The FAST Flyer

Think back to your time in school… What do you remember? Personally I don’t remember any specific lessons or class assignments. What I do remember is those times I decorated our class hallway, dressed up and giggled with friends during spirit week, and participated in student council school clean up events. I remember having pride in MY school. I had school spirit. Here at FAST we want to foster the same feeling of school spirit and school pride in our students. FAST is a great place to learn but it’s also a great community. We are lucky to have such an active PTO that puts on amazing events like Thursday’s Trunk or Treat which give our students and families a chance to come together and celebrate. I encourage you to come to their next event, Family Book Fair Night.

Next week we will celebrate Red Ribbon Week. This week is the nation's largest and longest running drug prevention campaign and also a time for students to dress up and create those memories so many of us treasure. I look forward to seeing all the crazy socks, college t-shirt, pajamas, and smiles next week. This is an opportunity for your child to build a positive connection with our school community so I encourage you to encourage them to participate.

On the theme of school pride I need to bring up uniforms (collective sigh from everyone). By wearing a neat and tidy uniform (no logo hoodies middle school parents) students are able to outwardly demonstrate their pride in the place they spend the majority of their days and help to develop a sense of unity. They allow for students to stay focused on their education, not their clothes. School uniforms help to create a level playing field among students, reducing bullying and peer pressure.

Families, I need your help with uniform compliance. Please make sure your students are prepared to learn with a neat and tidy FAST uniform. I know that with the weather getting colder there are often questions about uniforms and warmth. Students may wear a long sleeve shirt beneath their uniform top. We have a plethora of FAST fleeces laying around the school, so check the lost and found for your child’s. To make our middle school students happy and warm we have the FAST hoodie.

Sincerely,

Mary Miller

Interim Principal

Fulton Academy of Science & Technology

Next week is Red Ribbon Week. Students are invited to participate in spirit activities listed below as we encourage them to live a drug free life.

The FAST Astros Girls Volleyball team competed in their first game this week with an impressive performance. The Astros won the first game at 33-31 then fell to the Huskies 23-25 and 7-15 to lose the match. We are looking forward to a fantastic season for these girls. Shout out to Denver Woods as the game MVP!

The FAST Governing Board is planning to host a fireside chat on October 25 at 6pm in the Innovation Hall at FAST to talk about recent changes at the school and answer any questions you may have. This meeting will also be broadcast on Zoom

We are so excited to be bringing back the No Place for Hate Committee this year. We will hold the first meeting on Tuesday at 7:10am in the Innovation Hall for students who want to participate. For those of you who are not familiar with it, NPFH is a student-led club that aims to proactively address bias and bullying. With the diverse demographics at FAST, this program is very impactful and meaningful for our students.

The annual Scholastic Book Fair is coming! Mark your calendar for the week of October 31-November 4. Students will have an opportunity to shop during school and we are thrilled to bring back Family Night! Parents are invited to join their students from 5pm-7pm on Thursday Nov. 3 to shop the book fair in person.

We strongly encourage you to set up an eWallet for your student to shop. Scholastic eWallets are easy to set up and allow students to shop the fair during the school day without having to carry cash. You can set up an eWallet any time until the book fair on the FAST Scholastic web page at: https://www.scholastic.com/bf/FAST

If you have some time to help, we will need lots of volunteers to help with the fair.

Parents are invited to come to school for our annual costume parade on Monday, October 31 at 10am. The parade will feature students in grades K-5 and will also be livestreamed on Facebook.

Students in all grades are encouraged to dress in a STEM related costume or as their favorite book character to celebrate the kick off of the book fair. Let’s see how creative our kids can get.

Prizes will be awarded for Best Overall, Best STEM Costume, Best Book Costume, Most Creative, Best Homemade Costume, and Funniest.

Makeup picture day is scheduled for November 8. If your child did not get their picture taken on picture day, they can have their picture taken then.

• If you pre-paid for individual pictures and your student did not get their picture taken, please contact Lifetouch directly to have your money refunded/reapplied to makeup day.

• If you pre-paid for individual pictures that you received and are not happy with them, please send them back with your student on make up day (November 8). They will need to give the package to the photographer when they have their new portrait done.

• If you did not order pictures and would like to, please use the access code on the proofs you received to order through Lifetouch.com.

• If you did not order a group class picture and would like to, you will need to mail the order form that was sent home with check or money order to the following address: Lifetouch, 2300 W Fourth St, Ontario, OH 44906.

The Fulton County Technology Competition is coming in December. FAST has a history of great representation and impressive results in this annual competition and we can’t wait to see how our students represent us this year. Please read through the information below for registration and participation.

• All students interested in participating in the FCS Student Technology Competition need to complete the initial registration form and copyright form. They will need to drop these off in Innovation Hall for Ms. Sawhney as soon as possible.

• Students will be judged by a panel in their respective category to determine if they will move forward to the district competition.

• Only 1 project per category per grade level band is eligible to move forward.

• The list of categories for the competition is located here.

• Update for this school year: Students may compete in the programming challenge AND another category since they are no longer on the same date.

We are looking forward to holding the FAST Tech Fair on Thursday, December 1 when parents and students will be able to see all of the projects submitted.

The team at Yay Lunch is taking your feedback about pricing to heart and have been working with their food partners to offer new, lower prices on our menu. Take a look at a few of the new, lower prices now available on your Lunch Calendar

Orders for YAY Lunch must be placed by noon on Sunday for the following week. Please be sure to add your student's correct grade and homeroom teacher when placing your order to ensure proper distribution.

Did you find this email in your spam folder? Do you think you’re missing information from school? It is important that we be able to contact you. Please be sure we have current/accurate contact information on file. Your contact information must be updated in Infinite Campus. All parents should have access to Infinite Campus as this is the only place you will be able to see student report cards and Milestones results. If our emails are going to your spam folder, please follow the steps below.

If you are a Gmail user, you may want to whitelist FAST to prevent emails from going to your spam folder. Go to gmail in the desktop browser and select "Settings".

Go to the "Filters and Blocked Addresses" tab.

Click "Create a new filter".

In the "From" field, put "@fastk8.org", without the quotes.

Click "Create filter".

Check "Never send it to Spam".

Click "Create filter".

If you are not getting emails from the PTO -- we send a weekly FAST Blast -- please log in to Membership toolkit and confirm your email is up to date!

Our FBI crew is taking over morning carpool on Monday, November 14th and December 12th. Help us give our teachers a little extra time in the classroom to prepare for the day!

It was too dark for carpool photos, but the FBI dads were hard at work Monday, October 17th! Thank you to all the dads that helped out with carpool and putting together these PE items for our FAST students to enjoy!

Let us know if you can help so we can give the teacher's advance notice of their extra planning time! Sign up here: Nov FBI Carpool TakeOver! and Dec FBI Carpool TakeOver!

PTO will hold a Used Uniform sale in conjunction with the Book Fair Family Night on Thursday, Nov. 3 from 5-7pm. Another chance to get those long sleeves!

Oct. 24-28: Red Ribbon Week

Oct. 25: Fireside Chat with Governing Board

Oct. 31: Costume parade

Oct. 31- Nov.4: Scholastic Book Fair

Nov. 8: Picture Retake Day

Nov. 18-27: Thanksgiving Break

Dec. 1: Tech Fair at FAST

A printable version of the school calendar can be found HERE

To keep up to date with the most recent information available from our district offices, please click on the image below.

Email: info@fastk8.org
Website: www.fastk8.org
Location: 11365 Crabapple Road, Roswell, GA, USA
Phone: 678-321-1100
Facebook: facebook.com/FASTK8.School/
Twitter: @fastk8charter

The FAST Flyer is the electronic newsletter at FAST. Feedback is always welcome. If you have any questions, please call the school (678-321-1100) or email the FAST Communications Director at marie.emerson@fastk8.org.