This Week in Review

Greeting Frost MS Community!

We have two weeks down at Frost MS! It’s been great seeing our students back in the building and Affirming, Assessing and Advancing our students already! Relationship building and truly seeing our students for who they are is important to us! Returning back to school for 5 days is off to an awesome start for the 2021-22SY. We will continue to work with our students on the mitigation strategies we have in place and teaching our students about our classroom procedures. Students have done an amazing job these first two weeks! I am so proud.

Don’t forget Friday, September 3, and Monday, September 6, are Labor Day holidays for all FCPS employees and students. We hope everyone takes the long weekend to celebrate a strong start to the school year and enjoy time with family and friends.

Tuesday, September 7^th, is an Even Day so students will have their even numbered classes. Transportation is getting smoother both during arrival and dismissal. We will continue to adjust, as needed, at kiss & ride and bus dismissal. However, most students are riding the school buses and most buses are at Frost by 7:20 AM and the Kiss and Ride line begins to dwindle down at 7:25 AM. Students are doing a better job of remembering their bus numbers and working with school staff to find buses in the afternoon line-up.

Last week, we were able to offer options for our students during lunch even though we have limited space at Frost due to renovation. We are able to accommodate 60 to 70 students in our courtyard for additional cafeteria seating outside. We are excited to see everyone virtually at Back-to-School-Night on September 14^th!  This is a time for our community to get know their child’s teachers and learn more about the courses our students are taking in addition to learning more about Frost MS! More information about BTSN is below.  Thank you in advance for all your patience, grace and understanding during this time as our staff and students transition back for 5 days. We are excited to serve our community.

As always, “Work Hard. Be Nice. Widen Your Circle!” We are #ONEFrost!

Take a look at a message from our PTA president below!

Anthony Harris

News from the PTA

The Frost PTA will be holding our first general membership meeting on Thursday, September 9, 2021 at 7:30 pm.  Please join us in person at Frost MS (Room 106) or online (link to be provided the morning of 9/9).  We will be joined by Mr. Harris and are planning to discuss the following topics: the new Schoology system, the ongoing construction at Frost MS, After School Activities, Back-to-School Night, and the Frost PTA budget.  We hope you can join us and we look forward to working with you all to make this a great year at Frost Middle School!

Allison Pugsley

Frost MS PTA President

Upcoming Dates - Mark Your Calendars

September 3 – September 6              Labor Day Holiday

September 9                                       First PTA Meeting @ 7:30 PM in Room 106- Meeting will be streamed via Zoom as well- the link will be sent out the day of for security reasons.

September 14                                     Back to School Night (Virtual- more information below)

September 17                                     WTW Woodson Feeder Night at 6:30 pm (flyer attached) 

Woodson Feeder Night Flyer.doc

September 27                                     After School Program Begins

October 11                                          School Planning Day/Student Holiday

October 29                                          End of 1^st Quarter      

November 1 – 2                                  Teacher Workdays/Student Holidays

In Other News....

Back to School Night Information

This year the Back to School Night offerings at Frost MS will be all virtual with a mix of synchronous and asynchronous offerings. There will be two opportunities for families on September 14^th to learn some information- Frost MS 101 from the admin team. These synchronous offerings will be held in the morning at 9 AM and in the evening at 7 PM to accommodate our families’ varied schedules and commitment. Frost MS administration will share a wide variety of information to include Health and Safety Protocols, Grading, information about Falcon Focus, etc...  Parents can choose to attend one of those sessions.

In addition, we will have our teachers provide information about their individual classes asynchronously. Families will be able to access these teacher-created videos beginning September 14^th. Teachers will share course specific information with families in their videos. We will send out our Frost MS Back to School Night landing page closer to the event on September 14^th. There will be no in-person events.

Grading Information

All Frost staff will be using a Rolling (cumulative) Gradebook. Final grades are determined by a combination of all assignments and assessments over the course of the entire school year.  It is not an average of quarter marks.  The grade posted at the end of each traditional quarter is a snapshot of a student’s current progress in the course.  Video regarding the Rolling Gradebook can be found here.

• Please remember that while assignments and grades may appear in both Schoology and SIS; SIS is the gradebook of record.

• See individual class syllabus for specific weighting of assignments, late work, make-up work, and retake policies.
• Teachers will continue to update the gradebook, generally within 7 school days, of an assignment due date.
• Grades can be viewed by students and parents on an ongoing basis with a SIS account accessible here beginning 9/7.  
• Parents will receive weekly snapshot grades that are pushed out by the county (these are grades only without specific assignments per class) beginning in mid-September.
• Teachers will also be emailing detailed progress reports throughout the school year (see timeline below). 
• At the end of the quarter, progress reports will be emailed and a snapshot of the child’s grade in each class will be posted on the Report Card tab in SIS.
• Report cards will not be provided, unless requested, as the grade is not a final grade for the quarter due to use of the rolling gradebook.

Detailed progress reports (per class) will be emailed to parents by 3 PM on the dates below (approximately every 4.5 weeks throughout the year):

Schoology---Resources for Parents

Need help logging in to Schoology? Use the quick videos on this page for more information!

Schoology Information

We are excited to share that students, families, and teachers throughout FCPS and in our school community will use Schoology (pronounced /SKOO-luh-jee/) as our learning management system beginning Summer/Fall 2021.

• Schoology has a connected web conferencing tool, Zoom
• Schoology works with Google Drive
• You need a SIS/ParentVUE account to login to Schoology
• Click here to learn more about Schoology
• Parent accounts will be available in mid-August
• Information about how to login to parent accounts will be shared with you closer to the start of the school year
• Students will have a Schoology account by August 18, 2021
• Students will not see any classes until the grading period starts

Students use their FCPS student ID and password to login to Schoology. Look for the FCPS logo to make sure you are on the correct login page.

Students’ Rights and Responsibilities

All students will be participating in a virtual Students’ Rights and Responsibilities (SR&R) presentation during Falcon Focus (advisory). Students will view the school division’s SR&R update video. To learn more about the SR&R and access the full guide and/or the quick guide, please click HERE

How to Report an Absence

If your child is sick or will be absent for any reason, please let us know as soon as possible by reporting an absence. Form submissions are monitored throughout the day by our office staff and your child’s attendance will be updated in SIS for our teachers. You can find the form at the bottom of our Frost MS Webpage.  You can use this direct link also. 

Off and Away for the Day

Frost MS will be an Away for the Day School again this year. Students will be required to turn phones/electronic devices off and keep them in their backpacks from 7:30-2:15 with the following exceptions:

• Before School- during breakfast
• Brain Breaks
• Lunch

Returning to school in the building provides an opportunity to reacclimate to school, peers, and communicating in person. We found students were more successful and focused in school with the implementation of Away from the Day two years ago but also realize our students look forward to using their device, even if limited.

Breakfast is Served!

Breakfast is served every day in the cafeteria until 7:30 am. If your son or daughter would like breakfast, please remind them to get breakfast upon their arrival. Students will be able to get a pass to their first or second period class, if needed, in order to ensure they get breakfast! Quick reminder that breakfast and lunch are free to all students this school year!

Free and Reduced Lunch Application

This year breakfast and lunch are free to all students. However, if your family qualifies for Free or Reduced Lunch, it is important to still complete the application so that families are able to qualify for the other free or reduced fees, such as student fees for supplies for elective classes.

• The free and reduced meals application includes an online application for parents/guardians to submit the application electronically for faster processing.
• The online free and reduced meals application is available in the following languages (to change the language of the application click on the Language link in the top right of the screen): English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Tagalog, French, Vietnamese, Korean

• The online application can be completed on mobile devices.
• If an email address is provided, notification will be e-mailed regarding approval.

To access the form, please click the following link: English Application

Label Everything with Your Child’s Name!

We are already experiencing things being left behind in classes and during lunch. To ensure you are getting your belongings back home each day, it is VERY important that you LABEL EVERYTHING! If there is a name on an item, it is much easier to get things back to the correct student. 

As we get into fall and winter weather (it will eventually get here), please be sure to label your child’s jackets, coats, hats, and any other outerwear they will bring to school. Many students will have the same jackets - so a label makes identifying who an item belongs to so much easier. Please LABEL EVERYTHING!

FCPS Needs Bus Drivers!

New Incentive - New drivers will receive a $3,000 signing bonus - $1,500 after consecutive employment of 90 workdays, and $1,500 will be given after the first 180 working days (paid school days) if the driver receives a satisfactory  evaluation, and is recommended for continued employment with Transportation Services.  We hope this helps us to add many new bus drivers to our team!

New Hourly Rate for School Bus Drivers - We are also excited to say our starting bus driver pay has increased to $22.91.

For more information, please contact the Applicant Center - Connie Lovejoy at 571-423-3023.

Forms Collection

Forms collection continues to be very successful, but we are still missing forms for around 300 students.  We will continue to collect forms through the next few weeks, until we have them for all of our students.  You may send forms in with you student or you may email them to Susan Morningstar at sjmorningsta@fcps.edu.

As a reminder:

You may access all required forms at this link.  Please review the following as you are completing forms:

REQUIRED FORMS

• Emergency Care Form – Parents may complete the Emergency Care Form and print it or may update the form through WeCare.  If the form is updated through WeCare, you do not need to print a copy.  WeCare can be found at this link:  https://www.fcps.edu/node/30943.
• Health Information Form:  You must complete and print a copy of the Health Information Form and bring it into school. 
• After-School Program Registration – All families must register for the After-School Program, whether they intend to use it or not.  You may register online at the link, above, or fill out a paper copy at Frost.
• Parent Consent for Instructional Digital Resources – The form is online as well and can be found at the link, above.  Or you can fill out a paper copy at Frost.

All forms will be available to fill out at Frost if you are unable to complete them online.

Parent Consent Needed: Digital Resources, YouTube - YouTube provides access to high quality educational videos that support FCPS instructional programs. In order to strengthen our YouTube controls and limit access to non-educational content, we are offering the ability for students to log onto YouTube with their FCPS Google account. With this additional layer of protection, FCPS will be able to implement stricter controls on videos available for student use in educational settings.

Starting September 1, 2021, parental consent will be required for students to access YouTube. Students with parental consent will experience strict filtering of YouTube videos to protect them from inappropriate content when logged in to their FCPS Google Account.

With this parent consent, students will be able to log on to YouTube and access educational videos approved by FCPS staff.

Without parental consent, students will not be able to access YouTube when signed in to Chrome or Edge with their FCPS Google account. In addition, students without parental consent will not be able to access videos approved by FCPS staff, unless those videos are embedded by a teacher into a Google Workspace product (such as a Google Slides presentation or Google Site). For more detailed information, review the FCPS Guide to Student YouTube Access.

Returning Strong- Health and Safety Measures

FCPS is returning strong for a strong school year this fall. Students will engage in in-person learning five days a week in safe and supportive schools. 

As we prepare to welcome students back to the classroom, COVID-19 case numbers are increasing in Fairfax County, driven by the highly-contagious Delta variant and slowing vaccination rates. The key to maintaining a healthy environment for learning is a robust vaccination rate and layered prevention strategies, including universal masking.

There are three things we can all do to start strong this fall:

1. Wear a mask
2. Get vaccinated
3. Stay connected

FCPS Resources:

Return to School Webpage

Return to School- Safety Webpage

The Student Health and Safety Document is continually updated and provides detailed information on school policies and protocols related to COVID-19 such as adherence to layered prevention strategies. These guidance documents will continue to be updated to align with public health guidance.

VDOE Resource:

The Virginia Department of Health, along with the Virginia Department of Education launched the Healthy Back to School COVID-19 Website as a resource for schools and families.

4101 Pickett Rd Fairfax, VA 22032  | Main Office: 703.426.5700
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