Important Upcoming Dates
January 27: Frost MS Rising 7th Grade Orientation - 6:30 p.m. (Virtual)
January 28: PTA Bingo Night - 6:00-7:30 p.m. (Virtual)
February 1: Religious/Cultural Observance: Lunar New Year
February 2: Principal’s Walking Club - 8:00 a.m.
February 2: PTA Meeting - 6:30 p.m. (Virtual)
February 3: Club and Candid Pictures
February 4: Progress Reports Available for Families
February 15: Bears Bedtime Stories - 7:00 p.m. (Virtual)
February 16: Frost Family Festival for Rising 7th Graders
February 21: Presidents’ Day - No School
New This Week
1. Message from Mrs. Miller
2. Upcoming Lockdown Drill
3. Wellness Plan
4. OC Staff Shout-outs
5. PTA Corner
6. National PTA Listening Sessions for Parents and Educators
Reminders & Updates
7. Health and Safety Reminders
8. Upcoming Frost MS Events for 6th Grade Families
9. Woodson’s Dessert on Broadway
10. Bears in the Spotlight
11. Bears Care Outreach
12. Contacts
13. Be Informed, Stay Involved!
1. Message from Mrs. Miller
We were thrilled to welcome our Bears back this week to kick off the third quarter! Our students were excited to be with their teachers and classmates. We love seeing those smiles behind their masks. We hope many of our students will be able to join us for our Principals’ Walking Club next Wednesday, February 2 at 8:00 a.m. in the gym.
Thank you for continuing to partner with us as we keep health and safety a priority. We continue to see the impacts from the current COVID surge. Throughout our school, our students are doing an excellent job wearing their masks and we are seeing the benefits of remaining diligent with implementing universal mask wearing and all of our other layered prevention strategies.
Please continue to message me directly as soon as possible (mhmiller@fcps.edu) to notify us if your child has tested positive for COVID. If your child has any of the symptoms in the daily health screening questionnaire, the expectation is that they will remain home. Students should always be fever free without using medications for 24 hours prior to returning to school.
We know COVID is continuing to challenge us in many ways as educators, parents, families, and community members. We are grateful for your continued patience, understanding, and grace that you have shown us throughout this pandemic.
Stronger Together,
Melissa Miller, Principal
Alison Butler, Assistant Principal
Kelly Durso, Assistant Principal
2. Upcoming Lockdown Drill
Keeping students and staff safe is a priority for all of us. We have a crisis management and emergency preparedness plan for our school that is reviewed and updated regularly. Our plan includes procedures on how to respond to incidents such as fires and tornadoes. Students and staff regularly practice these drills every school year. We also practice lockdown drills.
A new Virginia Law (22.1-137.2) requires schools to notify parents at least 24 hours before a school practices a lockdown drill. However, we are not required to share the exact date and time of the drill. We are required to practice lockdown drills two times a year. FCPS lockdown drills do not include any type of active shooter scenario training; they are instruction and classroom based.
We will conduct a lockdown drill at our school soon. Our kindergarten students are exempt from mandatory participation in lockdown drills during the first 60 days of the school year. They will participate in this drill.
Additional information on our lockdown drill program to include parent tips and FAQs can be found on the Emergency Planning and Crisis Response web page. After reviewing this content, you should discuss the value of these safety drills with your child.
Keeping our school safe and secure for all students and staff involves the participation of the entire school community, and we thank you for your help to keep our school safe.
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3. Wellness Plan
The Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER III) is a federal grant which requires that spending be used in specific areas. Part of the Fairfax County Public Schools spending plan identifies funding to be used for Unfinished Learning and Student Academic and Social, Emotional, Mental Health (Wellness) Needs. Schools have been given funding allocations to support the academic and wellness needs of students. Schools are required to create plans in Language Arts, Mathematics, and Wellness highlighting the strategies they will use to support these areas using their ESSER III funding.
Mrs. Miller gave a brief overview of our School Improvement and Innovation/ESSER Plan at the January PTA meeting. This overview included information about our academic and wellness plans. We presented our wellness plan, “My Best Self,” geared towards enhancing students’ abilities to regulate their feelings. The core belief is that when we are better able to control our reactions, we are more skillful problem solvers. For this program we will be using a visual continuum—the 5-point scale. Monthly lessons will be shared with all teachers. Brief activities will be offered throughout each month. We will continue to monitor the progress of students so that we can target individual needs and provide specific supports. Please contact us if you have any concerns or questions.
Ellen Goldberger, Ph.D. (emgoldberger@fcps.edu )
Nicole Davis (nadavis@fcps.edu)
4. OC Staff Shout-outs
Our Olde Creek staff continues to be incredible throughout this pandemic with each challenge that comes their way! We want to celebrate the extraordinary efforts of our teachers and staff during the 2021-22 school year. If your family would like to give a shout out to an OC staff member, please complete this survey.
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5. PTA Corner
Please join us on Wednesday, February 2nd at 6:30 p.m. for our virtual PTA meeting. Link will be sent ahead of time.
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6. National PTA Listening Sessions for Parents & Educators
Fairfax County Special Education PTA (SEPTA) is hosting virtual focus groups to discuss National PTA's Standards for Family-School Partnerships. Share your experiences and your perspectives on family-school partnerships.
- How do you want to engage with your child’s school?
- What are the most important parts of a parent-educator relationship?
Your feedback will be used to make family-school partnerships more inclusive and impactful in FCPS. National PTA will also use your feedback to inform a set of National Standards for family-school partnerships nationwide.
Sessions last 1 hour and 15 minutes, are interactive, discussion-based, and open to all FCPS families and educators. You do not need to be a PTA member to participate.
A small stipend will be given to the first 20 registrants per session who then attend and complete a brief survey.
REGISTER TODAY AT THE LINKS PROVIDED BELOW:
Questions? Please contact:
Michelle Cades - president@fairfaxcountysepta.org
Amanda Campbell - vicepresident@fairfaxcountysepta.org
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7. Health and Safety Reminders
8. Upcoming Frost MS Events for 6th Grade Families
We are eager to begin our upcoming transition activities with our future Frost Falcons! Please mark your calendars for our Rising 7th Grade Orientation on January 27th and the Frost Family Festival on February 16th. More information is included below on each of these events and a full list of our upcoming activities can be found here.
The Rising 7th Grade Orientation is for current 6th grade students who will be attending Frost in the 2022-2023 school year and their parents. This will take place virtually on January 27th at 6:30 PM. During this event you will hear from administration and school counselors who will provide an overview of Frost Middle School, course selection opportunities and the selection process. The link for this event is here. A recording of the event will be available for those who cannot attend on our Frost Student Services website here.
Please submit questions you may have about transitioning to 7th Grade at Frost Middle School. We will try to incorporate as many answers to your questions during the Rising 7th Grade Orientation on January 27, 2022. Use this link to submit your questions.
We will also be having the Frost Family Festival (in-person) on February 16th beginning at 5:30 p.m. This is a great opportunity to have dinner, get a school tour, and visit elective classes to help confirm desired course selections. More information to come from Frost and the PTA.
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9. Save the Date - Woodson’s Dessert on Broadway
Woodson High School's Dessert on Broadway is coming up on January 28th and 29th! Dessert on Broadway has been a tradition at Woodson HS for more than 30 years! Chorus students choreograph and perform songs from classic and modern musicals.
2022 Dessert on Broadway Performance Dates:
Friday, January 28 - 7 p.m.
Woodson Auditorium
Saturday, January 29 - 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
Woodson Auditorium
Tickets now on sale: https://www.woodsonchorus.org/dessert-on-broadway
10. Bears in the Spotlight!
We are excited to introduce a new program to highlight the incredible skills and talents of our Bears! On a daily basis, we have the opportunity to see our Bears’ strengths in school but we want to showcase the skills and talents our students demonstrate outside of school as well.
Each week on the morning news, we will have Bears in the Spotlight to share these skills and talents with our school community. Our students can sing, dance, share artwork, or videos of them playing sports or clips of other performances.
To submit one of our students to participate in Bears in the Spotlight, please utilize the below form.
https://forms.gle/um6VHjy6KKYLhMxJ6 (Please note: this form must be accessed using your child’s FCPS username & password.)
If your student would like to submit a video, you can utilize the Flipgrid link with the password below.
https://flipgrid.com/bfa686dd
Password: BearsSpotlight
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11. Bears Care Outreach
As always, the Olde Creek community showed tremendous generosity and support to the Bears Care food pantry for the winter break. Thank you!! Please use this sign up for much needed continued support through food items that can either be dropped off at the school or sent through this Amazon Wish List. (Email Lisa at lisamarm@gmail.com for any questions.)
You can also show your support by donating through the OC PTA PayPal account. The funds will be used to purchase items and gift cards based on the greatest needs of our families. Access the OC PTA PayPal account here: https://paypal.me/OldeCreekPTA.
Thank you, as always, for your kindness and generosity!
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12. Contacts
Olde Creek Attendance Phone Line: 703-426-3192
Olde Creek Attendance mailbox: OldeCreekElem.Attendance@fcps.edu
Technology Support for Families/Parent Help Desk: 1-833-921-3277
Parent Information Phone Lines/Support for parents who do not speak English as their first language: Parent Information Phone Lines
Parent and Student technology support: IT Support Portal
Melissa Miller, Principal, mhmiller@fcps.edu
Alison Butler, Assistant Principal, ajbutler@fcps.edu
Kelly Durso, Assistant Principal, kldurso@fcps.edu
Sylvia Alverson, Administrative Assistant, sjalverson@fcps.edu
Ann Platenkamp, Administrative Assistant, amplatenkamp@fcps.edu
Lizardo Santos, Student Information Assistant, LISantos@fcps.edu
Sandy McCulloch, Office Assistant, slmcculloch@fcps.edu
13. Be Informed, Stay Involved!
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