Hello Falcon Zone ~

Last week we launched our beginning of the year Falcon Zone Satisfaction Survey. It is a short survey (4 rating scales) and gives us the opportunity to hear your voice about what is going well and what needs some work. Please take a minute to complete the survey for your child's school linked below!

We are excited to move to a Zone Wide SAC (School Accountability Committee) this school year! All schools will meet at Woodmen Hills Elementary School on Sept. 5th. Dinner will be served starting at 5 followed by a short session with Zone Leadership at 5:30. Each building will then breakout into their individual SAC sessions. We are excited for this opportunity to connect with all of our schools at once.

To read more and RSVP, please see link below!

In Partnership,

Cari Muresan

FZ Community Liaison

FMS Parents -

Want to stay up to date and informed? Want to know what your child is working on each week in class or what assignments they have? Look no further than the FMS Teacher Landing Pages! Please see the video below for more information on how to access these valuable pages!

Falcon Zone launched on a new flight path this year to ensure all of our graduates Earn their WINGS as they move forward in their educational journey. Schools, teachers, staff, and community are working together in various ways to help our students see the importance of each of these WINGS, in all aspects, throughout the school. Wisdom is at the top so that we ensure all of our students achieve essential content, skills, and standards to prepare them for their next academic steps. Integrity comes next as it is critical that our students and teams demonstrate honesty, strong ethical principles, and moral values each and every day. Networking is in the center as it is central to all that we do; we want to ensure that students develop strong positive relationships with those around them to foster a positive environment overall. Grit is important to ensure that our students develop persistence, resilience, and determination that will help them to tackle real world challenges. Finally, all students should exude Self-Confidence so that they can believe in themselves and their abilities to do great things.

When all of us in the Falcon Zone work together and challenge our students with Engaging Environments, Enhanced Opportunities, and Elevated Instruction, then we will Empower our Learners in the Falcon Zone to Earn their WINGS. Our instructional model throughout all of our classrooms is focused on providing balanced instruction where direct instruction, small group instruction, and personalized learning all work together. We want to ensure our students are well prepared academically, and possess the skills within our portrait of a graduate, so that they can fly forward to their next chapter after high school. Falcon Zone is on the right flight path overall as our state achievement scores in the Zone showed the strongest gains in D49! Way to go Falcon Zone...let's keep going and continue to fly higher than before!

PBL teacher, Mrs. Thorp, uses the WHES garden space to help her students learn more about life science. Their 3-5th graders are responsible for making the school garden look so inviting by pulling weeds, 1st & 2nd learned about bees and bravely identified them in the garden and 5th graders completed a scavenger hunt to identify the plants growing.

5th Grade teacher, Mrs. Rodney, uses small groups to help individualize her instruction after teaching a whole group lesson using her CleverTouch board. Students break into groups and work on a variety of problem sets while she circles the room to check for understanding and answer questions.

Students in Mrs. Hall's 5th grade classroom worked to find and identify personification in a text they parter read with a buddy. Mrs. Hall reviewed personification with her whole class and had students give examples before they broke out into their smaller groups to read.

Mr. Winans, Mr. Webb and Mrs. Welch worked to rewrite the MRES School Song to the tune of We are the Champions. Students in Mr. Winan's music class worked to learn the song so they could sing it at assemblies and other school events!

Mrs. Strunc, 6th grade teacher, uses modeling and manipulatives to help her students grasp math concepts. Students work in cooperative groups to figure out problems and support each other with understanding. 6th grade students are currently working on multiplying positive and negative numbers.

Student's in Mrs. Wasson's Advanced Placement English class worked to create writing rubrics tied to themes. Students compared writing scores to Fast Food Restaurants, Cartoons and Harry Potter Characters, amongst other things. They will use these self created rubrics to help them better understand how to compose a proficient piece of writing with a strong thesis and evidence.

In the Falcon Zone we pride ourselves on having the most incredible staff! We want to give our community a chance to recognize those people that make a difference in our schools and for our students every day! Please let us know who is making a positive impact for your student. Let us know who has gone above and beyond to enhance your experience in our zone. Let us know who is doing an outstanding job!

Every staff member that is recognized will receive a note of recognition and a shoutout in our community newsletter. Staff members include not only teachers but secretaries, administrators, custodial & kitchen staff, paras, etc.

We want to know who is making a difference! Thank you for taking the time to fill out this quick form!

Mrs. Fothergill (WHES) - Mrs. Fothergill has made my son's transition to Kindergarten positive, safe, and a fun place for him to thrive. My son boasts about how much he has learned thus far including ten frames, how to read and spell colors, and other things. She continues to foster a love for learning daily, and I can't wait to see how much he grows this year with her guidance.

Mrs. Garner (FHS) -Ms Garner engages and challenges her students. She connects with her students and has them excited to use their talents to help others. Looking forward to seeing all the opportunities the new GT program will provide the students in the years to come through Ms Garner’s leadership.

Aaron G. (FHS) - During B-lunch on Aug. 20, 2024 I passed through the counseling office and passed Aaron G. talking with the students who were serving lunch detention. Aaron was making sure the kids (who were in trouble) still got to eat their lunch and he heard one boy hadn't eaten yet and he was telling this student he would go get him his food personally. I found that very admirable that Aaron would show the kids who were in trouble how their health was still a priority even while they were in detention.

Corey Bates (FMS) - Corey has done a great job taking over the Sources of Strength program at FMS. Thanks for taking the reins, Corey, and for teaching our student-leaders to be connectors for help so that they can help their peers recognize their strengths. Thanks also for putting together the Advisory plans each week. Keep it up!

Ms. Clay (FMS) - Ms. Clay goes above and beyond for every single student and staff member at Falcon Middle School. Her endless kindness and compassion is a ray of sunshine in the building on a daily basis!

Danny Colby (FHS) - Danny is a rock star custodian! I enjoy talking to him as he zips into my classroom after school to start the process of getting the school back in shape after a day of student use. Danny is one of the rare people who I actually enjoy talking to.

Alyssa Ramirez (FHS) - Alyssa words really hard at senior events, on top of working really hard at being a great English teacher balanced with a life outside of school. She juggles a lot of things and makes it look easy. And she’s always upbeat and pleasant.

8/26 - FES PTA Meeting @ 4

8/27 - D49 DAAC @ 6

8/28 - D49 Board Work Session & BRES PTA Skate City Night @ 6

8/29 - FZ Community Closet and Pantry Open @ 3:45-4:45

8/30 - D49 Professional Development Day - NO STUDENTS

9/2 - Labor Day - NO STUDENTS