Lee District - May Newsletter

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Tamara Derenak Kaufax

Contact Tamara:

E-mail:
tdkaufax@fcps.edu
Phone: 571-423-1081

 

Cheryl Austin
Executive Admin Assistant
571-423-1069
Cheryl.Austin@fcps.edu

 


School Events

Edison High School

One Act Festival

Friday, May 10 - 7:00 PM

Saturday, May 11 - 7:00 PM

 

Flea Market/Yard Sale

Saturday, May 11 - 7 AM - 2 PM

Saturday, May 18 - 7 AM - 2 PM

 

Night on Broadway

Friday, May 17 - 7:00 PM

 

Hayfield Secondary School

Newsies

Friday, May 3 - 7:00 PM

Saturday, May 4 - 7:00 PM

Thursday, May 9 - 7:00 PM

Friday, May 10 - 7:00 PM

Saturday, May 11 - 7:00 PM

Click here for details and tickets.

 

Lee High School

Urinetown

Friday, May 3 - 7:00 PM

Sunday, May 5 - 2:00 PM

Click here for details.

 

Mt. Vernon High School

Cinderella

Friday, May 3 - 7:00 PM

Saturday, May 4 - 2:00, 7:00 PM

Click here for details and tickets.

 

"Spring Into Summer" Vendor & Community Event

Saturday, May 11 - 10 AM - 3 PM

 

Twain Middle School

Peter Pan

Friday, May 3 - 7:00 PM

Saturday, May 4 - 2:00, 7:00 PM
Sunday, May 5 - 2:00 PM

Click here for details and tickets.

 

West Potomac High School

Cinderella

Friday, May 3 - 7:00 PM
Saturday, May 4 - 2:00, 7:00 PM

Click here for tickets.


School Board Events

Regular Meeting

Thursday, May 9 - 7:00 PM

Luther Jackson Middle School

 

Work Session

Monday, May 13 - 11:00 AM

Gatehouse Administration Center

 

Budget Public Hearing

Tuesday, May 14 - 6:00 PM

Luther Jackson Middle School

 

Regular Meeting

Thursday, May 23 - 7:00 PM

Luther Jackson Middle School

 

Work Session Committee Reports

Wednesday, May 29 - 6:30 PM

Thursday, May 30 - 6:30 PM

Gatehouse Administration Center


Calendar

May 6-10: Teacher Appreciation Week

 

May 27: Memorial Day

 

For the revised 2019-2020 school calendar - click here.

The last quarter of the school year is upon us. Students will be very busy over the next month as they study for year-end tests, SOLs, AP and IB exams. Please ensure your student(s) get enough rest and healthy breakfasts before any of their test days. As the school year winds down, remember to take time to enjoy your student's hard work and accomplishments and celebrate with them in their year-end school festivities.

 

As the School Board Budget Chair, I wanted to let you know that our Board is busy working through budget amendments, follow on motions, and budget questions. We held a Work Session this past Monday and held another one last evening. Our Budget Public Hearing will be held on Tuesday, May 14 beginning at 6:00 PM at Luther Jackson Middle School. For all information related to FCPS FY2020 budget, visit our website: https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/budget.

 

Lastly, please take a moment next week (May 6-10, 2019) for Teacher Appreciation Week to show your gratitude to your student's teachers. A quick email or an extra thank you from your student, or a handmade card will make their week extra special.


- Tammy


Budget FY2020 Update

For the second year in a row, we are in a much improved budget situation. With the anticipated support of our Board of Supervisors, we will be able to complete our major investment in improved teacher scales in the coming fiscal year, as well as provide a step increase for eligible employees and 1 percent market scale adjustment for non-teacher employee scales. Improved compensation has been the top priority of the Board for the past several years as we realized our teacher pay had fallen behind, especially in the mid-career areas. We will also be able to provide benefits for more parent liaisons, critical employees at our neediest schools. These were among the items in the Superintendent’s $3.0 billion proposed budget and in the Board’s FY2020 Advertised Budget approved on February 7. We do still have important budget decisions to make between now and the time we approve the final FY2020 budget at our May 23, 2019 Board meeting. We will continue to invest in every FCPS child.

 

Please come to one of the following budget meeting events: 

 

May 2 - School Board conducts budget work session
May 7 - County BOS approves the FY2020 Adopted County Budget, tax rate resolution, and transfer amount to schools
May 9 - School Board FY2020 Approved Budget presented for new business
May 14 - School Board holds public hearings on budget
May 16 - School Board conducts budget work session
May 23 - School Board adopts FCPS FY2020 Approved Budget
July 1 - FY2020 begins


Lee High School Counseling Program Awarded RAMP Designation

Lee High School's counseling program has been recognized by the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) and will be awarded the Recognized ASCA Model Program (RAMP) designation for successfully demonstrating how their comprehensive school counseling programs benefit all students. In June, they will be recognized at the 2019 ASCA national conference in Boston.

 

The RAMP designation, awarded to schools that align with the criteria set in the ASCA national model, recognizes schools that are committed to delivering a comprehensive, data-driven school counseling program and an exemplary educational environment. School counselors submit evidence of the impact their program has on support of student achievement, connection to the mission and goals of the school, use of data to drive decisions, and collaboration with stakeholders (parents, students, and administrators) to receive input and evaluate their school counseling program’s effectiveness. RAMP applications are reviewed once a year by a panel of school counseling professionals and the designation is held for five years.

 

Currently, 26 FCPS school counseling programs have active RAMP certification.

 

All FCPS school counseling programs implement a data-driven comprehensive model that helps ensure equity and access for all students and focuses on closing the achievement gap.


Kimberly Boateng, from Lee High School, Elected Student Representative to the School Board

Kimberly Boateng, a sophomore at Lee High School, has been elected by the countywide Student Advisory Council (SAC) to serve a one-year term as student representative to the Fairfax County School Board, beginning July 1. Boateng will participate in School Board meetings as a non-voting member, filling the position currently held by Bennie Tignor, a senior at South Lakes High School. She will be the 49th student representative to the School Board.

 

Boateng believes her experience attending four schools in four years will contribute to her vision and ability to advocate for all students. “Through these years at a variety of schools, I’ve seen the diversity of people, location, and culture,” she states. “I’ve seen things that have really worked for schools and I’ve also seen things that don’t work in the slightest.” She hopes that, as a student advocate, she can offer students “the sense of having some sort of say in decisions that will be made involving them.”

 

Among the pressing issues for students, Boateng believes that mental health, implicit bias awareness, the dress code, assistance for at-risk students, drug use, and punishment reform are most important. Punishment reform, according to Boateng, “merges in with the issue of at-risk students and implicit bias…one can see that suspending or expelling students hasn’t been effective.” She adds that different solutions should be explored to help reform students who have committed offenses.  “Instead of throwing the child away, I want to work with the School Board to find a way to fix the child,” she states.

 

Since seventh grade, Boateng has attended Twain Middle, South County Middle, South County High, and Lee High. Her activities have included membership in the Technology Student Association, International Club, Black Students Unite, South County Marching Band and Winter Guard, Jazz Band, Minority Achievement Committee, honor societies for math and music, National Honor Society, Lee Marching Band, and NAACP.

 

Boateng is currently enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP) Government, Honors English, band, International Baccalaureate (IB) chemistry and math, and Spanish 3. She plans to pursue the IB diploma and will be enrolled in IB Spanish HL (higher level), IB English HL, band, IB History of America HL, IB chemistry, AP Calculus BC, IB Theory of Knowledge, IB Anthropology, and economics and personal finance.

 

As a recipient of the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth scholarship, Boateng studied psychology at Lafayette College and principles of engineering at Roger Williams University, and will study global politics this summer at Princeton University.


Military Mom Surprises Son at Riverside Elementary School

MilitaryMom

In honor of Military Child Appreciation Day, a military mom on a 12 month tour in Djibouti, Africa, came home for a week and surprised her son, who attends Riverside Elementary School, on Friday, April 26. For the full story, click here.


Twain Middle School Students Donate 200+ Hand Knitted Hats to NICU Babies

knithats

Over the course of six months, students from Mark Twain Middle School hand knitted over 200 tiny hats for babies in the NICU at Children's Hospital. They recently delivered the hats to the hospital and were featured on WJLA. Click here for more details about their story and to watch the WJLA news feature.


Sandburg Middle School Teacher Named AAFCS 2019 National Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher of the Year

HeatherJones

Heather Jones, who has taught Family and Consumer Sciences at Sandburg Middle School since 2012, has been named the 2019 National Family and Consumer Sciences Teacher of the Year by the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS).

 

Ms. Jones was recognized for her use of cutting-edge methods, techniques, and activities to provide stimulus and visibility to family and consumer sciences. In addition to teaching Family and Consumer Sciences at Sandburg, she is department chair for FCS and Career and Technical Education; mentors a first-year teacher; and advises the school’s FCCLA chapter, Real Food for Kids culinary teams, and Crafty Cooks after-school club.

 

For the full news release on Ms. Jones and to learn more about all of her wonderful accomplishments, click here.


Springfield Estates ES Students Take Environmental Action

Springfield Estates Elementary sixth grade students formed an environmental group after reading an informative article and seeing a video on Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old Swedish climate activist who inspired the Extinction Rebellion movement while speaking to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP24).

 

Students requested an opportunity to speak to the entire school on the school news show, and are looking into speaking with a reporter from a local news outlet to get an article written about their efforts. The students purchased a domain name and created a web site within days of reading the article. The group has been meeting at lunch for nearly two months and have worked on the weekends to pick up trash and organize a bake sale to raise funds.

 

Contact news liaison Christina Miller at cnmiller@fcps.edu. I will share more information as this project unfolds for these students.