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Dear Freedom Hill Families,
Thank you to all of our FHES Veterans who were able to attend our breakfast this week! It was a pleasure to meet many of our community members who have supported our nation. We were also excited to represent Freedom Hill at last week's School Board meeting, where we were recognized for earning the Purple Star Schools designation. Thank you to all who supported this important work!
This week, we invite all to our annual Thanksgiving Luncheon. Times were sent home last week, and are available again below. Families are encouraged to purchase lunch using their child's MySchoolBucks accounts to expedite purchases. We also ask that families are considerate of all students' meals and consider not bringing fast food to our feast. Thank you!
Don't forget to swing back Silver Diner in Tysons on Tuesday evening to support our 6th graders! They will fundraising and helping to seat guests in the restaurant.
Have a great week!
Nicholas Zapadka, Principal
Tim Scesney, Assistant Principal
Holly Sims, Assistant Principal
2025-26 FCPS School Calendar
Freedom Hill Family Resources
Breakfast/Lunch Menus
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November 18 - PTA Family Dinner Out - Silver Diner Tysons
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November 20 - Thanksgiving Luncheon
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November 20 - Makeup Picture Day
- November 26 - 28 - School Closed, Thanksgiving Break
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December 4 - PTA Meeting, Library & Virtual, 6PM
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December 6 - Chorus Holiday Performance @ Wolftrap, 3:30PM
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December 8 - PTA Winter 2026 teacher-led enrichment classes will be available for registration at 8AM.
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December 9 - Band & Strings Winter Concert, 6PM
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December 10 - Family Dinner Out, Shake Shack, (rescheduled), 11AM-9:30PM, Pike 7
- December 10 - Early Release Wednesday, 1:05
- December 22 - January 4 - Winter Break
 Victor O'Neill Studios school photos for Freedom Hill students are now online! Families should have received an E-proof via email. Please remember to check your spam. For any questions about your student's school pictures please contact: underclass@vosphoto.com
Make-up Picture Day is Thursday, November 20. This photo day is for students who were absent on Picture Day (10/23), new to Freedom Hill since Picture Day, or who were not happy with their original photo package (students are required to return their original picture package to the photographer). No purchase is necessary. Any parents who have not ordered can still pre-order retake photos using the following link:https://shop.imagequix.com/g1001271111
 For the next two weeks, we are focusing on Gratitude. You are aware of and thankful for good things that happen.
“The real gift of gratitude is that the more grateful you are, the more present you become.”
~Robert Holden
Questions you might enjoy talking about:
- What are the easiest things to be grateful for? What are the most difficult?
- What are some benefits of gratitude?
- How does it make you feel to think that others are grateful for you?
FCPS is asking all families to fill out a Federal Impact Aid Survey. The form is available in SIS ParentVUE under Online Packets, which is in the upper right corner of the screen after logging in. Please complete it as soon as possible. We will provide paper forms to families who have not completed the survey in ParentVUE starting Wednesday, November 12th.
Completing this form for each school-aged child in every household is important. This year, FCPS expects to receive approximately $4 million in Impact Aid funding. These funds are used to support all Fairfax County public schools and centers.
For more information, visit the Federal Impact Aid Survey page.
Due to the overwhelming response from our community, FCPS is temporarily pausing fingerprint requirements for most Level 3 volunteers.
If you are scheduled for an upcoming fingerprinting appointment, please cancel your appointment unless you are a mentor, host parent, or non-parent volunteer having frequent, direct, and unsupervised contact with students, which will still require fingerprinting. FCPS will be charged if individuals miss a fingerprinting appointment without canceling in advance.
Those who have already been fingerprinted will be processed to be eligible for all Level 3 opportunities.
Field trip chaperone opportunities will now be classified as Level 2 (not requiring a background check).
To ensure continuous safety, all new volunteers are required to sign a Volunteer Certification Statement. This statement is a legal attestation confirming you have no history of violent felonies, physical/sexual crimes against children, or crimes of moral turpitude.
Want to volunteer? Visit Volunteer FCPS to find and sign up for volunteer opportunities. Contact Volunteers@fcps.edu with any questions.
At Freedom Hill we work hard to teach students universal behavior strategies that equip students for a lifetime of success. An area of focus is teaching kids how to regulate their emotions. Our guidance counselors have begun teaching The Zones of Regulation to all student grades K-6. The Zones of Regulation is a curriculum to support your learner’s social and emotional development and regulation skills. The Zones of Regulation provides a simple way for learners (and the adults who support them) to understand, communicate around, and care for their feelings. To help with learning, please discuss these questions together:
- What are some things we can regulate, adjust, or manage?
- What is a way you can regulate your body? How does that affect how you feel?
Your voice matters, and Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid wants to hear from you! At FCPS, parents are partners, working with us to set our students up for long-term success at school and in life.
Join us for a series of Community Conversations that will be held across the school division to discuss current challenges and future opportunities for the school division. You may also share your thoughts with Dr. Reid and ask questions. Events are planned for the following dates from 6 to 8 p.m.:
Click on the date to register. Additional locations and registration links will be shared soon. Child care and interpretation services will be provided. Events are open to all.
Some families may be looking for additional resources to help support their child’s academic success. The FCPS Family Resource Center (FRC) maintains a list of FCPS employees who hold a valid Virginia teaching credential and who are available to hire as tutors. This list is a resource offered by the FRC, but families are responsible for contacting and working directly with the tutors. This list is not approved by FCPS and is only meant to be a resource to families.
FCPS also partners with Varsity Tutors to provide students and families with extra resources for learning. Every student can take advantage of Varsity Tutors' services, at no cost, including weekly live online classes, on-demand 24/7 chat tutoring, essay editing, and study resources such as recorded content, practice problems, and diagnostic tests.
Coming to school when students are healthy helps students thrive. Regular attendance has a direct impact on student success. Attendance correlates with high academic achievement, builds social and emotional learning, and increases a students’ ability to read proficiently by the end of third grade.
Attendance is part of our school’s accreditation process and is one of our goals in our School Innovation and Improvement Plan. Our current absenteeism rate is 8.6% of our school, down from 10.2% at the same time last year.
Like many of our neighboring communities, FHES families recently received an attendance report card in the mail showcasing your child’s current attendance. Thank you for reviewing your child’s current attendance. At school we continue to promote positive attendance practices. On Friday, students who were present for the first twelve school days in November will receive a small certificate and an attendance pencil for Writing a Great Attendance Story!
  
Upcoming Events:
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November 18 - Family Dinner Out, 4-8PM, Silver Diner, 8101 Fletcher St, McLean, VA 22102 (Flyer)
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December 4 - PTA Meeting, 6PM in the Library
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December 8 - Winter 2026 teacher-led enrichment classes will be available for registration at 8AM.
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December 10 - Family Dinner Out, Shake Shack, (rescheduled), 11AM-9:30PM, Pike 7
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January 9 - Registration for Winter 2026 teacher-led enrichment classes closes on Friday, January 9th at 9 pm.
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February 3 - School-wide Spelling Bee, more information to come!
FAMILY DINNER OUT (FDO) - NOV 18 @ SILVER DINER TYSONS, 4-8PM (Flyer)
Join your fellow Freedom Hill Eagles at our next FDO on Tuesday, November 18, at Silver Diner Tysons (8101 Fletcher St, McLean, VA 22102) anytime from 4-8PM. 20% of sales will go to our school when you dine in or order to go. Order to go at SilverDiner.com or call (703) 821-5666. Sixth Grade Volunteers will be welcoming patrons starting at 4:40pm! A big thanks to Camille Paredes for her ongoing organization of these events.
NEW BOOK ALERT FROM OUR VERY OWN LIBRARY VOLUNTEER
Susan Whitehead, the long-time library volunteer (20 hours/week for over 11 years!), recently
published the eagerly awaited sequel, Percy the Parrot: Percy vs Glenn, with even more Freedom Hill hidden details for the kids (playground scene and a very familiar face??) Ms. Whitehead continues to graciously donate profits from book sales to the Freedom Hill PTA because “I have so much fun working with everyone at Freedom Hill, and the children are just exceptional.” 🫶 You can purchase a copy on Amazon.
SPELLING BEE SEASON IS COMING
We are excited to be kicking off the Spelling Bee season here at Freedom Hill. More to come from class teachers, and hard copies of lists will be going home in red folders on December 3rd. We know your student can't wait to begin studying words and fall more in love with the power of words, so here are the word lists below. Many thanks to Juliana Yoon for registering Freedom Hill in the Scripps Spelling Bee and taking on this initiative for the school!
PTA Quick Links:
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