Upper School Newsletter - August 10, 2022

Message From Division Director
Welcome back Huskies! In my last newsletter in June, I expressed my hope that everyone would have a summer that included a mixture of adventure and rest. As the end of summer approaches, I encourage everyone to make sure that their student found that blend of the unknown combined with the restorative.
We will release three newsletters before classes begin on Monday, August 29. I will use each newsletter to discuss a significant policy change at the Upper School for 2022-2023. My goal is to make sure that both students and parents have clarity about the changes but also a thorough understanding of the “why” behind the changes.
For this first newsletter, I want to talk about changes to attendance and the daily schedule for 2022-2023.
Our focus in the 2021-2022 school year was to find times to reconnect as a community, so the daily schedule for that year had a large amount of advisory time and community time. Students used that time to reacclimate to the full school setting, but now we are moving some of that time back to instructional time. Therefore, we created activity, lab, and studio blocks to fill two of the Community Time blocks. Those blocks will be used for a myriad of activities that normally our students have to fit into other academic free periods or after school. The creation of those blocks also created much more flexibility in our student scheduling system, thus ensuring that students could avoid class conflicts which might have limited their ability to be in certain classes during past years.
Another substantial change was that we merged the 30-minute morning office hours block with the afternoon office hours block on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The students really appreciate the morning office hours, but we needed to make this change for two reasons. We realized that for many students, they did not have an hour-long chunk of time during the week to make up tests when they are absent. By recreating the hour-long office hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays, all students will regularly have a chunk of time that they can use for make-up assessments. The other reason had to do with the amount of class missed by athletes for Tuesday and Thursday games. Because so many of our games happen on those days, having classes end at 2:10 p.m. (as opposed to 2:40 p.m. on the other three days) will lead to a significant decrease in lost class time for our athletes.
This means that classes are over at 2:10 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. However, we will not dismiss students from campus until 2:30 p.m. because we are required to wait until we have a police presence directing traffic, which doesn’t happen until 2:30 p.m. each day. Please be mindful that parents wanting to pick up their students on Tuesday and Thursday should just use the same timing as the Monday, Wednesday, and Friday carpools, which is 2:40 p.m. This delay is a blessing though because we want our students to utilize office hours as much as possible, which tends to be the case for most students regardless of when they are dismissed.
Another substantial change to the calendar was the removal of morning advisory. We have seen a marked increase in student absences during the short advisory block that previously ran from 8:10 to 8:20 a.m. With the increased amount of advisory integrated into the school day, we decided to pilot a year where the school day begins with class rather than advisory. We are hoping that this allows students a few more minutes to safely get to school but also makes the mid-morning advisory time, scheduled on Tuesdays and Thursdays, more meaningful.
Lastly, we have changed the policy around when students are required to be on campus. Almost all of our students have a free period. These free periods often are the first or last class of the day. Many of our families wanted their child to come late on mornings when their first period is free or leave early when their last period is free. Previously, students were only allowed to arrive late or leave early with a doctor’s appointment or other similar reason, even if they had a free period. However, this year we will allow all Upper School students to arrive late or leave early provided that they have a free period during that time and their parent registers their permission for this in SchoolPass.
If you want to see the full attendance policy, you can visit the Resource Board on Husky Hub. Simply click the “Preparing for the School Year Tile,” look in the Upper School column, and click on “Attendance Policy.”
Don Paige
Director of the Upper 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!
Student Schedules Online
Specific teacher and class assignments will be available tomorrow morning, August 11. To access your child’s class placement, 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.
Bus Service Sign-Up Reminder — Deadline Friday, August 12
Details regarding morning, afternoon and evening bus service can be found here. To sign your student up for bus service, please complete the Bus Service Registration Form.
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.
Dress Guidelines
Please review the dress guidelines with your student prior to the school year. This is available under the heading “Dress Guidelines” on the Preparing for the 2022-2023 School Year page on Husky Hub. Please reach out to Upper School Dean of Students Howard Chang with any questions.
Fall Athletics
Our Upper School fall sports are scheduled to start on Monday, August 22, with the exception of Varsity Football which starts on Monday, August 15. 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. IF YOU DIDN’T SIGN UP FOR A FALL SPORT, IT’S NOT TOO LATE!
Read more details about our fall sports from Director of Athletics Dewayne Robinson.
Senior Portrait Sign-ups
Senior portraits will be taken by appointment on campus Monday, August 22 and Tuesday, August 23. Schedule an appointment.
Students will be photographed in a formal cap and gown, provided by the studio. Wearing a dress shirt, scoop or v-neck is recommended. The top of any collared or crewneck shirt will be visible, so please be mindful not to wear colors that may clash with the Flint Hill blue gown or clothing featuring prominent logos, text, or artwork that could be visible above the neckline of the blue gown.
Our photographer, FREED Spirit Photography, offers session packages with several different poses and outfits if you choose. A make-up day is scheduled for Friday, September 9. If none of these pre-scheduled dates work for your family, contact Freed at support@freedphoto.com or (301) 652-5452 to schedule a session in their studio.
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
New Roles, Departures and New Hires
Congratulations to the following returning faculty and staff who have taken on new roles this year.
Andrew Basti — Technology Systems Analyst
Jean Marí Hernández López — Lower School, Middle School and Upper School Modern Language Department Chair and Middle School and Upper School French and Spanish Teacher
Jody Patrick — Lower School P.E. Department Chair and P.E. Teacher
Melissa Riley — Advancement Officer and Advancement Data Specialist
Emily Sanderson — Upper School History and Social Sciences Teacher
Melissa Turner — Director of Systems Operations and Systems Training
Ana Yarbrough — Executive Administrative Assistant to the Head of School
Julie Young — Human Resources Coordinator
As we do each year, we have faculty and staff who depart over the summer due to retirement, relocation or new career or educational opportunities. We are grateful for their service to Flint Hill and wish them well in their future endeavors.
Kara Tribbie — Athletic Trainer
We are delighted to welcome new Upper School faculty/staff and members of the Senior Leadership Team to the Flint Hill family.
Patrick McHonett — Head of School — Patrick joins us from St. John’s Episcopal School in Orange County, California. He previously served as associate head of school at Phoenix Country Day School in Phoenix, Arizona, and has an expansive independent school background that includes admission, marketing and communications, and college counseling. We welcome Patrick along with his wife, Jessica, and their children, Charlotte (fourth grade) and Jack (Kindergarten), as well as their dog, Archie, to the Flint Hill community.
Carmen Scott — Director of Marketing and Communications — Carmen comes to us with 15 years of experience working in independent schools, including at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School in New York City, The Berkeley School in Berkeley, California, and The Field School in Washington, D.C. She earned her B. A. in journalism and mass communication from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Kaleena Buckwalter — School Store Manager — Kaleena subbed at Flint Hill for a year and a half and was also a dental assistant for eight and a half years. She has an A.S. in science from Northern Virginia Community College. One fun fact about Kaleena is that she is dog and water obsessed!
Susannah Brown — Upper School Digital Arts Teacher — Susannah is a professional photographer/artist, arts educator and photo organizer. Over the past decade, she spent her time as a museum educator at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York as well as the Corcoran College of Art + Design in Washington, D.C. She has a BFA in photography from Parsons School of Design and an MAT in arts education from the Corcoran College of Art + Design. Susannah loves cooking, skee ball, visiting museums and spending time in nature.
Virginia Cady — Upper School History and Social Sciences Teacher — Virginia has worked at St. Stephen's & St. Agnes School as a camp director and student teacher and most recently worked as a history teacher at the Hutchison School in Memphis, Tennessee. She has a B.A. in Middle East and international studies from Dickinson College, an M.A. in international peace and conflict resolution and an M.A.T in secondary school social studies from American University. One fun fact about Virginia is that she has coached rock climbing since 2016.
Henry Cafferata — Upper School History and Social Sciences Teacher — Henry has worked as a long-term substitute and assistant football coach at Flint Hill School. He has a B.A. in political science from Macalester College. One fun fact about Henry is that he played division III football at Macalester College for four years.
Jonathan Chang — Upper School Science and English Teacher — Jonathan has worked in education for 11 years at three different schools, both public and private: two years at Albemarle High School, five years at Flint Hill School, and three years at Porter-Gaud School before returning to Flint Hill. He has an M.T. of teaching in secondary English and special education from the University of Virginia and a B.A. in English from the University of Virginia. One interesting fact about Jonathan that he shared is that he is deaf in his right ear and is most likely not intentionally ignoring you — just repeat yourself on his left side.
Malia D’Angio — Upper School Math Teacher — Malia worked as a middle school math teacher for four years in Arlington County Public School. She has a B.S. in mathematics from James Madison University and an M.A.T. in secondary education from James Madison University. Malia loves to cook and try new recipes.
Ariel Harper — Upper School Dance Teacher — Ariel has worked in dance education for six years at several different dance studios, community centers, public schools and colleges. She has a B.S. in communications with a concentration in dance from Northwestern University. One fun fact about Ariel is that she has traveled to 10 countries.
Joelle Henry — Middle and Upper School Computer Science and Robotics Teacher — Joelle has 26 years of experience in education from preschool to high school. She has a B.S. in electrical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and an M.Ed. in educational studies from the University of New Hampshire. One fun fact about Joelle is that she worked for General Electric in the Aerospace Division before entering the field of education. She also just moved to Virginia from New Hampshire this summer!
Samantha Hill — Upper School English Teacher — Samantha has taught at three different Fairfax County schools and two Loudoun County schools in the past 17 years. She taught various courses including marketing/business electives, leadership and English. She has a B.S. in Marketing Management from Virginia Tech, an M.S.Ed. in Career and Technical Education from Virginia Tech and an additional Major in Communication Studies from Virginia Tech. Samantha loves to spend time with her family and two big dogs!
Jackie McLoughlin — Middle and Upper School Theatre Arts Teacher and Director of Theatre Arts Productions — Jackie worked at Commonwealth Academy as a Theater teacher for five years. She has an M.A. in text and performance studies and directing from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and King's College London. Jackie loves traveling, ice hockey and family time.
Brad Savage — Middle and Upper School Classics Department Chair and Upper School Classics Teacher — Brad has taught Latin, English and Math for eight years at the Einstein Academy near Chicago, Illinois, and for one year at Tempe Preparatory Academy. He has a B.A. in Classics and political science from The Ohio State University and an M.A. in Classics from the University of Washington. A few fun facts about Brad are that he appeared on Jeopardy (came in second!), is an avid square dancer, and loves to play softball.
Upcoming Events
Husky Hub Opens
Thursday, August 11
Senior Portraits
Monday, August 22 and Tuesday, August 23
Schedule an appointment.
Medication Drop-Off
Thursday, August 25
10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m., Upper School circle
Upper School First Day of School
Monday, August 29
Upper School Picture Day (9th-11th grade)
Tuesday, August 30
Labor Day — Grades JK-12, No Classes
Monday, September 5
Upper School Back-to-School Night
Thursday, September 8
7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
Parents’ Association
Welcome from KayAnn Schoeneman, Parents' Association President
Dear Flint Hill Families,
Welcome to the Flint Hill 2022-2023 school year! Whether this is your first year as a Husky parent, or your 13th or 14th year as the parent of a “lifer,” we are glad you are a part of our community. I am looking forward to a fantastic year ahead, especially partnering with our new Head of School, Patrick McHonett, and connecting with parents on campus and in our community.
- A little about me. I’m the parent of a seventh grader, Nicholas, who has attended Flint Hill since junior kindergarten. My husband, Brian, and I have been active in the Flint Hill community since 2014 and enjoy being involved in various School activities. Over the years, our family has experienced many instances of the Flint Hill community — living the Lower School Husky Promise, especially showing “compassion to all” in the most profound and practical ways. I am excited to engage with and make a difference in our community this year.
- A little about the Parents’ Association. Every Flint Hill parent and/or guardian is automatically a member of the Parents’ Association, and there are no membership fees. The Parents’ Association works to strengthen the partnership between the School and Flint Hill families by encouraging parental involvement and engagement within our community. You can read more about the Parents’ Association here.
- A little about what’s next. A full range of Parents’ Association events is planned for this year in addition to volunteer opportunities. Starting in next week’s newsletter, we’ll run a list of events for the year so you can mark your calendar and get involved. This section of the newsletter will also have information and links to sign up for volunteer opportunities too.
I’ll be sharing ways we can connect as a community throughout the year. I am eager to connect with parents this year while pulling the sled through the school year, having fun along the way, and crossing the finish line together.
Take meaningful risks. Be yourself. Make a difference.
Warmly,
KayAnn Schoeneman
Parent ’28
Flint Hill School Store — Tuesday, August 16-17
The School Store will be hosting a pop-up shop from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, August 16, and Wednesday, August 17, in Room 112 in Hazel Lower School. Parent volunteers are needed. This is a great opportunity to connect with other parents while making a difference.
Sign up to volunteer.
August
16-17—Lower School Uniform Exchange
September
12—Parent Morning Mixer
15—Parents’ Association Fall Tennis Social
16—Parents’ Association Tennis Social - Rain Date
23—Senior Breakfast
October
3— Parent Morning Mixer
14-15—Homecoming Weekend
November
7—Parent Morning Mixer
March
6—Morning Mixer
10—Lower School Spring Uniform Exchange
April
3—Parent Morning Mixer
15—Parents’ Association Spring Tennis Social
May
1—Parent Morning Mixer
25—Flint Hill Golf Invitational
June
1—Volunteer Appreciation Reception