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Dear Westbriar Community,
Happy belated Mother’s Day to all the wonderful moms and caretakers in our community. Our staff is so happy to reconnect with students these past two weeks. We feel we have established essential learning structures for teachers and students with distance learning. Thank you for your patience and flexibility while we worked thru the technology glitches.
We completed grades for 3rd quarter and you should be receiving your child’s report card in the mail shortly. Please note that while current lessons and assignments are not graded, teachers will consider your child’s participation and growth shown during distance learning to help determine your child’s final grade. Thank you for helping your child login and take part in live sessions with our teachers.
I have some good news to share, our school qualifies to have another assistant principal join Mr. Simms-Smith and I this upcoming school year. I am in the process of setting up the interview panel consisting of essential stakeholders representing our school and community. Mrs. Trish Vanstory, our PTA President has agreed to represent the parent community on the panel. I will let you know when we have completed the interview process and are ready to announce our new assistant principal. Stay tuned 😊.
As many of you may have heard, I am writing to confirm the passing of Mr. Brad Mitchell – a beloved member of our SACC team for many years. Mr. Mitchell passed away last Friday, May 8th due to complications from a fall at home. Our school community is saddened to lose such a generous individual who has touched so many students, families, and school staff. An email from SACC was sent this afternoon to SACC families. I do not have information regarding a funeral service or donation information yet, when I do, I will be sure to share with it you.
Thank you for the amazing support you have shown our staff and school. Our staff enjoyed a wonderful Staff Appreciation Week, we are so appreciative of this invaluable partnership.
With much gratitude,
Principal Tam
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News About Virtual Walkers Club
For the month of May (5/4-5/29) we’re going to do our Westbriar Walkers Club. The link to an announcement was added to teacher google classrooms and the p.e. google classrooms as well. The idea is for children to walk or run and keep track of their weekly miles. On Sundays Mrs. Shoop will post a google form to the p.e. classrooms for students to input the miles they did just for that week. She'll also post a map with our school totals as we walk across America. Let Mrs. Shoop know if you have any questions. Here is the link to take part of our virtual Walkers Club:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/125nCSiAli7mKB8-_rQ5k5VdAG4kl38Ox3QbT14LaLU8/edit?usp=sharing
Library News
Mrs. Fuselier encourages all students to join and regularly check their grade Library Google Classroom. Read alouds, resources, information on office hours, and any Library announcements can be found there.
NEW: FCPS Library Services has added over 700 new eBooks and audiobooks, geared toward 5th and 6th grade, to our collection on the MackinVia platform. To access, you can find the link to MackinVia on the Destiny homepage, download the MackinVia app on any IOS or Android device or follow https://fairfax.mackinvia.com/. Login with your FCPS username and password using the BLUE BAR. More information on accessing these titles as well as a short video tutorial on using MackinVia can be found on the Library Google Classroom page.
Please feel free to contact Mrs. Fuselier at kmfuselier@fcps.edu or stop by my office hours M/T at 10:30; W/Th at 1:30. Go to Mrs. Fuselier’s Office Hours Google Classroom using code ubsoy6z to find the link.
From the Counselors
Our School Counselors, Mrs. Jefferson and Mrs. Plath, will be holding virtual lunch bunches throughout the rest of the 2019-2020 academic year. Lunch bunches are a great way for students to connect with one another and their School Counselor, all while chatting and having fun.
*** Parents must complete this form in order for a child to participate in a virtual lunch bunch. ***
Students will be contacted via their fcpsschools.net account when their lunch bunch is scheduled. Questions? Please contact Mrs. Jefferson or Mrs. Plath (bpjefferson@fcps.edu or mlplath@fcps.edu)
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeNR8OlL0vKmZU-WXWLxRJZB-ck9KtIFf70U_4XtKqJnUJcgA/viewform?usp=sf_link
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From our PTA
Hello Westbriar!
We are in uncharted waters together, yet apart. We hope you and your family are finding that place of calm, serenity and even fun. It may elude you on a regular basis -- as it does us -- but it's the goal, right? We hope you're able to reach out to friends and other parents who are going through the same thing, We hope you're connecting, albeit from afar. After all, it's our connections with others that are so important. We are all in this together.
We are continuing to try and offer as much PTA involvement as possible in your kids' and your lives. With that, here's what's going on:
Sprout School Supply Kits on Sale NOW!
With all the uncertainty, at least one thing we know for sure: Our kids will need school supplies in the fall, come what may. This year, more than ever, it's great to let the PTA and Sprout do the shopping for you! Go to www.sproutsupplies.com/supplykits and enter school code WES004 to order your student's kit. Don't forget -- you're ordering for NEXT YEAR, so if you have a third grader now, order a fourth grade kit. *Note that some grades have different kits for AAP students.
We know what you're thinking -- we don't even know whether school will be happening in the fall. But either way, you'll need these supplies for your kiddos, and we will figure out how to get them to you if the school building is closed. This way, Sprout takes care of the shopping for you and you can stay home, where it's safe.
Refund policy: Cancel your order before July 15, 2020, when Sprout starts delivering kits to schools. Or, after receiving your kit, you can return the entire kit with all of its contents unopened within 30 days of delivery. (Shipping to the warehouse facility is the responsibility of the customer at that point.)
Westbriar PTA End of Year Wrap-Up Meeting -- 5/28 @ 7PM
Our final (virtual) meeting of the year will be held on Thursday, May 28th, at 7PM. Sign up HERE so we can send you the Zoom info. (Please sign up by 6PM on the 28th to receive the Zoom info.)
At this meeting, we will be holding elections for officers for next year as well as passing an interim budget. Here is our slate for PTA officers for next year:
President - Natalie Lueders
VP of Enrichment - Lindsay Weitz
VP of Membership - Kristy Creagh
Treasurer - Deirdre Naughton
Secretary - Julianna Lieu
If you would like to nominate yourself* or someone else* to run against the PTA slate for one of these positions, please contact Trish Vanstory BY 5PM ON MONDAY, MAY 25TH, so we can coordinate the elections. *You must be a current PTA member to run for a PTA office.
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THANK-YOU NOTES
Thank you to Adam Strawn, who came early and stayed late at what became our last in-person PTA meeting on March 12th to present to parents (virtually and in person) about all of our distance learning resources. Mr. Strawn, we cannot thank you enough for your time and your help. We had a head-start on those weeks without teacher instruction because of your efforts. Anyone who missed Mr. Strawn's presentation can click HERE to view the presentation and HERE to access the handout the presentation.
Thank you to Roopa Chowbey and Adam Strawn, who didn't let our quarantine stop the Science Fair from happening! Our kiddos (32 of them!) were able to post their FlipGrid videos about their projects and hold live discussions over Zoom with a panel of judges recruited from Marshall High School and our community. What a great way to show that science, school, and fun can still happen, despite our staying at home!
Thank you to Katie Bayer for putting together our Staff Appreciation Week, May 4th - 8th. Katie really thought outside the box to come up with virtual presents and creative ways to show our love for our Westbriar teachers each day. She worked hard and did an amazing job to make sure that every staff person in our school felt appreciated and loved.
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Trish Vanstory
Westbriar PTA President
wesptaprez@gmail.com
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