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Kings Park Families,

Thanks to our amazing PTA and community for a successful Booster Fun Run. Your partnership helped us reach our 70% registration goal and raise over $75,000! Those funds will be used for family engagement events, student assemblies and enhancing peaceful spots throughout the building. The pink axolotl may have won the inflatables race, but our students are the real winners! 

Next week, we look forward to celebrating our military families during our Blue Star Welcome Week spirit days. We invite all students to join in the spirit days as a way to show support and gratitude for the strength and contributions of these important members of the Kings Park community. We are grateful for the unique experiences and perspectives our military families bring, which enrich our school and help build a community rooted in care and connection.

Mrs. Dotty Lin, Mrs. Jenn Burke and Mrs. Anna Kaplan

In this edition:

• Attendance Matters at KPES
• Spanish Informational Meeting with Family Liaisons
• Blue Star Welcome Week
• Join Us for Morning Meeting
• Walk, Bike and Roll to School Day - October 8th 
• Benchmark Unit 1
• K-12 School Start Times Survey
• Community Boundary Review Meeting
• FCPS's Strategic Plan - Goal 3
• PTA News and Updates
• Important Dates

Attendance Matters at KPES

To ensure transparency and celebrate our progress, we will be sharing weekly schoolwide attendance data. By highlighting this important information, we aim to keep our families informed and energized about our collective efforts to make every day count for student learning and well-being. 

Chronic absenteeism is when a student has missed 10% or more of the school days in the school year. This includes all absences, regardless of whether they are excused and unexcused. Research shows that students who are chronically absent are at higher risk of falling behind and dropping out of school.

We care deeply about all of our students and aim for success for each student. Our partnership to support regular school attendance is critical to that success. Please review FCPS's health policy regarding student illness and absences. Kings Park staff members are committed to working with families to address attendance concerns and collaboratively problem solve. Key staff members include:

Katie Carroll - Social Worker - kcarrol3@fcps.edu 

Kate Murray - School Psychologist - kmurray@fcps.edu 

Tracy Rossi - School Counselor - tlrossi@fcps.edu

Corri Shusterman - School Counselor - rcshusterman@fcps.edu 

Spanish Informational Meeting with Family Liaisons

The Kings Park and Kings Glen family liaisons are hosting an informational meeting in Spanish on Friday, September 26th, from 5:00pm-6:30pm in the Kings Glen Cafeteria. Hispanic families in our school community are invited to learn about our schools and the resources available to support your child's learning.

Los enlaces familiares de Kings Park y Kings Glen están organizando una reunión informativa en español el viernes 26 de septiembre, de 5:00pm a  6:30pm , en la cafetería de Kings Glen. Invitamos a las familias hispanas de la comunidad de Kings Park y Kings Glen a conocer nuestras escuelas y los recursos disponibles para apoyar el aprendizaje de sus hijos.

Spanish Information Meeting Flyer

Blue Star Welcome Week is September 27th-October 5th

Blue Star Welcome Week is a nationwide initiative to provide a warm welcome to the 600,000 active-duty and transitioning military families that move into new communities each year. It is the goal of Blue Star Families to proactively improve military families’ sense of belonging to their local communities by forging strong connections between our military family members and their local neighbors. 

If you are a new military family, welcome to Kings Park ES!  Please check out the FCPS military families Welcome Page  and the FCPS military families Resources Page.  Blue Star Welcome Week Spirit Days All students can help Kings Park ES welcome our new military connected families! Please join us in the following Spirit Days! Monday, September 29th: Welcome New Military Families Day Help us welcome our military students by wearing Red, White, and Blue. Tuesday, September 30th: Military Spirit Day Wear colors or spirit wear that represent a branch of the U.S. military (Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard). Wednesday, October 1st: Welcome All Cultures DayWear something that represents your culture. Friday, October 3rd: Welcome to the Family We are all Kings Park Lions! Show your pride by wearing KP spirit wear or colors (purple and green).

Join Us for a Morning Meeting, Attendance Matters and AAP Information Session

Join us for a Morning Meeting and to learn more about Attendance and Advanced Academic Programs (AAP) in FCPS and at Kings Park. 

Visit your child’s classroom to experience first-hand how Morning Meeting plays a critical role in your child’s day. Then, stay to hear about FCPS’s Advanced Academics program with Kings Park’s Advanced Academics resource teacher, Jamie Mucciolo.

Guardians are encouraged to participate on the following dates/times assigned by grade level:

Walk, Bike and Roll to School on October 8th!

Get ready for Walk, Bike and Roll to School Day on October 8th! Walking and biking to school benefits both the students and the community in several ways. Students who walk and bike get more physical activity, have more time to socialize with their friends, and develop a sense of independence and self-reliance. The community benefits from reduced pollution and traffic congestion. We encourage participants to plan a safe route in advance. A fun way to celebrate this day is to form a “walking train” with other Kings Park friends! Meet at the bike racks (to the left of main entrance) at 8:20am to celebrate.

Bus transportation will still be available and will follow the same route schedules. Kiss and Ride will still be available.

📚 Learning About Life Science in Language Arts📚

New this year, we will be sharing what students are learning in Benchmark Advance, FCPS's Language Arts program, and ways families can make connections at home to support this learning. 

Benchmark Unit 1 in Language Arts is about life science. Students in K-3 are learning about plants, animals, and nature. 

Connect with your child’s learning at school with these fun questions and hands-on activities at home:

• Question: What are some ways we can take care of nature and living things?
• Activity: Pick an animal and act out how it moves or survives in its habitat — see if family members can guess!

At the end of the unit, your child will take their unit magazine home. The magazine includes an activity calendar with fun ways to help students build on what they’re learning at each grade level. You can also find information on how to support your child’s reading at home on the Benchmark Families website.

Take the K-12 School Start Times Survey

FCPS is continuing to explore options for adjusting school start times, with the primary goal of starting the middle school day at 8 a.m. or after. In order to minimize any cost for this project, elementary and high school start times would need to shift as well.

Providing feedback opportunities for the community is a critical part of this effort. Since 2024, FCPS’ consultant has hosted five community forums and administered two surveys. That feedback helped in developing two options for adjusting school start times. The options are designed to support student well-being, align with research, and balance transportation logistics.

We invite you to provide input on the two options by taking a short survey. This voluntary survey will close on Tuesday, September 30. Visit the FCPS website for more information on adjusting school start times. 

Participate in an Upcoming Community Boundary Review Meeting 

As a reminder, FCPS will hold two sets of community boundary review meetings this fall — one in September and another in October. Each set of meetings will focus on two pyramids per meeting. 

All September meetings will include an overview of where FCPS is in the comprehensive boundary review process, an update and opportunity for feedback on school start times, how community input is informing the process, and next steps in the boundary review process. 

The meeting for our pyramid will be held Monday, September 29th, 6:30pm to 7:30 p.m., at Lake Braddock Secondary School (In Person or Virtual). Please register by clicking “in person” or “virtual,” depending on how you would like to participate. 

Child care for in-person participants and language interpretation/translation for all participants will be available as needed. 

Visit the FCPS website for a full list of meeting dates and information about the October meetings.

The 2023-30 Strategic Plan Goal 3: Academic Growth and Excellence

FCPS’ 2023-30 Strategic Plan sets five main goals to create positive change in the division. These goals show where we should focus our attention and will help us align our efforts. 

Our third goal is for all students to achieve academic growth and excellence. We want our students to have the academic skills to be successful. See how Goal 3 is being put into practice. 

KP/KG PTA News and Events

Booster Wrap Up.  Once again, we were humbled by the community support for our biggest fundraiser of the year.  We are still collecting pledges at https://www.mybooster.com until the end of the week.  We have raised over $75,000 to support student enrichment through family events, assemblies, peaceful spaces, updated specials materials and resources that connect learning between school and home. In addition, 70% of the entire student population registered, and everyone was able to participate in the fun run and received a brand new shirt to wear. This fundraiser is a huge undertaking, and special thanks go to Sarah Maccubbin-Tremper and everyone else who volunteered throughout the program and on Fun Run day!

Stay tuned for information to come on the KP Yearbook Cover Contest and our KP/KG Spiritwear sale!

Join the PTA.  We hope all members of the KP/KG community will consider joining the PTA this school year.  Join on our website!  Keep in Touch with the PTA.  A great way to keep in touch with the PTA is to subscribe to our emails and/or join our Facebook group.  An updated PTA events calendar can also be found here.  

Important Dates September 26th: Spanish Informational Meeting with Family Liaisons, 5:00pm-6:30pm at Kings Glen September 27th - October 5th: Blue Star Welcome Week October 2nd: Yom Kippur Holiday (no school for students and staff) October 3rd: 1st Grade Morning Meeting, Attendance and AAP Event, 8:30am-9:50am October 8th: Walk, Bike and Roll to School Day October 10th: Kindergarten Morning Meeting, Attendance and AAP Event, 8:30am-9:50am October 13th: Indigenous People's Day/Staff Development Day (no school for students) October 17th: 2nd Grade Morning Meeting, Attendance and AAP Event, 8:30am-9:50am October 20th: Diwali Holiday (no school for students and staff) October 24th: 3rd Grade Morning Meeting, Attendance and AAP Event, 8:30am-9:50am

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