Tamara Derenak Kaufax's Newsletter
Happy New Year! I hope you and
your family had an enjoyable winter break! The New Year is always a time to be
reflective, set goals and make improvements in our lives. And while the
school year is less than a month from its halfway point, there is still time to
ensure that your student is having a successful, learning year! Be certain
your children have a quiet space to do homework, make sure that they are
getting adequate sleep at night and if you have a student who is struggling
with a certain subject --reach out to your child's teacher for help. FCPS’
primary goal is to ensure our students' success and graduate young people ready
to pursue their passions in life! If you are a parent (like me) with a
"milestone" in 2017-- know that graduation is less than 160 days
away!
From our School Board's prospective, 2017 will bring
changes in the Superintendent role and again, unfortunately, budget challenges.
Please read below for ways to get involved. By working together we can
keep our schools strong! I hope to see you at my coffee or in our
schools!
Dr.
Karen Garza resigned as Division Superintendent this fall. As a result, the
Fairfax County School Board has retained the services of Hazard, Young, Attea
& Associates (HYA) to provide counsel as the Board conducts a search for a
new Superintendent.
A crucial early step in the search process is to
identify characteristics we will be seeking in a superintendent. You are a
stakeholder in our schools and we welcome your ideas and feedback. Please
attend any of these ten community forums which have been scheduled for Fairfax
County residents to share ideas and priorities:
Monday,
January 9 at 1:00 p.m. - Gatehouse Administration Center, Rm 1600
Monday,
January 9 at 7:00 p.m. - South County High School
Tuesday, January 10
at 12:30 p.m. - Virginia Hills Center, 6520 Diana Lane, Alexandria (library)
Wednesday,
January 11 at 12 noon - Providence District Office and Community Center, Rm 2
Wednesday, January 11
at 7:00 p.m. - Mount Vernon HS, Little Theater
Tuesday, January 17
at 11:00 a.m. - Herndon Council Chambers
Tuesday, January 17
at 1:00 p.m. - Burke Center Library
Tuesday, January 17
at 7:00 p.m. - Stuart HS, Little Theater
Tuesday, January 17
at 7:00 p.m. - Chantilly HS, Lecture Hall
Wednesday,
January 18 at 7:00 p.m. - Langley HS, Auditorium
We
hope you will take advantage of this unique opportunity to provide your input.
Please encourage others you know to attend one of these forums. Spanish interpretation services will be
available at all community forums. To request interpretation services in
other languages, please call 571-423-1075 at least 24 hours before the event.
In
addition, an online survey on www.fcps.edu will open on January 9, 2017, to allow
community members to submit their opinions electronically. Additional
information on the Superintendent Search will also be posted on the website.
Your input is essential to this most important
task.
As School Board budget chair, I will be spending a great deal of my time guiding the budget process between now and May 25 when the FY 2018 budget is adopted. Although some discussion has already taken place, this process begins on January 12 when Interim Superintendent Steve Lockard releases his FY 2018 proposed budget. With financial challenges ahead of us, I urge you to stay tuned to the process and offer any ideas and perspectives that you believe are useful to us as a Board and important for the education of your children and all the students in your neighborhood. The budget has to be a community effort. This link gives you direct access to FY 2018 information including a 3-minute video entitled Understanding the FCPS Budget: https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/budget/FY2018. Please check in often! You will definitely want to visit the site for the Superintendent’s budget after it is released to the School Board on the evening of January 12.
Fairfax County Public Schools invites applications from community members interested in serving on the School Board Audit Committee. Applicants must reside within the boundaries of Fairfax County or Fairfax City. The Board will be appointing one committee member for a term ending June 30, 2018.
Applicants cannot be a current FCPS employee and must be able to understand general government processes as well as technical and complex financial reporting issues. Applicants should be knowledgeable about internal controls, financial statement audits, management and operational audits, and risk. The deadline to submit an application is Tuesday, January 17.
Get more information and submit an application.
All FCPS schools will be closed on January 16 for Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, and on January 20 for Inauguration Day.
I want to send out
“high fives” to a group of 23 students at Hayfield Secondary School who are
involved in a new program called Student Training and Refurbishment.
Introduced this year at Hayfield, this program provides students with the
technological skills to repair and refurbish old computers which are then
donated to needy local families currently without access to a computer. Students
in this program are learning a valuable technical skill and at the same time
have an opportunity to give back to their community. I extend a big thank you
and congratulations to our S.T.A. R. pupils for your generosity and community
spirit! Click here for the NBC 4 news story
that was aired in early December.
Cold
and wintry weather is on its way! Due to inclement weather or other emergency
situations, it may be necessary to close schools for an entire day, to open
schools late, or to close early.
Parents
are urged to
make arrangements now for the care of their children when
schedule changes are made (and to provide for the rare situation when it is
necessary to close an individual school because of a power failure or other
circumstances). Children should know where to go if a parent will not be home.
FCPS
has several schedules set up to deal with inclement weather; these are put into
effect when conditions threaten the safety of students and staff members:
Keep schools closed.
Open two hours late.
Close two hours early.
Read more about
the Fairfax County Public Schools Weather and Cancellation
Procedures.
*In the case of emergency for a weather-related
closing, delay, or early dismissal, the FCPS website will automatically include
an alert at the top of each page with the appropriate information. This
information will remain posted until normal operations have resumed, or you
click "Close This Alert" to remove it. There is no Emergency tab
as in the past.
My
next coffee will be held at Grounded Coffee at 6919 Telegraph Road from 9:30 to
11:30 on January 31. Region 3 Assistant
Superintendent Terry Dade who has oversight of all Lee District schools will be
attending so please join us for pastries and casual conversation. No appointment necessary.
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