STEAM Academy Family Newsletter

STEAM Families,

The weather in January continues to be very unpredictable. I appreciate your patience as we had another NTI day this week. The work for the NTI Day this past Wednesday needs to be complete by the end of the day on Monday. I'm hopeful that the weather will cooperate next week, and we will be in school all five days.

There is a section below about our Senior Defenses of Learning coming up on February 21st. It is an expectation that all seniors complete this defense. Seniors who successfully defend their work at STEAM will graduate with distinction.

I hope everyone has a great weekend!

-Dr. Flores

• February 7: STEAM Winter Dance (Guest Forms due by Jan. 31)
• February 21: Senior Defense of Learning Day
• February 4: New to Dual Credit Family Informational Night
• March 11: 10th and 11th Grade ACT Testing Day (Please avoid scheduling appointments)

Our weekly Goal for Average Daily Attendance is 95%. Please help us reach this goal weekly by encouraging your students to come to school and be on time. Just a reminder that dropping students off at 7:45 is a tardy to school and students must be in their advisory room when the 7:45 bell rings or they are late. Please allow 5 extra minutes to get your students to school on time so that your family is not notified by a truancy officer for excessive tardies to school.

If your student is out for any reason, you have three school days after the absence to turn in an excuse note or a doctor's note. After three days, the absence will remain unexcused. To log an excuse note, please see the following link or email our attendance specialist, Erin Grupe.

Report an Absence

Just a reminder that over the summer, all FCPS phone numbers changed from the old 381 numbers to 422 numbers. STEAM's new phone number is 859-422-0048. There has been an increase in calls to the district offices about school phone numbers and families trying to call the 381 numbers, so we have been asked to remind our families of our new number.

In the event that an NTI day is called, student work will be posted to Canvas by 8am the morning of the NTI day. All work will be review and no new content will be presented. Students will have three days from the time we return to school to turn in their completed work in order for it to be counted and attendance to be marked accordingly. Teachers will also host live Office Hours via Zoom from 1:30-3:30pm on an NTI Day where you can log in and ask questions or get help if needed. Those Zoom links will be posted on our website and on each teacher's Canvas page. Please see the information below for more NTI Information from FCPS.

STEAM NTI Information

Dual Credit Students will follow the college expectations for attendance on a FCPS NTI Day.

Please visit the following link to download the information on how to become a parent/guardian observer on your student's Canvas Account. Canvas is where all live grades will be housed and where you can keep up with all STEAM Assignments. If your student will not share their password with you, never fear....just email Ashley Rosen with any questions or to reset a student password. If you have any issues setting up your Canvas account, please call the FCPS Tech Help Desk at 859-422-5555.

Please make sure all students are bringing their Chromebooks fully charged each day to school. We do not have many devices to loan to students for daily use. If students are needing to use a loaner Chromebook, we will ask for collateral by asking students to trade their cell phones for the Chromebook to ensure that students return the loaner at the end of the block/day.

Seniors have been working since September on their defenses of learning. This is an exciting time where our future graduates will defend their learning at STEAM and demonstrate how they have mastered all the STEAM Habits in order to be a STEAM Graduate of Distinction and be recognized as such at our graduation ceremony. Please see the information that is linked and please reach out if you have any questions.

Senior Defense of Learning Information

ESS will resume on January 27th and will take place on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 3-4pm. The sign-up process will be the same as before where students will need to sign up on the sign-up sheets located outside the teacher's door. Once the spots are filled, the teacher won't be able to accommodate any more for that session. Rides must be here promptly at 4pm. Students who sign up for ESS and do not stay but try to wonder the building will not be permitted to stay. See the information below to see what teachers/contents will be staying each day.

For those students enrolled in Dual Credit with BCTC or UK, please check the live document that is updated frequently with all information related to Dual Credit. If you have specific questions, please contact Mr. Ridd or Mrs. Strange.

If you have any needs, please reach out to Ms. Bell.

Launching in August 2025, The Hub for Innovative Learning and Leadership, located at 100 Midland Avenue in downtown Lexington, will offer 19 career pathways for students in grades 9-12. To learn about programming, the application process, and other important details, please click the picture below. For more information, please contact Michelle Wilson, Principal of The HILL, at Michelle.wilson@fayette.kyschools.us.

Students currently enrolled at Eastside and Southside will not automatically transfer enrollment into these programs and will need to reapply. Students at STEAM will select two programs because we do not operate on an A/B schedule and our students would need to attend every day.

Students enrolled at Locust Trace will continue to follow the Locust Trace enrollment expectations.

See information below about the Lexington Sister Cities Competition

The National Honor Society will a host a Winter Dance on Friday, February 7th, 8pm-11pm.

All STEAM students are invited to join us for an Alice in Wonderland themed winter dance. Cost is $15 per student and food and drinks will be provided. Each STEAM student is permitted to bring a guest with an approved Guest Form. Guest Forms must be submitted for approval no later than Friday, Jan. 31st, and guests must be approved by administration before the STEAM student can purchase their ticket. Students can pick up guest forms from Mrs. Fisher, Ms. Valley, or the front office.

Tickets will be on sale during lunch beginning next week. The last day to purchase a ticket is Wednesday, Feb. 5th.

The Winter Dance serves as a fundraiser for our DanceBlue event, and all proceeds will benefit the UK DanceBlue Clinic at UK Children's Hospital. Students who purchase a Winter Dance ticket will receive a $5 discount on their DanceBlue registration.

For more information, contact leslie.valley@fayette.kyschools.us or kim. fisher@fayette.kyschools.us

We are very excited to announce the date for this year's DanceBlue event: Friday, March 7th, 5pm-11pm. DanceBlue is a 6-hour, no-sit mini marathon to raise money for the UK DanceBlue Clinic at the UK Children's Hospital.

Our mini marathon will include games, dancing, door prizes, food and drinks, and, of course, dancing! Students who register by the deadline will receive a DanceBlue t-shirt.

The Registration fee is $20 (students who buy a Winter Dance ticket will receive a $5 discount), but students are encouraged to raise more. There will be prizes for the top fundraisers.

Each STEAM student is permitted to bring a guest with an approved Guest Form. Guest Forms must be submitted for approval no later than Friday, Feb. 7th, and guests must be approved by administration before the STEAM student can submit their registration packet. Students can pick up guest forms and registration packets from Mrs. Fisher, Ms. Valley, or the front office.

Deadline for Guest Forms: February 7th

Deadline for Registration Packets: February 14th

Deadline for Fundraising: March 7th

If you would like to support our DanceBlue event in other ways, you can donate directly through our online Fundraising Platform, order from our Amazon Wishlist, or contact us about sponsorships.

For more information, please contact leslie.valley@fayette.kyschools.us or kim.fisher@fayette.kyschools.us.

The STEAM PTSA would love for all students and families to join the Parent, Teacher, Student Association. The goal is to get at least 110 members this year so please help us in reaching that goal. We are currently at 107 members!! We are so close! Only 3 more to go! JOIN PTSA

Email PTSA President Sarah Barrett with any questions.

Please check out the flyer below and support the STEAM PTSA by dining out on Tuesday 1/28. This was rescheduled from the 15th because of weather.

Each week we will try to spotlight staff members, students, community partners, a school event, a school club, etc. that adds value to our school community. This week we are spotlighting our STEAM Attendance Specialist, Ms. Erin Grupe.

Ms. Grupe is our Attendance Specialist, and this is her first year at STEAM. She was previously employed at Henry Clay High School as a substitute and took advantage of the opportunity we had here at STEAM to work full time in the office. She had a great first semester with us and this last week has worked very hard to ensure that all NTI participation is marked appropriately in Infinite Campus. She has sent staff several emails and tips to ensure attendance for NTI was completed correctly. Ms. Grupe discovered there was a district error in attendance reporting, so she took it upon herself to go into every teacher's attendance roster for the first three days of NTI and mark their attendance correctly for them so they could focus on teaching.

We appreciate her hard work, dedication, and willingness to go above and beyond when it is needed. Thanks Ms. Grupe!!

Email: christopher.flores@fayette.kyschools.us
Website: www.steam.fcps.net
Location: 1555 Georgetown Road, Lexington, KY, USA
Phone: (859) 422-0048
Facebook: facebook.com/steamacademyfcps
STEAM News: www.steamacademynews.com