The Fulton Flier

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Dear Fulton Families,

Thank you for your support of our arrival and dismissal procedures! We are excited to report that the majority of our buses have been arriving on time in the morning and afternoon! If you are driving or walking with your child to school, please ensure your child arrives by 9:23am so they are in class before the second bell. If you child arrives after our second bell, 9:25, please come in and sign them in.

Also, if you are picking your child up via car- please ensure your placard is located on your passenger's side visor. This allows for staff to easily see who you are picking up and makes our process more efficient. If you need another placard, please let our front office know.

Last, but definitely not least, a huge shout out to our PTA for our Fall Festival. It was a fun-filled Saturday. From Gagaball to sand art- there was fun for all ages and students, families and staff had a blast. Thank you!

Warmly,

Dr. Burks, Mrs. Liwosz, & Mrs. Sillers

Nothing Bundt Cakes, located at 10730 Little Patuxent Parkway in Columbia, is offering a special incentive for students. “Books and Bundts” is a youth reading program through which students can earn a free Bundtlet and an award certificate for each month they read 400+ minutes. Students should track their progress on the attached form below and bring the completed tracker to the store to receive their sweet treat. Happy reading!

Did you know socks are one of the most needed and least donated items to homeless shelters?

Winter is coming! Everyone needs warm socks!

Fulton Elementary is collecting socks for the homeless in ‘Socktober’!

Donations of new socks of all sizes are greatly appreciated! Socks will be collected from October 1st until October 31st, in a box in each grade level's pod area.

We are now accepting adult sizes ONLY, and the thicker the better. Donations will be given to Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center in Columbia, MD on November 1st. Thank you for helping others!

If you ave any questions, please reach out to Ms. Jillian O'Brien.

October is the start of National Bullying Prevention Month! We wanted to use this opportunity to share with our students, parents, guardians, and families some information and definitions to better help you understand bullying; which can be found via this link. It is important that you understand what bullying is to ensure you are able to report it when you see it or are told about it. Thank you for helping to ensure our school a safe place for all students!

Please click on the attachment to view activities around the community for the Month of October. If you have any questions, please reach out to Ms. Quinn.

Ledo’s Night
Tuesday October 3
4-6pm
Please support a PTA sponsor and local restaurant by dining in or carrying out. When you mention FES, they’ll donate a portion of proceeds back to us!! (See flyer for detail)

Fall Fest Wrap-Up
Our FES community showed up en mass and we had so much fun!! It would not have been possible without chairs and party planning extraordinares Suzi Grompone, Donna Cruz, Genna Bross and board member Stacey Oken Bacon (who have been working on the event since July) - your creativity and thoroughness were simply amazing!

To our yearlong PTA sponsors, who not only support us financially, but showed up to add to the fun - we so appreciate your generosity and loved having you there!

Thank you to our parent and grandparent (!) volunteers who took time away from their families to make sure others had fun and our student volunteers who took on real responsibilities and came ready to work hard - this wouldn’t have been possible without you and hope you’ll join us again next year!

To the food trucks - you were a smashing success! Reliable and delicious and we all left with full bellies!

We are so grateful for our FES and surrounding community and especially all of the staff and teachers who came to spend their Saturday at school!!!

October

• PTA Pumpkin Patch (More Details coming soon)
• 10.03 PTA Ledo Pizza Restaurant Night (Fulton), 4:00-9:00
• 10.09 No School for Students, Professional Learning Day
• 10.13 Fall Picture Day
• 10.20 No School for Students, Professional Learning Day
• 10.31 3 Hour Early Dismissal/End of 1st Quarter

HCPSS and The Council of Elders of the Black Community of Howard County (TCOE) have partnered to sponsor the following parent workshops series:

• October 14: Navigating the Howard County Public School System
• December 16: Social Emotional Well-Being and Substance Abuse
• January 27: Processes for Parent Empowerment
• March 9: Healthy and Unhealthy Relationships

Each engaging session is held virtually on Saturdays from 9-10:30 a.m. Please see the save the date flyer for more information.

Free Parenting Classes - As educators, we are well aware of the ever-increasing pressures placed on students. The academic demands, social challenges, and rapidly changing world can be overwhelming. Our Guiding Good Choices parenting classes can equip parents and/or grandparents with the knowledge and skills to reduce the risk that their children will use drugs and alcohol or engage in other dangerous behaviors. These classes are for families with children 9 - 14 yrs. old and held over Zoom.

Medication and Sharps Disposal Take Back Day - October 28 in the Wilde Lake Village Center Parking Lot from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Safely dispose of prescription medication, over-the-counter meds, sharps, vitamins, pet meds, vape devices, inhalers, and more! Also, 100 medication lockboxes purchased by HCPSS will be given away for FREE!

HCPSS’ Multilingual Parent Leadership Program will begin on October 5. The six-week program is designed to help multilingual parents navigate the school system and develop the confidence to serve as advocates for their children. The program also provides training for multilingual parents to assume leadership roles in schools and the community. The program is held on Thursdays on the dates listed below and runs from 9:30 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Participants must attend all sessions.

• October 5
• October 12
• October 19
• October 26
• November 2
• November 9

Interested participants must complete an applicationLinks to an external site. by September 28. Completed applications must be returned to:

Office of Multilingual Family Services
Old Cedar Lane
5451 Beaverkill Road
Columbia, MD 21044

For more information, please contact Min Woo.

NAMI Basics is a FREE education program for parents and other caregivers of children and adolescents living with mental illness that provides resources and practical insights for families. The NAMI Basics course is taught by trained parents who have lived similar experiences with their own children

Flyer attached. Nami Basics Flyer Fall 2023 (1).pdf ​​​​​​​

The HCPSS Black Student Achievement Program invites you to attend the upcoming BSAP College and Career Opportunities Night on Thursday, October 12, 2023, at Long Reach High School. This College and Career Opportunities Night invites scholars in grades 8 - 12 countywide to network with working professionals, colleges, and universities, explore post-secondary opportunities, and learn more about HCPSS pathways. The evening will highlight a variety of colleges and universities as well as local businesses and organizations. To register, please complete the Registration Form linked here.

A new contact form is available for families to report route concerns so HCPSS' Office of Student Transportation staff can review, respond and adjust the routes where appropriate. The form also can be found on the HCPSS Transportation webpage.

We now have a Planet Aid dropbox on campus. If you have any clothes or shoes that you need to donate, drop them off in the bright yellow drop box. Not only will you be donating to a great cause, a donation is provided to FES for each pound of clothes/shoes donated.

The Board of Education did not approve the 2023-2024 Inclement Weather Asynchronous Day Plan. As a result, HCPSS will not use asynchronous days this school year. Any days that schools are closed for inclement weather will be made up at the end of the school year.

We want to hear about what you celebrate in the month of October! Feel free to share using this form. If it is easier to just shoot me an email-- that works as well (kaitlyn_i_quinn@hcpss.org)! We look forward to sharing your celebrations with our Fulton Family!

Students who participated in the 2023 Maryland Comprehensive Assessment Program (MCAP) for grades 3-5 in the 2022-2023 school year will be hand carrying individual score reports home on Thursday, September 28th. For additional information on how to interpret the reports, please visit https://support.mdassessments.com/reporting/ and click on the Parent Score Interpretation Guide menu.

These results will be used in combination with other assessments and class work to gauge overall student performance.

Please see the flyer below for information on FES clubs being offered to our students. There is a QR code for the permission slip or you can click this link. Specific dates and times will be communicated by club hosts (staff members). Please also direct club questions to the club hosts.

If your child is registered for bus service, you now have access to use the Zum App, which will allow you to track your child’s bus and receive notifications.

Zum App
Using the app will allow you to track your child’s bus in real-time, receive pick-up notifications if you choose, and view the driver for each ride.

To start using the Zum app, please follow these instructions:

1. Download the app
2. Log in to your account with the phone number or email address you have listed on your child’s record in Family File in HCPSS Connect
3. Verify your access by entering the one-time code sent to your device
4. Check the notification settings to ensure you’re receiving Zum notifications, if desired, so you’ll know when the bus is approaching and when your child has arrived at school

Additionally, HCPSS will continue to work with Zum to improve the parent/guardian app experience as needed.

Bus Delay Notifications
Effective Monday, Sept. 11, bus delays will no longer be posted to the HCPSS website. Parents/guardians with a child served by Zum may utilize the app to receive push notifications when their child’s bus is running more than 10 minutes late. These notifications will be sent only via in-app notifications if enabled to the parent/guardian who has downloaded and logged in to the app. Parents/guardians are encouraged to use the app in real-time to monitor their child’s bus status during school arrival and dismissal. Due to the larger than usual volume of delayed buses each day, it is likely that school-level email and texts may be delayed and the Zum application will provide the most up-to-date information.

Data Privacy
In order to create routes, issue timely notifications and updates, and provide the level of service HCPSS expects of our transportation contractors, some student/family data is shared with the contractors. This information sharing is vetted through our Office of Data Privacy, and a data privacy agreement is signed to require that contractors do not use this information for any reason beyond what is agreed upon.

This is not uncommon and occurs with contracted companies who provide services related to transportation, food and nutrition services, and other student and family supports. Only the necessary information to adequately provide the expected services is provided.

Answers to frequently asked questions related to the Zum app are posted on the HCPSS website and will be updated regularly.

Students in grades 1-5 will be participating in the Fall administration of the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment between September 19 -October 11. Please see the table below for specific grade level dates.

The MAP assessment is designed to measure a student's academic achievement and growth over time in reading and mathematics. Together with other classroom-based information, MAP results can help teachers make instructional decisions that match the needs of each child.

MAP is an untimed, computer adaptive assessment. As a student responds to questions in a computer adaptive assessment, the test responds to the student, adjusting the difficulty of the questions presented to the student. This creates a personalized assessment for every student.

​​​​​​​You do not need to do anything special to prepare your child for the MAP assessment other than ensure they have a good night’s rest the night before. Make up tests will be scheduled for those who are absent.

If you have any questions, please reach out to Justine Sillers (justine_sillers@hcpss.org) and/or Meaghan Liwosz (meaghan_liwosz@hcpss.org).