Middle School Newsletter - August 17, 2022

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Message From Division Director

As we move closer to the start of school, the only new information in this week’s newsletter involves SchoolPass. Please take a look at that section below and note the action items for parents. Here are a few additional reminders:

The first official day for students is Wednesday, August 31. Our orientation and community-building activities for students are built into the first three days of school to ensure a smooth transition.
Please remember to use the link I sent via email to sign up for Parent-Advisor Conferences on Monday, August 29, or Tuesday, August 30.
Consider joining me on Monday, August 29, at 9:00 a.m. for a parent virtual orientation; I will record the session to share in the August 31 newsletter.
Note that you and your child may visit the Peterson Middle School on Tuesday, August 30, for a self-guided tour.

Please review the rest of the information below to make sure you are ready for the start of school!

Brian Lamont
Director of the Middle School

Back to School

Preparing for the 2022-2023 School Year

How often is Lower School Husky Pride Day? What’s the traffic pattern for dropping off Middle School students? What’s the earliest I can drive onto campus to pick up an Upper School student? The answers to these questions and many more can be found in the content on the Preparing for the 2022-2023 School Year tile on the Resource Board of Husky Hub.

To access the Resource Board, visit www.flinthill.org/app, and log in with your username and password. Once logged in, click Resources on the top navigation bar, and then click on the Preparing for the 2022-2023 School Year tile. The tile will remain accessible through the start of the new school year. We recommend bookmarking it!

Dress Guidelines

Please review the Dress Guidelines on the Resource Board to ensure that your child is prepared for the start of the year. For those returning eighth graders, the options are slightly different from last year. Please contact me with any questions. As a summary:

Tops — students may wear any FH logo top.
Bottoms — khaki or navy blue chino pants, skirts or shorts (note that students may not wear athletic shorts or sweatpants during the school day).
Athletics — students may still wear any FH logo top and may now wear any navy blue shorts.

SchoolPass Steps To Complete Before School Starts

Flint Hill School uses SchoolPass, a user-friendly and real-time system that allows parents to easily notify the school of student absences, late arrivals or appointments; helps students and teachers with daily attendance; and assists the school with efficient and secure dismissal to direct students to Middle School carpool, buses and Extended Day.

New this year, the School has invested in license plate cameras to improve the Middle School carpool experience. As cars turn into the parking lot, the rear license plate will be identified and students associated with it will be entered into the carpool queue. This automatically notifies classroom teachers that you are in the carpool line as well as when to send your child to the pickup area.

License plate data is stored on the parent record within SchoolPass. The log of vehicles arriving on and departing from campus will be archived annually. Only Flint Hill School administrators have access to view this data.

Returning Families

There are two steps you need to complete:

Review your approved driver's list and update or delete it if needed. Instructions for “Adding, Updating and Deleting Approved Driver and Car Procedures” for the SchoolPass app are on the Preparing for the 2022-2023 School Year tile on the Resource Board in Husky Hub.
Add the license plate number of any approved driver’s vehicle to your profile

New Families

Tomorrow you will receive an auto-generated “welcome” email from noreply-2300@schoolpass.com with instructions to download the application and create a profile. Please be sure to include your license plate information in your profile. If you do not receive an email from SchoolPass by the end of the day or need SchoolPass assistance in general, please email helpdesk@flinthill.org.

Full instructions about “Attendance, Late Arrival and Early Dismissal Notification Procedures for SchoolPass” are on the Preparing for the 2022-2023 School Year tile on the Resource Board in Husky Hub.

Student Schedules Online

To view your child’s classes and teachers, log in to Husky Hub, click “Children” and select your child’s name. From the “Progress” page, scroll down to view your child’s classes and teachers.

Textbooks and Supplies

Please refer to the Preparing for the School Year tile to purchase textbooks and resources through our Virtual Book Store. If you have any questions, please contact Julie Young.

Health Information

Updated Health Information Tile

Please review the new Health Information tile on the Resource Board. This is where you’ll find information about protocols for general illness, flu, seasonal allergies and COVID, as well as contact information for all three health clinics.

Medication Drop-Off

For students who will need to keep medication on campus during the school year, we will have a medication drop-off day on Thursday, August 25, 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. at the Upper School circle.

Families will pull into the circle, and a nurse will come to your car to collect the medication and the appropriate forms. As a reminder, all prescription medication must be accompanied by the physician's order on the Medication Authorization Form, which must be completed and signed by the prescribing physician.

All medication must have the pharmacy label on it. You can access the forms from your Magnus account /Husky Hub resource board under the Preparing for the School Year tile. All over-the-counter medication must be accompanied by the Medication Authorization Form and must be completed and signed by a parent or guardian. The medication must be in the original packaging and must be administered according to the package instructions, including the time and route to be administered.

If you are unable to come to the School on the medication drop-off day, please call to schedule an appointment with your division’s nurse prior to the start of school.

Upper School 703.584.2396
Middle School 703.584.2397
Lower School 703.584.2399

To drop off medication refills throughout the school year, please call and schedule an appointment with your division’s nurse.

Health Forms — New and Returning Students

Completed health forms must be uploaded to the Magnus Health system and approved by the first day of classes, or your child may not attend school. If you have any questions regarding the health forms, please contact Director of Health Services Mary Hart at 571.926.2818.

Announcements

Parent-Advisor In-Person Conferences

To facilitate the important partnership for the school year ahead, advisors will be hosting parent conferences on Monday, August 29, and Tuesday, August 30. These 15-minute in-person conferences will allow you to connect with your child’s advisor and share any helpful information. I emailed each family a link to sign up for conferences. If you have any difficulties or questions about the online scheduling system, please contact me and Marina Matthes (long-term substitute for Michelle Keatley).

Middle School Athletics

Middle School sports officially begin on Wednesday, September 7. If you signed up to participate in a fall sport, please visit Husky Hub to gather the latest information on tryouts, preseason practices, and seasonal logistics. You can find all Upper School and Middle School fall game schedules by visiting the athletics page of our website.

Read more details about our fall sports from Director of Athletics Dewayne Robinson.

New Phone Policy

Our policy of “please ask permission if you need to use your phone (to contact a parent) at school and keep them put away otherwise” has reached the point that we need an update. Like young adolescents everywhere, our wonderful middle school students are increasingly distracted by their phones in class, engaged in inappropriate behavior (such as group TikTok videos and looking up answers during assessments), and occupied by digital social media rather than in-person peers. Over the years, this behavior is becoming less willful and more habit, and they are showing us that different boundaries are necessary.

Our new policy involves collecting student phones in classrooms each period to ensure they are not a distraction to learning or social interaction. Our Upper School is implementing a similar policy.

We continue to believe it is important for students to learn self-control and practice responsible use of technology. MacBook Airs, which — unlike phones — are used at school for academic purposes, provide plenty of opportunities for us to work on classroom management and avoid distractions.

While it is generally helpful to the process of separation and individuation for young adolescents to not be in touch with parents during the school day, we recognize that needs arise and that communication with you is a big reason they have phones. If you need to contact or get a message to your child, you can either email them (checking email is something we make time for and practice during the day) or email/call me or the Middle School Office — 703.584.2370. If you have any questions or concerns about our new phone policy, please reach out to me directly.

Upcoming Events

Medication Drop-Off
Thursday, August 25
10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m., Upper School circle

Middle School New Parent Virtual Orientation
Monday, August 29, 9:00-10:00 a.m.
New and returning parents are welcome to join me for a virtual orientation with questions and answers. Q&A session to ease your transition to the school year.

Middle School Parent-Advisor In-Person Conferences
Monday, August 29, and Tuesday, August 30, Peterson Middle School
Link to register was sent via email on August 17.

Middle School Student-Parent Visitation
Tuesday, August 30, 1:00-3:00 p.m., Peterson Middle School
Parents and students who wish to visit the building before our orientation activities begin tomorrow are welcome to come in for a self-guided tour.

Lower and Middle School First Day of School
Wednesday, August 31
We will have full school days (8:00 a.m.-3:30 p.m.) Wednesday-Friday of this first week and run a modified class schedule combined with orientation and community-building activities. Students should be in regular school dress and bring MacBooks and supplies.

Labor Day — Grades JK-12, No Classes
Monday, September 5

Middle School Picture Day
Thursday, September 8

Middle School Back-to-School Night
Thursday, September 15, 7:00-9:00 p.m., Peterson Middle School
Please join us to walk through your child’s schedule and hear about each course from their teachers. Light refreshments will be served. I will include additional details in next week’s newsletter. Please note that this is not an evening for students.

Parents’ Association

Dear Flint Hill Families,

Hopefully, your family is enjoying these last two weeks of summer and feeling increasingly ready for school to begin. Last week I introduced myself and shared information about the Parents’ Association.

Thank you to the parent volunteers who helped make yesterday and today’s Lower School Uniform Exchange and School Store Pop-Up Shop such a success! As we all look ahead to the Parents’ Association events that build community throughout the year, I hope you’ll take a minute and mark your calendar (look for the dates below).

During the year, I’ll share specific volunteer opportunities in this section. In the meantime, please use this link to indicate your potential interest and willingness to be contacted directly.

Go Huskies!

Warmly,

KayAnn Schoeneman
Parent ’28