From the Principal's Desk

Greetings FWAFA Family,

Just wanted to send a quick weekend edition of the Principal newsletter to you in anticipation of a smooth first day of school on Monday. Please see the reminders below and hope you are having a good weekend!

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. You can drop off as early as 7:20 a.m. in the back of the building by the vending machines. You can drop off at 7:30 a.m. in the front of the school near the lobby. The south side entrance for elementary students will open at 7:45 a.m.

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.

Go slow on Hulen! Overton Park has lots of walkers to school. Be mindful and safe.

You may be wondering.... where do I go on the first day of school? Here is the game plan at FWAFA on the first day.

Grades 3-6: If you arrive to school between 7:20 a.m. and 7:30 a.m., you will enter through the back doors by the vending machines and report to the cafeteria. If you arrive between 7:30 a.m. and 7:45 a.m., you can enter through the back doors or the front doors and report to the cafeteria. If you arrive at 7:45 a.m. or later, you may enter through the southside elementary doors and report to class.

We will have rosters of homeroom classes posted in the lobby, in the cafeteria, on the vending machines, in the elementary hallway, and each homeroom teacher's room. When you are released from the cafeteria at 7:45 a.m., you will report to your homeroom teacher's classroom.

Elementary parents are welcome to walk their students to their homeroom on the first day of school at 7:45 a.m. We ask that you please exit the building no later than 8:10 a.m. so that we can start the instructional day. After the first day, we have a drop (off) and go policy. :-)

Grades 7-12: If you arrive to school between 7:20 a.m. and 7:30 a.m., you will enter through the back doors by the vending machines and report to the auditorium unless you need to eat breakfast. If you arrive at 7:30 a.m. or later, you can enter through either the front lobby doors or the back vending machine doors and report to the auditorium.

We will be distributing new schedules on colored paper to middle school and high school students in the auditorium starting at 7:20 a.m. Be sure to pick up a new schedule in the morning even if you picked up your schedule on Back-to-School Night. It might be a little different. After you have picked up your schedules, you will remain in the auditorium until 7:45 a.m. and then report to your first period class. On Mondays, you will go to all 8 classes.

We will not have an assembly the first week of school.

If you have questions or feel a little lost, we will have lots of teachers and helpers in the hallways to help direct you. Just ask!

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.

We are getting reports that Flynn O'Hara is a little backed up with uniform orders. If that is the case for you, you can wear a white or blue oxford shirt (either long sleeve or short sleeve) and khaki uniform bottoms (skirt, pants, or shorts). You can get these items from any store that sells uniforms like Wal-Mart, Target, Old Navy, and Academy. Outwear must be logoed but luckily it's too hot for that right now. Be sure to order your spirit shirt online on our website.

Ms. Cheryl DeMeyere, our Cafeteria Manager, reports that all of the lunch accounts have been fixed so everyone should have a working login who received one at Back to School night.

If there is still a problem, please notify cheryl.demeyere@fwafa.org.

This message came from Ms. VanDyck in a Jupiter Ed email on Monday, August 9.

This is the message you have been anxiously awaiting... I am pleased to share with you the winning design for the FWAFA 2021/2022 Spirit Wear Shirts designed by 2022 Senior, I'Yanna Jackson!!

Attached to the August 9 Jupiter Ed email are the designs for this year's Spirit Shirts, FWAFA's approved outerwear designs, and the order form. If you would like to place your order online paying with a credit or debit card, visit www.artsacademics.org/spirit-wear-order-form/. A small service charge will be added to all online orders. If you would rather pay with cash or check (made out to TCAA), you can complete the attached order form and mail it or drop it off at school. All orders must be placed by Friday, September 3rd.

Be sure you order one of this year's shirts so that your student can wear jeans and this year's shirt EVERY Friday AND be a part of this year’s big “22” group yearbook photo. All students and staff that purchase a spirit shirt will be invited to participate in our traditional yearbook photo on the greenspace celebrating this year’s Seniors.

Don't forget to order outerwear too for those chilly classrooms!! Long sleeve shirts and outerwear orders will be delivered towards the end of September or early October.

All profits from Spirit Wear sales go to support your 2022 Seniors. Thank you so much for being a part of making their last year at FWAFA a year to remember!!

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 evening.

If you are in grades 7-12 and would like to request a locker, please complete this form. We will email you back with your locker number and combination.

If your schedule has an error on it such as you are in the same class twice or you are in a class that you have already taken, you may request a schedule change using this form:

Schedule Change Form: forms.gle/kgzLVsS7BPEahSMKA

Ms. VanDyck will email you back with your updated schedule if the request is approved.

Ascender Parent Portal

Need to submit an attendance note?

attendance@fwafa.org

TCA+A Covid-19 Information Center

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