October 4, 2020

This information is important for the upcoming week.

Important Upcoming Dates:

Oct 7 - Virtual Principals Coffee (9am) - Linked from www.atdsf.com
Oct 7 &8 - Senior Gown Distribution
Oct 8 - Freeman Mascot Process Update message
Oct 14th - Senior Convocation (10 am)
Oct 22nd - October School Board Meeting
Oct 29th - PSAT Test (for juniors who've signed up)
Nov 16th - Start of 2nd Nine-weeks

Freeman Mascot Update

Later this week we will be updating the Freeman community on our progress toward the new mascot. Thank you for the 1,000+ entries we recieved to our survey about our core values and the dozens of parents, students and alumni who served in focus groups with the Brand Center over the last few weeks. We are excited to update you on what we found out later this week! As we get closer to a late-October announcement, you might read about how we got here by navigating previous communications, housed at www.freemanmascot.info

AP Registration

Last week we sent AP students this message regarding AP exam registration. You can register now for your Spring AP-Exams. The deadline to sign up and pay is November 6th, 2020. Please refer to the message linked above for links and further details.

National Honors Society

Students who were eligible for induction into NHS in the Spring of 2020 submitted packets in March prior to the school closure. Those packets have been reviewed over the course of the last few weeks and we have notified students of acceptance status via student email this weekend so as not to delay the process any further. Formal letters will follow. That email has instructions for students, so if this applies to your family, please have your child check that student email.

Moving forward, HCPS has moved to a consistent division-wide plan for NHS acceptance processes, beginning with the 2020-2021 school year. For DSF students, this means that we will move to a single acceptance process, taking place later this fall, for both juinors and seniors. More information for students who qualify will be shared in the coming weeks. At this time there is not action required but we wanted to make interested parties aware of this timeline shift. There will also be changes to the community service requiremets due to the pandemic and resulting quarantine.

School Counseling Needs Assessment - Quick Survey

DSF Parents - the school counseling department would like your input about which topics we should address with our students this year. We will use this information to shape our school counseling program. Click the link below to fill out a quick survey! Thanks for your help!

https://forms.gle/AV4HNt9FKRoHdF6i7

Freeman High School Virtual Principals Coffee

Our October Principals Coffee will take place online on Wednesday, October 7th at 9 am. You will click into this event from the banner at www.atdsf.com where Mr. Marshall, Mrs. Smith and the DSF Admin team will be available to give updates and submit all of your questions about this complex year! We hope to see you then. This event will be recorded for later viewing as well.

Wednesday, October 7th @ 9:00 am
www.atdsf.com

Senior graduation gown distribution

Senior graduation gown distribution will take place on Wednesday October 7^th: 3-6 pm and Thursday October 8^th: 8-10 am on the DSF bus ramp. This will be a drive through event so please use the calendly link below to reserve a pick-up slot for your senior .

https://calendly.com/lmhollowell/senior-gown-distribution?month=2020-10

Important: we cannot distribute gowns to seniors until the $60 senior class fee has been paid, so please take care of this obligation prior to coming to pick up your gown. Visit the HCPS website, click on on-line services and go to the 4^th option down which is OSP-make school payments and look under obligations to determine the fees owned by your senior.

Returning Library Books

Please have your children return all library materials to Freeman as soon as possible. We will also accept books they have checked out from other HCPS schools. They may return books by

Bringing them to the bus loop during extended library hours (Wednesdays 8-9:00 am and Thursdays 4-5:30 pm)
Putting them in the black and yellow bin located by the front office door
Contacting the library staff to arrange another way

Students may check out books by using the bookhub form. They can pick up books during extended library hours or by appointment.

New Information:

This information has not been shared in a Sunday message yet, so it is listed here for the first time. Consider this the "breaking news" for this week.

DSF Mental Health Forum

Freeman High School is hosting a Mental Health Forum with Dr. Matt Bitsko on Tuesday, October 13th. This event is intended for Freeman parents and guardians. Dr. Bitsko is a local Licensed Clinical Psychologist, the Founder and Director of Summit Emotional Health, and a Freeman parent. This forum will be facilitated by Janet Smith, Director of School Counseling.

During the fall mental health forum, we will be discussing stress management. This event is limited to 100 participants. Click here to register.

Scholarship Newletter

Parents, please be aware that the scholarship newsletter is available to all seniors. New information is posted every two weeks. You can access the scholarship newsletter on All Things DSF: https://www.atdsf.com/scholarship-info

New Virtual Bell Schedule

(posted 9/28)

-Synchronous School Day ending at 2:55

-Freeman Focus moved to the morning

-Effective Tuesday, 9/29

After listening to all the groups that we serve (students, families, teachers), including many of you who have voiced a concern about the length of the school day to me and other school officials, we learned last night that HCPS is shortening the virtual school day for secondary students. For DSF, that means the synchronous school day will dismiss at 2:55, providing more time for students to complete homework and other asynchronous work and providing our teachers time to plan engaging lessons, meet with students virtually and provide meaningful feedback. This new schedule will go into effect on Tuesday 9/29.

Our new bell schedule, effective Tuesday, 9/29 is linked here and above:

UPDATED DSF VIRTUAL BELL SCHEDULE

Information We've Previously Posted:

The information below had been posted in weeks prior, but is still relevant and important. Click the topic to read the collapsed text below it.

Freeman Theatre Guild Fundraiser

DSF's Theater Boosters organization is conducting a fundraiser for Freeman Theatre Sweatshirts. Please complete this form if you would like to purchase a sweatshirt.

Freeman Theatre Spiritwear

Virtual College Tours

The Virginia Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Counselors (VACRAO) is proud to present a Virtual College Exploration program, for all Virginia students, September 14-November 5.

The eight-week program consists of hundreds of opportunities for students to learn about the college search process and about many different colleges through panel presentations and weekly Virtual College Fairs. To learn more, visit https://www.strivescan.com/virginia/

GRASP

Our school has an Advisor from GRASP to support students and families through the college financial aid process, including the FAFSA and searching for scholarships. Our GRASP Advisor is Janet Andrews. You can reach Janet by calling or texting 804 233 0854 or via freeman@grasp4va.org. Virtual appointments are available!

Virtual Attendance

Students are expected to attend aevery class everyday, and teachers will be taking attendance. If your student is unable attend a specific class or needs to be absent for the day, please call the attendance office and notify the teacher(s) for how the student can complete assignments to stay on track.

Please see these Frequently Asked Questions about attendance:

What are the attendance policies for virtual learning?

There is information in HCPS Handbook for Students and Parents. Students should attend all of the virtual class meetings each day. If students have extenuating circumstances, there will be flexibility and ways that students can engage in instruction asynchronously, but students are expected to be in online classes. As those situations arise, please contact the school.

Will the teachers sessions for the online classroom be recorded and the kids to access later?

Yes. Beginning on September 21st.

What if the internet at home is not working; will a student be penalized for not attending the online class?

No.

What if a student has an appointment and needs an early dismissal?

The student will communicate this information with their teacher ahead of time. There is no other reporting procedure for early dismissals.

Meals Services at Freeman

Distribution of free meals will take place at Freeman starting on Tuesday, September 8, 2020 on the bus ramp side of the building.

Monday through Thursday (Friday meals are distributed on Thursdays.)
7-9 a.m.: Hot breakfasts (when available) and cold lunches.
11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.: Hot lunches as well as cold breakfasts for the next day.

Fee Payment

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, HCPS is waiving the laptop fee ($25), the science fee ($5) and the P.E. fee ($4). Some other classes (such as some of our Career and Technical Education options for limited in-person learning) may still require a fee.

- Online School Payments
  - - If you haven’t used Online School Payments before, you’ll need to set up an account.
    - There is a 4% fee to pay with a credit card, which pays for the vendor’s costs. If you prefer to pay by check, please mail a check to your school with a copy of the obligation list from the online payment system highlighting the fees being paid.
    - Here is a video about online school payments.
- If you do not want to pay online, you will need to mail a check to

Freeman High School

8701 Three Chopt Rd

Henrico, VA 23229

Little Known Secrets about Paying for College

(A program from School Counseling)

Each year our College Funding Coach Team partners with Freeman’s PTSA to teach our free workshop called “Little-Known Secrets of Paying for College”. Parents who have attended our workshop in the past have expressed how useful and invaluable the information we share is, so we’ve always made sure to include Freeman on our list of schools we visit.

Due to COVID, we have been teaching this workshop via ZOOM since March! On Tuesday, October 20^th at 6:30pm we will be streaming our free workshop as a webinar. The webinar will run approximately 1 hour. In order to attend the workshop all you need to do is register using this link!

DONATE to the Freeman Fund (Our only academic fundraiser)

Each year, Freeman’s PTSA relies on the Freeman Fund to pay for programs, teacher supplies and other activities that benefit each child and build a strong Freeman community. In previous years, the fund has provided items like classroom sets of books, microphones, microscopes and other teacher needs that extend beyond their budgets; events like We the People and All-Star Prom; and programs like Teacher Appreciation as well as the Angel Fund, which helps students and families in need. As we start the school year virtually, we anticipate the fund will help with unexpected expenses that arise from virtual learning. Even now, teachers are thinking about and anticipating needs for supplies and support that students may not have access to at home. We hope the Freeman Fund will be able to help with those efforts right out of the gate.

These funds are provided solely through the generosity of donations from the Freeman community. Please visit freemanptsa.org and click on “Donate to the Freeman Fund” to learn more. On behalf of the DSF PTSA, thank you!

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