Weekly News From South County High School

From the Principal

Family,

We had a pretty good week of work.  Not only did I get to hang out with a small group of you at the PTSO meeting, but I also got to see you all trek the hallways like your children at Back To School Night.  To be honest, that was kind of funny seeing you all hustling to get to class before the late bell.  And a couple of you would have been stuck in Saturday School due to too much talking, and not enough walking!  😊 So I expect that the next PTSO meeting will be forced to be in the auditorium because I now know you can make it out. 

All kidding aside, I hope that you had good conversations with your children’s teachers and that you gained some valuable information about what is going on in classes.  I have been very happy with what I have been seeing in classrooms and with what teachers and students have been saying about their individual class periods.  Students have been upbeat, and teachers have been using that momentum to set the tone with instruction.

I have been asked to share with our teachers that teachers who are making social media posts with pictures ensure that students in those pictures are not those who have opted out of being photographed.  If your child has a teacher who is using social media as a part of their class, you will soon receive a letter informing you of that. 

I am sure that you have heard in the recent news about the increasing concerns about the use of e-cigarettes and vaping devices.  Due to this rising issue for our youth, the Fairfax County Health Department has posted a health advisory.  The advisory can be found here: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/health/severe-lung-illness-associated-vaping-what-you-need-know.  South County will be in contact with our substance abuse prevention specialist as we consider arranging for more educational opportunities for our students around this topic.  If you are looking for additional information, please click on the following link: https://www.fcps.edu/vaping/parents.

Some of you may have gotten information about a brief power outage that occurred at school on Friday.  We were able to quickly assess the situation and found that the issue was not related to any internal concern with our building.  In fact, the neighboring middle school, also lost power for a brief moment.  I was in the cafeteria on lunch duty at the time the power went out, and I am pleased to say that our students, both in the cafeteria and around the rest of the building, handled the issue incredibly well.  I guess you all turning the lights out on the kids at night to scare them when they were younger really served as preparation for today.  For that, I say thank you very much!

Well that is all that I have for you this week.  Thank you so much for all that you have done to support our school.  You all are pretty awesome to work for. 

Have a great weekend!

 

   


Yearbook information

 Yearbooks and Senior Ads on sale at www.yearbookforever.com.

 *YEARBOOK SALE *

Until September 15

Use code SOCO2020 online and save $10 on a yearbook.

Use code Seniors online and save 10% on a senior ad.

 

Senior Quotes

All senior quotes must be submitted by October 1 to be included in the yearbook.  Editors will make final decisions on quotes and will not include anything that is not school appropriate.

To submit your quote, use the following form:  https://forms.gle/grmnNEQDyKLWK6h18

   


From the PTSO

Craft Show Brainstorming Session

Did you know that the PTSO puts on a huge vendor craft show at the beginning of December each year? There is a planning meeting to discuss this year’s show on Monday, September 16 in the library at 7:00pm. Please stop by to learn what it is all about, brainstorm ideas to promote this year’s show, and find out how you can help. This is a very large fundraiser for the PTSO—because we do this, we don’t have you out there selling wrapping paper, magazine subscriptions, or anything like that to your neighbors and co-workers.

 

Freshman Parents

If you have not already set up an account with the PTSO, please go to https://southcountyptso.membershiptoolkit.com/   and set yours up today. The school does not provide us with email addresses until November, so we will be unable to communicate with you until then if you don’t set up your account. You can also set up an account through the “Membership Toolkit” app available in Google Play or the Apple store.

  

Please follow these PTSO pages on Facebook and Twitter

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SoCoPTSO

PTSO general page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SouthCountyHighSchoolPTSO/

PTSO craft fair on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LortonHolidayExtravaganza/

PTSO Military Connections: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2103122980014708/

       


You’ve been Tagged!

 

Today is Tag Day … the biggest fundraiser for the year for the South County Performing Arts Department.  It takes thousands of dollars more than the fees that are charged for each group to run a complete band, orchestra, choir or theater program.  To keep our fees low and keep the arts in our schools we depend on contributions from our incredible community.

Student teams came to your door today asking for tax-deductible contributions to “Support the Music.”  Thank you to everyone who donated to our Performing Arts department!  But … if you weren’t home, you were tagged, or a self-addressed envelope was left on your door.  If you would still like the opportunity to donate to our Performing Arts programs, please include a donation in the envelope and drop it off at the school or mail the it to us.  Either way, don’t forget to keep the tag as the receipt for your tax deductible donation.

Thank you again and we look forward to seeing you at all of our music and theater productions here at SCHS.   

  


South County Minority Achievement Committee

The MAC Scholars Program will be on select Saturday's from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm.  The goal of the program is to create well rounded and balanced students through a variety of engaging extracurricular academic activities. We want to encourage you to register your student to participate now by completing the registration form. Our first tutoring session will be September 28th. We also want to invite all parents and students of all backgrounds and demographics to join the MAC. For additional information regarding the MAC or the MAC Scholars Program, please contact us at SouthCountyMAC@gmail.com.

   


From the Activities Office

Attention ALL Community Members! The final stages of resurfacing our track is scheduled to begin on September 3 – September 20. Please do not enter the track field area until further notice. Entering on to the surface during this time period will cause major delays and damage. We thank you in advance!  

  


DECA

Choral Boosters

Future Lorton

FCPS Cares

FCPS Cares is an opportunity for parents, staff, and community members to recognize FCPS employees for going above and beyond to help others and show they care. We invite you to submit your story so we can all acknowledge the good work of our South County HS Staff. Just click FCPS CARES.


News You Choose Submission Deadline this next week will be Thursday at noon. Please send all submissions to DBoullianne@fcps.edu.