Dear Beech Tree Families, I hope you each enjoyed this truly beautiful weekend! Spending time outdoors over the weekend seems to give me the vitamin D kick to remain positive during these difficult times. I hope you are having the same healing experience! As a reminder, we are using a variety of technological tools. Please use this form to agree (consent) or disagree (refusal) for your child to use the FCPS-approved online tools listed on the school website as part of the instructional program. https://www.fcps.edu/node/41989 Every Monday, our students are encouraged to join their grade level for Morning Meeting at 9:15am, using the Monday Morning Meeting link sent by their homeroom teacher. Afterwards, students may attend sessions offered at 10:15am and/or 11:15am. Students may remain in their Morning Meeting link for grade level sessions or use the session links sent to their Gmail account to participate in specials lessons and activities. Should you have any questions regarding specials, please reach out to the specialists using their emails below in the “Reminders” section. Here is Monday’s schedule:

Mondays through Fridays, when students log in to their Morning Meeting, teachers will take attendance. If students are unable to participate on any given school day, parents must report the absence to the school office: Beechtreeelem.attendance@fcps.edu Please email the teacher, to keep him/her informed, as well.

“Library Curbside Pickup” will be available at Beech Tree on Mondays from 1-3pm and Wednesdays from 4-6pm. Students need to place their holds in our catalog by the end of the day on Fridays. Students can place up to 5 holds.  Here is a link to our catalog. . Please remember that you must log in using your username and password.  This is the same information you use for logging onto your computer. Once a hold is placed, I will check out the items and send an email about when you can pick up your items.  Emails will be sent to the Students’ school email account for grades 3-5 and parents email for K-2. If you would like the email sent to a different account, please contact our Librarian, Tina Britton at clbritton@fcps.edu. Books will be placed in a large manilla envelope with the student’s name on it.  The envelopes will be placed on a table outside the front door. Students will pick up their envelope and be on their way.  Ms. Britton will be sitting in the lobby monitoring the pickup. Please place books you are returning in the box.  Put your envelope in the other container.  Books will be quarantined for one week before they are checked in. Please watch the video  if you need a refresher on how to place a hold.  Please email Ms. Tina Britton with any questions or concerns.

Students in grades K-6 will take the iReady reading assessment. Students in grades 1-6 will take the iReady mathematics assessment. The online iReady assessment (also known as the universal screener) provides an initial view of all students’ foundational skills to help teachers identify students who may have challenges in reading or mathematics. More information about the assessment can be found on the FCPS Universal Screener Parent Notification webpage.

This fall, students will take iReady at home instead of at school. Teachers will discuss the assessment with students in advance, including how to log in and what to expect. Resources to help families administer the assessment at home can be found on the FCPS Universal Screener webpage.

Grades 1-5  September 2, 2020- October 26, 2020

Kindergarten- October 5, 2020- November 9, 2020

For questions, please contact your child’s teacher.

Additionally, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) provides a comprehensive, sequential Family Life Education (FLE) program for students in grades kindergarten through grade twelve.  Instruction is seen as a partnership among parents and guardians, the school, and the community in supporting the learning essential to the development of strong families, positive relationships, and a healthy community.

Parents/guardians may choose to opt their child out of all or part of the Family Life Education program.  Students who are opted out are provided with age-appropriate, nonpunitive alternative health instruction, and every effort is made to foster respect for family choices.  If you wish to opt your child out of all or part of FLE for this school year, opt out forms will be included in your child’s back-to-school/orientation packets and are available online for Elementary (K-6) https://www.fcps.edu/academics/elementary-school-academics-k-6/elementary-family-life-education , Middle School (7-8) https://www.fcps.edu/academics/middle-school-academics-7-8/family-life-education-fle  and High School (9-12) https://www.fcps.edu/academics/high-school-academics-9-12/family-life-education-fle.  Please fill in the opt-out form and return it to your child’s school prior to Family Life Education instruction.

Karim Daugherty

Principal

Beech Tree ES

703-531-2600

 https://twitter.com/BeechTreeElem

https://beechtreees.fcps.edu/

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.” – Colin Powell

REMINDERS:

Beech Tree Office Contacts

Spanish Speaking Parent Liaison: Stella O’Brien at msobrien@fcps.edu

School-Based Technology Specialist (logging on/using programs): Mike Meyer at mkmeyer@fcps.edu

Technology Specialist (laptop issues): Tom Kindregan at tpkindregan@fcps.edu

Registrar: Susan Do at sndo@fcps.edu

Attendance Secretary: Sheila Hudson at skhudson@fcps.edu

Principal’s Secretary: Esther Baca at ebaca@fcps.edu

Assistant Principal: Maureen Lopez at MMLopez1@fcps.edu

Advanced Academics Resource Teacher: Patty Settel at pasettel@fcps.edu

Beech Tree Specialists Contacts

Kiri Cooper, Music Teacher at kncooper@fcps.edu

Meriem Bacha, Arabic Teacher at MBacha@fcps.edu

Greg Skrtic, Art Teacher at GGSkrtic@fcps.edu

Yolanda Adams, Guidance Counselor at yeadams@fcps.edu

Mike Jenkins, PE Teacher at MWJenkins@fcps.edu

Tina Britton, Librarian at clbritton@fcps.edu

Miller Susens, Strings Teacher (4th & 5th) at msusens@fpcs.edu

Lindsay Bowen, Band Teacher (5th) at ldbowen@fcps.edu

Kristen Hollen, STEM Teacher at kmhollen@fcps.edu

Bilingual Community Liaisons

Bilingual community liaisons support student registrars by providing families with information about school and community services offered in Fairfax County. Community liaisons also help parents fill out forms and complete applications:

• English and Korean: 703‐204‐4317

• English and Spanish: 703‐204‐4316

• English, Arabic, and French: 703‐204‐4315

Beech Tree Digital Resources

Parent Resources for Distance Learning: https://beechtreees.fcps.edu/resources/parent-student-distance-learning-resources

Video Tutorials for Distance Learning: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSz76NCRDYQHSc6ySaw5Nq-We-fzPsQ_i

Grab & Go Food

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) will continue to provide “Grab-and-Go” meals during the upcoming school year. Our goal is to provide every student in FCPS daily access to a healthy breakfast and lunch during this pandemic:https://www.fcps.edu/news/coronavirus-update-food-resources

Internet Access

If you still need internet access and would like to borrow a MiFi device from Fairfax County Public Schools, please complete this form: https://forms.gle/CiEvUmnQqPGUczmo9 

If you participate in, or are financially eligible for one of these government subsidies programs: The National School Lunch Program (Free and Reduced Lunch), Head Start, SNAP, TANF, WIC, LIHEAP or Public Housing, you may complete this form for internet service assistance: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IDnBPwLC5VhECPBrXVi__o5gMBisj_oI/view

Virtual Learning Assistance

If you would like to revisit the technology lessons provided by our School Based Technology Specialist, Mike Meyer, during our Tech Town Hall, please visit http://bit.ly/BTESTTH to watch the recording.  I also encourage you and your family to visit our technology resource page for parents and students at https://bit.ly/BTESTECH for with help on logging into Blackboard, Google Classroom, student Gmail, and other applications.  Here, you will also find a link to FCPS Technology Support for Families that provides parent phone numbers to call for assistance in various languages.  Remember that all FCPS webpages can be translated into many different languages. Here are some reminders on how to take care of your school issued computers: https://adobe.ly/2Z1PjSW. Mr. Meyer, our School Based Technology Specialist, will also continue to be available to support students and parents with any tech issues at mkmeyer@fcps.edu.  Please join him at http://bit.ly/BTESsandbox on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 8:30 am – 9:15 am for any technology assistance your family might need.

As a reminder, an automated process has been created to make it easier for students and staff to locate the links to their Collaborate sessions.  Students and staff can see a label in their Gmail titled BBCU Links.  This label will be applied to emails with Collaborate links.   A script will run automatically that will create an email filter for all users and that script will do four things:

1. Star messages coming from Scheduler
2. Mark the message as “Important”
3. Apply the label “BBCU links” to emails coming from Scheduler
4. Prevent the message from going to the Spam folder.

This will enable students to find their Collaborate session links in one convenient location without having to sift through their email. To locate their sessions, users have two options:

1. Click the BBCU Links label. If students do not see the BBCU Link label, they can click More to expand the view.
2. Click the down arrow to pull all Starred Messages.

“Registration!”

Please let neighbors know that they may register their child by contacting Mrs. Susan Do, Beech Tree Registrar, at sndo@fcps.edu to to make arrangements for specific enrollment information. 

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates:

Please continue to check updates through our Fairfax County Public School website.  We hope that you and your family are staying safe, happy and healthy during these ever changing times. 

To find the last updates from Fairfax county please go to https://www.fcps.edu/news/coronavirus-update

You can also find updates from The Center of Disease Control and Prevention at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/index.html

3401 Beechtree Lane, Falls Church, VA 22042  | Main Phone: 703.531.2600
Attendance: 703.531.2626 | Web | Twitter