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Dear Spring Hill Families,
I hope you all enjoy a wonderful winter break and holiday season. We look forward to seeing everyone back at school on Monday, January 6, 2020!
TESTING RESULTS UPDATE: CogAT and NNAT results have arrived and will be sent to those families via US mail. In addition, parents will receive notification if their child is in the Advanced Academic pool. Please reach out to Ms. James with any questions.
AAP LEVEL IV REFERRAL: Parents of student in grades 2-7 may refer for full-time Level IV placement for the fall of 2020. As a reminder, the due date to refer your child is January 9. The completed packet must be submitted to the Spring Hill main office on or before this date.
WINTER BREAK: Our school office will be closed for winter break from December 23-January 3.
No homework or projects should be assigned to students over the holiday break to allow all our students an opportunity to enjoy time with family
In this issue:
Santa's Ride & The Donation Tree
Science Olympiad
Weather Cancellation Procedures
Attendance
MySchoolBucks
Calendar Corrections
Calendar
Sarah C. Aiello
Proud Principal
Spring Hill Elementary School
Thank you for all your generous donations. You helped make Santa's Ride & The Donation Tree a big success.
 Our Spring Hill Science Olympiad Team traveled to Lake Braddock Secondary School last Saturday for our first tournament this year. The team did an unbelievably good job representing our school, winning 4th place as a school, showing the best elementary school among 24 elementary and middle schools.
This year’s team includes 15 core members: Ansh Chadalavada, Allison Cheng, Eesha Kaushik, Jooha Kim, Atul Kotamraju, Joshua Lee, Brendan Li, Sophie Li, Akaash Sachdeva, Artin Safaie, Carson Seo, Shveta Sunkar, Aliana Yee, Alicia Yee and Ayla Zhang. Our team alternates are Mukund Agrawal and Tabitha Perez. Our team sponsor is Ms. Fisher.
Spring Hill's success at the tournament was due to each and every one of team members. It was an amazing performance by the entire team. In addition to the overall team trophy, many of our individual event teams also won medals:
Heredity: Joshua Lee and Ayla Zhang, 3rd place.
Crime Busters: Ansh Chadalavada and Sophie Li, 4th place.
Anatomy and Physiology: Joshua Lee and Artin Safaie, 5th place.
Experiment design: Allison Cheng, Aliana Yee and Ayla Zhang, 5th place.
Fossiles: Brendan Li and Ayla Zhang, 5th place.
Road Scholar: Allison Cheng and Sophie Li, 5th place.
Reach for the Stars: Sophie Li and Shveta Sunkar, 6th place.
The following teams deserve honorable mention for placing just out the medals:
Boomilever: Aliana Yee and Alicia Yee, 8th place.
Mission Possible: Eesha Kaushik and Brendan Li, 10th place
About Science Olympiad:
Science Olympiad competitions consist of a series of 23 team events pertaining to various scientific disciplines, including earth science, biology, chemistry, physics, and engineering. Each event requires 2-3 team members, and every member attends 3-4 events. Our team prepared for two months leading up to this tournament. The goal is not to only win medals, but more importantly to gain an enthusiasm for science and engineering through commitment and dedication. Congratulations to all our hard working students and mentors!
When bad weather or other emergency situations occur, it may be necessary for FCPS to cancel, delay, or close schools early. Parents and students should have a well-communicated plan in place in the event of these emergency situations. Children need to know where to go or what to do if a parent will not be home.
The safety of our students and staff is our number one priority any time a decision must be made regarding school closures and delays during a weather situation. We review information from emergency management and state highway administrators about road conditions, and school personnel also go out and inspect the conditions of roads, sidewalks, and FCPS parking lots and bus lanes.
Due to the speed of updating, the official @FCPSnews Twitter account (with blue checkmark) is generally the first and fastest mode of communication. Other communication channels will be updated as quickly as possible including email, text, website, other social media, and news stations. Please be aware, due to the large volume of emails sent there will likely be a lag between the FCPS Twitter alert and receipt of an email in your inbox.
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. If you have closed the alert, a red exclamation mark will remain to indicate that the alert is still active.
FCPS tries to make decisions in the evening, taking into account that parents need time to make proper arrangements. But when there is a lot of uncertainty, we wait to get the latest morning forecast. In that case, the superintendent makes the decision of whether to delay or close schools by approximately 4:30 a.m.
FCPS provides information about closings and delays in many ways including:
- Posted to the FCPS Twitter and Facebook pages.
- Posted to www.fcps.edu.
- Email and text messages sent to parents (using the parent contact information listed in weCare@school).
- Email sent to employees (using the employee's FCPS email address).
- Email sent to News You Choose subscribers of Delayed Openings and School Closings.
- Posted on FCPS cable Channel 21 (Cox Communications, Reston Comcast, and Verizon cable customers only).
- Area radio and television stations.
- FCPS has a series of closing conditions to help explain how the weather has affected schools and activities.
For more information, click link below:
https://www.fcps.edu/resources/safety-and-transportation/weather-cancellation-procedures
Help Your Child Succeed in School:
Build the Habit of Good Attendance Early
School success goes hand in hand with good attendance!
DID YOU KNOW?
- Starting in kindergarten, too many absences can cause children to fall behind in school.
- Missing 10 percent (or about 18 days) can make it harder to learn to read.
- Students can still fall behind if they miss just a day or two days every few weeks.
- Being late to school may lead to poor attendance.
- Absences can affect the whole classroom if the teacher has to slow down learning to help children catch up.
Attending school regularly helps children feel better about school—and themselves. Start building this habit in preschool so they learn right away that going to school on time, every day is important. Good attendance will help children do well in high school, college, and at work.
WHAT YOU CAN DO?
- Set a regular bed time and morning routine.
- Lay out clothes and pack backpacks the night before.
- Find out what day school starts and make sure your child has the required shots.
- Introduce your child to her teachers and classmates before school starts to help her transition.
- Don’t let your child stay home unless she is truly sick. Keep in mind complaints of a stomach ache or headache can be a sign of anxiety and not a reason to stay home.
- If your child seems anxious about going to school, talk to teachers, school counselors, or other parents for advice on how to make her feel comfortable and excited about learning.
- Develop back-up plans for getting to school if something comes up. Call on a family member, a neighbor, or another parent.
- Avoid medical appointments and extended trips when school is in session.
For more on school readiness, visit attendanceworks.org and reachoutandread.org
Pay for Student Fees Online
Dear Parents,
Online payment for student fees and school store items is available through the MySchoolBucks School Store. This online payment service provides a quick and easy way to pay for school-related purchases. You will be able to pay for a variety of school fees using credit/debit cards or electronic checks.
MySchoolBucks provides:
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Convenience - Available 24/7 on the web
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Efficiency - Eliminate the need to write checks and for students to bring money to school
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Flexibility - Make payments using credit/debit cards and electronic checks
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Security - MySchoolBucks adheres to the highest security standards, including PCI and CISP
Enrollment is easy!
- Go to www.MySchoolBucks.com or, to the MySchoolBucks link located on your school’s homepage to establish an account
- Add your students using the name of the school they are attending, and either their student ID or birthdate
- You will receive a confirmation email that your account has been established
- Make purchases with your credit/debit card or electronic checks
- There are no convenience fees for using the online payment system
Customer Service:
Reimbursements or questions about cafeteria and/or lunches, please contact FCPS Food and Nutrition Services at link below:
https://www.fcps.edu/resources/student-safety-and-wellness/food-and-nutrition-programs/prices-lunch-account-prepayments
Our Panther folders have some incorrect dates on the calendar that's on the back of the folder.
Please note the following correction:
Tuesday, March 3rd is the student holiday(School Planning Day), not Friday, March 13th.
Sorry for the confusion!
Week of Dec 16th:
Friday Dec 20:
5th GR KIC Presentations, Cafeteria, 9:00-10:00 am
1st GR Candy House Making, Lg Pod, 12:00-2:00 pm
December 23rd-January 3rd: Winter Break: No School
Week of Jan 6th:
Friday Jan 10: Groups, Clubs & Candid Photos, Lg Pod, 9:00 am-3:00 pm
Week of Jan 13th:
Tuesday, Dec 14: 5th & 6th Orchestra Concert, Gym, 7-8 pm
Friday, Dec 17: PTO Meeting, Lg Pod, 9-10 am
Week of Jan 20th:
Monday, Jan 20: MLK Holiday: No School
Wednesday, Jan 22: 3rd GR Egyptian Showcase (Chang, Fisher & Fishbone), Cafeteria, 9-10:30 am
Thursday, Jan 23: 3rd GR Egyptian Showcase (Boswell, Michaels & Nalley), Cafeteria, 9-10:30 am
Friday, Jan 24: 2nd Grading Period Ends
Week of Jan 27th:
Monday, Jan 27: Student Holiday: Teacher Workday
Tuesday, Jan 28: Student Holiday: Staff Development
Full 2019-2020 calendar: click here:
https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/forms/19-20-standard-school-year-calendar.pdf
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