FCPS Superintendent Marci Catlett announces retirement for June 2027

Fredericksburg City Public Schools Superintendent Marci Catlett announced Monday that she will retire effective June 30, 2027, after 45 years with the city school system.

Announcement at Monday’s school board meeting

According to the Fredericksburg Free Press, Catlett read a retirement statement aloud at Monday’s school board meeting before the board entered a closed session that included discussion of the superintendent’s contract. The Free Lance-Star likewise reported that she will step down at the end of the current school year after a long tenure with city schools.

In her statement, Catlett said she has spent more than half of her life educating students as a member of the city schools family and called the division one of the great loves of her life, alongside family and friends.

Career and tenure

Catlett is a Fredericksburg native and a product of city schools. She began her career in the division as a sixth-grade teacher in the 1980s and has served as superintendent since being promoted from deputy superintendent in 2019. Reporting notes she was the first Black superintendent in the history of Fredericksburg City Public Schools.

During her time as superintendent, the division opened two new schools, was an early adopter of cellphone-free learning, and worked to strengthen school and community relationships, according to the Free Press. This spring she was named the Virginia Association of School Superintendents’ Region III Superintendent of the Year.

What comes next

School board chair Katie Pomeroy thanked Catlett for decades of service and said the board will make sure there is a time and place to properly recognize her career. In a Tuesday interview cited by the Free Press, Pomeroy said the board will likely discuss next steps for seeking new division leadership at its December meeting.

Sources: Fredericksburg Free Press: FCPS Superintendent Catlett announces retirement; The Free Lance-Star: Fredericksburg superintendent to retire after long tenure.