Stingray Scoop

Dear Stone Hill community,

It is so hard to believe that the last week of the 23-24 school year is here! It has been a great year for our Stingrays overall, and we have spent time expanding opportunities for students as we supported their academic as well as social/emotional growth. Friday's Flight Night was a huge success for our 8th Graders and I want to thank our hard-working PTO for all their efforts to make it a memorable night for our students. Thank you to our teachers who came out to support and all our parent volunteers. We simply could not do this without you and are so grateful! On Tuesday, we look forward to our 8th Grade Awards Night at Rock Ridge High School at 6 PM.

We are wrap up the academic school year, please see the dates below for important events planned this week. June 12th will be the last day of instruction and Thursday will be our Pacer event through PE classes. STEAM day activities are planned for Friday. Also, on June 12th, we look forward to celebrating our third quarter "All A" and "A-B" Honor Roll recipients with a popsicle party during their regularly scheduled lunches.

Thank you for your support and engagement as a community. Please be sure to reach out to your child's teachers with any questions regarding their classes. And, as we approach summer break, I want to ensure that you have quick and easy access to mental health resources for your family so please reach out to your child's counselor and/or our school pyschologist, Ms. Kayser, or our school social worker, Ms. Bumgardner, as needed.

We are ONE, We are Strong, We are Stone Hill.

In service to you and our Stingray community,

Rohini Tohan, Principal

Monday, June 10th

• B-day

Tuesday, June 11th

• A-day
• 8th Grade Awards Ceremony, 6:00 pm @ Rock Ridge
  

Wednesday, June 12th

• B-day

Thursday, June 13th

• A-day
• Stingray Pacer during the school day

Friday, June 14th

• B-day
• STEAM Day & Last Day of School for Students

• August 5th ~ Skill on the Hill for rising 6th graders, 9am to 3pm
  
• August 22nd ~ First Day of School for the 2024-2025 School Year

Weeks of June 3rd to June 14th

Stingray Reports are a snapshot for families of what students will be learning in class during these weeks. Don’t forget to check out the “Show & Tell” sections, which include great conversation starters to ask your student at home!

Congratulations to Ela Gupta and Eesha Korlepara for auditioning and making the 2024 ACDA Voices United Children's Chorus! They will prepare music over the summer and perform in a concert in Washington, DC, in August!

All Spectrum students compete in the math competition, Continental Math League. Students take a series of five math tests from November through March. The top three students in each grade are recognized for earning the most correct points.

This year in 6th grade the winners are:

1st Place: Rishik Venkiti

2nd Place: (tie) Tishya Kamatam, Ruchit Singh, Evan Zheng, and Xander Nguyen

3rd Place: (tie) Sreehith Kovvuri and Swara Vemulapalli

This year in 7th grade the winners are:

1st Place: Shriya Yellamagari

2nd Place: Ackshat Tiwari

3rd Place: (tie) Jaiden Parikh, Anaaya Shah, and Dhruva Yalamanchili

8th grade winners will be announced at the 8th Grade Awards Ceremony on June 11th.

Congratulations to all Spectrum students for their accomplishments in the Continental Math League!

Congratulations to our 6th graders for an outstanding performance at the Strings 6 concert last Tuesday evening! We are so proud of your dedication to learning a new instrument and/or growing your skills this school year. You sounded amazing! Thank you to our strings teacher, Mr. Maeshiro, for all of your support for our student musicians!

Way to go, 7th and 8th graders, on a fantastic performance at the Guitar 7 & 8 concert last Thursday night! It was great to see how much you've grown over the past few years at Stone Hill, and we are so proud of you! Thank you to our guitar teacher, Dr. Dunlap, for your dedication to our guitarists!

We want to send a huge thank you to our amazing Stone Hill PTO for hosting our annual 8th Grade Flight Night this past Friday evening! It was such a wonderful event for our 8th graders as they get ready to take flight and "rise" to 9th grade in the fall.

The Stingray News Network (SNN) is streaming live each school day during our spring pilot, and we are so proud of our anchors and tech crew! Click on the "Student News Show" image here and on the Stone Hill website to watch recordings of our shows. A special thank you to Mrs. Marr and Mr. Frye for their support of our student journalists!

Last week's SNN team: Ayush Bhattacharya, Anvi Deshpande, Aanshi Dobariya, Elizabeth Frierson, Elia Huang, Nabhya Kumar, Vishnu Mattapalli, Ronak Nanda, Evelyn Nguyen, Anya Pemmaraju, Kylee Santos, Deekshita Satish, Nishka Talaulicar, Jibril Tanvir, Ackshat Tiwari, Aarush Valupadasu, and Jake Zhang

On Tuesday afternoon, an automated message regarding a book replacement fee went to all parents. This email was from the SchoolCash system, not our SHM Library. Please ignore it! If your child has overdue books that need to be replaced, you will receive an email from SHM Library and/or a librarian. We apologize for any confusion!

Middle school students who have taken a high school course while in sixth, seventh, or eighth grade may elect to have the course expunged (grade and credit omitted) from the student’s high school records. The high school credit courses available to middle school students include the following, Algebra 1, Geometry, Algebra II/Trig, Robotics and World Languages. Student’s GPA and class standing will not include the grade from the expunged course, nor will the student receive a credit toward graduation for this course.

Students are not required to repeat a high school-credited course that has been expunged, unless it is a prerequisite and needed to fulfill a graduation requirement. LCPS requires that courses taken in mathematics and world language follow a sequence of courses that include prerequisites and no pre-requisite course may be expunged without repeating.

Course Progressions:

If a high school math course is expunged in 7th or 8th grade, the results will be one of the following:

• Student will retake the course in 8th or 9th grade or,
• Student will retake the course in the summer (if applicable)

If a high school world language course is expunged in 7th or 8th grade, the results will be one of the following:

• Student will repeat the course in 8th or 9th grade, or
• Student can switch to a different World Language Elective, or
• Student can switch to a different elective
• Student can retake the course in the summer (if applicable)

If a middle school student receives a grade of “F” in a high school credit bearing course, that grade and course will automatically be expunged by your student’s school counselor. No permission click response needed.

Students do have an opportunity to enroll in summer courses through Virtual Loudoun Online Learning. Summer courses taken following the promotion of 8th grade are not eligible for expungement.

Strong consideration should be given for expunging low grades in credit-bearing courses. Below are some additional examples to consider:

• Grades lower than a B- will equate to less than 3.0 GPA
• Mastered or feel confident with the content? Expunging and repeating gives students an opportunity to increase their understanding of the content and improve the grade

If you wish to expunge the grade for a high school course taken in middle school, the expungement form must be completed through Permission Click. Expungement requests should be submitted to the school counseling department no later than the end of the first quarter of the 2024-2025 school year.

Please note the following:

• If your student is a current sixth or seventh grader, please submit the form to your student's middle school counselor. This link can be found at the bottom of your Middle School Web site and is linked below
• https://permission.click/M6L99/int/lXnl/signee-info
• If your student is a current eighth grader, please submit the form on or before the end of the first quarter of the 2024-2025 school year through your student’s home high school link. Please assure you are using the correct link.
• https://permission.click/B1AeA/int/9g6/signee-info
• If your student is attending a different high school, please reach out to your student’s school counselor to receive the correct link.
• Courses taken in middle school cannot be expunged after the end of the first quarter of the 2024-2025 school year.
• To successfully meet the prerequisite requirements for course sequencing students may be enrolled in the same course they are expunging for the upcoming school year,
• Example: Algebra 1 is expunged in 8th grade, must repeat Algebra 1 in 9th grade

Please be advised that the decision to expunge a grade is irreversible.

If you have questions, please contact your child's middle school counselor.

Loudoun County Public Schools is offering new resources for all staff and parents/guardians to use to support students through www.parental guidance.org. You can learn more about this initiative by clicking here.

These resources include easily accessible video-based courses on difficult parenting topics, individualized parent coaching for any LCPS parent/guardian, on their schedule in their home, and weekly interactive webinars to let parents know the mental health needs of our students are a critical concern of Loudoun County Public Schools.

Bus riders should ride their assigned bus and always arrive at their bus stop five minutes early. Please help your student(s) get out of the door on time.

Carline parents: We thank you for your patience and cooperation in helping to make our car line a safe and efficient area during the morning drop off and afternoon pick up.

Please follow directions displayed on signage and from all car line staff. Please pull as far forward as possible towards the stop sign in order to keep the flow of traffic moving.

We are encouraging all parents to report attendance, including absences and early dismissals, in ParentVue. We no longer have an absentee line and all attendance needs should be reported in ParentVue moving forward. Instructions with how to videos are available on our website or by clicking here.

LCPS is proud to provide free access to a suite of online learning resources available on the Varsity Tutors platform. To learn more about Varsity Tutors, a free, on-demand online tutoring service available to ALL LCPS students in Grades K-12, click here.

7th Grade Immunization Requirements (English and Spanish)

7th Grade Immunization Requirements (English)

7th Grade Immunization Requirements (Spanish)

7th Grade Immunization Requirements (Vietnamese)

7th Grade Immunization Requirements (Arabic)

The SNAP in Schools initiative from the Virginia Department of Social Service, which is based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), helps develop partnerships to bridge the gap of food insecurity among school-aged children. The objectives of SNAP in Schools are to reduce food insecurity in school-aged children, to increase the number of students directly certified for free school meals through SNAP, and to increase the number of students eligible without application for the summer EBT program.

Please advise families who could benefit from this program to access the CommonHelp portal link to submit online SNAP applications.

Please also share the flyer below with your families:

• English
• Spanish

Please see the message from Dr. Spence in reference to Fentanyl awareness and education by accessing this link .This message is also posted on the division home page.

Email: rohini.tohan@lcps.org
Website: www.lcps.org/SHMS
Phone: 703-957-4420
Twitter: @StoneHillMiddle