Coates Families,
We are super excited for the new school year! In fact, we made a short video for parents and students to explain some important beginning-of-the-year information. Check us out on YouTube (link)!
The info from this video and more is explained below. Let us know if you have any questions and PLEASE help us to get your kids excited about this new school year.
Jesse Kraft, Principal (jkraft@fcps.edu )
Jessica King, Assistant Principal (jaking@fcps.edu )
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Important Dates
wk of Aug. 16: Watch for an email with your child’s teacher assignment
Aug. 19: Back to School Night for K & 1st Grade Families, 6-7:30 PM
Aug. 23: FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL for all students
Aug. 24: Back to School Night for 2nd & 3rd Grade Families, 6-7:30 PM
Aug. 25: Back to School Night for 4th, 5th & 6th Grade Families, 6-7:30 PM
Aug. 31: Parent Coffee, 9:15-10:15 AM
Sept. 3: Labor Day Holiday
Sept. 6: Labor Day Holiday
Oct. 11: Student Holiday
Currently, FCPS requires everyone (students, teachers, parents, visitors) to wear a mask indoors with exceptions only for eating or teacher-directed mask breaks with distancing.
Students and staff may remove masks for outside recess, Physical education class, or other outside activities. Vaccinated teachers may remove masks outside as well.
Though there is currently no rule for physical distancing in the cafeteria during lunch time, at Coates we will be filling cafeteria tables at half-capacity to allow for more space between students while eating together. Our round cafeteria tables are built to seat 10 students. We will seat 4-6 at each table during our supervised lunch periods in the cafeteria and related spaces.
Some parents have asked about how students will travel in the hallways. At Coates, we do not have several “pass-through” times between periods like in middle and high school. We may have a large group moving through the halls at arrival time, but it is a short, adult-supervised trek from the front door to most classrooms. During the day, classes only travel the halls with their teachers, and each grade levels’ schedule is unique (e.g., 1st grade does not go to recess/lunch at the same time as 2nd grade, etc.). This means that we rarely have several classes in the hallways at the same time. At dismissal, we have always staggered our release of students to prevent crowding.
FCPS school buses will seat more than one student to a seat if needed. This is like the bus experience for students last spring and during summer school. Masks are required on the bus.
If a staff member observes a student displaying symptoms of COVID-19, s/he directs the child to our Care Room (separate from the Health Room, where kids get medications, band-aids, etc.) for care or parent pickup. FCPS has protocols for our staff to follow when infections are known or suspected.
While we can never guarantee total student safety, we want to ensure all families that we have appropriate measures in place, and our staff takes them seriously. We want all our kids to be healthy, and we want them to have a great school experience marked by lots of academic learning, appropriate social interactions, and fun.
First Bell: 9:00
Late Bell: 9:15
Dismissal Bell: 4:00
This is a return to our pre-pandemic bell schedule
 This year, all major supplies for students (pencils, notebooks, folders, etc.) will be provided by us. We ask that all students come to school with the following items:
- Backpack
- Water bottle
- 1 box of tissues
- 1 can of cleaning wipes
Any family that needs help with getting these supplies may contact our family liaison, Solangie McPherson at svmcpherson@fcps.edu . Solangie provides reminders to families in need and those needing English to Spanish translation via the Remind app. If you download Remind, you’ll get her text message updates (Sign up using Class Name: Coates ES4 ; Class Code: coateses4).
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