Patriot NewsFlash

Monday, October 21

FRC Virtual Parent Workshop

Wednesday, October 23

Wellness Wednesday

Friday, October 25

Pink Out for Breast Cancer Awareness

The PTA is hosting a Freshly Boo'd Coffee & Beverage Bar along with Halloween Treats for the VPE Staff on Wednesday, October 23rd! Please see the items needed below to make this event successful! You can drop items off at the VPE Front Office on Wednesday, October 23rd from 7:15am-8:45am. We greatly appreciate your donations! Sign up here to help: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0F44A5A723A2F5C25-52312616-october#/

The District Gifted and Talented Department is offering the opportunity for Visual and Performing Arts auditions to all students in 3rd-12th grades who are interested in possible gifted and talented identification(s). The areas include: dance, drama, visual art, music-vocal or instrumental, and creativity (for literary arts majors at SCAPA). Auditions will take place at your students' school between November 1st and December 13th, 2024. These auditions may yield gifted identification and services at the student’s districted school or SCAPA Bluegrass/Lafayette program placement. Students wishing to be considered for a placement at SCAPA Bluegrass (grades 4-8) or SCAPA Lafayette (high school) must complete the audition tasks for their chosen arts area(s) during the district wide audition window (March). The audition result must yield gifted identification in the arts area for this possible program placement.
Families must also complete the district’s Special Programs Application on SchoolMint during the Spring 2025 application window.

For students already identified as gifted in their arts discipline, SCAPA placement requires an up-to-date audition the year prior to entering the program (students currently identified that are interested in SCAPA for the 2025 - 2026 school year must complete the audition process again to meet potential SCAPA eligibility)

Districtwide Gifted and Talented Audition information can be found here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hNR1fjPUYU9wwm_H0VOuCXBd40GrPm7by9O7D_enixI/edit#slide=id.p

If your child is interested in auditioning for 2025-2026 SCAPA placement and/or gifted services at their home school, please complete the interest form by Friday, October 25th. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScY0ocnY6OrVzQZ4NNJNMeir9A0RIFcPzdIj7QTslb8-KOtjA/viewform


For more information, please contact:
Katie Grigsby, katie.grigsby@fayette.kyschools.us

SCAPA Bluegrass, grades 4-8
Jennifer Forgy, jennifer.forgy@fayette.kyschools.us

SCAPA Lafayette, grades 9-12
Ryan Marsh, ryan.marsh@fayette.kyschools.us

Please mark your calendars and make plans to join in a conversation with members of the Fayette County Board of Education later this month.

Board members will host three informational meet and greet and Q&A sessions at area high schools during the week of October 21.

Each session will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. in the school’s auditorium on the following dates:

• Monday, Oct. 21, at Lafayette High School with board Vice Chair Amy Green and board member Marilyn Clark
• Thursday, Oct. 24, at Bryan Station High School with board Chair Tyler Murphy and board member Jason Moore
• Friday, Oct. 25, at Tates Creek High School with board Vice Chair Amy Green

All sessions are open to the public regardless of residential area. Each event will feature a student performance, a welcome from a school or district administrator, an overview of the new FCPS Safety Tracker, highlights from the recently released Kentucky state accountability scores, and direct conversations with board members.

Staff from our Department of Family & Community Engagement will be on hand to greet guests, and interpreters and headsets will be available in various languages.

All students who took the Kentucky Summative Assessment last spring will be receiving reports either during your parent conference or they will be sent home on Friday in take home folders. Students who have been promoted to middle school will receive score reports from their middle school by the end of the month. All students who have transferred from Fayette County Public Schools will receive their score reports in the mail if we have your current address on file.

VPE's PTA is looking for someone to do their annual taxes. If this is your area of expertise and you are willing to help out, please contact Lisa Amick, treasurer, at lisa.amick@uky.edu. Thank you in advance!

If your child is interested in participating in the 2024 Reflections contest, please see the attached information for more details as well as the entry form.

In celebration of reading and in conjunction with Red Ribbon Week, VPE will have Book Character Day on Thursday, October 31. Students may come to school dressed as their favorite book characters. Guidelines for the book character day are as follows:

• Students should bring a copy of the book their character is from to school that day.
• Characters/costumes must be from elementary-age-appropriate books.
• Costumes may not involve blood or other horror-type elements.
• Color in the hair, face painting, and hats may be worn; however, masks will not be allowed.
• Costumes may not be revealing in nature … may not be see-through material, low cut, or tight fitting.
• Tights and leotards are acceptable if covered with a tutu, skirt, or shorts.
• The costume must allow students to take care of personal needs, sit at desks, and participate in school and classroom activities throughout the day.
• Rule of thumb … if there is a question about appropriateness, it is probably best not to wear it.

Book Character Parade

Parents are invited to come watch the students as they parade around the bus loop at starting @ 10:00 a.m. We ask families to stand on the outside of the bus loop and classes will come out and walk two laps before returning to class.

We are looking for volunteers to help run students to and from classrooms during our vision screening next month. Please use the following link to sign up to help volunteer: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0F4EAFAF28A1F58-52114000-vision

October is Bullying Prevention Month. Did you know that According to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 41% of Kentucky middle school students and 22% of high school reported being bullied in person and 29% of middle school students and 18% of high school students reported being bullied online. Click here to see KIP results for FCPS students surveyed in 2021 regarding bullying. Although majority of students reported being able to identify ways to report bullying and those ways being effective, bullying is still a problem in our schools.

Below are resources and information for students and families:

STOP Bullying One Pager

KDE- Bullying and Harassment

Dear FCPS Families:

We are thrilled to announce our new safety tracker — a website where you find up-to-date information on situations impacting the safety of the school community, emergency procedures, and more. Simply visit fcps.net/safety.

Providing a safe environment to work, learn, and grow is a priority for Fayette County Public Schools.

Since 2018, we have added 83 mental health specialists, doubled our number of police officers and school nurses, and secured every school entrance.

To learn more about safety improvements in our schools, watch this brief video.

We are grateful to everyone who makes the safety tracker possible and to those who help keep our schools safe.

• Did you know that FCPS does not provide medical coverage for student accidents that occur at school?
• Did you know Fayette County Public Schools offer parents a Voluntary/Optional Insurance Policy?
• This a great opportunity for families that do not have health coverage or for families that do have insurance to offset the cost of out-pocket expenses.

Insurance Coverages available are:

At-School Accident Only

24-hour Accident Only

Extended Dental

Head to the FCPS student accident page for more information.

VPE loves to have volunteers helping throughout the school day, attending field trips, and helping out in the building. Any and all adults accompanying a school group while on a field trip must first undergo and pass the background checks required for all FCPS volunteers through the volunteer application system. This applies to listed chaperones, volunteers, and anyone who travels separately to join the group at the respective venue. If you plan on coming to help in the building at any point in the future when allowed you will need to complete the following background check: Volunteer Application.

Parents don't need to be approved to eat lunch with their child, attend parent/teacher conferences or attend evening events. All other activities will require you to be an approved volunteer. These background checks are good for three years.

This year we will be offering PTA meetings on two platforms - in person and on Zoom. They are scheduled for the second Thursday of each month at 7:45 in the VPE Library or using the following Zoom link: https://fcps-net.zoom.us/j/99018941544

Did you know that our VPE newsletters in Smore can all be translated into many languages if needed. Simply click on the translate button at the top of this newsletter and choose your language.

Newsflash - Weekly SMORE newsletter will be emailed to families on Friday afternoons via Infinite Campus.

Twitter - @vpepatriot

Instagram - vpeinaction

Infinite Campus - Attendance, weather calls & more! https://fayetteky.infinitecampus.org/campus/portal/fayette.jsp