The Connection

While no one likes summer ending, teens and teachers of the McLean community have been buzzing with excitement over the start of the upcoming school year. With several county-wide changes made by the Fairfax County School Board, McLean middle and high schools are looking forward to welcoming their students and staff to start a new year.

Principal Arlene Randall and Assistant Principals Frank Stevens and Cherith Pierson of Cooper Middle School are prepared to start a new and improved school year. This year, Cooper will try out two new programs; “CELL” and “CREATE.” “CELL,” an acronym for “Cooper Empowering Lifelong Learning,” will occur every day during the middle school’s intervention period until January and will be spread out throughout the remainder of the year. “During this time, students will focus on study and organizational skills, along with goal setting,” Randall said. “With ‘CREATE,’ students will be able to choose from a list of categories to design an interdisciplinary project that they will construct a proposal for, work on, and display at a festival in April.” Some examples of “CREATE” projects include Rube Goldberg machines, skits, etc. “We really want to stress creative thinking here at Cooper. Middle school students spend so much time focused on technology so we think it’s important for them to get away from that a bit and instead channel their creativity,” said Pierson. “We want our students to go above and beyond by doing ordinary things extraordinarily.” The Cooper Middle School administration is eager to welcome their students so that they can achieve these goals for the upcoming school year.

THIS YEAR, Marshall High School welcomes its new principal, Jeff Litz, along with new additions constructed in the school’s $55 million renovation. “Over the summer, Marshall’s biggest focus has been renovating. Over the school year, our focus will be to utilize our new building to its greatest potential,” Litz said. “The Davis Center is the last instructional place to be completed and we expect to have all furniture moved in very soon. The whole project is to be completed by Nov. 14.” The high school looks forward to hosting a grand opening in June for the Marshall community to celebrate the new state-of-the-art building. With 1,850 students enrolled at Marshall this year, the administration hopes to maintain their “small school, big heart” motto. “Any school’s biggest challenge is providing the highest quality of education for every student,” Assistant Principal Dan Daus said. “Some students advocate very well for themselves while others don’t, so that’s where we come in. We want to motivate kids without pushing them too hard.” One program that is highly valued by the students of Marshall High School is ethics day. “At the end of the year, seniors are surveyed about their likes and dislikes for the school year. Ethics day was one of the seniors’ favorite experiences,” said Litz. “We’ve made ethics day really relevant for our students in working with a cyber ethics module and dealing with social media issues. Unfortunately, this is something students and administrators have to deal with a lot but this program really gave our seniors an opportunity to work like adults.”

MCLEAN HIGH SCHOOL opened its doors for new and returning students with a “Highlander Kickoff” on Aug. 26. While McLean will not be undergoing any major changes this school year, it will have some new staff and programs. “This year we’ll welcome 12 new staff members throughout our departments,” said Assistant Principal Jamie Lane. “We’re also going to have a ‘System of Support Advisor’ who will work with our administration in order to reduce the number of out-of-school suspensions. Additionally, we plan on having our first ‘Junior Focus Day’ on Feb. 4, where our juniors will explore several post-high school options.” The school will also be affected by changes in the calendar made by the county school board. “Teachers are going to have much more time for grading and planning with the implementation of four strategic planning days throughout the year. In addition to teacher work days, these days will occur the day before each quarter ends and students will be released 2 hours early,” said Principal Ellen Reilly. “We think that these days will allow everyone to step back and breath. We want our students to be able to look back on their high school years. Obviously we want our students to strive for academic success and challenge themselves, but we also want them to have fun.” McLean plans on achieving this balance by offering yoga during morning study hall also known as “Highlander Time.” Additionally, the high school will be participating in the currently trending Ice Bucket Challenge to raise awareness for ALS. “After the ‘Highlander Kick-Off,’ students will get their ice buckets filled, donate money if they choose to and then at 6:30, we’ll video-tape the school-wide ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. We’ll be nominating Marshall, Langley, and Madison High School for the challenge.”