Nokesville News

News for Parents & Guardians from The Nokesville School

February 19, 2024

Important Updates

PRINCIPAL'S NOTE

Thank you for a great week at TNS! Below in this newsletter, like our other ones, I try to capture a little bit of the magic happening at TNS from the previous week as well as add critical information on updates. I hope it shows you how fantastic our school is and how much our staff and families care about the success of our students.

On a side note, I was honored to recently be a judge for students participating in the 4-H Leadership Presentations at the McCourt Building. I learned a lot about animals and agriculture, and I was pleased to see the amazing talent, knowledge, and leadership from the young men and women, many of whom were TNS students. Thank you for all those that have their kids in extracurricular programs that provide these kind of opportunities. It makes a really big difference on the men and women our students grow to become.

Have a great week,

Dr. Jacks, Principal

KINDNESS WEEK

This week, we focused on kindness and it was fun to see all the outfits and kind acts being done in school. We are going to continue this focus as it is now one of our TNS Core Values. Thank you for reinforcing this at home with your children. Every child deserves to come to a school that they feel is safe and other show kindness towards them.

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TNS STAFF OF THE YEAR NOMINATIONS

Congratulations to our amazing staff for being nominated by TNS this year!!

Teacher of the Year - Elementary: Mrs. Ciocca

Teacher of the Year - Secondary: Mrs. Hujsa

Novice Teacher of the Year: Mrs. Mohler

Support Staff of the Year: Mr. Carbone

They were nominated by the staff and community and then individually selected by a committee of their colleagues. This year, I asked for special permission to have both an elementary and secondary nominee for Teacher of Year due to our K-8 design. They will now go on to compete for the PWCS awards. Good luck!! Thank you for being awesome!

(Pictured left to right: Mr. Carbone. School Safety & Security Specialist; Mrs. Ciocca, 1st Grade Teacher; Mrs. Mohler, 3rd Grade Teacher; Mrs. Hujsa, Middle School Math Teacher)

SPELLING BEE

Congratulations to our TNS Spelling Bee winners, Grace Roldan in 8th grade and Farruh Ibragimov in 5th grade! This year, we held spelling bees for each level which included about 32 students. Now, both of our winners have the opportunity to compete in the PWCS Spelling Bee! Good luck! Congratulations and thank you to all the students that made it this far, many of them winning their class spelling bees!

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ACHIEVEMENT CELEBRATIONS

Congratulations to all the students that earned quarterly awards and were celebrated this week! We held pizza luncheons with the 3rd-8th grade students who earned Principal's Honor Roll and shared a special treat with the 3rd-8th graders who earned Honor Roll. This year, we have special teacher-led committees that have been helping us add more of these achievement awards. One additional thing we added, was having certificates given to students in K-5 for ROAR Awards to help recognize students doing a great job in class! Congratulations all and thank you for working so hard! (pictured below are the middle level honor roll groups. We'll post pictures from the other groups as well once we get them all collected from last week.)

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8th GRADE LOCK-IN

Friday night, we had a great time for our 8th graders who participated in a 'lock-in' fun evening at school which included games, movie, music, and food. This also included students packing 66 bags of dessert bags for the Northern Virginia Food Rescue. Thank you to the staff and parents who helped provide this fun experience for our students!

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TIGER TASK FORCE

Thank you for spending the entire day in school with us!

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2024-25 PLANNING UPDATE

We recently received our projected budget for the upcoming 2024-2025 school year. I shared this at our TNS Principal's Advisory Council, including the enrollment numbers and the challenges in making a budget in a site-based managed system. The parents and staff in the meeting had a in-depth conversation and gave helpful input. I'll be sharing the entire plan out soon for staffing and programs based on the requirements from the division. Please remember that these are projections of enrollment, so basically a best guess by the school division, so we have plan and then adjust as the real enrollment numbers come in this spring, summer, and fall. So please continue to provide information on new housing in the area and helping those register for next year as soon as possible.

2024-25 KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION

The Nokesville School's Kindergarten registration begins online on March 18, 2024. Students who are five years of age or older by September 30, 2024, are eligible for enrollment in Kindergarten. Registering your Kindergartener now helps us plan for staffing needs next fall!

The following documents are required for Kindergarten registration:

School health Entrance Form.
a. The physical page must be dated after 8/21/2023.
b. Immunization records with all required vaccinations.

Proof of Residency: either your deed/mortgage statement or current rental lease with signature
Two additional documents to prove your residency such as: utility bills, voter/car registration, driver's license with current address, tax documents, bank statement, etc.
Kindergarten Transportation Form (Please list everyone who has permission to pick up your child at the bus stop.)

After you have submitted the registration online, Mrs. Foubare will contact you to set up a brief in person appointment to verify your child's birth certificate and the photo ID of a Parent/Guardian. If you have any questions, you may call the Nokesville Scholl Office at 571-781-3040 or email Mrs. Foubare at foubaran@pwcs.edu.

https://www.pwcs.edu/departments/student_services/registration__new_students_and_transfers_/kindergarten_registration/index

STUDENT DEVICE CARE

As the second half of our school year has started, there has been a noticeable increase in damage to student laptop and other devices. We are requesting your help by stressing the importance of proper care for these devices and chargers to your child(ren). Please have a conversation with your child(ren) stressing the importance of proper care, i.e. having devices on a stable surface, never stored on the floor. not forced into a full backpack and headphone jacks pulled straight out, not at an angle. We will begin notifying parents of device damages and providing an estimate of the charge if the repair is not covered by warranty.

We have also seen a large number of students that are unable to find their power adapter/charger for their device. Each PWCS device is purchased with one power adapter. It is the student’s responsibility to keep track of their device power adapter. If your child(ren) is unable to locate their power adapter, you can purchase one at Amazon HP Power Adapter. Each device turned in at the end of the school year is required to be turned in with an adapter. Each day we have multiple students that have forgotten their device at home. Please ensure your child(ren) know in order to be prepared for instruction, they need to have their device and power adapter and at school on a daily basis.

-Kathy Carter, TNS Technology Support Specialist

ATTENDANCE GOAL UPDATE

Based on data updated 2/14/24, our Average Daily Attendance (Last 30 days) was 95.47% (Goal: 95%). The Chronic Absenteeism rate was 13.84% (Goal: Reduce by 5% to 14.92% from 19.92% & Under 15%). Great job!!

READING PROGRESS

Our 2nd-8th grade students took a reading assessment on the HMH program as part of a PWCS program to monitor reading skills. As of 2/16/24, here is the update of our students' progress:

Above Level: BOY 12.3% -> MOY 19.7%
On Level: 38.2% -> 43.5%
Approaching: 22.4% -> 18.9%
Below Level: 14.3% -> 10.8%
Far Below Level: 12.7% -> 7.1%

Our students in most cases are making more progress than even half a year! Great job at home and in school to take reading and self-improvement seriously!

TNS VEX ROBOTICS FUNDRAISERS

Please consider supporting one of our TNS VEX Robotics teams going to Nationals this year! --> "Allen Wrenches" VEX Team GoFundMe

FEBRURARY COUNSELOR CONNECTION

Click here to learn more in the February Counselor Connection: https://www.smore.com/ush6z

TIGER TALK PODCAST

Check out a new episode on our Tiger Talk Podcast with an interview of 2nd Grade Teacher Mrs. Steinbrunner and 2nd-grade students on their experience in the PWCS swim program at Colgan High School!

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/.../tns-tiger.../id1701723034

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/49aR1CoXmJpcFAQLjnISGd

Podcast Profile Page: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/nokesville-school