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Dear Island Creek Families,
Thank you to everyone who attended our Back to School Night. It was so great to see such a fantastic turnout! The partnership between home and school is a vital component of your child's learning journey, and your presence and support mean so much to our entire school community.
As a reminder, school will be closed tomorrow, Friday, August 29 and Monday, September 1. We look forward to welcoming our Crocs back to school on Tuesday, September 2.
Enjoy the long weekend, and thank you again for your continued support!
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Warmly,
Jen Fallert, Principal
Karen Baxter, Assistant Principal
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Please join us to connect with other families and learn about school and community resources available for your family. Meet Island Creek’s Child and Youth Military and Family Life Counselor, the FCPS Military-Connected Youth & Families specialist, and more!
Questions? Please contact Family Liaison Amy Garcia, ajgarcia@fcps.edu, 571-642-6307.
At Island Creek, our volunteers are a vital part of our school community. We deeply value the time and care they give to our students.
Recent updates to our volunteer process focus on one primary goal: keeping students safe.
These updates — such as checks against the sex offender registry and, in some cases, criminal background checks — are safety measures that will help us maintain a secure and supportive learning environment for every student in our care.
Volunteer FCPS ensures a safe, consistent, and welcoming environment at all of our schools. All volunteers must be registered in Volunteer FCPS. This includes individuals who volunteer to chaperone on field trips, work at book fairs, and help out regularly in classrooms, libraries, or cafeterias. Volunteers who work unsupervised with students will also be required to undergo a background check.
We understand these changes may seem disruptive, especially for long-time volunteers. Our intention is to ensure that our students feel safe and supported by every person they encounter at school.
As a reminder, all volunteers — and visitors to a school — are required to sign in by scanning their ID at our visitor kiosk. Visit the Volunteer FCPS Frequently Asked Questions page to learn more.
How to Register as a Volunteer
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Review FCPS Volunteer Guidelines – All volunteers must read the FCPS Volunteer Protocols before getting started.
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Register in the FCPS Volunteer Portal
- Select “Schools”
- Search for Island Creek
- Sign up for available opportunities (You can register as a general volunteer to start).
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Choose Your Volunteer Level – We recommend registering as Level 2 now, so you can attend field trips with your child/ren.
For full details, visit the Volunteer FCPS website or contact Island Creek's Volunteer Point of Contact, Ms. Kathleen Black (knblack@fcps.edu)
Filed Trip Chaperones are considered Level 2 volunteers and must register to volunteer.
Early Release Wednesdays (12:20) for school-age students
If you’d like to learn more about the FCPS Advanced Academics Program (AAP), please plan to attend our AAP Overview Family Session on Thursday, September 25, at 6 p.m. in the Lane Library. Our Advanced Academic Resource Teacher (AART), Linda Simon, will provide information about all levels of advanced academic support, including curriculum, eligibility, and testing. Watch next week’s newsletter for more AAP information
We warmly welcome back our “Croc Artists!!” Our art department is already in full swing – last week, we shared information about our programs and classroom procedures, but we also jumped right in to creating artwork on the very first day. This week, we are well underway, and all students, grades K-6, are learning about the artist Henri Matisse and his work with cut paper. We shared the book “Matisse’s Garden” by Sarah Friedman, illustrated by Cristina Amodeo, as inspiration and had good conversations about geometric shapes vs. organic shapes.
All students are working hard to create their own unique piece of work (using any type of shapes they choose), which will be combined with their peers' work to create a school-wide mural in the form of a collage.
We hope that this collaborative effort will unite our school and tie in our theme this year, which is: “Better Together.” The assembly of our mural will require a lot of helping hands, and we are reaching out to our parents for your help. If you would like to help with our mural or with general support for our art program (hanging and mounting artwork, class prep, and some occasional classroom help), please email Allison Rozycki at amrozycki@fcps.edu.
An hour or two really goes a long way, and our students love it when they have dear ones supporting their creativity.
Artfully yours,
Mrs. Rozycki and Mr. Korrow
The Fall Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Screener will be administered to students in grades 3 through 12 in October.
Students use the SEL Screener twice a year to share their perspectives on how well their school and community support their development of the skills they need to succeed. The screener works by asking questions or presenting statements that students can think about and respond to. This gives students a way to share how well their school community makes them feel valued, included, and supported.
After each screening, results are available in the Documents tab of SIS ParentVUE and mailed to families without a ParentVUE account. For more information including SEL Screener questions and opt-out information, please visit FCPS’ Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) Screener webpage.
Some FCPS-approved digital resources require parent/caregiver consent before they can be used by students. Find the list of resources which require consent on the Digital Resources - Parent Consent page. This page also includes directions for providing permission.
Each digital resource used in FCPS has had an instructional and technical review. Information about the educational technology tools approved for use within FCPS can be found in the online Digital Ecosystem Library. Parents can find more information about FCPS-approved digital resources on the Digital Resources in FCPS webpage.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, eating breakfast at school is associated with better attendance rates, fewer missed school days, and better test scores. Students who qualify for free and reduced-price meals receive breakfast and lunch at school at no cost.
Families must complete the Free and Reduced-Price Meal application before the start of each school year. Approved applications may also qualify students for additional benefits. Access the application and view criteria on the Free and Reduced-Price Meals webpage
Students who were approved for free and reduced-price meals last year are eligible for the first 30 days of school this year (or until a new application is processed). Families should re-apply as soon as possible so eligible students continue to receive meals at no cost.
Lunch with your Child(ren)
To ensure school staff have time to teach and reinforce cafeteria routines and procedures, we will be delaying the visitation of family members during lunch until Monday, September 15.
Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) provides a comprehensive, sequential Family Life Education (FLE) program for students in grades kindergarten through grade twelve. Instruction is seen as a partnership among parents and guardians, the school, and the community in supporting the learning essential to the development of strong families, positive relationships, and a healthy community.
Parents/guardians may choose to opt their child out of all or part of the Family Life Education program. Students who are opted out are provided with age-appropriate, nonpunitive alternative health instruction, and every effort is made to foster respect for family choices. If you wish to opt your child out of all or part of FLE for this school year, opt out forms are available in Parent Digital Consent. Paper opt-out forms are available from your child’s school. Students receiving special education services and accessing modified curriculum will receive a printed opt-out form for modified FLE lessons.
Detailed grade-level program descriptions are available online at Elementary (K-6), Middle School (7-8), and High School (9-12). FLE grade level-specific lessons and media that FCPS has streaming rights for are available for parents online in Schoology. Parents/guardians login to Schoology using the same username and password as their Student Information System (SIS) Parent account. Grade level-specific lessons are also available at the City of Fairfax Regional Library (this location does not have media). Grade level-specific lessons and media that is not streamed online are available for review at your child’s school library. Due to copyright permissions, we are unable to stream all media online.
Program questions may be addressed at your child’s school or by contacting Instructional Services at 571-423-4550 or by email to fle@fcps.edu.
Fairfax County Public Schools now uses the Naglieri General Abilities Test (NGAT) as its official ability screener/nationally normed ability assessment. This assessment will be administered in grade 2 and select students in grades 3-7 this fall. The NGAT replaces both the CogAT (formerly given in grade 2 and selected students in grades 3-7) and the NNAT3 (formerly given in grade 1) as one piece of information used when identifying students for advanced academic programs.
Since we are no longer offering the CogAT or NNAT3 for general ability testing, we cannot honor requests to retake either of these assessments. If a parent/guardian requests a retake and the student has not previously used their one-time ability test retake option, they can be offered the NGAT for the fall administration. The NGAT provides a multi-domain score, similar to the CogAT, but the test is designed to be language independent, similar to the NNAT3. All retake requests are due no later than September 30, 2025.
Please get in touch with Island Creek's School Testing Coordinator, Ms. Karen Baxter (kpbaxter@fcps.edu) if you have any questions.
The Family Resource Center offers free consultations for families and staff, a free lending library, digital resources and virtual webinars on a variety of topics. Visit the Family Resource Center webpage (https://www.fcps.edu/frc) for more information or call (703-204-3941) with questions. The webinars for September include:
Friday, September 5: New School Year, New Strategies: How to Prepare for the Best Back-to-School Strategy (10-11:30am)
Friday, September 12: Together is Better: Building Collaborative Relationships between Caregivers and Educators (10-11:30am)
Friday, September 19: Worried Parents, Anxious Kids: How to Help Your Student Manage School-Related Anxiety (10-11:30am)
Register for free webinars here. Recordings will be available on the Family Resource Center website. Questions? Contact Family Liaison, Amy Garcia, ajgarcia@fcps.edu.
Virginia is no stranger to inclement weather. From severe thunderstorms to high winds to flooding, there are many different types of weather events that can (and sometimes do) impact our schools. But FCPS has a plan for each of these scenarios that prioritizes the safety of all our students and staff. What does FCPS do during a flood? What about a severe thunderstorm?
Answers to those questions along with resources you can use to prepare for different weather events are now available on the new FCPS weather safety webpage.
❤️Friday, August 29 and Monday, September 1: School Closed (Labor Day)
❤️Tuesday, September 9: School Closed (Special Elections)
❤️ Friday, September 12: Military Families Meet & Greet (8:30, Theatre)
❤️Wednesday, September 17: 3-Hour Early Release at 12:20 for school-age students
❤️Thursday, September 18: Advanced Academics Overview (6:00 PM, Library)
❤️Friday, September 19: Croc Rock-N-Run (rain date: 9/26)
❤️Tuesday, September 23: School Closed (Rosh Hashanah)
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