Our Community in Fairfax County, Virginia
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Before the next school year starts, Fairfax County is building a modular unit on a concrete slab next to the playground. Built in North Carolina, the modular unit will be shipped in parts and enter the school grounds via the Nottage Road entrance near the tennis courts. Once completed, it will hold six classrooms and boys and girls bathrooms for next year's sixth graders. Modulars are much nicer than trailers!
Our last newsletter described the new one-way drive that will connect the end of Oak Ridge Road to Westley Road, allowing parents to enter Oak Ridge, drop off students, and leave on Westley. There will be a gate at the Oak Ridge entrance, and it will be open only in the mornings when school is in session. It will not be available for use as a cut-through road.
Have you ever seen the courtyard in the center of the school with its beautiful cherry trees? The school is transforming the area into an outdoor teaching area, and Westlawn residents can help!
Using a grant from the Virginia Department of Agriculture, a pond is being installed with circulating water. The pond will become the home to fish, tadpoles, and turtles. Several gardens will be planted—pumpkin gardens, butterfly gardens, and native Virginia plants. There also will be a Web cam to allow both staff and students to see what is going on in the courtyard without having to go outside.
The school must find private funds for some of these projects, including a flagstone patio area for students to stand on during outdoor classroom sessions. For only $20 each, you can buy one or more flagstones and have your name, your child's name, or your company's name listed on a plaque.
If you are interested in helping out, drop off or mail a check made out to Westlawn PTA along with a short note with your name, address, phone number, and the name you want engraved on the plaque (25 letters maximum). Please put the word "Flagstone" at the top of your note. Contact the school (3200 Westley Road) or email the principal at Kim.Dockery@fcps.edu if you have any questions.
Inside the school, great things are already happening. In the 2003-2004 school year, Westlawn Elementary showed better progress on its standardized test scores than other, more affluent schools in Fairfax County. Indeed, the results were impressive compared to any school in the country!
Success is occurring because of the concept of Equality of Opportunity. The teachers focus on students learning, not on teachers teaching. The guiding philosophy is "Every child is my child." When a student is not performing adequately, the teachers ask "What am I going to do differently if they didn't get it?"
For each grade level, the teachers form teams who plan together and come up with common assignments for their classes. That way, less experienced teachers gain the benefit of the expertise of more senior teachers, experienced teachers gain the benefits of new insights and ideas that newer teachers bring to the table, and the students get all the benefits.
While many schools promote teacher collaboration, Westlawn excels in part because of the training it has provided its teachers. For example, one of the most important skills they have learned is how to disagree. Too bad we all can't take this training!
Enrollment is up, with close to 600 students and 100 staff. Staff from other schools are coming to Westlawn to learn what they are doing to ensure that all students pass their standardized learning tests. Some people have called the school to find out the school boundaries because they are interested in moving to our neighborhood and enrolling their children at Westlawn Elementary.
Hats off to Principal Kim Dockery and her staff for doing such a great job. Let's help them out and buy a flagstone!
Westlawn Elementary is scheduled for a much needed upgrade this summer. While the building is not scheduled for renovation until 2013, six of the eight trailers are being replaced with a 6-classroom modular that will contain classrooms, bathrooms for students and teachers, a conference room, and small tech area.
The modular unit will be placed near the playground (in the area currently occupied by a baseball diamond) with a covered walkway leading to the building. This modular unit will house the sixth grade classrooms and specialist classrooms.
The removal of six trailers will allow for a makeover of Westlawn's difficult "Kiss and Ride" facilities. In addition to regaining parking spaces on the north side of the school, the Kiss and Ride will be reconfigured to allow cars to enter on Oak Ridge, drive around the building, and exit up Westley Rd. This will alleviate the difficult situations that occur on Oak Ridge when two-way traffic must navigate a narrow street with cars parked on both sides of the street.
Installation of the modular will begin as school ends in June. This construction will mean that Westlawn's summer school will be held at Falls Church High School. It is expected that the modular, new parking, and improved "Kiss and Ride" will all be complete in time for school opening in September 2005. If you have any questions about these upcoming changes please contact Kim Dockery, Westlawn Principal, at 703-241-5100.
There are a number of convenient ways in which you can help the Westlawn PTA earn money to pay for field trips, assemblies, etc. If you like to shop on-line, go to www.schoolpop.com and register to help Westlawn School. Then do your shopping through the site. A percentage of your purchases will be donated to Westlawn. Many area stores support schools such as Giant, Safeway, and Target. Please register at these stores to support Westlawn Elementary.
Also, collecting General Mills Boxtops for Education is fast and easy. Simply cut out the boxtops and give them to an elementary student to turn in at school. Westlawn receives 10 cents for each boxtop collected. Thank you for supporting our students!
Westlawn residents are invited to participate in the tutoring program that takes place on Monday afternoons (2:45-3:45) and evenings (7-8) at Westlawn Elementary School. This program meets in the school cafeteria and is in its eighth year. Tutors are teachers, parents, middle and high school students, and members of the community who volunteer an hour a week to help one or more students with homework and reading and math skills.
Tutors give their time, attention and expertise, and in return they receive the satisfaction of helping a child learn and the pleasure of spending time with some really great kids. New tutors are always welcome. For more information, please call Miriam Dewhurst at 703-560-0871.
Westlawn Elementary School is collecting Giant and Safeway receipts, General Mills "Box Tops for Education" and labels from Campbell's products. The school plans to purchase computer products, playground equipment and other school supplies. Help support our schools and children by giving any of these to local students or dropping them off at Westlawn.
The Police are in need of men and women who would be interested in part-time employment in a rewarding job serving as school crossing guards in the Mason District. Do you know someone who has time on their hands and would like to earn a little extra money? This could include someone who has children in school and a few hours a day that they could devote to helping both the police and their purses. It might be someone who has retired and would like to stay active. If you or someone you know meet these requirements, call Lieutenant Ed Roessler at 256-8035 to learn more about the duties, hours required, and compensation. Both training and uniforms are provided for those meeting the requirements.
Westlawn Elementary has recently hired Ms. Kim Dockery as its new principal. Ms. Dockery comes from Haycock Elementary in Falls Church, where she was vice-principal for three years. She has extensive experience as a classroom teacher and in special education. Please welcome Ms. Dockery into our community as she leads our children and the Westlawn staff into the future.
If the Facilities Bond is passed this coming November, Westlawn Elementary's external, detached trailer classrooms will be replaced with an attached, modular unit. This would enable students to move back and forth from their classrooms to other instructional areas without having to go outdoors-especially beneficial during inclement weather.
A guinea pig loose in the hallway... a conga line of "raisins" chirping "Heard it Through the Grape-vine"... a governor's commendation for outstanding academic achievement... students raising the flag for the first time in September 1952... These are a few memories of Westlawn Elementary.
To commemorate Westlawn's 50th Anniversary, a community Fun Fair will be held on Saturday, October 5, 2002, from 11:00 to 3:00. Everyone is invited to attend and celebrate the anniversary of a genuine neighborhood school.
Unauthorized soccer leagues have been plaguing the county park system, and Westlawn is no exception. On one weekend afternoon in early September, for example, over 300 people-soccer players, family, and friends-descended on our park. What they left behind was outrageous: broken whiskey bottles, used condoms in the parking lot, and trash all over the playground, the field, and behind the trees surrounding the field. Their playing also has helped to destroy much of the reseeding that took place last year to restore the fields.
Every Monday morning, the janitorial staff at Westlawn Elementary must do what it can to clean up the debris after these unauthorized weekend games. They can't catch everything, and kids are finding things like small clear vials in the playground. While these vials apparently held candy, the kids think they were used for drugs!
The soccer league in question knew that it was not approved to play at Westlawn, but that did not stop them. Nobody is authorized to use Westlawn Park for adult soccer league games. The county plans to deal with this problem in several ways:
The park is intended to serve the school and our community. It's a great place to kick around a soccer ball, toss a football or baseball, throw a Frisbee, or fly a kite on the weekends. It is not a place for organized adult sports. Let's help keep it that way.
Westlawn Elementary School will hold its Kindergarten open house and early registration on May 2, 2002, at 7:00 p.m. Children turning five prior to 9/30/2002 and their parents are welcome to attend. The open house provides an excellent opportunity to explore the classrooms, meet the teachers and obtain information regarding the kindergarten curriculum.
Westlawn Elementary School will celebrate its 50th anniversary this September. A mailing list is being developed for any past students or parents interested in attending this event. Anyone interested in being on the mailing list or planning for this celebration, please contact Janet Sims by email at smshouse@erols.com or by phone at 703-207-3098.
Westlawn Elementary, Luther Jackson Middle, and Falls Church High all showed dramatic improvements in their Standards of Learning (SOL) scores from tests taken last spring.
At Westlawn Elementary, time for student learning has increased in several ways. The school implemented a uniform school day by extending Mondays and extending every school day by a half hour. The PTA provides tutoring on Monday afternoons and evenings. Westlawn conducted a 12-week after-school SOL recovery program and offered remediation classes through a summer school program. The school also has had full-day kindergarten for the last several years.
In a change from previous years, Falls Church High School will begin two weeks early on 20 August 2001 and end two weeks early in early June 2002. Practice for extracurricular activities like sports and marching band will begin in early August.
The change will give the school two extra weeks of teaching before the Standards of Learning tests in May. It also will lengthen the first grading quarter, which typically gets off to a slow start. The fourth quarter will be two weeks shorter, but the lost time comes after the SOL tests are completed and should not impact fourth-quarter grades.
This spring, Westlawn Elementary is offering an after school remediation program for grades 3, 4, and 5 on Mondays and Tuesdays after school. The curriculum is entitled "Soaring with Success" and concentrates on helping students to become better readers. Teachers are learning new strategies for teaching reading and math, and the courses will include pre and post tests. Teachers also will use new board games that have questions similar in content to the Standards of Learning exams so that students can review important material in a fun way.
This summer, the school will offer a five-week summer school program for remedial reading and enrichment in language arts and math. Referrals will be made to students in grades 3, 4, and 5 who need the extra help, but the summer school classes are open to all interested students who already attend Westlawn. Teachers from Westlawn will teach the classes, which hopefully will each be 12 students or less in the special reading classes.
The Fairfax County school system was unable to come up with a way to increase parking at Westlawn Elementary. (It's easy to see how the tennis courts block any chance of extending Nottage Lane to create a parking area on the south side of the park.) Please do not hesitate to call someone at the school if you live on Oakridge, Westley, or Weston Roads and are having daytime parking problems because of the school. Also, I would appreciate it if you would keep me informed as well.
The Westlawn Park mudpatch is once again a grassy field! Fairfax County, working with the Little River Soccer League, regraded the field and planted grass seed over the summer. They also fixed the beat-up baseball infield that adjoined the soccer field, and they replaced one of the two missing nets on the tennis courts. With the exception of the large cracks and missing net on the tennis courts, Westlawn Park has never been in better shape!
All is not well, however. Many groups use the park over the weekends, and they leave a mess for the school custodians on Monday mornings-dirty diapers, beer bottles, and a variety of other filthy and disgusting trash. The park has no toilet facilities, but that doesn't stop some people from urinating behind the trailers on both sides of the school. Yuck!
The Westlawn Civic Association will work with the school to see if there is a way to place one or two new trashcans around the park in places where the trash tends to accumulate the worst. If you see anyone drinking beer or relieving themselves at the park or school, please call the police non-emergency number at 703-691-2131. It's great to see the park being used, but not abused.
Earlier this school year, the staff at Westlawn Elementary began to investigate the option of year-round school as a way to improve the education of students at the school. At the outset, the staff voted that they would not pursue the issue if less than 70% of the staff approved of this option.
After many meetings and discussions, a vote was held last April. The staff did not support the move to a modified school calendar. Even if the staff had supported the concept of year-round school, the majority of parents of students at Westlawn would have had to support the move as well.
For the foreseeable future, Westlawn Elementary will continue on the traditional school calendar withl full-day Kindergarten and Monday hours. Plans are under way for summer school to be offered at the school for Westlawn students only next summer. The summer program would include remediation for students who did not pass the SOL tests during the 2000-2001 year.
The elimination of parking spaces last year by the addition of an outside trailer has caused daytime parking problems on Oakridge, Westley, and Weston Roads. As enrollment increases next year, more teachers than ever will be parking at Westlawn Elementary. If nothing is done, parking will be woefully inadequate next year.
The fact is, the school staff and volunteers have to park somewhere, and the only place they can go now is to spill over into the neighborhood. They are just as unhappy about the situation as the nearby residents are, and the principal is working hard to do something about it.
Dr. Hall has repeatedly asked the school administration to find a way to increase parking on the school property. There are limited options to add a significant number of new parking spaces. The situation also is complicated by the fact that much of the area east of the school parking lot is owned by the Parks Department.
Residents are welcome to call our school board member Kaye Kory at 703-246-4785 or e-mail board@burkholder.fcps.k12.va.us to express your concerns.
Year-round school is an option that teachers and administrators at Westlawn Elementary are actively exploring, with the possibility of starting in the 2001 school year. Despite an exceptionally skilled and experienced staff, our school has some of the lowest test scores in the county. There are many reasons for these low scores, including mobility, poverty levels, and the high number of children who speak other languages as their primary language.
Teachers at Westlawn will vote at the end of April. If most of the teachers are in favor of the year-round calendar, then the parents will vote in November of 2000. If most parents are in favor, then the school would move to the new calendar in August of 2001. In this modified calendar:
The goal of the program is "continuous learning" to avoid the loss over the 10-week summer, requiring a lot of time at the beginning of each year just to relearn last year's subjects.
The downsides of year-round school all have to do with schedule. The intersessions are essential for keeping the children learning during the two-week breaks. The biggest issue is summer, where childcare and vacation schedules will be different. Monday afternoons are another issue, as Westlawn would have to go back to early Monday dismissals. All-day kindergarten would remain unchanged.
In November 2000, parents of Westlawn students will vote on whether to adopt year-round school for the following year. Between now and then, parents will have plenty of opportunities to discuss and evaluate the issues. The new program would be adopted only if at least 70% of the voting parents approve of it. Such a high percentage was chosen to ensure that a major change like year-round school had strong, enthusiastic support from the parents.
The kids are back in school, with a number of exciting changes starting this year. Westlawn is one of 20 elementary schools that has full-day Kindergarten and no early release on Mondays. The students seem to have adapted well to the changes.
To accommodate full-day Kindergarten, the school needed more classrooms. The solution was to add trailers in the parking lot next to the library. Most of the second grade classes meet in these new trailers, which have nice interiors but no plumbing connections. The biggest downside is the loss of precious parking spaces!
Stay tuned for the next issue of Westlawn News where you will find out more about a new reading program that promises to produce dramatic improvements in students' reading retention.
Dr. Daniel Domenech has proposed a plan called Project Excel to give students in certain schools more time to learn. Westlawn Elementary School has been selected as an Excel School. In his proposal, the 20 Project Excel schools in Fairfax County will receive $8.5 million in staffing, computer equipment, resources and curriculum innovations in order to raise student achievement.
For Westlawn, this means several important changes for our school in September of 1999:
We are excited about being selected for Project Excel. Please call the school office if you would like to volunteer in September to help with this important project. The telephone number is 533-3613.
We appreciate the continued support of the Westlawn community!
Westlawn Elementary School is having a fantastic year! Our students are enjoying their outstanding teachers. A significant number of parents are very involved in classroom and school activities. Our PTA supports many school functions such as field trips and assemblies. All of this effort means that our students are enjoying learning.
A new approach to research was implemented two years ago. Students at every grade level engage in a five-week research project on a curriculum topic of their choice. During that time, the classroom teacher, the librarian, the computer teacher and the reading teacher help each child to formulate an outline for the topic they will study. Students use books, CD-ROMs, computer software, videodiscs, and the Internet to find information about their topics. Each child is then required to create a final project to share the information. All student projects will be on display during an open house on May 18 from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Parents and community members are invited to come to school to see this fabulous student work. Students will be available to discuss their projects with visitors.
During the past two years, we purchased new classroom furniture, installed a new playground, and renovated the office. In addition, we have two Parent Liaisons who speak Spanish and Vietnamese. Please stop by to see us! We're so proud of our school!
Results are in for the first round of tests for Virginia's new Standards of Learning (SOL), and Westlawn Elementary School did well! The first round of tests in the state were intended to collect baseline data on where the schools stand before they had a chance to tailor their instruction to the SOL standards.
To nobody's surprise, few schools in Virginia are already to the point where the students' scores meet the SOL standards. Westlawn Elementary's scores were comparable to other schools in the greater Falls Church/McLean area of Fairfax County. All the schools are working to modify their curriculum to better address the SOL areas most in need of improvement. More on this later.