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Dear Providence Families,
As we close out the 2018-19 school year, I want to send my thanks to you for your kindness and support this year. Our staff has enjoyed working with your children and hope that the same is true for them. It has been great fun to see the relationships that have grown between children and adults in our building. We have laughed together every day, learned a great deal, and grown as people. It has been a fun year, and we look ahead to another starting next fall.
I have a few pieces of information to share before our summer break begins. First, as many of you know, we recently completed the Virginia Standards of Learning Assessments. While we use many forms of formal and informal assessment during the year, these reading, math, science and social studies tests are strong measure of the growth and progress that our students make during the year. I am very proud to say that at this point, our school is well on the way to reaching full state accreditation. Students will receive a copy of their individual scores in progress reports this week, and many teachers have already spoken with them about the progress they made this year. Please pay attention not only to the statement about passing and failing, but also to growth from last year. Some of our students greatly improved their scores this year but didn’t quite pass. This is still an indication of learning and bodes well for them for next year.
I also want to share a few other highlights from the year with you. This was a great year for our PTA. The parents who were involved, and those who joined, created and lead many exciting events. They supported our work as teachers every day. From the many special family events, in-school activities and fundraisers, to the classroom volunteers and financial support of our programs, we are very grateful for all of their work. I am also very grateful for all the work, time, and energy that Laura Pagac has put into her position as PTA President these last two years. She stepped in when we needed someone in the fall two years ago, and has lead and added many special moments for our kids and staff since then. Thank you so much Laura, we will miss working with you as our PTA president but look forward to seeing you around as a Providence parent. I encourage each of you to join our wonderful PTA next year and get involved if you can. The PTA is a very important part of our school community, and we would not be the same school without the hard work of these dedicated parents.
This was our first year as a Local Level IV Advanced Academics school, and we are very pleased with our new program in 3rd grade. This new program provided students who qualified for the Advanced Academics program the opportunity to stay at their base school instead of moving to the center at Mosby Woods Elementary. We had 18 children who qualified for the program stay at our school this past year. As we add the program in 4th grade next year, those students are moving up with us, and 17 more are staying at our school in 3rd grade next year. We are very happy to have this number of students to stay with us, which is not typical when making this transition. As important, this program gave us a great opportunity to use the AAP curriculum and enrichment materials with all of our 3rd graders in science and social studies. We believe that students can reach higher and learn more if we hold high expectations and provide opportunity for all.
We also added a number of excellent staff members this year, and I have really enjoyed watching them in action. They fit right in with our already wonderful staff, and they are off to a great start as members of our Providence community. There is turnover every year at a school, but we are very fortunate to still be a school where teachers want to work. I will do everything I can as principal to keep it that way, and I know that you support me in that effort.
Relatedly, we have several staff members and dedicated people who are leaving us this year. We wish the very best to:
- Michelle Gonzales, our kindergarten teacher, who is moving to Colorado;
- Ann Stephens, our kindergarten instructional assistant and intern who will teach near her home in the Shenandoah Valley;
- Leila Lester, 5th grade teacher, who will be staying home with her new baby;
- Tara Hagen, our kindergarten IA who is being transferred with her husband to Texas;
- Tessa Damron, 1st grade special education teacher, who was hired to fill a temporary need this year, and will be teaching in the fall;
- Lani Richards, our part-time music teacher who will stay home with her new grandbaby;
- Donna Beaubien, our library and office assistant who will be working with a family business;
- John O’Rourke, our temporary Dean of Students who will return to teaching at Centreville High School;
- Mary Breslin, our long-time Instructional Assistant/5th Grade substitute, and STEAM/Math teacher, and PES parent, who will be teaching math full time at Lanier Middle School;
- Melissa Thorpe, 6th grade teacher, who plans to take a year off to complete a degree in Library Science;
- Anna Sengstack, our strings teacher, who has grown the program so big at Providence that she will now be full time at Lanier Middle School;
- Kelly Krek, 2nd grade teacher, who will be teaching closer to home at Cunningham Park Elementary next year;
- and Cindy Howe, a Providence institution, award winning 2nd grade teacher, and current instructional assistant, who will take a well-deserved retirement at the end of the week.
We will greatly miss everyone who is leaving and we wish them the very best as they take on new challenges. It feels like we are losing members of our family, especially so when a few of these good folks like Michelle, Mary, Melissa, Anna, and Cindy have been with us for so long. Cindy has been here the whole time our school has been named Providence! We send our love and our best with them and truly appreciate the work that EVERYONE above has done to make our school a better place.
While some people can never really be replaced, I am hard at work already to get great teachers in every position in our school. I have already hired a number of people who I know are going to be terrific, and we look forward to the energy and new relationships they will bring us next year. We are also looking forward to exciting new things like a fitness trail and updated WPES studio equipment next year! We thank the PTA for funding the news studio equipment and the signs for the trail, and the City of Fairfax Schools and Parks and Recreation Department for supporting and finding the creation of the trial. We cant wait to share more next year!
Finally, while you might not be with us this summer, we will be available if you need us. The school office will be open Monday through Friday from 8:30-2:00
Have a great summer, and I look forward to working with you during the 2019-2020 school year!
Sincerely,
Dan Phillips
Proud Principal of Providence ES
PTA News & Announcements
Thank you Parents and guardians and Teachers/Staff who do so much for our students at PES. We couldn’t provide funding if it wasn’t for your support and volunteer time at these events and programs:
- Fun Fair
- Bingo Night
- Panther Dance
- Yearbook
- Flower grams
- Family Night Out
- Spirit Wear
- Book Fair
- Movie Night
- Chess/Lego/Robotics Club
- Girls on the Run
- Courtyard
- Principals Wish List
- Staff Appreciation
- Grade Level Purchases
- Other Learning Purchases (Specials)
- 6th Grade Party
- Cultural Events
- Special Education Awareness
- Writers Anthology
- Fairfax HS Graduation Night
- Teachers Breakfast
- Kindergarten Orientation
Without the volunteering and financial support of all of us through PTA activities, none of this would be possible!
A special thank you to our leadership and committee chairs: Stacy Hall, Menka Linthicum, Mark and Emma Bierwirth, Meghan Graham, Rachel McQuillen, Jon and Stephanie Stehle, Elizabeth Rodriguez, Mr. Borhauer, Melissa Forrest, Amy Spokas, Carolyn Pitches, Christy Balisle, Rubaat Iqbal Ali, Ms. Zuidema, Debbie Reinsel, Diana Stewart, Allison Horton, Laura Gerber, Sabeen Ahmed, Sharon Peterson, Ashley Taylor, Liz Despres, Silvia Liu, and Ms. Wagner.
Laura Pagac, PTA President
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