FH Weekly Update - 5/7/23

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Principals' Message

Dear Freedom Hill Families,

This week is Staff Appreciation Week! We are so thankful for our amazing teachers and staff who make Freedom Hill the wonderfully supportive school community that benefits our students each day. This is a great week for your family to express appreciation for our classroom teachers and specialists. A heartfelt note is sometimes the best gift they can receive.

We also want to thank Sechin Lee and Sarah Lyon, our PTA leads for staff appreciation who have been doing a fabulous job with many events and meals for our staff during their busy days of teaching!

Finally, parents wishing to submit class placement input for next year should use the form below. Submissions are due tomorrow for 23-24 school year. 

 

Have a great week!

 

In partnership,

Nicholas Zapadka, Principal

Eric Kopacz, Assistant Principal


Upcoming Dates for Your Calendar

2022-23 FCPS School Calendar

  • May 8 - Optional Parent Input for Class Placement Due (See below) 
  • May 8 - 12 - Staff Appreciation Week
  • May 12 - PTA Bingo Night    
  • May 16 - 23 - SOL Testing Continues
  • May 29 - School Closed - Memorial Day

2023-24 FCPS School Calendar 


SY 23-24 Class Placement Parent Input

If your child is returning to Freedom Hill next school year, we offer you the opportunity to share any comments you would like regarding class placements. If you know that your family will not be joining us for the 2023-24 school year, please call or email Ms. Sujo at 703-506-7800 to let us know.

Our staff will be working on tentative class groupings this spring, with classroom assignments finalized in mid-August. As we make these placements, we consider many factors including individual academic and social strengths/needs, teacher input, and social relationships. Every class will have a blend of children with diverse needs, personalities, and learning interests. Due to the many factors we must consider in creating classroom placements, including the reassignment of some teachers to a different grade level and the hiring of new teachers, requests for a specific teacher cannot be honored.

If you have information that you believe is pertinent to your child’s placement for next year, please complete the optional Class Placement Input Form (one per child) by Monday, May 8th for it to be taken into consideration. There is no need to complete the form if you do not have any information you would like us to consider. Thank you.


2023-24 Staff Hiring

As you may have heard, a shortage of educators currently exists in Virginia and also the nation as a whole. We would appreciate our community's support referring future educators to our school! Prospective educators can always email their resume to Dr. Z. with interest in working at Freedom Hill. Our current vacancies for 2023-24 include:

  • Classroom Teacher - Upper Grades (4-6)
  • Special Education Teacher - Intellectual Disabilities
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Grand Opening - FH Salad Bar

Thank you to everyone who supported the opening of our Freedom Hill Salad Bar! We had a blast and are so thankful to have healthy fruits and vegetables each day as part of our school lunches!

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Yearbook Sales

Yearbook sales have opened! Please see our flyer for ordering information.

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Positivity Project: Leadership

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This week, we are focusing on Leadership. You value each member of your group and inspire other people to do their best.

 

“Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and actions.”

           ~Harold S. Geneen

 

Questions you might enjoy talking about:

  • What are some of the characteristics of a good leader?
  • Do you consider yourself a leader? If not, what are some characteristics that might make that more possible? If so, what are the characteristics of leadership you need to build on to make stronger?
  • How does it make you feel to think about yourself as a leader?

Watch D.O.G.S. Signup

The signups for our daily Watch D.O.G.S. (Dad of Great Students) is ready! You can sign up to volunteer for a day at Freedom Hill with this link. Thank you to our "Top Dog" David Hay for organizing this for our community. If you missed it, you can learn more about the program in this quick video

The daily D.O.G.S. will report to the front office at 9:00 to receive their schedule. We look forward to it!

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2023 SOL Calendar

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SOL testing will be taking place in the month of May this year for students in grades 3-6. The SOL assessments are content assessments that measure a student’s growth in Mathematics, Reading, and Science (5th grade only). These tests will be conducted during the morning of the dates listed in the table above. It is important that your child attend school on the dates designated for them to test.  Please ensure your child gets plenty of rest the night prior. If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Kopacz, our school testing coordinator.


Kindergarten Registration Open

It is already that time of year to start planning for next year.  Our Kindergarten registration for the 2023-2024 school year is now open.  Please use the online portal to submit your initial information and our registrar, Ms. Sujo, will follow up with you.  

 

 

If you have a child at home who will be five by September 30th, please register now.  If you have any neighbors with rising kindergartners, please send this information to them, as well.  

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#FHHighlights

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PTA Updates

We hope you had a great weekend. Two key things this week. Staff Appreciation Week is this week and Bingo Night is THIS Friday. Don’t forget to buy your on Pay4SchoolStuff!

 

BINGO NIGHT MAY 12th!

Get ready to have an awesome night of fun on Friday, May 12th with FHES Bingo Night! Come play bingo with your friends and win prizes on Friday, May 12th from 6-8pm! Bingo cards are $1 per card or $5 for 6 cards. You can also pre-order your pizza too! Card sales and Pizza sales are available to purchase on Pay4SchoolStuff! Pizza sales help 6th grade moving up activities. Check out the flier for more info! We need 6 more volunteers. Can you help? Volunteer here.

 

STAFF APPRECIATION WEEK 5/8-5/12

We’re so excited to appreciate our awesome staff and teachers and RAISE THE BAR for them! Check out the awesome activities we’ve planned for Teacher Appreciation week in the flier here! Props to Sechin Lee and Sara Lyon for leading this effort! If you can help with set up or clean up (sign up here) or food provisions (here), it’d be greatly appreciated!

 

PTA BOARD NOMINATIONS OPEN This is your chance to give back to FHES through your awesome organizational skills. Apply for the PTA board by emailing this form (also available in word if you email us) to nominating_committee@freedomhillpta.org. Thank you Tori Draude, Angela Waugaman and Michelle Zahalsky for helping with the nominating committee! If you are curious about the time/effort, contact president@freeomhillpta.org or any board member for details!

 

SCHOOL SUPPLIES ON SALE FOR FALL!

The end of the year is quickly approaching. Get ahead for next fall and skip back-to-school shopping with our Sprout School Supply Kits for 2023-2024. It's an easy way to save time and money on back to school supplies and support your school community. Check out the flier here or order online with school code: FHES001. Deadline to order is June 20th!

 

HARRIETTE BEST NOMINATIONS

Nominations are open for the Harriette Best Award. Please email the name of your nominee to info@freedomhillpta.org and write a short explanation on why this person should get this award. Nominations due by Monday, May 15th.  What is the Harriette Best Award? The Harriette Ann Best Award was instituted more than a decade ago by the Freedom Hill’s Parent Teacher Association as a tribute to honor our former Assistant Principal.  Mrs. Best was the epitome of dedication to the staff, students, and community of Freedom Hill from 1991 through 2003.  Since its inception, this award has been given each year since to the parent(s) and/or staff member(s) who best exemplify what Mrs. Best continued to accomplish until her retirement. Recent award winners include: Katherine Cadena-Gonce and Elizabeth Spinney (2022), Neda Sarafrazi and Lisa Bliss (2021), Diana Hernandez (2020), Tina Ejtemai Crawford and Louan Hassinger (2019). 

 

MARSHALL BASKETBALL CAMP

Marshall HS is is running a Boys Basketball camp June 28th – July 2nd this year and it is open to all rising 2nd – 10th graders.  Please see the informational flier and our online registration is here: Questions? Contact Jerry Lin at: clin@fcps.edu.

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