Included in this issue:
- State Champions
- VHSL Wrestling Winners
- LifeLifeConnected Project
- Sunrise Breakfast - Class of 2021
- Seniors - Cap & Gown Information
- Fill the Yearbook Challenge
- Matrix, FHS School Literary, Arts Magazine is still seeking submissions
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PTSA
- Lanier PTA shares screening of Angst
- Mulch Sale - *Coming Soon*
- Support the Class of 2024
- Watch Our Morning Announcements
- Tech Updates
- FCPS Cares
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Fairfax Athletics
- Crew Interest Meeting on 3/4 @ 4PM
- FCPS Office of Student Safety and Wellness
- Fairfax Alumni
- The City of Fairfax Commission on the Arts
Dear Family Fairfax,
Happy sunny Friday! It has been a busy week--and we have loved welcoming back our staff in person and working together to get ready to welcome our in person students next week. A special thank you to our Student Government Association, PTSA, and our City of Fairfax School Board for hosting various events this week for our returning staff. We know that there is even more new technology to learn and a new structure for teaching to master, but we are committed to doing our very best and taking it one day at a time.
We hosted several town halls last week for the return to in person. Important links and details were sent yesterday through eNotify, but here they are again:
We also had custodial appreciation this week--they have kept our building safe and clean. Even as school was happening in our living rooms and houses, our custodians reported to our school site, updated their training and cleaning protocols, and have consistently remained positive and flexible. We are lucky to have such a beautiful facility and that is mostly because of the pride they bring to their work. If you are at Fairfax and see a custodian, please thank them!
We do have an early release next Friday, but our in-person students will still be in attendance. If your student is returning in person, last names L-Z will be in person even on Friday, the early release date.
Many celebrations for our Lions--our Gymnastics team is officially Virginia State Champions! We’ve had wrestlers, track athletes, and swimmers who have made us proud at State and Regional Tournaments, and our Fairfax Lions Football Team won their first game on Monday! Please see below to learn more about some of our celebrations going on in our Activities and Athletics world, and if you don’t subscribe to Ms. Melnick’s Activities Newsletter, you can always do so through Blackboard. It is always full of Pride!
Wishing you all a beautiful weekend,
2nd: Grades 9th & 12th return
5th: 2 Hour Early Release
8th: Staff Development Day, No School for Students
9th: Grades 10th & 11th return
26th: End of 3rd Quarter - 2HR Early Release
29th - 4/2: Spring Break
4/5th: Teacher Workday, No School for Students
STATE Champions
 The first state title for the FHS Gymnastics team in school history! It's been amazing season for the Lions with a District, Region, and State Titles. Congratulations to Sienna Williams, Vivian Stone, Payton Morrison, Gracie Sergent, Emily Sarber, Riley Sarber, Kendall Vess, Abby Newell, and plus our amazing coaches - Susan Barborek and Kelsie Garin.
 Congratulations to our VHSL STATE Swimmers, Sophie Scadron 100 Fly, Angelina Sagaow 200 IM, Colby Lane 200 Free, and Adam Boudjemaa 100 Breast who competed in the state meet this past Thursday. Congratulations on a fantastic season!
VHSL Wrestling Winners
 Congratulations to Mauro Pellot - Won 3rd in his weight class and Benjamin Kirkwood, finish 5th in his weight class at the VHSL Wrestling Tournament.
LiveLifeConnected Project
 LiveLifeConnected project completed by a few upper level Digital Art students. MONTHS getting drafts and approvals from the committee and Mayor. These panels will be installed in front of the Old Paul VI HS. Kaia Collins won a Scholastics Regional Gold Key for her Design as well.
Sunrise Breakfast - Class of 2021
Class of 2021 join us on the 1st day of in-person school for a Class of 2021 Sunrise Breakfast at the stadium. We will have hot chocolate, a breakfast treat, first day of school photos, and a chance to reconnect with classmates. Both in-person and virtual students are invited to attend this event. For social distancing purposes, only sign up for the day that correspond with your alpha group returning to school. We will celebrate with students in the alpha (A-K) on Tuesday morning from 7:15-8:00 and we will celebrate with students in the alpha (L-Z) on Thursday morning from 7:15-8:00.
WHAT: Class of 2021 Sunrise Breakfast
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WHO: Seniors (Last name A-K)
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WHO: Seniors (Last name L-Z)
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WHEN: Tuesday, March 2nd, 7:15AM-8:00AM
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WHEN: Thursday, March 4th, 7:15AM-8:00AM
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WHERE: Stadium Entrance
Sign up for your corresponding day and join us as we celebrate our return to school. If you have any questions please email me at baplancich@fcps.edu
Seniors - Cap & Gown Information
Cap and gowns are required for graduation ceremonies. If you have not purchased yours yet, it’s not too late but don’t wait too much longer as prices will increase. Below are the instructions for purchasing just a cap and gown. You may also choose to select other more expensive packages, if you would prefer. However ONLY a cap and gown is required to participate in the graduation ceremony in June.
Step 1: Go to www.Jostens.com and select Fairfax High School
Step 2: Scroll Down and Select “Browse All Grad Cap/Gown”
Step 3: Scroll to the bottom and select “Browse All Cap & Gown Products”
Step 4: Go to Individual Products and select Cap & Gown Unit. This will come with a FHS Class of 2021 tassel. You do NOT need to purchase a separate tassel.
If you have financial concerns about ordering a cap and gown, please let reach out to your counselor.
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Lifetouch Proofs
Portrait proof have arrived from Lifetouch for grades 9-11. They have been placed with Will Gideonse in the main office and can be picked up from him Monday – Friday 7:30 – 3:30.
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Fairfax HS PTSA
The signs and/or magnets you ordered are in! We will hold a pickup day at the ticket booth at the high school stadium on March 5th from 12:30-2pm (This is an early release day). If this date/time does not work for you, or you want your items sooner, you can pick up your item(s) from the Hampton Chase neighborhood at your convenience. Please just reply to this email with the day you want to pick up and I will provide my address. If you ordered more than one sign, please let us know if you'd like us to hold on to one of them to be displayed at Lion Run on graduation day. We will also be holding another sale of signs and magnets in March, so keep an eye out for that email if you need to order more.
VERY IMPORTANT:
We ask you to fill out a short survey (link follows), where we ask families for ideas on how to recognize our deserving Senior Class this year in a safe, fun manner. We need to know whether your senior student wishes and feels comfortable to attend/ participate in ANG, what type of event is preferred, and whether there is a preference for a day or evening event, long or short. ANG will be held the same day as graduation, June 1, 2021 for the almost 600 Fairfax High School students who are graduating.
Lets celebrate our Seniors,Interest form
Lanier PTA shares screening of Angst
Last night the PTA at Lanier, in collaboration with the school, hosted a virtual screening of Angst. If you aren't familiar with the film, it is all about Anxiety. As part of our purchase we also received access to view the film on demand for 48 hours over the weekend. Because we felt the film was so well done and so powerful, we wanted to share the access with our City School community.
On top of academic and social stress, the uncertainty and fears of this past pandemic year have brought all of us a lot more anxiety than before. Angst helps break this down, explaining what’s going on, and what we can do about it to help both ourselves and others. It features World Champion Swimmer Michael Phelps, experts in the field, and regular teenagers
From midnight tonight until 11:59pm on February 28th the film and panel discussion that were presented at Lanier Middle School last night are available at the following link:
https://distlab.indieflix.com/ocs/Angst/SidneyLanier/watch.html
Login: lanier@indieflix.com
Password: lanier
For our non-English speaking families, please note that subtitles for the film can be turned on in several languages on the video player progress bar where it says "CC". The Q&A Panel discussion can be found at the top of the "Additional Materials" section on the right. Unfortunately, subtitles are not available for the panel discussion.
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Mulch Sale
LIONS!! Spring will be here soon and the Activities Office hopes to resume our annual mulch sale in April! Please don't buy your mulch from anyone else until you hear more from us in the very near future! We need your support to overcome loss of ticket sales and continue to stream all of our amazing events. We are committed to serving your mulch needs this spring - details coming soon!
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Support Class of 2024
Only 2 days left: Don't miss your chance to support the Class of 2024 and by a Freshman Class t-shirt! All proceeds will help the Class of 2024 with school activities. Please see the link HERE for details.
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Watch Our Morning Announcements
Click here https://fairfaxhs.fcps.edu/morningannouncements and scroll down
Tech Update
Did you know? To get the most recent updates on your FCPS computer, including the StudentDen icon, you can pull up to the nearest FCPS building (Elementary, Middle, or High school) and restart your computer. Once it reboots, you will want to log in, let it stay on the network for ten minutes (you can be using it during that time).
After ten minutes, you will want to Restart (not close the lid) so the updates will install.
If this doesn’t update your Student Den Icon for whatever reason, here is the direct link to the Student den.
https://sites.google.com/fcpsschools.net/studentden/home
You can bookmark this page in your chrome browser.
Please make sure that you are logged into your @fcpsschools.net account to access the student den webpage.
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Do you want to celebrate a Fairfax employee who does ordinary things in an extraordinary way, or goes beyond what is expected? If so, then click here to share with everyone. |
Fairfax Athletics
Crew Interest Meeting
Fairfax Athletics Sports Network
The activities office needs you help! We need to get 1K subscribers on our Youtube channel to open up enhanced options for streaming our events. Please click this link https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCti_0q1sWe4XP-Q8gp9EzQA and then SUBSCRIBE via the red Subscribe button! It only takes two clicks to make a difference!
Hello Fairfax Family!
This newsletter comes from your Substance Abuse Prevention Specialist, Mrs. Ruffin (McNeil)
Vape-Free Fairfax
The Fairfax County Health Department, Fairfax-Falls Church Community Services Board and Fairfax County Public Schools have partnered to implement the Truth Initiative’s This is Quitting program. This is Quitting is a teen and young adult-focused vaping cessation text messaging program based on the best scientific evidence from the tobacco cessation literature, input from the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center, and formative research with young adult current and former vapers. To view the press release about this program, click here. For more information about the program, click here.
Goal Setting for the New Year
A new year brings new memories, challenges and opportunities for growth. Here are some quick tips to help students set and reach goals for the new year!
Why is setting goals beneficial?
- Improves self-image
- Improves decision making
- Increases awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses.
- (positivepsychology.com)
Tips for Successful Goal Setting
- Set clear and measurable goals. (If you can’t answer the question “How will I be able to know I have met my goal”, then make it MORE SPECIFIC!
- Create an action plan for each goal. (What things will you DO in order to meet your goal?)
- Write your goals down!
- Read your goals daily
- Revise action plan if needed
- CELEBRATE your accomplishments! (Small wins count, too!)
- (positivepsychology.com)
More resources about goal setting can be found here!
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me at dsmcneil@fcps.edu
For general questions about the FCPS Substance Abuse Prevention Program, please contact the Office of Student Safety & Wellness: (571) 423-4270.
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City of Fairfax Commission on the Arts contest for 4th, 5th, 11th and 12th graders for any students in a City school (with a cash prize). For more information, please visit HERE
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