Back to School Night for Kindergarten - 5th Grade

Dragon Families,

Hooray for the summer smell of chlorine pools and waking up to cool mornings.  It is a pleasure to write to you during a time when the echo of laughter fills our hallways and teachers sneak in and out of the building, quietly preparing for the year to come.  Although the idea of control is illusive, we have never felt more poised to continue our cycle of excellence than we do right now.  One sure thing we keep coming back to is the sense of progress we are carrying with us.

New Families
Welcome new faculty, staff, parents and students into our community of teaching and learning.  To everyone else, cheer with me for new faces, opportunities, and friendships.  Every year we work to determine the best ways to bring new families into our community, and this year we’ve built in a New Family Orientation night on August 11, at 6:30PM.  Additionally, we will send out an Elbast to our new Families in early August with specific event details!

Campus Renovation
Our campus renovation project is underway, and the changes are going be great for our students.  It is so exciting watching the earth moving process unfold.  Even in the early stages, it is clear that in the end our playground is going to be more expansive, more engaging, and more accessible to students of all ages.  In the middle school, we are making significant changes that will benefit our students physically and socially.  It is a great time for us at Flagstaff, and we are excited to be sharing it with you.

Greenhouse
This weekend we will be assembling the Randall Geo-Conservatory Greenhouse.  Adding an additional science lab has allowed us to expand our programming and add another science teacher, making our science department even more robust than ever.  We have created enough space in Dr. Warren’s teaching schedule to meet with every grade level team semi-monthly in order to share his expertise and create an even more cohesive school-wide approach to our program.

Writing Coach
We have also added a Writing Coach to our team.  Ms. Jen Battistoni’s new role will have her guiding our writing Improvement Plan.  She will be working with teams and individual teachers as we unify our efforts to promote student excitement and growth in writing.  One nuance is that she will also be teaching one period per day of Mrs. Reh’s 3rd Grade class.  During middle school’s 5th period, Mrs. Reh will be flexing her technology muscle by teaching a two-part course featuring the Google tools.  Mrs. Reh has been excited to expand her reach for years, and we are thrilled to be able help make it so!

Project Lead the Way
We are proud to introduce a new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) program to our middle school students.  Mr. Ingersoll went through a rigorous two-week training through the University of South Carolina in order to be able to teach and support students as they navigate their way through modules featuring the seamless integration of the STEM subjects this year.  Look forward to more updates and positive press this fall!

Dragon Flight: A Before and After School Program  
Our summer camps have received great initial feedback.  We are so excited to be able expand our offerings next summer.  Our Before and After School Program, Dragon Flight, is being carefully crafted for release on July 1.  We will open registration up in early August which will allow us to appropriately prepare our staffing numbers and supply needs.  The program will be uniquely Flagstaff, and will include opportunities for leadership, academic support, and fun!  Included in Dragon Flight, will be After School Enrichment offerings including Band, Orchestra, Choir and more. Look forward to the release coming soon!

Leadership
We are currently interviewing two leadership roles: Director of Communications and the Assistant Principal.  The Communications job has been crafted to manage and support our various Eblasts, social media outlets, marketing, webpage, corporate partnerships, and more. Regarding our search for an Assistant Principal, we will be holding a second round of interviews next week.  For both positions, we have a fantastic group of applicants, and are thrilled to bring these new folks under our Dragon wing.

Drive Line
Three cheers for Flagstaff!  We’ve successfully ended our lawsuit with our neighborhood business owner’s association, Circle Capital.  We ended in mediation, saving us loads of money and lots of headache.  We have published the full settlement agreement on our website, but at the heart of the agreement is a clear need for us to follow these priority Drive Line choices: (1) carpool, (2) use drive line (3) if you choose to be a walker, use designated parking areas only, and (4) use our After School program options.  Families, we must gather together in support of our plan.  If you choose to use unauthorized Drive Line / Walker options we are likely to find ourselves in mediation again.  In early August, we will re-release our Drive Line protocols and bring you up to speed on the potential busing option.  Thank you all for filling out the transportation survey!

Warmly Yours,

Andrew Moore