Glasgow Community Gazette - October 10

Glasgow Community:

I hope that you are enjoying time with family and friends this weekend. Thank you to those who were able to join us on Saturday, for our Inspire event that was focused on academic and wellness support. Our goal is to continue to ensure we are creating spaces aligned with a caring culture, building relationships, and community through activities and strategies that can assist learning outside of the school day. Students and parents were engaged in sessions like IB/AAP, math, literacy skills and physical activity sessions that assisted with students wellness. We were so thankful to have Howard University’s Dean of Education, Dr. Dawn Williams, speak with our students. 

Upcoming Celebrations and Observations: October is LGBTQ History Month and Disability History and Awareness Month. October 11 is Indigenous People’s Day. Help us celebrate and commemorate these occasions! We will celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day by recognizing and honoring the beautiful traditions and cultures of Indigenous People, not just in America, but around the world. October is Disability History and Awareness Month in Virginia. Here at Glasgow MS we honor those with disabilities and promote equal opportunities for all. Read one student’s story.  Also Glasgow MS celebrates the achievements of LGBTQ+ icons from our community and around the world. For more on how FCPS provides a safe and respectful environment for all, visit our website. 

A one size fits all approach does not work in a division as large as FCPS, where every school has unique needs, layouts, student population, staffing, community involvement, and culture. The division has set standards guided by the advice of state and local health officials. At Glasgow MS we have considered our schedule, student population, physical layout, outdoor space, and staff availability when planning for alternative lunch spaces. Here at Glasgow MS, we have utilized 120 outdoor seats, our cafeteria space and 100 additional seats in our lecture hall to assist with mitigation strategies for our lunches. We will continue to use plexiglass barriers to assist in mitigation strategies. Our highest priority is student safety, and I assure you that I continue to review our practices to ensure we are providing the best for our students. We have been pleased to have less than 6 positive cases in our building thus far and each case was not connected to Glasgow MS.

As always, please feel free to contact me or your child’s administrator if you have any questions. I am still conducting home visits, so please let me know if you would like me to visit your home. Let's have a great week! 

Humbly,

Victor L. Powell, Principal

Contact Information:

Email: vlpowell@fcps.edu

Twitter: @VictorLeonPowe1

Website: http://www.fcps.edu/GlasgowMS/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GlasgowMS.FCPS/

Important Dates

October 11- School Planning Day - No Students

October 12 - SEL Screener

October 19 & 20 - Picture Days, done through HPE classes

October 22 - PTA Movie Night

October 29 - 1st Quarter Ends, 2 hour Early Release

November 1 & 2 - School Planning Days - No Students

Important Information 

PTA - Movie Night: "Save the date for Glasgow PTA's FREE OUTDOOR MOVIE NIGHT on FRIDAY, OCTOBER 22 on the Glasgow field. It will be fun for the whole family! The movie starts at 7, but arrive early to get a great seat and buy some food or drink from a food truck. Bring blankets or lawn chairs to sit on. Students will vote on the movie during Panther Time in the coming weeks. Please note that students need to be supervised by an adult during the event. We are looking for parent volunteers to help organize this fun family event. Contact the PTA at glasgowpta.va@gmail.com if you can help!"

Social and Emotional Learning Screener, Tuesday October 12- This fall, FCPS schools will be administering a social and emotional learning screener to all students in order to assess how teachers, counselors, and staff can better support students’ social and emotional needs. Glasgow students will be taking the 18 question screener in Panther Time on Tuesday, October 12.  Learn more about the screener and review the questions here. Opt out forms were due by Thursday, September 30th. To opt your child out of participating in the screener, please complete the opt-out form found here and contact Sarah N’Guessan at senguessan@fcps.edu directly. 

AVID Field Trip Chaperones: Hello Glasgow parents and guardians! One of the goals of the Strategies for Success and AVID courses at Glasgow MS is to expose students to the opportunities available to them for their future. For this reason, our classes will be attending a College campus visit based on their grade level. Both the University of Maryland and George Mason University have graciously allowed our students to tour the campus and learn about the university’s academic programs, athletic programs, campus life, and more. This is sure to be an extraordinary experience for our students to learn about post-secondary education!

Glasgow will be taking these field trips on a few different day with different groups of students. Therefore, we are looking for any parent volunteers who would be willing to come along on the field trip with us as chaperones. If you are interested in volunteering as a chaperone, please email Kelly Greenshields at kagreenshiel@fcps.edu. Field trips are an invaluable learning opportunity for students and we hope you will be able to join us!

Credit for World Language Exam: Parents, is your student a 7th or 8th grader who is proficient in reading and writing in their first language? If so, then make sure your student signs up to take the Credit for World Language Exam on November 16th, here at Glasgow Middle School! 

The exam is designed to assess students’ first language proficiency and enable them to earn credits toward fulfilling the world language requirement for the Advanced Studies Diploma in high school. Passing this exam will also award students with the Biliteracy Seal upon graduation. Students who have the ability to read and write in one of the following 26 languages may take the exam to receive high school credit*:

American Sign Language, Amharic, Arabic, Bengali/ Bangla, Chinese/Mandarin, Farsi/Persian, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Nepali, Pashto, Punjabi, Russian, Sanskrit/Samskritam, Spanish, Somali, Tagalog/Pilipino, Tamil, Telugu, Tigrinia, Twi, Urdu, and Vietnamese. 

If you would like your child to take the Credit for World Language Exam, please have them sign-up in Student Services from Monday September 20 until Wednesday, October 13th at 2:00 p.m. 

*Please note that fluent oral speaking skills are not sufficient for this exam. 

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST)  Application Process for Eligible 8th Grade Students: Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST)  Application Process for Eligible 8th Grade Students: The application will open on Monday, October 25th at 4:00pm and close on Friday, November 19th at 4:00pm. Detailed information is posted on the TJ Admissions Office website: https://www.fcps.edu/registration/thomas-jefferson-high-school-science-and-technology-admissions/tjhsst-freshman. Please contact the TJ Admissions Office by email (tjadmissions@fcps.edu) or phone (571-423-3770) or the Glasgow TJ Liaison, Counselor Gregory Frantz (gdfrantz@fcps.edu) with questions.

ParentVUE - Sign up for ParentVUE if you have not already done so. ParentVUE allows you to access your child’s grades, schedule, attendance, and bus information. Sign up here. You should have received an activation code in the mail last week. For questions related to ParentVUE, please contact Dana Rivas, registrar, at dhrivas@fcps.edu. 

Helpful Links: Here Comes the Bus is an app that allows you to track the location of your child’s school bus. MySchoolBucks allows you to add funds to your child’s account for meals, and student fees. 

We Want Your Photos for the Yearbook!

Glasgow PTA News

Check out the Glasgow PTA website to find out how you can help at Glasgow!  glasgowms.memberhub.co 

To stay in touch and in the know, sign up for the PTA listserv by sending a request to glasgowpta.va@gmail.com. Or join the PTA at https://glasgowms.memberhub.co/store. It’s only $10!