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September 19 - School Planning - 3 hour early release
September 25 - Picture Day
October 8 - School Planning Day - students do not attend
October 20 - Special Education Conference
November 5 - School Planning Day - Students do not attend
November 6 - Teacher Work Day - Students do not attend
November 21, 22, 23 - Thanksgiving Holiday
 Emily Kaltenmar, Assistant Principal; Ann Smith, Principal
Welcome to the 2018-1019 School Year!
This year started with high energy as students and staff
returned to start the school year. We have just a few new faces among our
student families and within our staff. Every classroom and Special was up and running from day one, offering motivating and engaging
lessons/activities. It was great to see so many happy students
participating in their school day!
Our Back to School Day on August 23 was a great success.
We have found that we get a larger turnout when we do this event
during the day rather than having a Back to School night. This year we had over
40 families represented. Thank you to the many families who stopped by to drop
off required forms, student materials and school supplies and to visit with their student's teacher and classroom staff. The staff always enjoy meeting new and returning students and families.
We look forward to seeing our parents and families at school
over the course of the school year. We hope you will opt into our
parent coffees or meetings and join us for our school-wide activities - you will find a lot of opportunities to participate here at Key Center
School!
This newsletter will come out at the end of each month, but you can learn even more about what is going on in the school by following our Facebook page - @KeyCtrSchool.
Feel free to contact us if we can assist you or your child in
any way as the year progresses.
 Meet our fabulous front office staff - Patti Alexander and Elsy Gomez. These two wonderful women are on the front lines at Key Center - managing our busy routines, paperwork and finances all while maintaining a pleasant and welcoming demeanor to all who visit. Our third office staff, Courtney Aleman, is currently out on family leave.
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 Caroline Phan
Caroline is our new (returning) Social Worker. Caroline graduated from Virginia Commonwealth with a
Masters in Social Work in 2002 and received her State of Virginia Clinical
License in 2005. She has been with
Fairfax County Public Schools since 2007, working in both the general education and special education environments. Several of those years have been here at Key Center.
You may wonder about the role of the school social worker. Here is how Caroline explains it:
"I
find here at Key Center my knowledge and skills have allowed me to assist
students and families to access a
variety of community and FCPS resources.
These resources can often improve their quality of life through improved health
care options, respite opportunities, and therapeutic interventions. School social workers also often act
as additional advocates for your student’s overall physical and mental health.
"Assisting Key
Center students and their families has always been rewarding and I look forward
to continuing my work to ensure your student’s success in school and the
community. We hope you will join our private online parent community and that you will participate in the parent coffees we are planning."
Contact Caroline.
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 Bruce Manise
Bruce is our new School Psychologist. A seasoned school psychologist, Bruce has over 20 years of experience in the field. Most recently, he served at the Davis Career Center. Davis
has a special education population of 18-22 year-olds with developmental
disabilities. Prior to working at Davis Center, Bruce worked in many of
the County’s programs for students with emotional disabilities.
The psychologist's role is to work with parents and staff to help deliver educational services to children. This includes working with parents to help determine and meet students' mental health needs. It also involves consulting with outside mental health providers, visiting students in their classrooms, collaborating with staff and participating in the Special Education eligibility processes.
Bruce is married
with two high school age daughters.
Contact Bruce.
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School attendance is required by law, as outlined in the
Code of Virginia. Whenever any student accumulates a total of five
unexcused absences in a school year, the school will contact the parents and a
plan will be developed. After 10 unexcused absences a conference will be
scheduled with an attendance officer and the school team.
We understand that the majority of our student’s absences
should be marked as excused however we are responsible for indicating the
reason for the student absence in the Student Information System. The two
ways to notify Key Center are by calling the front office (703)313-4000 or
sending an email to KeyCtr.Admin@fcps.edu.
We ask that you do not relay this through transportation staff or personal care
attendants. Additional attendance modifications such as late arrival or
student pick-ups should also be submitted through email or a phone call.
 Meet this year's PTA board! This wonderful group has agreed to serve as PTA officers this year. They are (from left to right) Berit Buontempo (secretary), Barbara LoPresti (vice president), Dave Gillum (president) and Kerry Connolly (treasurer). We are thankful for such a great, committed team. Please consider joining the PTA to support the school. You can join on the Key Center website.
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Please note: Your child may be photographed or video
recorded by FCPS staff members or by vendors working for FCPS for use within FCPS
for FCPS education-related activities, for example, student identification pictures or video
recordings of classroom activity used for teacher training or student evaluation purposes. FCPS also may disclose your
child’s image, name or voice in FCPS photographic productions or other FCPS-sponsored
publicity. If you do NOT wish this to occur, you MUST complete the OPT-out forms. You can get these either online or by calling the Key Center front office.
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Every student in FCPS receives this booklet at the beginning of the year as part of their back to school packet. The very first page is an acknowledgement that it has been received. This page is to be torn out, signed and returned to the school. If you have not already done so, please sign and return this acknowledgement as soon as possible. |
The Key Center Newsletter will be published according to the following schedule. If you no longer wish to receive the newsletter, please use the link at the bottom of the page to unsubscribe. Conversely, if you know someone who would be interested in hearing about what is going on at our awesome school, invite them to subscribe!
- September 28
- October 26
- November 20
- December 18
- January 22
- February 22
- March 22
- April 26
- May 24
- June 10
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