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اس نیوزلیٹر کو دوسری زبانوں میں پڑھنے کیلئے ، براہ مہربانی ہماری ویب سائیٹ ملاحظہ کیجیئے۔
Note: This newsletter contains links to translated versions of the content for your convenience. These translations are generated by Google Translate and are not intended to be a substitute for professional translation services.
Mason District Community,
I hope this communication finds you well as we barrel toward the end of the school year. In this issue, guardians and caregivers are reminded to provide feedback about the revisions to the Family Life Education Curriculum. The feedback survey will close on June 10th.
Last week, the School Board approved the FY2025 Budget which allocates a 4% raise for all employees.
I look forward to seeing our seniors and their families and friends next week for graduation ceremonies for Annandale High School, Bryant High School, AIM, Justice High School and Falls Church High School.
Family Life Education Materials Available for Review
On May 21, 2024, staff presented recommended changes to the Family Life Education curriculum during a School Board Work Session. The community review period for the recommended changes opened on May 10 and will continue until Monday, June 10, at 4:30 p.m. Please take the time to provide feedback after reviewing the materials. All comments will be shared with the School Board prior to the vote to approve the recommendations on June 27, 2024.
There are four main recommended changes:
Recommendation #1 (page 4 of report)
Approve new and revised objectives and descriptive statements to support instruction on the topics of consent, setting personal boundaries, and respecting the boundaries of others.
Revisions:
- Grade 9 - Lesson 2: Students will identify examples and effects of sexual violence and identity skills to promote safety and situational awareness. Resources for help and reporting sexual violence will be provided.
- Grade 9 - Lesson 5: Students will identify characteristics of unhealthy relationships and identify strategies to navigate or end unhealthy relationships.
New objectives will be applicable to students in:
- Grade 9: Students will identify characteristics of, and how to develop and maintain healthy relationships in a variety of settings.
- Grade 9: Students explain the value of setting personal boundaries and respecting the boundaries of others and will define affirmative consent.
- Grade 10: Students will examine teen relationships and identify communication of consent, absence of consent, and withdrawal of consent related to intimacy and sexual behavior. Students will discuss the impact peer pressure may have on decision making in teen relationships. (page 6 of full report)
- Grade 11: Students will identify characteristics of unhealthy relationships that may lead to teen relationship violence, sexual assault, abuse, strangulation, sextortion, and sex trafficking. Strategies for risk reduction, prevention, and available support services will be provided.
- Grade 12: Students will interpret laws that affect family life.
- Grade 12: Students will review consent, respecting when consent is not given or is withdrawn, and bystander awareness and intervention strategies.
Recommendation #2 (page 7 of report)
Approve objectives and descriptive statements in kindergarten, fifth, and tenth grades and grades one through six modified curriculum to support recommendations from the 2023 summer curriculum development team.
Revisions:
- Grades 1-6: Elementary School Emotional and Social Health Safety Unit - lesson 6. The student will demonstrate strategies for responding to inappropriate approaches from family members, neighbors, strangers, or others without being unduly alarmed about nonexistent dangers. (page 9 of full report)
New objectives will be applicable to students in:
- Grade K: Students will recognize that everyone is a member of a family and identify members of their individual families. (page 8 of full report)
- Grade K: Students will identify positive ways in which family members and friends show love, affection, respect, and appreciation for each other.
- Grade K: Students will define personal space and demonstrate how to say “no” to behaviors from people both inside and outside the family that make the student feel uncomfortable or unsafe.
- Grade 5: Students will define child abuse and child neglect and identify adults whom they can tell and ask for help.
- Grade 10: Students will identify how contraceptive methods work and will identify the advantages of abstaining from sexual activity.
Recommendation #3 (page 10 of report)
- Approve use of the media My Changing Life: The Complete Guide to Puberty in grade four for both the boys’ and the girls’ lessons.
- Recommend showing the same video including the male and female reproductive systems and menstruation to boys and girls in gender separate classes.
- A new video covering puberty and the reproductive systems is being produced by FCPS Information Technology and Instructional Services staff. It is intended to replace the media currently being used in grades four through six. The current timeline is for the video to be reviewed by FLECAC during SY 2024-2025 with implementation in instruction beginning in SY 2025-2026.
Recommendation #4 (page 11 of report)
Approve revised objectives and descriptive statements to support instruction of the male and female reproductive systems in grades four through eight.
Revisions are applicable to students in:
- Grade 4: The student will recognize the physical changes that occur during puberty and relate these changes to the increased need for personal hygiene.
- Grade 5: Students will identify the structures and functions of the male and female reproductive systems.
- Grade 6: Students will review the structures and functions of the male and female reproductive systems and how these change during puberty.
- Grade 7: Students will identify the components of the male and female reproductive systems and describe how their functioning changes during puberty.
More information is available online.
Mason Moments
Justice Girls Lacrosse
Congratulations to the Justice High School Girls Lacrosse Team - National District Champions!
2024 VMEA Blue Ribbon Award
The VMEA Blue Ribbon Award is the highest award given to school music programs in the Commonwealth of Virginia and recognizes achieved excellence in Band, Orchestra, and Choral Performance. All top eligible performing groups must receive a final Superior rating at VMEA District Concert Performance Assessment to qualify for this award. Two Mason District schools earned this prestigious award this year! Congratulations to Glasgow Middle School and Justice High School on this significant achievement!
Region Shot Put Champion
Congratulations to Occoquan Region Shot Put Champion, Fatima Amaya Diaz from Justice High School! In addition, Fatima broke a 34-year-old school record in the discus. She qualified to compete in both events at the Virginia State Meet in Newport News this weekend. Congratulations and good luck!
Grit and Perseverance
Annandale senior Samiullah Luddin stands with Multilingual Department Chair Meredith Hedrick and Multilingual teacher Tricia Kapuscinski, two of many educators who supported him on his path to graduation.
Afghan refugee Samiullah Luddin, a senior at Annandale High School, did not have the easiest path to graduation.
Samiullah — whose family left Afghanistan after his father survived being kidnapped by the Taliban and detained for months — began his American public school experience in 2020. He showed up to school for the first time in the U.S. to pick up a laptop, ready to embark on virtual learning like students across the country during the early days of the pandemic.
After mastering virtual learning on a laptop, he and his siblings were the first students to enter their school building to resume in-person learning in 2021, embracing an early return option for multilingual students. They eagerly signed up for summer school that year as well.
Outside of school, he turned the Dunya Club for refugee students into a place where kids from a variety of countries could play pick-up cricket and bond over the challenges of acclimating to a new culture. He climbed the ranks of the McDonalds’ employment ladder to become a manager, touting his work there as helping improve his English skills.
Fast forward to May of this year, when one obstacle stood between him and graduation: the Reading Standards of Learning (SOL) exam. Samiullah had taken and failed the exam 13 times. While he thought of giving up along the way, he credits his teachers with not letting him do so at any point in his high school journey.
On May 15, Samiullah sat for his 14th attempt. He reports not being able to sleep the night after taking the test as he waited for the results. The next morning, ESOL teacher Ms. Kapuscinski gave him the news - he had passed!
Learn more about Samiullah’s journey.
Falls Church Guitar Ensemble
The Falls Church Guitar Ensemble delivered a lovely lunchtime performance at Gatehouse recently under the direction of Mr. Walker. The diverse repertoire was beautiful and the techniques impressive as we were taken on a world tour from Africa to Asia. It was an absolute pleasure to witness the passion and dedication of these musicians.
Take a moment to listen to one of the pieces they performed for us.
Global Leaders of Fairfax County
 The Global Leaders of Fairfax County program seeks to prepare its fellows to be global citizens and change agents in their community and the world.
The program provides fellows with opportunities during their senior year of high school to take part in a project to address one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the Fairfax County community, engage with national and global leaders, and participate in field trips to enhance their understanding of international affairs and global issues.
Congratulations to the Mason District students included in the Global Leaders Fellows Class of 2024:
Christina Abouzeki, Annandale High School
Oliver Aminoff, Edison High School
Alana Dillon, Edison High School
Sahil Kapadia, Thomas Jefferson High School
Maya Manchester, Edison High School
Alexa Rubio, Edison High School
Edina Tedros, Justice High School
Tsion Teklebirhan, Annandale High School
Rediate Yohanes, Annandale High School
Inspiring Students to Explore Technology and Coding
Congratulations to Kathleen Fugle, STEAM resource teacher at Sleepy Hollow Elementary School. The Virginia Department of Education recognized her as their 2024 Computer Science Educator of the Year!
Kathleen was recognized for her passion for computer science and her proactive involvement in promoting it within the Sleepy Hollow community. Her efforts are appreciated by both her students and the wider school community. Read about Kathleen and this award. Watch how she inspires her students.
The views contained within this newsletter reflect the views of the individual school board member who is the publisher of this newsletter and may not reflect the views of the Fairfax County School Board.
© Fairfax County Public Schools, Fairfax County, Virginia
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