Greetings Hawks! 

I hope this letter finds everyone doing well as we endure the cold winter months. Spring is right around the corner and yes, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Hey, at least it’s been a bit milder than last year right? Below, please find some Hawk current events along with important date information for your calendars. 

First, on February 9, we had a very successful staff development day for our staff. We began the morning with a presentation from Dr. Ivory Toldson who shared research from his book, Breaking Barriers: Plotting the Path to Academic Success for School-age Black Males. Our staff then transitioned into one-hour breakout sessions including: Data Driven Dialogue, Avoiding Power Struggles, Bullying Behaviors, Tools for Collaborative Teams, and Unwrapping Best Practices. Presenters included county-level specialists, as well as our own staff experts. We’ve all gained from the experiences and will continue dialogue and practice through our collaborative teams. We know it’s difficult to manage a half-school day schedule on the home front. However, staff development is vital to us and we are certainly making the most of this valuable gift of time. We appreciate your flexibility. Thank you! 

Our final staff development day is scheduled for Thursday, April 7. This will be an early release day for students. Specifically, students will leave school at 11:05 a.m. Our teachers will be observing other teachers throughout Fairfax County Public Schools that afternoon as we gather “best instructional practices” to add to our tool kit at Hayfield Secondary. We’re excited about this opportunity. I’ll remind everyone with a Keep in Touch message as the date approaches. 

Finally, I want everyone to know that your views and opinions are important to us! This spring a random sample of Hayfield Secondary parents will receive the Parent Opinion Survey. This survey is part of the Principal Performance Evaluation Program and offers parents an opportunity to provide anonymous input about various issues related to our school. These include safety, parent involvement, curriculum, communications, and expectations for student achievement and behavior. The survey will arrive in the mail in early March 2011 and will be returned directly to the Fairfax County Public Schools Office of Student Testing for processing. If you receive a copy of the Parent Opinion Survey, please take a few minutes to complete and return the survey. Your information is strictly confidential and again, your opinions do matter. 

I hope to see you at a spring event as we cheer on our beloved Hawks. We’ll soon be entering the spring testing season. With all of the stress and work involved, I feel that it is very important to celebrate together and focus on the positives. We have the greatest students in Fairfax County Public Schools and I am honored to serve as your principal. 

For your calendar, please note the following important events and activities. 

• March 8:  PTSA Meeting, Library – 6:30 p.m. 
• March 31:  Hayfield Faculty vs. Falls Church HS Faculty, HSS Field House – 7:30 p.m. 
• April 1:  Third Grading Period Ends 
• April 4:  Student Holiday – Teacher Workday 
• April 5:  Fourth Grading Period Begins 
• April 7:  Student Early Release – 11:05 a.m. 
• April 18-22:  Spring Break 

Go HAWKS!

Your Views and Opinions Are Important to Us! 

This spring a random sample of Hayfield Secondary parents will receive the Parent Opinion Survey. This survey is part of the Principal Performance Evaluation Program and offers parents an opportunity to provide anonymous input about various issues related to our school. These include safety, parent involvement, curriculum, communications, and expectations for student achievement and behavior. 

The survey will arrive in the mail in early March 2011 and will be returned directly to the Fairfax County Public Schools’ Office of Student Testing for processing. If you receive a copy of the Parent Opinion Survey, please take a few minutes to complete and return the survey. Your opinions do matter!

Greetings Hayfield Families and Community:
As we continue our journey together, I’m pleased to share some important information and updates. First, I’m proud to say that regarding instruction, all of our teachers – building-wide - are now working in collaborative teams during common planning time. Along with sharing lesson ideas and strategies, teachers are developing common assessments. They’re using the data gathered from these assessments to create intervention and enrichment opportunities for our Hawk students. With Hawk Time now built into our master schedule, we have the perfect time frame to connect with these students. We are also continuing to build momentum with our vertical team within the Hayfield pyramid. A team of school leaders from Hayfield Secondary has been meeting regularly with school leaders from our feeder elementary schools. Our focus to this point has been on developing vertical instructional goals. The time we’ve spent connecting as a team and evaluating data has been invaluable to us. 

As you are aware, a current national debate is centered on the topic of grading practices and policies. At Hayfield Secondary, we are currently dialoguing as an entire school over this issue. Our ultimate goal is to develop well-rounded students and to prepare them as best we can for the next step in their young lives. There is so much passion around the topic of grading, and it has been enlightening to say the least, as we continue to gather information and feedback. I will be conducting a “town hall” meeting in late January on the topic of grading. I’ll be sending a Keep in Touch message once a date and facility space have been confirmed. Stay tuned as it is my sincere hope that you will be able to join me for this meeting. Your input and opinions are valued. Remember, it takes a village to raise a child and in our case, that means the entire school community.

Switching gears, we continue to receive generous donations for our new marquee project. The goal is to begin the installation process this spring with the hope that by summer time, our new electronic marquee will be up and running. We’re excited about this new resource as it will allow us to communicate more effectively with our entire Hayfield community. There are so many great things going on in the Land of the Hawk as you know. Your participation is not only valued, but also essential as we work together to provide the absolute best educational experience for our students.

Please note the following important events/dates on your calendars.

• December 16 - Interims Mailed Home
• December 22 - Students Dismissed @ 12:05 p.m.
• December 23 - January 2 Winter Break
• December 27-29 - Hayfield Secondary Main Office Hours are 9:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
• January 11 - PTSA Meeting, 6:30 p.m., Hayfield Library
• January 17 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday
• January 28 - Second Quarter Ends
• January 31 - February 1 Teacher Workdays/Student Holidays
• February 2 - Third Quarter Begins
• February 8 - Report Cards Mailed Home

Stay warm during these winter months. I’ll look forward to seeing you at the many events we have planned over the winter months. Please make a point of saying hi and we’ll celebrate together.

Greetings Hayfield Families and Community: 

The 2010-11 school year is now in full swing and we’re off to a great start. The students are adjusting to their new schedules and teachers are working hard to provide the very best instruction. We have now established professional learning communities (PLCs) throughout the school on both sides of the building. Teachers of common subject areas are sharing effective teaching strategies and lesson plans collaboratively. They’re also developing common assessments and analyzing data within their PLCs. This will allow teachers to identify and work with students who need extra support or enrichment.

Greetings Hayfield Families and Community, 

It has been great welcoming teachers and staff back to Hayfield. Everyone is excited and folks are working hard to get ready to welcome students next week. All staff members really appreciated the visit from Mr. Omelet on Monday morning. Thank you PTSA for starting our week on such a positive note. We further want to thank everyone for taking the time from your busy schedule to come to school in order to pick up form packets and student schedules. As a reminder we ask that students bring all required signed forms to their first period block on Tuesday, September 7. If for any reason you weren’t able to attend one of the packet pick-up sessions, please know that students will receive a packet and class schedule when they arrive at their first period class on Tuesday. First period classes will be posted in the lobby and all subschool staff can help direct students having trouble identifying their first period. 

A few updates for you regarding staffing. Many of you have already met Mr. Jesse Hudson who will be serving as our new seventh grade sub-school principal. Mr. Hudson brings a wealth of middle school experience to us and most recently served as an assistant principal at Liberty Middle School in Fairfax County. Our security specialist has also started his contract with us. Mr. Chuck Arnone joins the Hayfield team in this role. Some of you may recall that Chuck served as the security specialist for Hayfield Secondary several years ago. He is an outstanding team player and both students and staff respond to him beautifully. 

Hawk Time is a new initiative that will take place during the student’s fourth block class. This ninety-two minute period has been divided into two forty two minute “Hawk blocks” (with a six minute transition time in between) and students will visit two of their seven scheduled classes during a given Hawk Time. Thus, in a given month students will have been to their seven classes 3-4 times during Hawk Time. Hawk Time will provide students with the opportunity to receive support in classes needed as well as work on enrichment activities. From working on projects to making up quizzes, we feel that providing time for students during the school day will help all students maximize their success in school. Teachers are now working in professional learning communities (PLCs) and will be indentifying students in need of support/intervention as they meet together during planning periods and after school. Hawk Time fits in perfectly with the PLC initiative as you can see from the description above. 

I hope to see as many parents as possible at our next scheduled PTSA meeting on Tuesday, September 14. The meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the HSS Media Center. Also, I look forward to meeting you at our Back to School Night events as well as scheduled sporting and club/activity nights. We’re off to a great start and we appreciate all of your support. Have a great first week of school everybody and remember… 

Birds Fly, Hawks Soar!

Dear Hayfield Secondary Families and Community Members:

Welcome to the 2010-11 School Year!  Well…actually we’re still a couple weeks away but I feel the time is right to celebrate and share some important information with you as we prepare to begin our journey together. 

Let me start by stating that I had the pleasure of attending the first official PTSA meeting of the year on Tuesday night, July 20. I enjoyed meeting our new PTSA president, Mrs. Liz Dunn, as well as the entire PTSA board. Among other issues, we discussed spirit building ideas. I encourage to you to share your ideas and get involved with our PTSA this year through the following means: 

Join the PTSA – still only $5.00, checks can be turned in to the main office or you can simply join up at back to school night (see dates below). Attend monthly PTSA meetings – currently we hold PTSA meetings at 6:30 p.m. on the second Tuesday evening of every month in the Hayfield Media Center. Depending on the topics and size of the group, the location may change in a given month. I hope to see you there. As a part of each meeting I will be giving a “principal’s update” and also plan to bring a staff representative to each meeting in order to discuss various timely topics as the school year progresses.