Liberty Newsletter-August 23, 2019

Welcome to Liberty! 

"I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."  -Maya Angelou

We are looking forward a fantastic year and can't to have all of our students here on Monday to be a part of our Liberty family!

Enjoy your weekend and we look forward to a fantastic year!

Important Dates

Monday, August 26-First day of school

Friday, August 30-No School

Monday, September 2-No School

Monday, September 10 and Tuesday, September 11-Photo Days

Wednesday, September 11 at 6:30 pm--Back to School Night (Parents only)

New Cell Phone Policy

Dear Liberty Middle School Families:

On Monday, 8/26, we are asking our teachers to discuss the background on our new phone policy and appeal to our students to be positive members of our school at all times. We would appreciate it if you would also discuss the information below with them as well and encourage your students to help keep our school safe.  We appreciate your support as parents and members of our Liberty Middle School community.

Sincerely,

Adam Erbrecht, Principal

The following talking points will be discussed with your child during Lion Time the first week of school.

Background on the Away for the Day phone policy:

Challenges for student learning:

• The numbers of students using phones in classrooms to engage in non-instructional activities has been increasing drastically.
• Teachers reported more and more cases of students refusing to put away phones and going to sites while on phones, distracting them from learning the content.
• We observed a persistent increase in students using phones to arrange to meet friends during class time and then missing instruction.

Challenges for student safety:

• More and more cases of students using phones during school to post about others and cause students to be upset or uncomfortable.
• Increasing cases of students communicating about possible fights or confrontations with large groups of students receiving these messages and then disrupting the whole school.
• Rise in hallway and classroom disruptions and increasing conflicts among students due to messages posted by students in our school, during the school day.  

If you have any questions please contact the main office: 703-988-8100

Kiss & Ride (Student Drop off)

Students are encouraged to ride the bus or walk to school.  The Kiss and Ride should be accessed using the side entrance closest to Compton Road.  Please follow the signs and directions by staff members to safely navigate the Kiss and Ride.  Students may be dropped off only in the Kiss and Ride loop starting no earlier than 7:13 AM.  Please exit the Kiss and Ride through the same entrance closest to Compton Road.  In the afternoon, please form a car line in the loop outside the cafeteria.  Once you have your student, please exit the loop safely using the far exit closer to Compton Road.