Dear Dranesville Families:
Welcome to Spring!
As we close out the third quarter, I am happy to have over 100,000 of our students back in our building for in-person learning. The district will be moving ahead to give our students the opportunity for more in-person instruction. As a key step, we have asked anyone that requested in-person but is not attending regularly to state their plans so we know how much room we have in our classrooms. With the new CDC social distancing guidelines, we hope to offer some students an option of 4 days in the classroom. I have been advocating for the district to be as generous as possible in offering a 4 day option. More details on this will be coming after spring break.
With new Virginia guidelines for indoor and outdoor events, I am excited to say we are busy planning for in-person graduation ceremonies for our class of 2021. More information about Proms and All Night Grad Parties will be coming soon.
FCPS is planning for a strong 5-day in-person start to the 2021-2022 school year. A team is also working on a small scale virtual option that will be available to families that still require this for health reasons. I am so looking forward to having everyone back next fall.
Over the past few weeks, I visited many of our concurrent classrooms across the grades and remain impressed with the dedication of our teachers, staff, and, of course, our students. From paragraphs of French written in Chat; math problems solved in Padlet; geospatial explorations of the Grand Canyon; poetry analysis and discussion in elementary school; a sweat inducing gym class; and 3rd graders assisting their teacher to trouble-shoot setting up reading groups with both in-person and at home students and then reading together--I was happy to see what was happening. It was not perfect, but the resilience our students exhibited and the creativity of our staff was certainly commendable as we moved through another transition in the past months.
Have a wonderful spring break. I hope you have some restful time with your family and loved ones. Enjoy the beauty of this time as our Virginia spring wildflowers begin their season.
Elaine
Calendar Reminder: Spring Break Is March 29-April 2
Spring break is March 29-April 2. Also, Monday, April 5, is a teacher workday and a holiday for students. Teachers will not be available for office hours and students are not expected to complete asynchronous assignments.
We hope you have a great week and get some time to relax with family and friends!
See the complete 2020-21 school year calendar.
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Meal Distribution through Spring Break
FCPS is committed to providing all students access to meals March 26 through April 5. Extra meal distribution has already begun. See the food distribution web page for more information.
Additionally, the United States Department of Agriculture recently announced that no-cost breakfast and lunch meals for all students have been extended through September 30.
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Longfellow Middle School students enjoying lunch outside.
CDC Announces New Encouraging 3 Feet Guidance for Schools
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced updated guidance on social distancing for schools, changing from recommending 6 feet of social distancing to 3 feet of social distancing with universal masking in classroom settings. FCPS is working through this guidance and will share more information after spring break.
Reaching out to In-person Students to Confirm Their Spots
The return to in-person learning offers us an important opportunity to engage and support our most vulnerable students in new ways. To that end, we are working to maximize our in-person learning capacity and are asking that all students who have registered to attend in-person do so on a regular basis. If registered students are not attending regularly by today, schools may reassign them to virtual learning and allow other students to receive in-person support in their place.
Summer Opportunities
Updates, including summer programs and opportunities, will continue to be posted online and shared as we continue to develop, plan and support our students, families and FCPS community.
Fall 2021: 5 Days/Week
FCPS will be returning to five days a week of in-person learning in the fall. Our students learn better in-person and we will reunite our school communities and reengage our staff and students.
Preparations for a 5-day return include: monitoring updated health guidance; following recommended social distancing; investigating additional PPE resources and safety protocols, and analyzing potential COVID-19 testing.
FCPS Playgrounds Reopen for Students
FCPS is now permitting the use of playground equipment during recess. Students will adhere to mitigation strategies before and after use, but this is a welcome step for returning to school safely as playing outside is important for students’ social-emotional well-being and a healthy outlet for stress. More information on playgrounds reopening and other student health and safety guidance is available online.
April 1st Virginia's Executive Order 72 changes
Governor Northam announced a more changes to Executive Order 72 going into effect on 4/1/21. Highlights of these changes:
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Social Gatherings Restrictions - indoor events will be limited to 50 people and no more than 100 people outdoors.
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Recreational sports, including high school athletics, are still limited to 30 percent capacity. A maximum of 500 spectators will now be allowed outdoors and 100 people indoors.
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Outdoor Entertainment Venues - cannot exceed more than 30 percent of capacity.
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Indoor Entertainment Venues - maximum of 500 people or 30 percent capacity, whichever is less.
Graduation Ceremonies
Governor Northam released preliminary guidance for graduation ceremonies. We are very happy that we will be able to have in-person graduations for the Class of 2021:
- Graduation events held outdoors will be capped at 5,000 people or 30 percent of the venue capacity, whichever is less.
- Graduation events held indoors may have up to 500 people, or 30 percent of the venue capacity, whichever is less.
- Graduations are defined as events where a diploma or degree is conferred.
- Masks and social distancing are still required.
More specific details about your high school's graduation coming soon.
Prom/All night Graduation Parties
The Governor’s Executive Order considers prom and All Night Graduation Parties (ANGP) as social gatherings. The Executive Order specifies that social gatherings are limited to 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors.
Proms are school sponsored events while ANGP are parent organized not school sponsored events. More details will be coming soon about these events.
Community Use: PTA/PTSA/PTO and Booster Events
Events and activities held in schools or on school property are still subject to current limits for in-person gatherings: 50 people indoors and 100 outdoors. Outdoor camps organized by PTA/PTO/PTSA/Booster organizations will be allowed but capped at 100 participants. No indoor summer camps organized by PTA/PTO/PTSA/Booster organizations will be allowed.
At this time, only FCPS, support organizations, and Fairfax County government agencies are allowed to use FCPS facilities. Schools are not available for community use at this time. We will provide updates as guidance is provided.
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March 28: Worm Full Moon
The March full moon, also called the Worm Moon due to the emergence of earthworms in the warm spring soil, occurs March 28th. This is the first of four consecutive supermoons in 2021.
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2020-21 Grading Policy Changes
In response to family feedback and student check-in results, FCPS will be seeking to lessen the stress and anxiety posed for some students who have been challenged by the virtual learning environment during the past (and ongoing) pandemic year.
FCPS will provide three additional grading changes to support middle and high school students. More information on the grading policy changes is available online.
Standards of Learning (SOL) Tests Will Be Delivered In-Person This Spring
Across Virginia, students will be taking SOL tests in-person this spring. Federal and state education departments have decided that SOL assessments will proceed as usual for reading, mathematics, and science. More information is available about SOL assessments at each grade level. For students attending school 100% virtually, school staff will work with families to schedule an appointment for in-person SOL testing.
Caregivers have the right to refuse SOL assessments if they have concerns about participation related to the pandemic, including health, social-emotional, and instructional time concerns. For questions about SOL testing or to refuse testing, contact your student’s school. A remote non-SOL test option is in development, and information will be provided for families of qualifying students in the coming weeks.
FY 22 Budget Update
The School Board is scheduled to present its Advertised Budget to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, April 13. Fairfax County Board of Supervisor Budget information is available here. Additional budget work sessions and public hearings will occur through May. Information about speaking at a budget public hearing and a list of relevant budget dates, along with updates and budget news, is available online.
Learn more about the FY 22 Advertised Budget.
School Board Ready to Sign Contracts for Solar Program
On 3/4/21, the Fairfax County School Board voted unanimously to move forward with a solar program that will allow FCPS to purchase renewable energy with little or no upfront or operational costs. The Board authorized FCPS leadership to negotiate, execute and administer project contracts with approved solar contractors. The FCPS program will install solar panels on school buildings with the goal of reducing FCPS’ greenhouse gas emissions and electricity costs.
The motion to approve the solar facilities contract was introduced by the Board’s Dranesville District Representative Elaine Tholen. “This program will enable us to quickly begin an environmentally-friendly program that will help us keep utility costs low,” said Tholen. “It will also bring us one step closer to the proposed Joint Environmental Task Force goal, that we share with Fairfax County, to become carbon neutral (net zero carbon dioxide emissions).”
Tholen also recognized Solar on the Schools, an FCPS student group. She said, “They have encouraged the Board for years to move in this direction. We thank them for their work and for the fact that we are ready to sign contracts and move ahead with this exciting project.”
FCPS and Virginia-based Sigora Solar are in discussions to begin the solar program at three sites: Annandale High School, Hayfield Secondary School and Robinson Secondary School.
Save the Date: FCPS Virtual Special Education Conference Set for April 17
FCPS will hold its 16th annual Special Education Conference virtually on Saturday, April 17. Registration will begin in March. A student strand will be held for youth ages 14-22. FCPS educators, administrators, and pre-service teachers can earn recertification points for attending the conference. Exhibit Hall and Inclusive Schools resources will be shared.
Visit the Special Education Conference webpage for more information.
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Dranesville School and Community News
Announcement of Spring Hill Elementary School New Principal
Welcome to Maria Eck, current principal at Justice High School! She has been selected as the new principal of Spring Hill Elementary School effective July 1, 2021. We thank Interim Principal, Sal Rivera, for his positive leadership throughout this school year. He will continue to serve the Spring Hill community through June 2021. Ms. Eck and Mr. Rivera will immediately start collaborating to ensure a smooth transition.
Herndon High School News
Congratulations to Herndon HS's 2020-2021 All Virginia Choir members:
We had awesome performances at State Swim recently. Herndon placed 8th overall with only 4 boys! |
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Herndon Seniors were celebrated last week with a pizza party. It’s been a long strange year, but that’s not stopping us from working to show the Class of 2021 some love. The weather was a little cold and rainy, so we brought the gathering indoors. We hope to see more members of our senior class at the next event! Here’s a photo of some of our attendees taking the opportunity to connect with their friends in person.
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It truly takes a village. A huge thank you to Herndon parent, Mr. Hill for volunteering his time to stream our football games until we get our camera. His work allows all families the opportunity to watch our games when seating capacity is severely limited. |
Langley High School and Cooper Middle School SHARE Food Drive March 22
LANGLEY update: We kicked off this week with the all-class PTSA Spring Into Action! food drive for SHARE of McLean. Monday was a beautiful day to be outside helping the food bank in their support of over 300 local families. Congratulations to the Class of 2022 who won the friendly competition to see which class could donate the most items. We appreciate our wonderful PTSA volunteers and the multitudes of Langley students and parents who really did spring into action to volunteer and donate more than 2,000 needed items. Special thanks go out to our Family Network Committee whose members led by Robyn Smith and Julie Hohl coordinated this very successful community service effort!
COOPER update:
The Cooper community donated approximately 700 items. We are thankful for our parent volunteers who staffed the collection table between 9-2pm, checked expiration dates, and pre-sorted the donated items by category. This streamlined the donations process for the SHARE volunteers.
Langley HS PTSA, Cooper MS PTO and Churchill Road ES PTA's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Book Club Recap
The Langley High, Cooper Middle, and Churchill Road Elementary Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) committees concluded their two-part book club this month. Their last discussion focused on a central question from the book Blindspot, by Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald: How do we align our implicit/subconscious biases with our conscious desire to be egalitarian?
Participants created a list of “action items” that each school’s DEI committees will consider as part of their work moving forward. The book club was part of an initiative begun in February, which included 28 days of short video, print, or podcast selections on diversity issues paired with weekly lunch discussions on the material.
If you are a parent at any of these schools and would like to attend a DEI committee meeting, please contact: vpmembership@churchillroadpta.org (Heather Murphy Capps – both Langley and Churchill Road) or president@cooperpto.org (Stefanie Stayin – Cooper Middle)
FAIRFAX COUNTY COUNCIL PTA SCHOLARSHIP
Deadline April 25, 2021
The Fairfax County Council PTA (FCCPTA) is awarding scholarships to graduating Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) high school students planning to attend an accredited vocational school or college for the 2021/22 academic year. The FCCPTA Scholarships will be awarded to students who, among other traits, demonstrate responsibility, character, and leadership during their high school career. For more details, please go here to get more information and the application.
Dranesville Student Achievements
Marina Qu- 2021 Virginia Journalist of the Year
Marina Qu of Mclean HS won 2021 Virginia Journalist of the Year awarded by the Virginia Association of Journalism Teachers and Advisers. Qu serves as editor-in-chief of The Highlander newsmagazine and The Tartan literary magazine. She goes on to the national Journalist of the year competition representing Virginia and the final results will be in April. Learn more here.
Congratulations to the Dranesville 2021 Fairfax County Science and Engineering Fair Winners
As in 2020, the 66th Regional Science and Engineering Fair participation and judging was held virtually the week of March 13-20, 2021. I was happy to participate again this year as an Organizational judge with the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District. To learn more about the science fair please go here.
Our Dranesville Winners
Herndon HS:
- 2nd Place: Joseph Attia- Systems Software
- Honorable Mention: Lauren Tucker, Mariella Marotta- Earth and Environmental Sciences
Langley HS:
- 3rd Place: Stephanie Ma, Connor Oakes- Energy: Sustainable Materials and Design
- 3rd Place: Teddy Kim- Engineering Mechanics
- Honorable Mention: Arwen Jones- Earth and Environmental Sciences
- Honorable Mention: Jenna Cai- Embedded Systems
- Honorable Mention: Shaan Sabharwal- Physics and Astronomy
- Honorable Mention: Alisha Luthra- Robotics and Intelligent Machines
McLean HS:
- 2nd Place: Indira Nair- Microbiology
- 2nd Place: Mackenzie Chen, Aleena Gul- Plant Sciences
- Honorable Mention: Hyunjae Yoo- Physics and Astronomy
- Honorable Mention: Youngmin Kwon- Systems Software
Thomas Jefferson HS of Science and Technology:
- Grand Prize winner/1st Place- Vance Kreider, Aditi Chandrashekar -Modeling Coronal Faraday Rotation of Radiation from Extragalactic Radio Sources in Physics and Astronomy
- 1st Place: Omkar Kovvali- Computational Biology and Bioinformatics
The Educational Foundation of the Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts Scholarship
Deadline April 2, 2021
The Educational Foundation of the Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts annually offers four $1,000 scholarships to graduating high school seniors or college freshmen for college study. The scholarships support studies related to natural resource conservation. Applications must arrive at the NVSWCD office by April 2, 2021.
NVSWCD offers one $1,000 Future Conservation Leaders Scholarship to eligible applicants from Fairfax County. Applications received by NVSWCD are considered for both the Future Conservation Leaders Scholarship and nomination to the state committee for the VASWCDEF scholarship.
Please go to this website for more details and the scholarship application.
The Virginia Environmental Justice Virtual Summit: March 27 9:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
What is it?
A student-led conference to engage students in multidisciplinary conversations around environmental justice with faculty, communities, and professionals. Created by George Mason University students, the event aims to educate about intersectional environmental justice issues with a specific focus on the food, water, and energy nexus.
What will students gain from the summit?
Learn basic definitions of environmental justice (EJ); actively engage in discussions about the food, water, and energy nexus; make connections with systematic inequality and public health; gain skills for coalition building, lobbying, petitioning, letter writing, and other advocacy action items; meet other activists and learn about their unique experiences and perspectives within the EJ movement
High school, undergraduate, and graduate students may register for free and learn more at our website at VirginiaEnvJustice.org
High School Students Invited to Virtual Career Exploration Fair
Arlington Public Schools (APS) and Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) are teaming up to host a Virtual Career Exploration Fair on Monday, April 19, 2021 - Friday, April 30, 2021. High school students will be able to connect with over 100 local industry professionals from in-demand career fields. Additionally, students can attend college and career ready workshops and information sessions.
High school students can take part in the following ways:
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Learn about work-based learning (WBL) opportunities.
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Attend industry panel discussions.
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Take part in mock interviews.
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Attend resume workshops.
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Learn about postsecondary education, training, and apprenticeship opportunities.
What types of jobs are students interested in learning about?
Data from the Naviance Student - College and Career Readiness tool shows that students want to learn more about:
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Arts, Audio/Video Technology and Communications
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Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
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Law, Public Safety, Corrections and Security
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Health Science
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Human Services
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Information Technology
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Work-Based Learning (WBL)
Details, including information on how to register, are available online. Students can also email workbasedlearning@fcps.edu with questions.
Applications Wanted for Student Representative to the School Board for 2021-22 School Year, Deadline Is April 7
Each year, FCPS students can apply for the position of the student representative to the School Board. The student representative is not a member of the School Board but serves in a nonvoting, advisory capacity, representing the interests of the students of Fairfax County Public Schools.
Students who are currently in grades 9, 10, and 11 are eligible to apply, and they do not need to be current members of the Superintendent’s Student Advisory Council (SAC). Applications are due by April 7.
The application and more information are available online.
Citizens Committee for the Bond- Volunteer Opportunity
Every two years, Fairfax County places a school construction bond referendum on the ballot. For more than 10 years, Fairfax/NOVA Chamber of Commerce has established a School Construction Bond Committee to advocate affirmative votes for the bond. The committee seeks representatives from many parts of the community including from School Board members' districts.
The 2021 Citizen’s Committee for the Bond is again seeking appointees and each school board member is asked to put two names forward of citizens willing to serve. Please consider being my Dranesville representative.
General tasks and commitment for committee members include:
- The committee member should expect to meet 6 to 9 times between July and November.
- Communing support for the bond to HOA boards, other organizations and chambers.
- Distributing information electronically and in print such as yard signs, shirts, stickers, and Facts booklets, though the committee will be discussing methods as per COVID-19 restrictions.
If you are interested in serving for Dranesville, please forward by April 15, a paragraph of your interest and qualifications and your resume to my assistant, Wendy Biliter at wmbiliter@fcps.edu
A Brighter 2021: Ending the School Year Strong, featuring Ana Homayoun
Tuesday, April 13, 2021 at noon
The Safe Community Coalition (SCC) is excited to host noted author Ana Homayoun as she discusses how we set students up socially, emotionally and academically in the midst of remote and hybrid schooling. Ana will address ways to be organized during hybrid and remote learning and discuss how to support healthy socialization and a sense of curiosity and discovery as we head into summer break. Many parents are feeling a sense of underlying anxiety about learning gaps and "feeling behind," and Ana will look at how to address and reframe some of these concerns. Above all, Ana will offer practical, implementable strategies to support student, parent and caregiver well-being.
This event is FREE, but registration is required. Registrants will be able to access the video for two weeks following the live event. Register today at www.mcleanscc.org.
Upcoming School Board Meetings
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April 6, 2021, 11 a.m.- Work Session
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April 8, 2021, 7 p.m.- Regular School Board Meetings
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April 20, 2021, 11 a.m.- Work Session
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April 22, 2021, 7 p.m.- Regular School Board Meeting
How to Watch Meetings
The views contained within this newsletter reflect the views of the individual school board member who is the publisher of this newsletter and may not reflect the views of the Fairfax County School Board.
© 2020 Fairfax County Public Schools, Fairfax County, Virginia
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