1 | P a g e

O

Simpson Middle School

J. L. Simpson Middle School

490 Evergreen Mill Road

Leesburg, VA 20175

Principal: Chad Runfola

Assistant Principals: Katrina Smith Tina Todd

Deans: Michele Loiselle Jonathan Bonner

Guidance Counselors: 6th Grade Marianne Nameth 7th Grade Sabrina Jeane 8th Grade Eveanne McKean

School Resource Officer:

Matt Bennett

Contact Information

Main Office (571) 252-2840 House A (571) 252-2848 House B (571) 252-2847 House C (571) 252-2846 Absentee Line (571) 252-2842 Cafeteria (571) 252-2843 Fax (703) 771-6643 School Hours: 8:40 AM– 3:28 PM

www.lcps.org/jlsms

In this Month’s Issue:

Note from the Principal 2 Calendar of Upcoming Events 4 PTO President’s Letter 5 PTO Calendar 6 News from the Counselors 7 School News 8 Message from Sub Central 13

April 2016

2 | P a g e

Principal’s Note April 2016 Dear Simpson Parents & Students: April will bring a close to the third quarter and the start of fourth quarter! Don’t forget that Friday, April 15th is a student holiday – teacher workday. Also, parents are encouraged to revisit our dress code policy and expectations with their student now that warmer weather has arrived. Thank you for your continued support. Congratulations to our Science Team who represented Simpson at the Loudoun County “You Be The Chemist Challenge” on March 2nd at Harper Park M.S. A special congratulations to Arian Patel, Kiran Marques, and Zohayr Naveed for their top ten finish with Arian Patel finishing 5th. He is going to state competition on Saturday, April 16th. Best of luck Arian! Congratulations to our 8th grade band, 8th grade chorus, Select Chorus, and Orchestra for their efforts at assessments. 8th grade band and Orchestra received Superior ratings with 8th grade chorus and Select chorus receiving Excellent ratings this year. All of our students can be proud of their accomplishments. Thank you and congratulations to our directors for their tireless efforts! We thoroughly enjoyed Winter Blues Blow-Out at Ida Lee! Thank you to all the parent volunteers, PTO and the administrative team for making it a success. Our 3rd Annual International Night brought approximately 400 of us together celebrating our cultural diversity. It was fun and informative thanks to all the World Language students and teachers celebrating their One to the World experiences. The food and dancing certainly added to the festive atmosphere. My specials thanks to Mrs. Lopez, Mrs. Ravelo, Mrs. Loiselle and head custodian, Pat Thomas. Without dedicated staff members, none of it would be possible. Hats off and big thanks to Amy Kemon and Vivian Lee for leading the PTO Stampede 5K Race on Sunday, April 3rd. The cold wind and weather didn’t dampen the spirits of all those involved helping to make it a great success! Proceeds go to the PTO track fund. Math Kudos to our three math teams that participated in the Loudoun County Regional Math Tournament at Farmwell Middle School on Saturday, April 2nd. We had a lot of fun and worked hard to do well. My special thanks to Mr. Van der Linden and Mrs. Nibbelink for coaching the teams. Our musical, “Peter Pan Jr.”, is this month! You can attend performances on Friday, April 8h at 7 pm, Saturday, April 9th at 2:00 pm or 7:00 pm, or Sunday at 2:00 pm. I hope everyone comes to support our students as they bring “Peter Pan Jr.” to Simpson Middle School. The students have worked tirelessly with the support of the parent volunteers led by Ms. Manson, and our director, Karla Louis and her team. Starting April 11th, the Faculty & staff members are participating in “Monday’s for Megan”. For five dollars, faculty & staff can participate in “Jeans for Genes” and wear blue jeans as an effort to help raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. As many of you know, Megan Stewart was a Simpson & LCHS student who lost her fight against cystic fibrosis many years ago. Megan was a friend to all and we continue to honor her memory by helping to raise money to find a cure.

3 | P a g e

Principal’s Note April 2016 Cont. April 11th starts National Library week! A big thank you to our Librarians for all that they do for Simpson. We look forward to lots of fun activities sponsored by the library that week! Our 8th graders will visit LCHS for their orientation on Wednesday, April 20th from 9 to noon. It will be an exciting day and very informative. Thank you in advance to Principal Luttrell and the LCHS students and staff. Report cards will come home with students on Wednesday, April 27th. April 27th is Administrative Professionals Day (formerly known as Secretary’s Day). All of our offices are staffed with excellent secretaries who truly care about our kids and provide much needed support to the school community. Thank you Mrs. Doyle, Mrs. Lee, Mrs. Szoka, Mrs. Muscarella, Mrs. Chisholm and Mrs. Ridings for all you do. Also, thank you to our library assist Mrs. O’Connor for her support as well. New this year is a school wide effort to fundraise for March of Dimes. More information will be coming your way via a Connect Ed email soon, stay tuned! Let’s keep up our hard work and efforts to be present every day possible. As a reminder to all parents, SOL testing will begin in mid-May and each day of learning is important. Thank you to everyone for all you do to make Simpson Middle School a great place to be! Sincerely, Chad D. Runfola Principal

4 | P a g e

Calendar of Upcoming Events April 2 Math Competition-Stone Hill MS

April 3 Simpson Stampede 5K

April 8-10 Musical- Peter Pan Jr.

April 11 PTO Meeting-6:30PM

April 15 Teacher Workday/Student Holiday

April 20 8th Graders Visit LCHS

April 27 Report Cards Sent Home

April 27 Administrative Professionals Day

April 27 LCHS Athletic Parent/Student Orientation @ LCHS 7PM

May 2 Teacher Appreciation Week

May 13 8th Grade Dance

May 16 Interims go home

May 16 SOL Testing begins

May 30 Memorial Day Holiday, no school

5 | P a g e

PTO President’s Letter

Hello Simpson Families,

Spring is finally arrived and we’re getting ready for some of our favorite end of year events! First, thank you to everyone who joined us at Ida Lee for our annual Winter Blue Blow-Out! The students had a wonderful evening of fun with their Simpson friends. We had excellent student participation as well as volunteers to help coordinate this event to be memorable! A huge thank you Robyn Colon for chairing this event and to all the volunteers and Simpson staff members who helped make it a great success for our children!

Also, thanks to Amy Kemon for chairing the 5K run to help raise funds to build a much-needed track for the school! She has done an awesome job getting great sponsorship for this event.

Next month, the Simpson PTO will continue the tradition of sponsoring an 8th Grade Dance. This year’s dance will be held on Friday, May 13th. Please look for more information to come home soon about this event and how you can help make it a wonderful experience for our students.

We are always on the lookout for new volunteers! If you would like to volunteer in any capacity with the PTO, please contact our Volunteer Coordinator, Jennifer Lucey, at volunteers@simpsonpto.org or me at the email listed below. At the April PTO meeting, we must select a Nominating Committee. The committee will work to secure nominees for each of the PTO board positions for next year. We look forward to seeing you at our April PTO meeting, scheduled for Monday, April 11th at 6:30 pm in the Simpson Library! Please plan to join us! Raj Daniel, PTO President president@simpsonpto.org

6 | P a g e

PTO Calendar of Events

PTO Calendar of Events April 3 Simpson Stampede 5K at Bolen Park April 6 Staff Appreciation Muffins & Fruit April 11 PTO Meeting 6:30pm April 14 End of 3rd Quarter Grading Period April 15 No School--Planning/Records/Conference Day April 27 Staff Appreciation Administrative Assistants Day May 2-6 Staff Appreciation Week Gift Card Donations May 9 PTO Meeting 6:30pm May 13 8th Grade Semi-Formal Dance May 30 No School--Memorial Day June 10 Summer Send-Off June 13 PTO Meeting 6:30pm June 13 Staff Appreciation Bus Driver Treats June 14 6th Grade Field Day School Event June 14 Last Day of School June 15 Staff Appreciation Teacher Luncheon

7 | P a g e

News from the Counselors

Eighth graders that applied to Thomas Jefferson High School and Academy of Science should

check these sites for upcoming dates.

Seventh graders interested in applying Thomas Jefferson High School in the fall; there will

be an Open House at Holmes Middle School on Saturday, April 9 from 9:00 am to 12:00

noon. There is also a link on their website, www.tjadmissions.org, with additional

information that may be accessed in the “News” Section on the main page of the website.

Eighth graders will take their trip to visit Loudoun County High School on April 20, 2016.

Deadline for CAMPUS and AVID applications for 8th graders is Wednesday April 13th.

ATTENTION 8th GRADERS! *TIME SENSITIVE INFO.

Students interested in applying to the new Academy of Engineering and

Technology, please click HERE for all important information.

• April 11-Information Session at Stone Hill Middle School, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

• April 14-Information Session at Blue Ridge Middle School, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm • April 19-Information Session at Smart’s Mill Middle School, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm • April 20-Information Session at Sterling Middle School, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm

At this time, counseling groups are still running. For topic specific information contact your

child’s counselor.

We are wrapping up course request changes for more information on the process check out

http://lcps.org/Page/20564 .

Check out the parent tea page for April 1, 2016, Tea & Talk, this will be on substance

awareness and trends. It is the last one of the year.

For parents interested in finding tutors or summer programs please check out the school

counseling web page for Parent Resources link or the link Summer 2016 on Simpson’s main

web page.

Summer in the Arts Registration Opened March 2, 2016.

MTC Career Camp http://www.lcps.org/domain/19683 Registration closes April 27, 2016.

Loudoun County's PRCS summer camps registration is underway.

For additional information on our Counselors and events please visit their webpage.

8 | P a g e

School News

April News from the Library!

We've had a busy few weeks in the library!

Battle of the Books

o CONGRATULATIONS to our AMAZING Team

Simpson CELEBRATES Read Across America

Black History Month

Spring Scholastic “BOGO” Book Fair

End of Year BOOK EXCHANGE

Library Helpers

Overdue Books

Click on this link for the complete April Library Newsletter

Request for Art Donations from Ms. Barry

Ms. Barry has a couple of future art projects that she is collecting supplies for. Project 1: One of the projects is "Steam Pump Found Object Robots". Sample photo of the project below. If you would have any objects that you think you could donate, my students and I would greatly appreciate your assistance! You can look at the photo to gather some ideas. In addition, here is a sample list of objects:

Nails

Screws

Wire

Paperclips

Brass brads

Picture frame hangers

Springs from pens

Soda can tabs

Nuts/ bolts

Wing nuts

Metal washers

Old keys

Broken jewelry

Metallic string/ yarn

Aluminum foil

Aluminum roasting pans

Hooks

Junk drawer items

old watches

9 | P a g e

School News Cont. Project 2: We will be making cardboard armature animals. Here is an example of a raccoon in its beginning stages: For this project we will be collecting: Cardboard, all sizes and shapes Paper Towel Tubes Newspaper Thank you for all your time, assistance and support! If you have any items that you believe will be useful please bring them to Art Room 1, or let me know and I will gladly stop by your room to pick the items up.

Winter Sports Club

We would like to thank all of the students and parent volunteers that helped make this season a success. We

had to face some challenges from Mother Nature, but in the end we were able to squeeze in 5 trips. As we

look forward to next season we wanted to remind everyone of a few important items.

1. Information for next season will be online beginning in early October. (Exact dates have not been

confirmed yet)

2. Student interest meeting will be in mid- October.

3. Mandatory parent meeting and form collection early November. Please be aware that as the size of

our club continues to grow, it becomes harder for us to make special accommodations for those that

are unable to attend these meetings. If you want your child to be a part of this group you must

attend one of the sessions.

4. 5 trips late January to early March.

We look forward to seeing everyone on the slopes again soon!

Winter Sports club Advisors:

Laura Bolyard

Donald Allen

Michele Loiselle

10 | P a g e

School News Cont.

SCA (Student Council Association)

Simpson would like to thank Jeffery Widom for donating his time and being our DJ for the SCA Dance. Visit his website DJ Enzik or http://widomj.wix.com/djenzik Also, Simpson would like to thank the following local restaurants for their support as well!

www.meltgourmetcheeseburgers.com http://www.lavillaroma.net

Mustangs Celebrate Autism Awareness Month

April is Autism Awareness month and we will be asking students to "Light it Up Blue" on Wednesday April 13th by wearing blue. We will also be selling Autism Awareness items during lunch shifts with the proceeds being donated to a local charity.

11 | P a g e

School News Cont.

3rd Annual International Night at JLSMS

Dance, entertainment, food, and student presentations filled the cafeteria and library on Wednesday, March

16, 2016. Over 400 people attended this wonderful event! The world language teachers worked with their

students to present their “One to the World” projects. Great job everyone!

If you were not able to join us this year, please plan to attend next year around the second week of March.

If were able to join us, you know it was 2 hours of exciting and energetic educational experiences!

A big thank you goes out to several guests who joined us:

The Celtic Rhythm School of Dance www.celticrhythmschool.com

The Basics Gracie Jiu-Jitsu www.thebasicsgjj.com

Dragon Yong-In Martial Arts www.dragonyong-in.com

The Peruvian Dance Company “Garbo and Salero”

The Diversity Commission – Town of Leesburg ygreen@leesburgva.gov

We hope you can join us next year!

JLSMS International Night Committee

12 | P a g e

School News Cont.

Kiss a Goat? On behalf of the 6th Grade History Department, Mr. Jackson, Mr. Ludwig, Mrs. Manning, and Mrs. Nohe, we would like

to thank all of the students, families, and staff that supported our One to the World Fundraiser last week. Your

generous donations will support the Police Benevolent Foundation and the Leesburg Police Explorers Post.

The Foundation provides financial support for the

families of fallen law enforcement officers whose

deaths occur in the line of duty. We held this

fundraiser in honor of Officer Ashley Guindon of the

Prince William County Police Force, whose life was

taken away senselessly on February 27, in a deadly

domestic incident. It was Officer Guindon’s 1st day on

the job.

Our students have written beautiful sympathy cards

that were sent to Officer Guindon’s grieving family, as

well as get well cards for her fellow officers, Officer

Jesse Hempen and Officer David McKeown who are expected to survive from their injuries.

Donations will also be made to the Leesburg Explorers Post. This Junior Police Camp provides law enforcement

education for youth in Loudoun County. Instructors at the camp include Simpson’s Officer Bennett and other school

Resource Officers. The camp each summer focuses on team building, leadership, conflict resolution, character

education and physical fitness. Juvenile law and police procedures such as finger printing, accident investigation and

evidence collection are also covered.

Through your generosity we were able to raise a grand total of $1,200 which enables us to award over $600.00 to each

organization! The top 3 winners who will kiss a goat and who you voted for:

3rd place - Mrs. Todd

2nd place - Mr. Jackson

1st place - Mr. Fawcett

Thank you to Mrs. Weddle, who teaches 6th grade science, who will be bringing her adorable goats, Oscar and Louis who

have volunteered to participate in this fundraiser!

Patricia Nohe

13 | P a g e

Message from Sub Central

Did you know that between kindergarten and twelfth grade, a student has had a substitute for

the equivalent of one year? LCPS is currently seeking dynamic, creative, professional substitutes

with training in the pedagogy of teaching. This is a great way to remain in the field of your choice

with the flexibility of choosing your work schedule! If you are interested, please apply online at

www.sub4loudoun.com and contact Sub-Central at Alisa.Daniel@LCPS.org. Thank you!