Bulldog Breakdown 8/21 - 8/27

Good Afternoon Bulldog Families–

I hope that you and your family had a great week! We really enjoyed seeing many of you at the Bulldog BBQ this Thursday. It seems like everybody is ready to be back and I can feel the excitement already. I truly believe that this is going to be an incredible and defining year for Westfield High School!

There is a lot of information below from both me and FCPS. There are a few things that I want to highlight though. First and foremost, I want to reiterate that your students’ safety is our top priority here at Westfield. Our Superintendent, Dr. Reid, sent out an e-mail earlier this week regarding an incident at Glasgow Middle School. I urge you to speak with your students about the importance of being proactive with any safety and security concerns they have, and encourage both you and them to reach out to ANY trusted adult in the building, including subschools and myself. Safety and security is our highest priority. 

Also, please make sure to look at the section about FCPS’ new cell-phone policy. Cell phones need to be off and put away during class time unless otherwise instructed by teachers. A lot of research has been done surrounding cell-phones with adolescents and in the classrooms, and the consensus is that policies such as this improve achievement and reduce stress. I’m hopeful that we’ll see both of those outcomes this year with the new policy. 

Lastly, I know there has been some confusion with schedules and Schoology. Much of this is due to technology issues that we have been resolving all week and into this weekend. Please know that we are fully staffed at Westfield and that while your students’ schedule might say “vacancy” or something like “Soc Science Teacher”, we do have highly qualified teachers for every class. The same goes for Schoology which you will see more about below. 

We are extremely excited to welcome everybody back this week! As always, please feel free to reach out to me with observations, suggestions, questions and celebrations. You can do that through e-mail, call, or  through the form located here: https://forms.gle/4eW9rgPRVBF2a5gd8. 

Go Bulldogs!

Tony DiBari 

Proud Principal

Westfield High School

Cell Phone Policy

The new SR&R section on cell phones prohibits cell phone use in classrooms. We recognize that this new policy will be a shift for many students and families this year, but research shows that managing phone use during class time will support students’ attention and ability to fully engage in their learning. We will be reiterating this with students throughout the year, and look forward to your support at home. 

Students in secondary and high schools must silence phones and put them away during all instructional periods, unless there is a medical need or emergency, or teachers have allowed the usage of cell phones for instructional activities. 

Cell phones may be used on campus before the first bell, after the last bell, during passing periods, and lunches.

Updated Schoology Pages

There have been some technology issues with Schoology that have delayed the creation of some teacher Schoology pages. These issues should be resolved by the end of the first week of school, and you and your student will have access to teacher pages by then. Please understand that this is no fault of our teachers and they have been working diligently to make sure that pages are ready to go as soon as possible. I appreciate your understanding.

Transportation/Drop-Off

Unless meeting with a performance group, athletic team, or other staff sponsored organization, students should not enter the building before 7:30am. 

Kiss & Ride: You may drop your students off at Door 11 starting at 7:30. When entering the Kiss & Ride loop, please make sure to pull forward as much as possible to allow more cars. This helps the line move quickly and clears traffic from Stonecroft Boulevard.

Bus stops and route information will be shared with families via the ParentVUE accounts on August 9. For more information about bus transportation, including how to access the Bus Delay Notification System, visit the Transportation page.  Transportation will load that information in SIS StudentVUE and ParentVUE under Student Info > Transportation. You can only see this information if you log on via the website, not the app.

If you have any specific transportation questions, please contact the Transportation Office at 703-249-7000.

Digital Consent

At Westfield High School, our teachers will use a variety of digital resources to support student learning and promote communication and collaboration with students and families.  Some of the digital resources your student may use this year will require your consent before they can be used.  You can find our school’s list of the resources that require parental consent here.

Here is the link to a form where you need to indicate whether or not your student is allowed to use the list of digital resources this year. We encourage you to complete the parental consent for digital resources form as soon as possible, as your student will not be able to use the digital resources until we have received your permission.

If you have multiple children at Westfield, the form will need to be filled out individually for each child. Also, if your child attends an academy or online campus you will need to fill this out for each school setting.

The site may experience a high volume of traffic, as all parents in FCPS attempt to provide permission for their children. If the link does not work at the time you attempt to fill it out, please try again at a later time. We appreciate your patience.

If you need the consent form in another language please click here and choose another language on the menu at the top right of the page. If you need a translated form, please do not use Internet Explorer.

If you have any questions, please email Kyle Laspe, Assistant Principal at kclaspe@fcps.edu

Families in Need of Support

Westfield High School has partnered with Western Fairfax Christian Ministries to provide students in need healthy meals for the weekends. Westfield is delivering approximately 50 meals to students every Friday afternoon. If you have a student who could benefit from a Friday meal at anytime this school year, please reach out to Sara Genetin at sjgenetinpil@fcps.edu or 703-488-6382. 

Staff Recognition

FCPS Cares is an opportunity for parents, staff, and community members to recognize FCPS employees for going above and beyond to help others and show they care. Please visit the following link to recognize staff members who have done impactful things: FCPS Cares

Volunteer Call-out

We are still looking for your help! We value you as community partners and want to invite you to become more involved at Westfield. One way to do this is to volunteer and substitute teach. If you’re interested, the first step is following the links below. Thank you for your willingness to help!

FCPS Volunteers:  https://www.fcps.edu/get-involved/volunteer-fcps 

Substitute Teachers:   https://www.fcps.edu/careers/career-opportunities/substitute-teaching-opportunities/new-applicants

Westfield Volunteer Interest Form:  https://forms.gle/go7B58zdT1cz5Km9A

Tech Updates

Need Tech Support? CLICK HERE

Calendar

From FCPS

Topic: SOL Test Results

The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) has announced 2021-22 Standards of Learning (SOL) data for school divisions that shows Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) has made steady progress towards a return to pre-pandemic levels.

FCPS annual pass rates for 2022 indicate that, while the road to recovery continues, FCPS students made promising gains in reading, mathematics, and science over the course of the 2022 school year. Read more about our plans for continued improvement of the SOL pass rates.

Topic: COVID Updates

Earlier this week, FCPS sent an update on COVID-19 layered prevention strategies that will continue to be in place this school year. While we had hoped that the pandemic would be behind us, it seems that COVID will be something we must manage as a community for the foreseeable future. FCPS will continue to follow the guidance of national, state, and local health experts when determining the layered prevention strategies that are needed to keep our schools safe and open for learning. It is important that we all work together towards this goal. 

Highlights from that guidance include: 

• FCPS continues to require families to review the Daily Health Screening before sending students to school. 
• The 5 Day Isolation Period will continue for COVID positive students and staff.
• The CDC recommends the COVID vaccine as a safe and effective way of significantly lowering your risk of severe illness, hospitalization, and death if you get infected. Vaccines are now available for our youngest students. However, COVID vaccines are not part of the required immunizations for school entry. 
• At this time, masks are not required. The current CDC COVID-19 Community Level for Fairfax County is low. However, should the community level rise to “high,” FCPS would then require all students, staff, and visitors to wear a face covering when indoors on school property (to include the buildings, school buses and other school provided vehicles; except while actively eating/drinking). The Code of Virginia allows parents/legal guardians to elect for their child not to wear a face covering while on school property.
• Diagnostic testing will be available beginning Tuesday, August 16, for FCPS students and staff who are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 or have been in close contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19. Information on diagnostic testing will continue to be updated on our website.
• FCPS will no longer send a daily or weekly COVID case update. Parents/Guardians will only receive an email from their child’s school when several cases of COVID-19 occur in a single classroom, sports team, or extracurricular activity within a 14-day period. Individual case reports will be available on the FCPS COVID-19 Dashboard on our website.

To stay up to date, please continue to review our Health and Safety Guidance on our website.

Topic: Text Messages for Parents

Parents can Receive Text Messages from FCPS for Emergencies and Essential Information

Make sure your cell phone numbers are listed in the parent/guardian contact information section on the emergency care information form for each of your children. Parents and guardians can view and update emergency contact information online using weCare@school. 

Text messages will be sent in the event of emergencies, delays or school closings, if buses are running more than 30 minutes late, if your student missed the morning attendance deadline, and for other important reminders. 

Standard message and data charges may apply for text messages depending on your cell phone service plan. More about text messages is available online.

Topic: Lightspeed Parent Report on Child’s Device Activity

FCPS has tools to help parents and guardians know more about their child’s activity on any FCPS device. These tools are provided by Lightspeed, our internet content filtering service, at no cost to families. You may sign up for a weekly Parent Report, which will provide a list of the top sites your child visited. If you want more detailed information, sign up for the Internet Use Parent portal and log-in anytime to see more detail about your child’s browsing and “pause” access to the internet during non-school hours. Find out more and sign up for these services on our website.

Topic: Annual Notice of Survey, Records, Curriculum, Privacy, and Related Rights

Please remember to look for an email from FCPS with information about how to review this annual information:

Fairfax County Public Schools wants all parents to understand its policies regarding surveys, records, curriculum, privacy, and related rights.

Please look for an email that you should have received August 18 in which FCPS shared the Annual Notice of Survey, Records, Curriculum, Privacy, and Related Rights and Opt-Out Forms (Annual Notice), FCPS provides explanations of the rights listed above as well as forms that may be used to exercise opt-out choices. Two versions of the Annual Notice are available—a grades K-8 version and a grades 9-12 version. If you have children at different grade levels, please read each applicable version of the Annual Notice because the notices and opt-out rights vary depending on the student’s grade level.

Get more information and view the 2022-23 Opt-Out Booklets.

Topic: Buses and Delays

Please be aware that all of us are getting used to new routines at the start of the school year. Thank you for your patience as those routines are established. If a student’s bus is delayed, parents may access the Bus Delay Notification System or use the Here Comes the Bus mobile app to receive the delayed bus report. E-Notify (School Messenger) email messages will also be sent to announce significant bus delays. Contact the Transportation Office at 703-249-7000.  For any concerns after hours (after 5:30 p.m.), contact Safety and Security at 571-423-2000.

4700 Stonecroft Blvd, Chantilly, VA 20151  | Main Office: 703-488-6300
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