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The Panther Press
April 29-May 3, 2024
Volume 6, Issue 35
Calendar at a Glance April 29-May 10, 2024
This Week: April 29-May 3, 2024
Monday April 29 Day 3
- 3rd Grade Reading SOL Makeups
- Spring Book Fair
Tuesday April 30 Day 4
- 5th Grade Reading SOL Part 1
- Spring Book Fair
- Ultsch out @ KLC AI Training
- Math CLT meetings
- Family Science Night and Spring Book Fair 5:00-7:30 VOLUNTEERS NEEDED
Wednesday May 1 Day 5
- 5th Grade Reading SOL Part 2
- Spring Book Fair
- Leadership Team Meeting 8:00
- Multicultural Club 4:15-5:15
- Strings Concert and English Country Dances 7:00-8:00pm
Thursday May 2 Day 1
- ABC Countdown- Letter A- dress like an animal day
- 4th Grade Reading SOL Part 1
- Spring Book Fair
- CIP Team Meeting @ 8:00
- LA CLT meetings
- Gifted Family Night 5:00-6:30
Friday May 3 Day 2
- ABC Countdown- Letter B- Beach day- wear beach clothes, flip flops, beach towels
- Spring Book Fair
- 4th Grade Reading SOL Part 2
- Self Assessment Due in HR Perform for ALL STAFF
Next Week: May 6-10, 2024
Monday May 6 Day 3
- ABC Countdown- Letter C- Camp day
- 4th & 5th Reading SOL Makeups
Tuesday May 7 Day 4
- ABC Countdown- Letter D- Dance!
- 4th & 5th Reading SOL Makeups
- New Educator Support Session 8:00
Wednesday May 8 Day 5
- ABC Countdown- Letter E- Experiments
- 5th Grade Math SOL Day 1
- LA CLT Meetings
- Multicultural Club 4:15-5:15
Thursday May 9 Day 1
- ABC Countdown- Letter F- Fitness gear
- 5th Grade Math SOL Day 2
- ESOL Team Meeting 8:00
- EOY CIP Meeting @ 1:00pm
Friday May 10 Day 2
- ABC Countdown- Letter G- Go Green
- 5th Grade Math SOL Makeups
THIS WEEK...
DEAR Time: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday - 3:20 - 3:35
ALL CLASSES EXPECTED TO PARTICIPATE
3-2-1 Writing: Monday & Friday - 3:20 - 3:35
ALL GENERAL EDUCATION CLASSES EXPECTED TO PARTICIPATE.
SOL Testing This Week
4/29- 3rd Grade Reading Makeups- NO LUNCH OR ENCORE SCHEDULE CHANGES
4/30- 5th Grade Reading SOL Day 1
5/1- 5th Grade Reading SOL Day 2
5/2- 4th Grade Reading SOL Day 1
5/3- 4th Grade Reading SOL Day 2
Encore Schedule 4/29 & 5/1
9:40 1st Grade
10:30 Kindergarten
11:20 2nd Grade
12:35 4th Grade
1:40 3rd Grade
2:30 5th Grade
Encore Schedule 5/2 & 5/3
9:40 1st Grade
10:30 Kindergarten
11:20 2nd Grade
12:35 3rd Grade
1:40 5th Grade
2:30 4th Grade
Reminders
- Please remove any items from the hallways that relate to Reading, Math or Science.
- Specialists will be supporting testing. We will also be using the ESOL, LD, Reading, and Math rooms. Please do not call ANY classrooms during testing.
- Students in the testing grades will place their backpacks and personal items in the hallways.
- Students in non-testing grades will use the bathrooms by the cafeteria. The bathrooms by the 3rd-5th grade hallways will ONLY be used by students testing.
Self Assessment in HR Perform
ALL STAFF- Please complete the self-assessment assigned to you in HR Perform by Friday May 3rd. Please be detailed and justify your ratings in the comments.
End of Year PGP Dates
End of year PGP form can be found in HR Perform. Make sure you are updating your data in the data spreadsheets!
- Probationary End of Year PGP due 5/17
- Informal Cycle End of Year PGP due 6/3
- Formal Cycle End of Year PGP due 6/3
June 7, 10, & 11
Remember these are contracted workdays.
June 7- Early Dismissal, end of year luncheon celebration
June 10 & 11- Classroom check outs, VLA Professional Development
Attendance Data as of 4/13
Last year 2022-2023 chronically absent 17.47%
This year 2023-2024 chronically absent 14.63% ⬇️
Goal: maintain chronic absenteeism rate at 15% or less.
Last year 2022-2023 chronic EL absenteeism 20.00%
This year 2023-2024 chronic EL absenteeism 16.20% ⬇️
Goal: maintain chronic absenteeism rate at 15% or less.
Last year 2022-2023 chronic SpEd absenteeism 27.40%
This year 2023-2024 chronic SpEd absenteeism 19.74% ⬇️
Goal: maintain chronic absenteeism rate at 15% or less.
Family Science Night
Family Science Night is Tuesday April 30. Volunteers from EVERY grade level are needed! Thank you to the teams who have reached out to their families for volunteers. PreK and Fifth grade knocked it out of the park with 3 volunteers each! Remember a volunteer from EVERY grade level is required. If family members aren't available, a teacher from the grade level has to be there.
Leadership Meeting on Wednesday 5/1
Team leads, if you cannot attend, please send a grade level representative. We will be discussing important end of year information.
Girls on the Run Club? Boys on the Move Club?
Calling all runners! We would like to re-establish our Girls on the Run club at MWES. If you are interested in being a co-coordinator, please let Ms. Ultsch know, and she will put you together. It will be important to do the legwork over the summer to get our team re-established and registered. We would also like to start the boys version of this club (or something similar) if anyone is interested in leading it.
Complete Teams Course
Instructional Technology reminds administrators, certified staff, and teaching assistants to complete the self-paced course: Microsoft Teams: A Basic introduction to Collaboration, Communication and Cohesiveness (course #36042). This course is due by Sunday, June 30, and is included in the Professional Development (PD) Plan for the 2023-24 school year.
Tech Training in 2024-2025
Ms. Bruce and Mr. Qureshi will be providing scheduled trainings for all the new technology MWES will have next year, to include: iPad ins and outs, what's new in Clever, newest apps, and hardware. Dates forthcoming so stay tuned!
From the Custodians:
It is that time of year when many of you are cleaning your classrooms and discarding empty boxes (we appreciate it).
If you could please help us out by continuing to flatten your boxes it would be great, as our recycle dumpster fills up fast during these months, can only hold so much, and unfortunately, we only get serviced once per week.
As you are cleaning out your classrooms, try not to cram too many things in the large trash bags. They become too heavy to lift safely. We will provide smaller bags for your clean up.
Try to clean up little bits of your classroom at a time instead of all at once. We only have one dumpster and it fills very quickly this time of year, and they only empty it once a week.
Ideas for Software Purchase for 2024-2025?
Only 6 people have responded to this request from Ms. Bruce for software for the 2024-2025 school year. PLEASE DO NOT COMPLAIN if we do not have the software you desire if you do not respond.
https://forms.office.com/r/CVYCzYe5ST
If you see this, send Ms. Ultsch an email with a blue heart emoji.
Taking Leave in April and May
Please do your best NOT to take planned leave on SOL days. Obviously, if you have an emergency or a major life event that falls on an SOL day, your leave will be approved. Please schedule non-emergency appointments for non-SOL days. We need all school staff in place to ensure that SOLs run smoothly. Substitute Teachers are hard to come by and splitting classes has become common, as has pulling people from other jobs to substitute. We cannot do this on SOL days. Thank you in advance for your support with NOT taking non-emergency leave in April and May!
Staff Vacancies
Currently we are interviewing candidates for the following staff vacancies for the 2024-2025 school year:
ED Teacher (2 positions)
PE teacher
Upcoming PALS testing
2nd Grade: 4/22- 5/3
K/1: 5/6-5/17
3rd (only ID'd students) week of 5/6-5/10
SAVE THE DATES!
April 30- Family Science Night - at least one teacher volunteer per team required to attend. We also need one parent volunteer per classroom.
May 31 - Multicultural Night - **ALL HANDS ON DECK**
Spring 2024 SOL Testing Schedule
Instructional Corner
Happy Birthday May Babies!
Anastaciya Wheeler 5/11
Eileen Vaglia 5/11
Julia Riley 5/21
Kim Chamblin 5/23
Nicole Thurman 5/23
Sadaf Zehra 5/31
Shoutouts and Kudos! 🐾
Big thanks to Ms. Nelzy and Ms. D. Hogan for stepping in and testing a third grade classroom last week.
Thank you to third grade team for their flexibility when splitting a class on Friday!
Kudos to Ms. Tensley for hitting the ground running in her first full week as the nurse!
Kudos to Ms. Salvador for obtaining her permanent residency status!
Kudos to Ms. Andrews for pushing through for her students despite not feeling well on an SOL day!
Big thanks to Ms. Simmons and Ms. Young for coordinating the 3rd quarter awards assemblies!
Thank you to our beloved front office ladies, Ms. Hubbard, Ms. A. Hogan, Ms. Hernandez, Ms. Galloway and Ms. Hawkins for being the heartbeat of our school!
Kudos to Mr. White for making a difference with three of our young boys who need extra support! Your support makes a difference. We appreciate you!
Kudos to Ms. Young, Ms. Palmer, Ms. A. Smith, Ms. M. Smith, Ms. Donegan, Ms. Nielsen for hosting a fabulous surprise baby shower for Ms. Simmons. And thanks to all teams for contributing! We love you Ms. Simmons and we can’t wait to meet our newest Baby Panther Cub.
Kudos to our awesome Test Coordinators, Ultsch and Ridley! No testing irregularities the first week of SOL testing! Woohoo! Kudos to all test examiners and proctors involved in testing last week. You guys rock!
Great job to Ms. Young for hosting the Military Kids Breakfast on Friday and organizing speakers to come speak to the students. Thank you to Ms. Lyles for helping support this event.
PreK put their two classes together when they were short a sub on Friday. Shout out to Ms. Tyler and Ms. Morris and all their assistants for taking that on!
Shout out to 4th grade for splitting and taking in Ms. Dawkins' class on Friday!
Thanks to Ms. Ter Weele for working with our students for All County and All State Chorus!
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If you'd like to shout out or share a celebration, please take a second to fill out the quick form below. We'll share the celebrations/kudos/shoutouts here in the Panther Press each week!
MWES Week 33 Parent Newsletter
Administrator Contacts: Please SAVE these numbers into your phone.
Danna Johnson - 703.268.3130
Natasha Ridley - 571.375.4690
Heather Ultsch - 571.289.5893
#5Dens1Pride #MWESExcellentTogether
About Us
Email: johnsdb@pwcs.edu
Website: williamses.pwcs.edu
Location: 3100 Panther Pride Drive, Woodbridge, VA, USA
Phone: 703-445-8376
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marywilliamses/
Twitter: @MaryWilliamsES