From the Principal's Desk

Greetings FWAFA Family,

The countdown is on! One week to the start of school! Teachers came back last Thursday, and we are all super excited to welcome our students back to school for the 21-22 school year - a year that promises to the best one yet!

Attached to the JupiterEd email is the TCA+A Health Guidelines for the 21-22 school year. It is our aim to keep everyone as safe and healthy as possible. We will do that through 4 Core Health Practices. These include: daily symptom screening of students and staff, frequently washing and disinfecting hands, cleaning high touch areas throughout the day, and recommending (but not requiring) the use of face coverings. We want to keep everyone informed as well and will send notification letters to families and staff if we have a positive case and will follow up with contact tracing. You can read more about our procedures for close contact and contact tracing in the health guidelines.

Secondly, I want to invite new and returning students to our Back to School Night on Thursday, August 12. The elementary Back to School Night is from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. and the MS/HS Back to School Night is from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. Although elementary academic teachers will be in their classrooms so that students have a recognizable face on the first day of school, this is not our Meet the Teacher night and will not be a time for an in-depth discussion about teaching and learning. Back to School Night is designed to give time to completing all of the last minute details that need to be done prior to school starting for a successful first day of school. For example, you can drop off your school supplies in the auditorium, pick up your schedule, request a locker if you are in middle or high school, get a planner, get help registering in Parent Portal Ascender, set up a lunch account, drop off medical and medicine forms with the nurse, sign Media Release and Transportation forms, etc. You can also visit the PTSO Uniform Resale from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. that evening and stock up on some gently used uniforms.

Our official Meet the Teacher Night will be on Thursday, August 26. Families of elementary students will be able to meet both their fine arts and academic teachers that evening. Families of middle school and high school students will follow their student's schedules to meet teachers class by class and hear what is in store for students this year. I will have more details about the Meet the Teacher Night in next week's newsletter.

And, join us Tuesday evening for the PTSO Ice Cream Social and Mixer. It is not to be missed!

Creatively yours,

Dr. Jackson

Be sure to note that the FWAFA parking lot moves from the north end of the building to the south end of the building. The traffic all flows one way to the south. Do not drop your student off in the parking lot and have them walk across traffic. Please drop off at one of the entrances. At morning arrival, be ready to hop out of the car with all of your school items quickly to keep the line moving. And, at afternoon dismissal be ready to hop in the car and go. It is imperative that we keep traffic moving safely and do not back up traffic and cars on Hulen street.

We are opening the building 10 minutes earlier this year to cut down on the number of chronic tardies that we had last year. We all commute to this school, so please set your alarms and adjust your schedules so that you are not late. We start assembly promptly at 8:00 a.m. If you are dropping off your student after 8:00 a.m. - that means at 8:01 a.m., you need to come around to the front and escort your student to get a tardy pass. Starting on time is of utmost importance. Please help us in this important endeavor.

Junior Company - open to Grades 4-6, audition is Thursday, August 19, 2021, 4:00-5:30 p.m.

Junior Company rehearses weekly on Wednesdays from 4:00-5:00 p.m.

Company II - open to grades 7-12, audition is Friday, August 20, 2021, 4:00-5:30 p.m.
Company II rehearses weekly on Thursdays from 4:00-5:30 p.m.

Auditions take place on the FWAFA stage. Dancers should wear dance attire and bring ballet and jazz shoes. Dancers will be taught movement combinations at the audition. Dance Company Members perform with Academy Dance Company and Academy Dance Company Trainees in their 2 major productions per school year.

More detailed fliers will be available at Back to School Night and sent home over email during the first week of school.

We are diligently working on becoming a 1 to 1 device school for students in grades 5-12; however, we are not there yet. Our goal for the 2021-2022 school is to be a "Bring Your Own Device" campus in grades 5 to 12. This means that students may either bring a laptop/Chromebook/iPad to school each day to work on technology integrated assignments and Google Classroom or check out a device from the school. We need to ensure that we have enough devices for checkout for those students who may need one. Please complete this short Technology Needs Assessment Survey to help with our planning purposes.

PTSO invites all new and returning FWAFA students and families to the Annual Ice Cream Social on Tuesday, August 10, 6:00 p.m.- 7:30 p.m. on the green space north of the building.

This is a great time for new students/families to meet new and returning FWAFA families.

Veteran FWAFA families we want to see you too. Come reconnect with familiar faces and help welcome our new families.

Please click the link to RSVP so we have enough ice cream to serve everyone.

https://forms.gle/V5mWtzu1ESWEcG6F6

PTSO will have the link to the membership form and sign up at the Ice Cream Social and Back to School Night.

Please join us for Back to School Night on August 12. You will be able to pick up your schedule, purchase a planner and yard sign from Thespians, and purchase spirit and outerwear from the Senior Class.

Grades 3-6 (Elementary) students and families are invited to tour the building and meet academic teachers from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.

Grades 7-12 (MS/HS) students and families are invited to tour the building from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

PTSO Uniform Resale from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Looking forward to seeing everyone there!

In lieu of planners for grades 6-12 and because we are using Google Classroom, FWAFA Thespians are excited to bring you a digital event calendar for all of FWAFA holidays, testing dates, and performance events.

For just $3.00, you can import the calendar into your Google Suite!

OR - We will have a PDF version if you prefer a paper version (which you will be able to print out).

We will sell the calendar on Back to School Night on August 12.

Please bring cash. At that time, we will take your email address and send the link!

OR - If you would like to pay online, please click here:
www.artsacademics.org/21-22-plannerspayment/

There will be a $1.00 convenience fee included in the cost of the calendar.

Due to the amount of interest we have had in the Clayton After School Program, we are going to once again this year use the Texas School of the Arts to house the afterschool program. To reserve your place in the program, please go to www.claytonyouth.org and register for after school programming at TeSA. We will transport FWAFA students to TeSA after school and parents will pick up students from TeSA in the afternoons.

If FWAFA is not part of your student's school journey next year, please contact our Registrar Kim Jennings at kimberly.jennings@fwafa.org by Monday, July 26 to withdraw from the school.

Withdrawing will give you the paperwork that you need to enroll your student in a new school and will give another student on our waitlist an opportunity to join us.

We wish your student all the best in his or her new adventure and thank you dearly for allowing us to serve your student while they were here. It is our greatest honor.

The American Rescue Plan (ARP) Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund (ESSER III) will provide approximately $316,349 to the Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts over the next three years. In order to access the funds, FWAFA must submit a plan for use of the funds to the Texas Education Agency with our grant application.

The Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts is seeking input from stakeholders as we develop our plan. Your feedback and input are incredibly valuable and will help inform our plan.

Responses to this survey will be reviewed for inclusion into FWAFA’s ESSER III plan.

FWAFA’s annual Student Choreography Concert will be performed and filmed onstage in the FWAFA auditorium in September of 2021.

Student Directors and Faculty Sponsors will film and edit these student-choreographed works for a world premiere online release on Friday, September 24!

This concert will be available to view online by donation/pay-what-you-can for a limited time.

We are so excited to share this student-produced concert with friends, family, and audience members watching from anywhere through this online format.

Dancers and Choreographers that would like to take part in this concert will need to audition their works.

Please see audition details at the link below:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Vn6gwkSkw294ajpkyUGdJMG4sdd6GdJVSm87NLFpYG8/edit?usp=sharing

Help raise funds for our school. When a shopper makes purchases at smile.amazon.com with Texas Center for Arts+ Academics selected as their chosen charity, we raise money for our students.

Be sure to check out the Summer Reading assignments. Click here to check it out.

If you are in grades 7-12 and would like to request a locker, please complete this form.

Public Notice of Intent to Apply

Fort Worth Academy of Fine Arts intends to apply for federal grant funding for the 2021-2022 school year for the following grant programs:

● Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
● Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA)
● 2020-2023 ARP ESSER III Federal Grant Application
● 2020-2022 CRRSA ESSER II Federal Grant Application

FWAFA may apply for additional federal funding opportunities as they become available. If you have questions regarding this Public Notice of Intent to Apply please contact Anika Perkins at anika.perkins@artsacademics.org

This is to notify parents that the Free and Reduced Lunch Program has been suspended for the 2021-2022 school year. School lunches cost $3.00 for elementary students and $3.50 for middle and high school students.

Ascender Parent Portal

Need to submit an attendance note?

attendance@fwafa.org

TCA+A Covid-19 Information Center

Tuesday, August 10 - PTSO Ice Cream Social

Thursday, August 12 - Back to School Night (Elementary at 5:30 p.m.; Secondary at 7:00 p.m.); PTSO Uniform Resale from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Monday, August 16 - First Day of School; Doors open at 7:20 a.m. Dismissal for 3rd and 4th grade is at 3:30 p.m. Dismissal for grades 5-12 is 3:45 p.m.

Monday, August 23 - Howdy Week Starts

Wednesday, August 25 - Student Choreography Concert & Senior Solo Exhibition Auditions

Thursday, August 26 - Meet the Teacher Night

July 16