The Virginia PTA has a long standing relationship with the General Assembly. In January or February each year, the General Assembly hosts PTA Day when members of the PTA from across the state are invited to the Capitol.

This year's date is Monday, January 31, 2011.

PTA Day at the General Assembly is a day of opportunities. It is an opportunity to talk with your legislators about issues of concern to the PTA. It is an opportunity to network with other PTA members from around the state. It is an opportunity to see first-hand how your state government works. It is an opportunity to put into practice the true purpose of the PTA - advocating for all children.

For more information, go to:

http://vapta.org/component/content/article/50-legislation/125-pta-day-at-the-general-assembly.html

Dues Payment

Fairfax County Council of PTAs

P. O. Box 3535

Merrifield, VA  22116-3535

All local PTA units should submit their dues ($0.25/member) with this form (www.fccpta.org - FORMS) by December 1^st.

DO NOT SEND STATE AND NATIONAL DUES TO THIS ADDRESS!

 Soon your student will be signing up for classes for the 2011-2012 school year.  Now is the time to explore the many Career and Technical Education (CTE) opportunities available to your child.  CTE is at the forefront of preparing students to be "college- and career-ready." 

CTE equips students with:

·         core academic skills and the ability to apply those skills to concrete situations, relevant to the real world

·         employability skills (such as critical thinking and responsibility) that are essential in any career area

·         job-specific, technical skills related to a specific career pathway

Career and Technical Education in Fairfax County Public Schools is composed of six program areas: Business and Information Technology, Family and Consumer Sciences, Health and Medical Sciences, Marketing, Technology Education, and Trade and Industrial Education.  A variety of CTE courses are offered at the middle schools, high schools, and high school academies.

Middle schools offer CTE courses in four general areas.  In Business and Information Technology, students take courses in basic keyboarding and computer skills.  Another course in this program area, Digital Input Technologies, introduces new and emerging devices such as PDAs, scanners and digital cameras.  Family and Consumer Sciences courses offer students opportunities to improve and strengthen interpersonal relationships with peers and family while developing positive life skills.  Courses in Technology Education allow students to acquire 21^st century skills such as communication and team problem solving through engineering projects and simulation.  Found under "General" in the course catalog, is the course Career Search and Investigation.  This course allows students to use career exploration resources to investigate the world of work in order to make informed career decisions and recognize the connection between education and work.  For more information about these middle school offerings, please refer to your schools course catalog or contact your student's school counselor.

CTE courses at the high school level provide an even more extensive array of opportunities to develop skills and explore careers.  CTE courses are aligned to today's high tech industries and careers that are most in-demand.  There are over 130 CTE courses offered in high schools that allow students to acquire technical skills and knowledge relevant to current and emerging careers.  CTE also offers two programs at community based facilities.  Marketing Management courses can be taken at the Fair Oaks and Tysons Corner Malls.  Construction Technology courses are available at the Spring Village residential construction site in Springfield, Virginia.  To further explore the many options available to students, please use the links to the six CTE program areas found on the FCPS CTE web site at http://www.fcps.edu/DIS/OCTE/index.htm.

In addition, advanced technical and specialized courses are available at Academies located at Chantilly, Edison, Fairfax, Falls Church, Marshall, and West Potomac High Schools for students interested in pursuing careers in International Studies and Business; Engineering and Scientific Technology; Health and Human Services; or Communications and the Arts.  Students at the academies have expanded opportunities for career experiences including internships, job shadows, and links to local business partners.  Students may schedule a visit by contacting the academies directly.  For more information on the academies, including contact information and the academy application process, go to http://www.fcps.edu/DIS/OCTE/academies/index.htm.

CTE courses provide pathways to postsecondary education and the 21^st century workplace.  Students have the opportunity to earn college credits through dual-enrollments and articulation agreements with two- and four-year postsecondary institutions.  Certification and licensing exams are an essential component of most of the CTE courses and provide industry recognized credentials that verify technical skills and enhance employability.  To see a complete listing of the postsecondary and credentialing opportunities, click on the links in the "College and Careers" section on the FCPS CTE web site.

Get the conversation started with your student by viewing the videos designed to highlight the advantages of taking a CTE course.  These are the first two videos in the "Video Highlights" section on the FCPS CTE web site.  To register for any of these exciting elective courses, students should contact their school counselor.

The 2010 Bruce Oliver Educator Leadership Award Winner 

Maria Kappel has made a huge difference in the lives of students at West Potomac Academy. Her efforts over the last three years have led to seven formal business partnerships that reflect the school's diverse student population. Kappel has sought out partnerships with small businesses, minority- and female-owned businesses, and groups that are traditionally not approached as business partners. These partnerships have provided guest speakers, job shadowing opportunities, internships, mentors, and use of cutting edge industry equipment and employment for West Potomac Academy's students.

In addition, many of the business partners have employees that live in Fairfax County but do not have children in school. As a result of their involvement, they have witnessed first hand what goes on in the classroom and have gained a better understanding of our education system.

Upcoming Events....

January/February: Planned listing of student-built residential home, Spring Village lot #2.

February 1:  FCCLA district competition, Madison High School

February 1:  SkillsUSA and HOSA, district competitions, Chantilly Academy

February 1:  FBLA district competition, Robinson Secondary School

February 5:  SKillsUSA district culinary competition, Stratford University

March 4 - 6:  DECA state competition, Norfolk, Virginia

March 5:  TSA Regional Fair, Woodson High School

March 11 - 13:  HOSA state competition, Williamsburg, Virginia

March 25:  Academy applications due

Stay up-to-date with the latest news and events in CTE by becoming a fan at www.facebook.com/fcpscte.

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Just a reminder, representatives from the Career and Technical Education Advisory Board (CTEAC) would love to come to your PTA meetings and share more information about these great CTE programs.  To request a presentation, please contact CTEAC member Lynn Terhar at 703-968-6949.

Fairfax County Public Schools is encouraging local businesses and community organizations to check out five ways to partner with the school system in an effort to support students individually and on a larger scale.

FCPS announces the Give Me Five! initiative, offering a number of ways for businesses, organizations, and individuals to benefit students and schools:

• Mentor a child. Mentors commit to working with a student for one hour, once a week, throughout the school year and are placed with a student close to the mentors' homes or offices. Training and support is offered to all potential mentors.
• Partner with a school. A business or organization can establish a partnership with one school and have the option to expand the relationship to mutually benefit both partners.  Some schools have had the same business partner for more than 20 years.
• Serve as a systemwide partner. Partnering at the school system level can affect students throughout FCPS and often targets a specific curricular focus that can enhance a business's workforce development.
• Support an existing partnership. Individuals, companies, and organizations can donate items, volunteer, or provide funding to any number of existing partnerships and programs.
• Develop or advance an educational initiative. Initiatives come from inside and outside the school system, support cutting-edge learning, and help develop future employees.

For additional information about partnering with FCPS, contact Jay Garant at 571-423-1209 or jpgarant@fcps.edu. For more information about serving as a mentor, contact Shelley Prince at 571-423-4403 or rrprince@fcps.edu. 

Visit http://www.fcps.edu/cco/bcp/index.htm for more information about business and community partnerships in FCPS.

Due to inclement weather or other emergency situations, it may be necessary to close schools for the entire day, to open schools late, or to close early.

Parents are urged to make arrangements now for the care of their children when schedule changes are made (and to provide for the rare situation when it is necessary to close an individual school because of a power failure or other circumstances). Children should know where to go if a parent will not be home.

Decisions on schedule changes are made after careful study of the best information available from many sources including weather services, the highway department, the police, and FCPS transportation staff members who are out checking the roads. FCPS will make every effort to decide, before 5 a.m., whether to close or delay schools and will begin communicating the decision once it is made. The 5 a.m. decision time is a goal. Weather conditions can deteriorate after 5 a.m., which means that it may not be possible for FCPS to meet that goal. While no sources dealing with weather predictions can be infallible, decisions are made with one overriding consideration-the safety of all students-those who ride buses and those who walk to school each day.

FCPS has several schedules set up to deal with inclement weather; these are put into effect when conditions threaten the safety of children who are walking or riding school buses to schools. These schedules are:

(1) Keep schools closed. (2) Open two hours late. (3) Close two hours early. 

In every case of a schedule change:

• Tune in to local radio and television stations (including cable Channel 21, a channel programmed by FCPS), which are notified as soon as a decision is made.
  
• Check www.fcps.edu.
  

Do not phone the school or one of the stations for this information. To receive this information via e-mail, sign up for the FCPS Keep in Touch (KIT) e-mail notification system. (To sign up for KIT go to www.fcps.edu/kit/.)

For more information, go to http://www.fcps.edu/news/weather.htm.

If you want to learn more about how FCPS administrators decide to delay or close schools during inclement weather, you can check out a short video, which is available online by going to http://www.fcps.edu/DIT/streaming/ss10_snow.asx.

Please note: FCPS schools are open unless information is posted or sent that indicates schools are closed, opening late, or closing early. During an emergency closing situation in which other local school systems are closed or delayed and FCPS is open on time, the crawl for local TV stations WJLA (ABC 7) and NewsChannel 8 will indicate "No Report" for FCPS.

FCPS Emergency School Closings Telephone Hot Line Discontinued December 31

Due to budget cuts, the FCPS emergency school closings telephone hot line was discontinued on December 31, 2009. Employees, students, parents, and community members who have relied on the hot line exclusively in the past will now need to check the FCPS web site, Channel 21 (a cable TV channel programmed by FCPS), or local TV and radio stations or sign up to receive emergency school closing information from the Keep in Touch e-mail notification system.

For more information on emergency closings, go to http://www.fcps.edu/news/emerg.htm.