screening” in the job posting.
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