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October 3, 2025
Greetings, Panther Families:
I want to take a moment to commend our students for doing an excellent job with this morning’s Open-Gate rollout! As students become more familiar with the process, it will continue to run even more smoothly and efficiently.
This week, teachers distributed progress reports. If you did not receive one, please reach out directly to your child’s teacher. Because we are partners in your child’s success, grades should never come as a surprise at the end of the marking period.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped make Custodian Appreciation Week so special. Our custodians truly feel valued and celebrated—and that makes a difference.
Finally, I look forward to seeing you at our PTA meeting on Monday, October 6, 2025, at 7 p.m. in the library. And if we don’t connect then, I hope to see you at South Lakes High School’s Homecoming Parade and football game on Friday evening, October 10, 2025!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Principal Mizell
 IMPORTANT DATES
PTA Meeting: Monday, October 6, 2025
No School/Student Holiday: October 13, 2025
Unity Day- Wear Orange: Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Red Ribbon Week- Life is a Puzzle, Solve it Drug Free: Monday, October 27-Friday, October 31
Picture Day: Wednesday, October 29 and Thursday, October 30 - during PE class
Fall Festival 2025: Wednesday, October 29, 2025
End of 1st Quarter: Friday, October 31, 2025
1st Quarter Honor Roll Celebration: Friday, November 21, 2025
Attendance Reminder: Every Day Is a Stepping Stone to Success!
Attendance is an important life skill that will help your child later in life. It’s a good habit to build now to help them graduate from college on time and routinely report to work on time once they have a career. Please take a look at the FCPS Calendar. Try to schedule any trips or family events on weekends and school holidays. Every day of learning is a day toward success. Keep in mind that absences add up quickly. Students who are absent 10% of the school year (or just two days per month) are considered “chronically absent.”
When possible, schedule appointments for your child outside of school hours. If your child needs to miss school because of an illness or appointment, you must report the absence to our school. There are three ways to report absences:
- Absence/Tardy Phone Line: 703-715-3636.
- Absent/Tardy Email: HughesMiddle.Attendance@fcps.edu.
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Report a full day absence online via ParentVUE.
Visit FCPS’ Attendance webpage for resources on attendance.
Social-Emotional Learning with Second Step
This week’s lesson focused on a third factor that affects motivation—cost. Your child learned about the three components of cost and how weighing these costs influences their motivation to complete a task.
Engage at home: Share a time when you had to decide whether something was worth the effort, time, or risk. Ask your child about a time they had to weigh the costs of doing something and whether they decided to do it or not.
AAP Fall Screening
Students who are new to FCPS as of January 1, 2025 may go through Fall screening for full-time AAP services. Referrals are due no later than October 15, 2025. Please contact your school's AART, Ashley Martin, at ammartin@fcps.edu for more information.
Panthers Reading during FLEX
Our LHMS students have time each week during Flex for independent reading. Reading books they choose has countless benefits for students’ academic success, wellness, and connections to others. Please support Read & Recharge time by making sure that your student has a print book or magazine in their backpack each day; they can bring one from home or can borrow one from our school library at any time. Ask your student what they’re reading!
Fall Festival
The Langston Hughes Student Council is getting ready to celebrate our 3rd annual Fall Festival on Wednesday, October 29, 2025, and we cannot wait to see you there! Get ready for an evening packed with fun, games, prizes, food, Trunk or Treating, costume contests and time with our Panther family.
Check out our Amazon Fall Festival Wishlist to help make our evening a celebration to remember! Amazon wish list
If your family or business would like to sign up to host a trunk for Trunk or Treating, please fill out the form provided in the link: Trunk or Treat
Yearbook Pictures
If you want your child to appear in the yearbook, please make sure you are reminding them about picture days on October 29 and 30 during PE classes. There will be a make-up day on December 2, 2025. If your child is absent on picture day, then they need to report to get their photo taken on the make-up day in order to have their picture in our yearbook. Elementary school photos do not transfer over like you may see in SIS/ParentVUE. If they do not take a picture, their picture and name will not be in the yearbook.
Middle school Sports update from the Office of Student Activities and Athletics
We wanted to provide an update about middle school interscholastic sports. We realize many of our students were excited about the possibility of new sports (basketball, for example) starting this school year. The FCPS Office of Student Activities and Athletics has been working with our middle school afterschool specialists on plans to expand middle school sports beyond cross country and track. We/They included basketball on the fall sports registration link with the hopes that the details would be worked out in time to have an interscholastic schedule this fall. Unfortunately there are some elements of expansion that have not been resolved and we will not have an interscholastic basketball program this fall. We know that is disappointing and we will instead provide a robust intramural basketball program this fall and winter, while we work out the details to bring interscholastic basketball (and other sports!) to all FCPS middle schools.
After-School Procedures: What to Expect
Please make sure you know if and where your student plans to be after school. If your student stays after school, here’s what you and your student can expect:
- At dismissal, students report directly to the cafeteria.
- They find their club’s table, sit down, and sign in using their computer (the sign-in link is on the Student All Schoology page).
- Students locate their name on the list (alphabetical by grade, then by club session) and submit the form.
- After signing in, they wait for their club sponsor or teacher to pick them up.
- The first session ends at 3:30 PM. Students return to the cafeteria for a snack.
- After snack, students either go to a second session or prepare to go home.
- At 4:30 PM, all students return to the cafeteria to wait for late buses or exit the building.
Students can find their late bus information in StudentVUE. The process for finding this information can be found on the After-School Schedule link.
Thank you for supporting your student’s participation in our after-school programs! If you have any questions, please contact our after-school specialist, Mr. Kyle, at FMKyle@fcps.edu.
After-School Clubs Schedule: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fkDtOVASo9Dvoamwm4h56r84B5gWzoR6dX6iawunMiU/edit?usp=sharing
PTA Meetings for the 2025-26 school year!
Mark your calendars now: Oct 6, Nov 10, Dec 8, Jan 12, Feb 2, Mar 2, Apr 13, May 4, June 1.
All meetings are at 7:00 p.m. in our LHMS Library unless otherwise indicated.
 Pre-Order Here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe_-3m4hZYzDJ-fYnbuviC9RBuWQgN_6DK8xuvmvE4LbcCthQ/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=107935403404087634581
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