|
English | Español | አማርኛ | 中文 | 한국어 | Tiếng Việt | العربية | فارسی | اردو
Dear Freedom Hill Families,
We hope you had a great week! It was a bit of a silly one on the Hill, with our staff surprising students each day as part of our "Underground Spirit Week". We hope your students came home with stories about their teachers drinking from ridiculous vessels or wearing crowns or funny shoes throughout the day. We were also grateful for everyone's support with our first Early Release Wednesday. We know our teachers were thankful for the opportunity to plan collaboratively with the few hours of extra time.
We are also thankful for everyone's support with our bus routes this year. Several routes have had to be adjusted by our Transportation Office due to student enrollment. Now that this is finished, we are moving forward this week with distributing the new student ID cards. This will allow our bus riders to "tap on" to the bus each day. There is a helpful informational video below that explains the changes. You can expect your bus rider to come home this week with their ID card attached to their backpack. Please keep is there for the remainder of the year. Students who do not ride the bus will not receive an ID.
Lastly, we have some exciting fall events approaching. Please see our updates below for news about Hallowingo and the Freedom Hill 5K! We hope you're able to join us for both of these great community events.
Let's make it a great week!
In partnership,
Dr. Nicholas Zapadka, Principal
Mr. Tim Scesney, Assistant Principal
Ms. Holly Sims, Assistant Principal
2026-27 FCPS School Calendar
Breakfast/Lunch Menus
"This is Us" Staff Bio Slides
-
October 12 - Teacher Work Day, Indigenous Peoples' Day
-
October 19 - 23 - Digital Citizenship & Harvest Spirit Week
-
October 20 - Full-Time AAP Information Night, 6PM
-
October 21 - Deadline to preorder Hallowingo pizza and Bingo cards (preorder here)
-
October 22 - Fall School Picture Day
-
October 23 - PTA Hallowingo, 6-8PM, Cafeteria
-
October 25 - Freedom Hill 5K, 9AM
Join us for a 5K or Fun Run or BOTH!
Sunday, October 25, 2026
Stretching and Safety Brief: 8:50am
1 Mile Fun Run: 9:00am
5K: 9:20am
Registration is $25 and includes a t-shirt, medal, and snacks after the race. Registration opens September 8th and closes on October 9th to guarantee an event t-shirt.
Many incredible professional educators choose to spend their days at Freedom Hill. For those who would like to learn more about them, many have contributed to our "This is Us" staff slides, which can be viewed at this link. You can expect to learn some interesting things about our staff, and you'll also be able to see their favorite drink, snack, and gift card in case you'd like to appreciate them this year for their work with your child(ren). This link will be permanently hosted under the "Upcoming Dates" section this year.
 Your voice matters, and Dr. Reid wants to hear from you! At FCPS, parents are partners, working with us to set our students up for long-term success at school and in life.
Join us for a series of Community Conversations that will be held across the school division. Share your thoughts with Dr. Reid and ask her questions. Click on the date to register for any of the following events:
-
Monday, October 19, at 6:30 p.m., at Spring Hill Elementary School
-
Monday, October 26, at 6:30 p.m., at Beech Tree Elementary School
-
Thursday, October 29, at 6:30 p.m., at North Springfield Elementary School
-
Friday, November 13, at 6:30 p.m., at Powell Elementary School
Registration is not required, but it helps with planning. Childcare and interpretation services will be provided. Events are one hour long and open to all. Find out about other opportunities to connect with Dr. Reid.
Please consider donating paper towels to school. We use these to clean the cafeteria tables between lunch shifts and the paper towels ordered through the FCPS Warehouse are not effective for this purpose. If you can donate, feel free to drop them off in the office anytime, or have them shipped directly to school. We will need them throughout the school year.
On Tuesday, October 20th at 6:30PM we will be holding an information session for parents interested in referring their child(ren) for Full-Time AAP services. The meeting is intended for parents of 2nd-6th grade students, but all are welcome! We will be focusing on the steps of the full-time AAP referral process, important forms, and understanding the timeline. If you would like more general information about all AAP services, or would like to talk about your student, please email Mrs. Fredericks at TLfredericks@fcps.edu
FCPS will mark the beginning of Eid al-Fitr with an evening-only observance day on Monday, March 8. There will be school on this day, but major school-sponsored events and activities (such as auditions or tryouts) will not take place.
Tuesday, March 9, will be a holiday for students and staff.
Wednesday, March 10, will be an observance day. There will be school on this day, but certain activities that cannot be made up (major tests, field trips, or mandatory events) will not take place.
A new school year calendar has been published, which includes this change. Please note that holidays and observances on the calendar may shift due to anticipated lunar sightings.
As part of the Fairfax County School Board’s Annual School-Based Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Assessment, the FCPS Office of Safety and Security and Safe Routes to School program are inviting parents and caregivers to share their experiences traveling to and from school.
The Traffic and Pedestrian Safety Survey asks about walking and biking routes, traffic near schools, kiss and ride experiences, accessibility, and other safety concerns.
Your feedback will help FCPS identify common issues. Your responses will be kept confidential and shared with school administrators and the Office of Safety and Security. The five-minute survey is open through Thursday, October 15.
Be sure to identify the school related to your feedback and include specific locations where you have observed a safety issue. If you have students at different schools in FCPS, please complete a different survey for each school.
If you have any questions about the survey, please contact SafeRoutestoSchool@fcps.edu.
 In Virginia during October, Disability History and Awareness activities provide an opportunity to create greater public awareness for individuals with disabilities, with the goal of full inclusion in our community.
 As part of the ongoing commitment to strengthening layered safety and security programs, FCPS will implement a new student ID system for students who ride our school buses.
The implementation of the student IDs is designed as an additional safety measure for our 130,000 students who ride the bus each day, ensuring they are on the right bus and that they get on and off at the correct bus stop, as well as making sure only authorized students are on our buses.
The IDs will be provided to students who ride the bus. Those students will be expected to tap on and tap off the bus. The student IDs do not track student movement. The only information available is when a student taps on or off a bus. Much like our Here Comes the Bus app, our new app will allow parents/guardians to track the progress of the school bus.
It is possible that the ID program will expand in the future to include uses such as library cards and meal payment. Learn more about the new transportation system and student ID cards.
 
Upcoming Events
-
Oct 21 - Deadline to preorder Hallowingo pizza and Bingo cards (preorder here)
-
Oct 22 - Say Cheese!
| 
