At Falls Church City Public Schools, we believe in the power of connection. Connection between educators and students. Between schools and families. Between a community and its future. And at the heart of it all is one of the most transformative tools we’ve ever created: The Morning Announcements.

This is the story of how a simple idea—born out of necessity and innovation—reshaped how a school division communicates and what it means to stay connected.

My name is John Wesley Brett, and for nearly 5 decades, my career has been a journey to find the most meaningful ways to communicate. I’ve served as the Communications Director for FCCPS for 19 years, but before that, I spent 15 years in radio journalism and another 15 years in television news. My time as a reporter and anchor in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Lexington, Kentucky, earned me Emmy and Associated Press awards for investigative reporting.

But despite the accolades, I felt a growing disconnect. Journalism had begun prioritizing sensationalism over substance—stories about conflict and calamity overshadowed opportunities to inform, inspire, or improve lives. I wanted to do more than tell stories; I wanted to make a difference. I never imagined that difference would take the form of an email newsletter.

The story of FCCPS’ Morning Announcements newsletter begins during a particularly challenging time in our school division’s history. The economic downturn brought on by the 2008 banking collapse and the subsequent Great Recession left school budgets across the country devastated, and FCCPS was no exception.  By 2009, FCCPS, like so many school divisions across the country, was forced to make drastic cuts to programs, staff, and other resources. Our Communications Department, once a small but mighty team of two-and-a-half employees, was reduced to just me.

Funding for a weekly full-page feature in the local newspaper—our primary communication channel at the time—was also gone. Traditional printed newsletters felt too slow, too expensive, and out of touch with the needs of a modern audience.  We needed a new way to reach our community. A way that was fast, efficient, and—most importantly—free. But how?

Inspiration came in an unexpected form: the White House. In 2009, President Barack Obama began using a daily email to share updates on his administration and policy initiatives directly with the public — an innovative approach to direct communication with the public. I thought the idea was both simple and groundbreaking—real-time communication that cut through the noise. Could FCCPS do the same?

During the summer of 2010, I began experimenting with a few different looks and formats for what an emailed newsletter could be. What if we replaced our outdated communication methods (flyers, brochures & newspaper features) with something entirely digital? What if we created a daily email that delivered everything our families needed to know that day in one concise but engaging format?

The concept was uncharted territory. The technical challenges cannot be overstated.  Email newsletters were still a novelty, and the technology of the time made them anything but user-friendly to produce. Without modern tools and platforms, Drag & Drop would be a few years off, and each edition would need to be manually coded in HTML. Every line of text, every link, and every image placement was painstakingly crafted by hand. Most of this technical work would fall to me, as I was also the Division’s webmaster. It would be a labor of love—and necessity.

I finally discussed the idea with my colleague in our Business in Education/Community Engagement office, Marybeth Connelly, who was intrigued but also a little skeptical. When I pitched the idea of a daily email newsletter, her immediate reaction was one of disbelief: “We’re going to try to do this every day!?”

It was an ambitious project, and while we had no way of knowing if it would catch on, we were determined to give it a shot.  Marybeth and I would split the creative load; she would contribute photos and stories, and I would work on gathering additional content, writing pieces, and crafting the code to bring it all together each night. Final adjustments would be made early the next morning, and the email would be scheduled for distribution by 6:00 a.m. each school day morning.

We knew the stakes were high. This new form of communication had to succeed because, quite frankly, we couldn’t afford for it to fail. The newsletter was free to produce and distribute—an absolute necessity given the tight budgets of the time—and it represented a leap into the cutting edge of digital communication and not a small amount of commitment. The collaboration needed to produce each edition was a testament to the innovative spirit emerging in communications at FCCPS.

On September 7, 2010, the first day of the new school year, The Morning Announcements was born. It was sent to 2,000 email addresses – every FCCPS family and all employees. The response was immediate, but not in the way we’d hoped. The concept was entirely new to many recipients, and skepticism about email communication—fueled by concerns about spam—ran deep, and within 24 hours, our subscriber list dropped to just 400 people.

Despite the disappointment, we kept at it. Day after day after day, we sent out the newsletter. And slowly, something remarkable happened: people started coming back.  By the end of the year, not only had we regained our original subscribers, but our reach had grown. What began as a necessity born from budget cuts became a vital tool for our community—a new way to stay informed, engaged, and connected. A consistent place to share stories, celebrate achievements, and provide transparency. 

At its core, The Morning Announcements had a singular purpose: to deliver the essential information families needed for their day, in a format that was clear, accessible, and timely. We wanted to streamline the essentials into one easy-to-read format that would arrive in their inboxes at a predictable time each morning. 

We designed it to be as intuitive as it was innovative. Each edition featured a compelling photo at the top—a moment from the life of our schools—and a daily calendar at the bottom. 

Every detail was deliberate.  This structure encouraged readers to scroll through the entire email to find the information they needed, exposing them to all the important updates along the way. Practical details, like the links to bus routes, lunch menus, and contact information for schools — were especially important at the start of the school year when families were navigating logistics. We also aimed to highlight the activities and achievements within our schools with additional photos and a brief paragraph or two, capturing moments of student or staff life in FCCPS.

Another key goal was to proactively answer the questions that parents likely had but hadn’t yet thought to ask. By anticipating their needs, we hoped to create a resource that was not just informative but indispensable.

In the beginning, nearly all the content came from Marybeth and me. We would brainstorm stories, take photos, and craft each edition by hand. However, over the next year or two, as staff began to see the benefits of having their classrooms and achievements featured, submissions started trickling in. Teachers began sharing updates from their classrooms, turning it into a true community-driven platform—photos, stories, achievements—each one a testament to the creativity and dedication of our staff and students.

By 2013, the newsletter had outgrown its humble beginnings. We transitioned to MailChimp, a platform that automated much of the technical work and allowed us to focus on what mattered most: storytelling. With a new polished design and streamlined production process, The Morning Announcements became a daily fixture not only in the lives of our families and staff but in extended families and friends all over the world. Our subscribers had more than doubled.

Because of its popularity and with the economy back on track, FCCPS invested in a part-time position specifically to support the production of each day’s edition.  Two FCCPS parents have filled the roles. Carol Sly in 2015, and later Chrissy Henderson, a parent and longtime fan of the newsletter.  Each brought their deep appreciation and love for The Morning Announcements into her work, curating content each school day with the same care and enthusiasm that helped establish the newsletter’s success.

And then, in 2020, the world changed.

When the pandemic upended daily life, it brought a level of disruption few could have anticipated. Our schools closed, and classes were moved online, shifting the rhythms of education to a virtual landscape that was entirely unfamiliar for students, teachers, and families alike. In the chaos of those early days, we made the difficult decision to pause The Morning Announcements. It felt like the logical choice at the time—after all, with school buildings empty and the usual flurry of classroom activities and events at a standstill,

But the silence was deafening. As the days turned into weeks, a startling realization began to emerge. The absence of The Morning Announcements created a noticeable void in the lives of our families. Families began reaching out, asking, ‘Where’s the newsletter?’ They missed it—not just as a source of information, but as a connection. It was a thread tying our community together when everything else felt like it was unraveling. Within weeks, we brought it back, transforming it into a lifeline during one of the most challenging periods in our history.

Every morning, it reminded us that we were still a community. Still working, still learning, still connected.

Now in its 14th year, The Morning Announcements has grown far beyond its original reach. While FCCPS remains a small division with just 2,700 students, the newsletter boasts over 6,200 subscribers in more than 30 countries. Former families, students, and staff continue to follow FCCPS news from afar, and for many State Department families stationed overseas, the newsletter provides a connection to home and the schools they’ll eventually return to.

A few years after launching The Morning Announcements, we decided to submit the newsletter, along with our website, for both regional and national school communication awards. In those early days, while our website earned accolades, the newsletter left judges scratching their heads. Their comments reflected confusion: “What is this?”  At the time, the idea of a daily email newsletter seemed foreign—even unnecessary.

But times changed, and so did perceptions. In 2022, The Morning Announcements finally earned the Award of Excellence from the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) during its National School Communication Awards. The judges honored it for “distinguished achievement in an electronic newsletter to an external audience,” validating what our FCCPS community had known for years: The Morning Announcements is more than a newsletter; it’s a vital communication tool that strengthens our school division, showcases innovative instruction, and fosters a deep sense of community.

In nearly 50 years of professional work, few achievements have made me prouder. The Morning Announcements holds a special place in my heart because of the lasting impact it has had on FCCPS. It is a daily reminder of our resilience, creativity, and connection as a community—a thread that binds us together, no matter the challenges we face.

I never could have imagined how important the newsletter would become to FCCPS and the broader community. The story of The Morning Announcements is, at its heart, a reflection of the “secret sauce” that makes Falls Church City Public Schools extraordinary. 

This newsletter wasn’t born out of abundance but rather out of necessity during one of the most challenging financial periods in our division’s history. Its success is a testament to the FCCPS way: meeting challenges with ingenuity, using limited resources effectively, and finding new ways to keep our families informed, engaged, and inspired.

FCCPS is more than a collection of schools—it’s a community built on relationships. From its inception, The Morning Announcements has been a tool for strengthening those bonds, offering parents, staff, students, and alumni a window into the life of our schools. And a daily reminder of the creative and compassionate work happening in our classrooms and the people who make it possible.

And that’s the true “secret sauce” of FCCPS—the belief that every story matters, every connection counts, and every challenge is an opportunity to build something even greater together.

About John Wesley Brett: As Director of Communications and Online Accessibility Officer for the Falls Church City Public Schools, John leads the creation of accessible communications through websites, newsletters, mobile apps, and social media for the International Baccalaureate Continuum school division. More than 6,000 subscribers in 34 countries received the FCCPS “Morning Announcements” newsletter he created in 2010 to share the going ons in and out of FCCPS schools and classrooms. John’s skills also include the design and modification of Content Management Systems (CMS), and CSS, along with programming in PHP, and Javascript languages. His position also provides the opportunity to create graphic design, digital photography and photographic retouching/finishing services. Before arriving at FCCPS in 2006, John led decades-long careers in both radio and television news in Raleigh, NC, Lexington, KY and Washington D.C. He is an Emmy-winning former television anchor and report reporter known for his conversational style of storytelling. John’s series of reports on the identification of the murder victim found 30 years prior in Georgetown, Kentucky, was recently featured in an episode entitled “Tent Girl” in the “Who Killed Jane Doe?” series on the Investigation Discovery cable channel. Click here to connect with John on LinkedIn.