Principal's Message
I hope everyone enjoyed the winter break with friends and family. This week we are excited to settle back into the new year with a few new families joining our community. It is always great to welcome in new students. If you are new, we encourage you to get involved, join our PTA and join us for community events. Our next PTA meeting is next week! It was great to have everyone back today to kick off 2024!
Today, we welcomed Cora Russell to our 3rd grade team who will be filling in for Mrs. Jankowski's maternity leave.
On January 16th, Mrs. Gales will be returning from her maternity leave in 2nd grade. We are thankful to have had Mrs. Ali supporting our 2nd graders during her absence.
Wishing everyone a wonderful week!
Sincerely,
Stacy Kirkpatrick
Upcoming Dates to Note
January 2 - First Day Back from Winter Break
January 10 - Longfellow Curriculum Info Night - Rising 7 Graders (see below)
January 11 - PTA Meeting (time TBD)
January 12 - Last day for CES FLES Survey
January 15 - MLK Jr. Birthday Holiday - School Closed
January 18 - Immersion Information Session - 5:30 p.m. Kent Gardens
January 25 - End of Quarter and 2 Hour Early Release at 1:35
January 26 - Teacher Workday (No School for Students)
February 19 - President's Day - No School
FCPS annual calendar is here.
Foreign Language in the Elementary School - CES Survey ends 1/12
Over the past six years parents and students have shared requests to review and evaluate the possibility of providing a different language at Chesterbrook. In the process of reviewing the language instruction provided, we also want to ensure we have all the feedback from our community. Recently FCPS provided a survey to families that was available in November and December. Parents are encouraged to provide any feedback by Friday 1/12 on this Chesterbrook specific survey.
Winter PTA Before/Afterschool Activities
This winter the PTA has put together many wonderful opportunities for our students before and afterschool including:
- *New!* Math Club (Currently LOW enrollment, so please sign up soon if you are interested!)
- Chesterbrook PTA is proudly sponsoring a new Math Club for sixth graders and advanced fifth graders. The math club is run by the Russian School of Math, a premier math after school program featured in NPR. The class will focus on preparing students for middle school with a sensible mastery of computations and order of operations with rational numbers, fractions, and decimals, solving equations, and working with algebraic expressions. The class will be on Tuesday afternoons from January to the end of the school year. See the flyer below for more info!
Please visit the PTA website here for more information including registration details. For questions, contact Rachel or Carmen at afterschool@chesterbrookpta.org.
Longfellow Rising 7th Grade Curriculum Night - Jan 10th
Wednesday, January 10, 2024, Longfellow MS will be hosting an in-person Rising 7th Grade Curriculum Night from 6:00pm - 8:00pm. Make-up day will be Wednesday, January 17, 2024. During curriculum night important information regarding the transition to middle school will be shared, including selection of electives and core classes. Families will also have time to walk the building. The presentation will also be available on our website.
Dual Language Immersion Registration
All rising kindergarten and first grade students who live in Fairfax County may enter a lottery to participate in Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs. In DLI programs, students are learning elementary content in two languages with students spending half of the day learning in either language. English Language Arts and Social Studies are taught in English. Math, Science, Health, and Target Language Arts are taught in another language. FCPS offers DLI programs in French, German, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish. Online lottery application begins on January 22nd at 9 a.m. A SIS account is required to complete the application. If a student is not currently enrolled in FCPS, registration at the base school is required. FCPS does not provide transportation for students who live outside the attendance area of the DLI school. A one-time fee of $100 must be paid upon acceptance of an out-of-boundary placement (see Notice 5922).
Kent Gardens will host an information session led by Beatrix Preusse from the World Languages Department on January 18th at 5:30 p.m. in the cafeteria.
For more information including program sites and information sessions, please visit: https://www.fcps.edu/registration/dual-language-immersion-programs-registration
Snow Days This Winter
For the current school year, FCPS will be returning to its previous procedure for snow days — there will be no virtual learning days when school is closed due to bad weather. During snow days, students may still access Tutor.com, complete any supplemental learning opportunities recommended by their teachers, and view educational programming (available virtually and on public access television channels):
Eleven snow days are built into the existing FCPS calendar. Eliminating virtual learning days will allow us to maximize students’ in-person learning and provide equitable access to instruction and student services.
Kent Gardens Boundary Update
As previously communicated, FCPS made its recommendation for a boundary adjustment to address the overcrowding issue at Kent Gardens and recommended "Scenario B". Scenario B reassigns an estimated 380 students among five elementary schools. A map of affected homes can be found here (scroll to Scenario B).
- Rising Kindergarten and 1st-grade students will be reassigned to attend the newly assigned school for the 2024-25 school year.
- Rising 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th-grade students have the option to attend the newly assigned school or remain at their prior assigned school for the 2024-25 school year and until they matriculate to middle school.
Open Houses for each elementary school will be held on January 25th at 3 PM
Chesterbrook ES- 1753 Kirby Rd, McLean, VA 22101
Churchill Road ES- 7100 Churchill Rd, McLean, VA 22101
Haycock ES- 6616 Haycock Rd, Falls Church, VA 22043
Franklin Sherman ES- 6633 Brawner St, McLean, VA 22101
The adopted phasing plan allows students/caregivers the option to remain at their current school or change schools now, addressing the different perspectives voiced in public feedback. It also considers the needs of older elementary school students who were in school during COVID, and another change may be stressful. The phasing plan allows continuity for students enrolled in the French Immersion program at Kent Garden, which starts at first grade.
Students that are involved in phasing over the next several years will be provided bus transportation to their elementary school. Please understand that with a current shortage of bus drivers in our area and the requirement of additional bus runs to accommodate phasing, your patience will be required as all of these new runs are established. We need those that are involved in the affected neighborhoods to fill out the form indicating which school your child will attend by the February deadline so our transportation staff has maximum planning time.
The McLean Elementary Boundary Webpage will continue to be updated with important news going forward.
Register for McLean Little League by January 22!
Come discover baseball or softball this spring and make friends from all over McLean! Our beautiful facility at 1836 Westmoreland Street is a social hub for families and buzzes with baseball and softball into the night all spring. Roughly 1,200 children grow with us every year including many from Chesterbrook! We have programs for children of all ages and abilities, and adaptive programs for children with special needs. Any child attending Chesterbrook is eligible!
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Please send us any questions at registration@mcleanll.com, and to register, visit us at mcleanll.com and press the REGISTER button!
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