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Dear Wolftrap Community:
We have come to the end of an unforgettable school year! While our lives were turned upside down and the health and well-being of our families caused us to make drastic changes to our daily lives, I remain proud of what we were able to accomplish at Wolftrap. The challenges of distance learning were great, but our students and staff rose to the occasion. We learned that our children and teachers are so resilient, flexible, innovative and strong. I cannot thank you enough for your patience, flexibility and support in partnering with us to teach your children. There are many important topics in this email, including how to register for summer Continuity of Learning! Please read carefully.
I hope you have a restful summer and continue to stay safe, healthy and connected.
Sincerely,
Teresa Khuluki
Principal
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the dedicated staff members who will be leaving Wolftrap at the end of the year for contributing their talents and love for children while they were at our school.
- Sharon Kassing- retiring after 20 years of teaching
- Lisa Benson- transferring to a teaching position at Hutchison ES
- Sarah Chambers- moving out of state
- Cathy Lee- pursuing other opportunities
- Angel Barber- pursuing other opportunities
We wish them the best in their future endeavors and thank them for their service.
In addition to the 80 sixth graders, we also said goodbye to 21 students moving to other schools next year. I wish the best to all these students and families leaving the Wolftrap community! You will be missed. Although we were not able to host our annual Awards Ceremony, we were able to virtually recognize so many students’ accomplishments, especially those of our 6th graders. A list of all recipients can be found on the “announcement” section of our website homepage.
For those of you who have been a part of our community for as long as I have (9 years!), you may remember the major changes we made in our AAP program in an effort to be more inclusive in grades 3-5. We have prided ourselves on structuring classes to promote social and learning opportunities, by assigning students to a heterogeneous grouping for science and social studies. This means that most students in our upper grades are traditionally assigned a homeroom teacher (for science and social studies), as well as a math/language arts teacher. Covid-19 will impact class schedules in the fall. Therefore, I am writing to let you know that for the 20-21 school year, students will only be assigned one teacher. This teacher will teach all academic subject areas. We find this measure necessary based on the governor’s guidance to limit movement in the building. Although we do not yet know what the Return to Learn plan will look like, we do know that social distancing will be required. It also makes the most sense to only have one teacher in the event that we see a spike in Covid cases, which could force everyone to return to full distance learning.
I cannot write to you today without acknowledging the emotions that all of us are feeling about the division, sadness and pain occurring across our county, state and country. Although our Black students make up only 1% of our school population, please do not think that this is not our problem to address. In fact, it is even MORE vital to address racism as a predominately white staff and student population. We must stand together to support our families. Racism will not be tolerated at Wolftrap and FCPS stands ready to support our teachers through professional development, so that they are better prepared to teach our students about racism and tolerance. Several months ago, I asked the PTA if we could use some of the profit from the 5K to purchase new books for all of our classroom libraries. Classroom and school libraries reflect our values and contribute to developing student identities; therefore, our collections must reflect and honor our student population and those around them. The PTA Board fully supported my request, and I am very happy to report that over $6,000 in books are being purchased for our classrooms, to increase the number of books written by minority authors and books that feature minority characters. This is one small step that we have already been planning, and many more steps will be planned in the future.
FCPS school buildings will remain closed through the end of July. Therefore, we will continue to provide recommended distance learning opportunities for students throughout the summer. Your students will have access to skill practice through the iReady digital lessons through the FCPS public Universal Screener website. Students will need to enter their FCPS login credentials to access these resources. These digital activities will be available until Friday, July 31st.
Additionally, students currently in grades K-6 will receive both a Mathematics and a Language Arts Essentials Summer Practice Book in the mail by the end of June. Digital versions of the books will also be posted on the Continuity of Learning Blackboard page. These books will provide recommended practice activities for students to review essential content from the 2019-2020 school year; they are not intended to preview content from next year’s grade level but rather reinforce essential learning from this past year.
As students access these activities from June 29 to July 31, they will have the opportunity to attend one virtual office hour each week with one of our own outstanding staff members. The schedule is as follows:
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Kindergarten: Ms. Carbajal: Monday, 9:00-10:00am
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Grade 1: Ms. Davis: Tuesday, 10:30-11:30am
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Grade 2: Ms. Burdett: Wednesday, 9:30-10:30am
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Grade 3: Ms. Newman: Wednesday, 8:30-9:30am
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Grade 4: Ms. Small: Tuesday, 8:30-9:30am
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Grade 5: Mr. Painter: Thursday, 8:30-9:30am
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Grade 6: Mr. Batsel: Tuesday, 1:30-2:30pm
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Special Education: Ms. Piester: Monday 12:30-1:30pm
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English Language Development: Ms. Tota: Tuesday 9:30-10:30am
To register your student for office hours and receive a secure link, please complete the form linked here. Once registered, your child will receive log-in information via their FCPS Google email address prior to the first session.
The Fairfax County Public Library has developed several summer reading programs for youth and adults. Click here to take a look at different programs you can utilize with your children this summer.
We need your help in projecting our total enrollment for next school year. For families not returning to Wolftrap Elementary in the fall of 2020-21, please email our registrar, Caroline Kamel at ckamel@fcps.edu. It is extremely important for class size planning that you inform Ms. Kamel of your intentions as soon as possible. Also, don’t forget that if you have new neighbors who arrive over the summer, please encourage them to register their children.
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