|
English | Español | አማርኛ | 中文 | 한국어 | Tiếng Việt | العربية | فارسی | اردو
Dear Freedom Hill Families,
Thank you for another wonderful week "On the Hill", with fabulous community participation at our 6th Grade Silver Diner Night Out, as well as our annual Thanksgiving Luncheon. I know that our students greatly enjoyed having all of the company at these events.
This week, we ask for your support in completing the annual FCPS Impact Aid Form (details below). This is an important item that our front office staff support each year. Please help them and our school by completing it for us if you have not already.
Please keep in mind that this week will be a shortened week as we move into our Thanksgiving break. Students will be dismissed on Tuesday, November 25, and will return to school on Monday, December 1.
As we head into the Thanksgiving holiday, we’d like to share our appreciation for our amazing school community. This season of gratitude gives us a chance to pause and reflect on all the things we’re thankful for. We wish you a safe, relaxing, and joyful Thanksgiving filled with time to connect with family and friends. We are grateful for you!
Nicholas Zapadka, Principal
Tim Scesney, Assistant Principal
Holly Sims, Assistant Principal
2025-26 FCPS School Calendar
Freedom Hill Family Resources
Breakfast/Lunch Menus
- November 26 - 28 - School Closed, Thanksgiving Break
-
December 4 - PTA Meeting, Library & Virtual, 6PM
-
December 6 - Chorus Holiday Performance @ Wolftrap, 3:30PM
-
December 8 - PTA Winter 2026 teacher-led enrichment classes will be available for registration at 8AM.
-
December 9 - Band & Strings Winter Concert, 6PM
-
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
 This week, 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?
 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
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.
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.
 There’s a story behind the success of every FCPS student — a story about what’s possible when FCPS receives the appropriate funding for world-class teachers, rigorous academics, and future-ready learning experiences. At FCPS, student success starts with a strong budget!
We’re currently developing our Fiscal Year 2027 Budget, which will be presented by Superintendent Dr. Michelle Reid to the School Board in January.
During this process, we’ll be sharing our budget story with you. The different chapters will explain the impact of chronic underfunding, why strong funding benefits all of Fairfax County, what’s at stake when our schools don’t get the support they need, and what Fairfax County residents can do to support our schools, students, and teachers.
We invite you to follow along and learn how you can help our community write its next chapter!
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!
Parents were notified in ParentVue or in a letter in Wednesday folder (depending on ParentVue access) if their student is required to receive a reading plan/a reading intervention. FCPS has recorded a webinar all about reading plans that parents can access here.
     
  
Upcoming Events:
-
December 4 - PTA Meeting, 6PM in the Library (Agenda)
-
December 8 - Winter 2026 teacher-led enrichment classes will be available for registration at 8AM.
-
December 10 - Family Dinner Out, Shake Shack, (rescheduled), 11AM-9:30PM, Pike 7
-
January 9 - Registration for Winter 2026 teacher-led enrichment classes closes on Friday, January 9th at 9 pm.
-
February 3 - School-wide Spelling Bee, more information to come!
THANK YOU FREEDOM HILL VOLUNTEERS
This Thanksgiving, we are thankful for you! Thank you to all the parents, teachers, and staff who generously volunteered their time and energy with the PTA this year. Your dedication and support helped make our school community stronger and our events successful.
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:
|
