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Never underestimate a PTA parent
RACHEL MCQUILLEN & STACY HALL · COUNCILMEMBERS
Two neighbors, one elementary-school PTA, and the city they both chose.
Eleven candidates are running for six seats on 3 November, and two of them joined us in
Old Town. Both are finishing their first term on the City Council and asking for a
second. They arrived on a council with no permanent city manager and a budget already
waiting, and they tell us what that taught them about running a city of 6.2 square miles.
Right where we set up to record, someone spotted a broken glass bottle. Before we could
say a word, Rachel had taken charge, making all the right calls to be sure the space was
safe for the families and children who use it. Nobody asked her to. It was a small thing,
and it told us a great deal about what a city looks like when the people who serve it
really care.
We also asked what makes Fairfax City great, and the answers ran from Rock the Block
on the last Friday of the month to pickleball and a tie-dye studio called Perfect Mistakes.
“We really punch above our weight.”
STACY HALL
ABOUT
Rachel McQuillen has lived in Fairfax City for fourteen years. She founded a dog
training and pet care business in 2018 — her labrador now works as a therapy dog in
local schools — and served on the City of Fairfax School Board and the Providence
Elementary PTA. She coordinates the Rotary Club of Fairfax’s Dictionary Project, which
gives a dictionary to every third grader.
Stacy Hall has lived in Fairfax City since 2011. She is controller at ACI Biosciences,
served on the School Board, and was president of the Providence Elementary PTA,
where she ran the book fair for years. She lives in the city with her husband, Russ, their
two sons and two dogs.