January 17, 2025 Newsletter

Dear Patriot Families,

As we approach the end of the second quarter, please check in with your children about their progress in their classes and what they plan to do to finish the quarter on a positive note. Some opportunities for support are to visit with their teachers during Patriot Period, doing retakes of summative assessments when available, visiting the Learning Center in the Library during even lunch for math help, or using Paper online Tutoring service available to all students.

We continue to emphasize effective learning skills as well as content knowledge and skills. Please see this article by Dr. Willingham, cognitive psychologist from UVA, for some ideas about effective learning strategies.

Have a great long weekend as we celebrate the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday.

Dr. Kevin Clark, Principal

In this message: 

• What’s Happening at Yorktown
• Counseling Corner
• Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Corner
• Activities Updates
• Senior Updates
• Upcoming Dates

WHAT’S HAPPENING AT YORKTOWN

Attendance & Hall Sweeps

Please remember that students should be arriving at school by 8:10 so that they can make it to their first block by 8:20. The late bell rings at 8:20, and any student arriving to class after the 8:20 bell will be marked tardy and will have to get a pass from the attendance office.

Hall sweeps are continuing at Yorktown on a regular basis. Hall sweeps promote on-time attendance to class. During a hall sweep, any student in the hallway after the late bell will report to an administrator for a pass. Students will receive a verbal warning for their first hall sweep, but will receive consequences (lunch detention, after school detention, parent meetings, suspension from athletics and extracurriculars, etc.) if caught in subsequent hall sweeps. Please reiterate to your students the importance of being on time to school and to every class so that they are not missing valuable learning opportunities and class content.

Parking Reminders

A reminder that students are not permitted to park in the staff parking lot. Students who drive to school can park in the community. Arlington County Parking enforcement will be monitoring the lot closely and students may also receive school consequences for repeated violations. A reminder that students are not to park in the pool parking spots.

Semester Exam Schedule

To avoid students having more than two midterms per day, please use the schedule below. A semester exam is optional in any full year course. Midterm exams are calculated into the quarter grade. Teachers administering semester exams must follow the following exam schedule:

• Thursday, January 23                    2&6
• Friday, January 24                         1&7
• Monday, January 27                       3&4
• Tuesday, January 26                      3&5
• Wednesday, January 29                    Make-ups

Your Voice Matters

The 2025 Your Voice Matters (YVM) survey will be open from Feb. 6 – March 6, 2025, with the opt-out window running from Jan. 6 – Feb. 6, 2025.

• The Student YVM survey will be administered on Tuesday, February 25th during Patriot Period.
• The YVM survey is now conducted annually to provide more timely insights on safety, health, well-being and engagement, aligned with the 2024-30 APS Strategic Plan.
• YVM gathers critical feedback to guide decisions that benefit the entire APS community and track progress toward strategic goals.
• All staff and all families are invited to participate
• Conducted by Panorama Education, the survey adheres to strict privacy standards under FERPA and the Student Data Usage and Privacy Agreement.

• Families will receive an anonymous link, students will receive a link, and staff will get a direct email to ensure easy participation.

For more information, visit the APS Your Voice Matters survey page. Your feedback helps shape the future of our schools and community!

COUNSELING CORNER

Online Course Request Process 2025-26

Course requests will begin on February 4, 2025. Students will select courses in StudentVue between February 4 and February 18th, and will not submit paper Course Request Forms (CRFs). CRFs will be distributed on February 4th, and students will receive instruction on how to select their courses during Patriot Period. Parents will have access to the selections on ParentVue beginning on February 19th.

Academic Planning Night & Electives Fair

Please mark your calendars for Thursday, January 23rd, at 7 PM when we will host Academic Planning Night with information about choosing classes for the 2025-2026 school year.  The event will take place in person in the auditorium, followed by an opportunity to ask questions of department chairs in the atrium.  While some of the presentation is geared toward rising 9th graders, all grade levels are welcome to attend. For rising 10th-12th graders, our course selection procedures will be different this year, as we transition to an online process.  Students will learn about the new process during Patriot Period, and parents will be able to view these selections in ParentVue in February (more instructions to come later).

On Friday, the 24th, the electives fair will take place for students to review elective options.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Fair

Our counterparts in Loudoun County have invited our students to attend their 10th annual HBCU Fair on Saturday, February 1st, from 10am-2pm at Tuscarora High School.  The event is free and open to students of all backgrounds and nationalities. It is designed to expose and educate our school communities and encourage all students to include HBCUs during the college selection process.  In addition to the HBCUs that will be in attendance, there will be college prep, community organizations, fraternities, and sororities.The address is 801 N. King St, Leesburg, VA 20176.  Please contact [email protected] or [email protected], or call 571-252-1907 with questions or for more information.

Advisory Information

Tuesday, January 21st

Next week, all students will participate in grade level DEI lessons.

• 9th Grade: The Identity Iceberg & Me
• 10th Grade: Bias in Our Everyday Lives
• 11th Grade: Understanding and Challenging Ableism
• 12th Grade: Online Propaganda & the Proliferation of Hate

Thursday, January 23rd 

• Academic Check-ins or students may leave with a pass to visit another teacher

APS Teen Health Fair 

In collaboration with the Arlington County School Health Bureau, APS will be hosting a Teen Health Fair on Thursday, January 30th from 11:00 am – 3:00 pm at Wakefield High School. This will be an opportunity for APS teens to receive mandated adolescent vaccines and physical exams and participate in a resource fair geared towards their health and wellness needs. Please share the Flyers below and help us spread the word to our middle and high school students and their families about this free event.  Flyers:

• Amharic Flyer
• Arabic Flyer
• English Flyer
• Mongolian Flyer
• Spanish Flyer

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION CORNER

Celebrate MLK Day (January 20, 2025)

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, GA on January 15, 1929. He graduated from a segregated high school at the age of fifteen and went on to earn a B.A. degree from Morehouse College (an HBCU) in 1948, a B.D. (Bachelor of Divinity) from Crozer Theological Seminary in 1951, and a PhD from Boston University 1955. While in Boston, he met and married Coretta Scott and they had four children – two sons and two daughters.

Notably, as the pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama and a member of the executive committee of the NAACP, King led a boycott of the segregated Montgomery bus system which began on December 5, 1955 and lasted 382 days. During the boycott, King was arrested and his home was bombed. On June 5, 1956, in Browder v. Gayle, the Supreme Court declared the laws requiring segregation on buses unconstitutional (the ruling took effect on December 20, 1956).

In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times.  He also wrote five books as well as numerous articles. He wrote the Letter from a Birmingham Jail while he was imprisoned for leading nonviolent civil rights demonstrations in Alabama in 1963.  King was arrested upwards of twenty times, assaulted at least four times, was awarded five honorary degrees, named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963 and, at the age of thirty-five, became the youngest man, and second African-American, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.

– Learn more about Dr. King’s life and legacy here and here.

– Read about actress Julia Roberts’ connection to the King family here.

Celebrate MLK Day (January 20, 2025)

YHS Black History Month Program – Small Business Owner Panel

Yorktown will host a small business owner panel as part of our Black History Month celebration this year.  If you know of any Black, African, or African-American small business owners who may be interested in participating, please contact Ackesha Patrick, DEI Coordinator, at [email protected].

YHS Black History Month Program – Small Business Owner Panel

Yorktown will host a small business owner panel as part of our Black History Month celebration this year.  If you know of any Black, African, or African-American small business owners who may be interested in participating, please contact Ackesha Patrick, DEI Coordinator, at [email protected].

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service – Arlington is hosting a day of service in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. Anyone interested can peruse a variety of service projects including a W&OD Trail Cleanup that will focus on picking up litter and trash that gathers in the vegetation that grows along the sides of the trail. All volunteers will be treated to some refreshments and fun giveaways. For more information and to sign up for a slot, click here.

Annual Dr. King Day March for Unity & Freedom and Program – The Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation is hosting its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. march in Falls Church. On Jan. 18 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., guests are invited to the Tinner Hill Civil Rights Monument, located at 510 South Washington St., to celebrate King’s legacy and march for unity and freedom. For more information to reserve a spot, click here

The National Portrait Gallery will be hosting A Day of Action to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. and “his commitment to community action.” The event is open to everybody but will be geared towards teens and young adults. It will feature local social justice organizations and community groups on a mission to empower, activate and uplift attendees to get inspired as “art is activism and portraiture is powerful.” For more information, click here.

ACTIVITIES UPDATES

Club of the Week: The Paleontology Club

The YHS Club of the week is The Paleontology Club. The Paleontology club will share knowledge, deepen understanding, make new friends, and help others achieve a better apprehension of the ancient world! The Paleontology Club will also: help students gain enthusiasm for paleontology to help student expand their horizon when it comes to the knowledge of paleontology, geology, and ecologist; give a space for members to share knowledge and discuss recent discoveries and developments in the field; organize activities to gain hands-on experience and to build a network of outside connections; support scientific research, conservation, and education related to not only to paleontology specifically but also to geology and ecologist; build a community of people who share a passion for the now extinct prehistoric creatures; encourage interdisciplinary approaches, crossing paleontology with other sciences like geology, biology, and ecology.  See Mr. Davis or Ms. Kennedy for more information.

Basketball Doubleheader vs. Washington-Liberty – Game Information – January 21

Yorktown students should enter the gym through the doors near the weight room – not the traditional gym entrance.  Students will need to show their ID or studentvue and will receive a wristband to sit in the traditional student section as seating allows (first come, first served).  No bags or outside food or drink.  Game times are 4:30 pm for girls varsity and 5:45 pm for boys varsity.

Theater VHSL Competition Play – Dress Rehearsal and Competition – Jan. 24 and 25

January 24, 2025 in the Auditorium at 6:00pm, please come to the Dress Rehearsal for the VHSL Competition One Act “Witches?! In Salem!?”, a farcical take on The Crucible by Matt Cox.  The show will run for roughly 30 minutes and our Theatre IV class would be delighted to have an audience!  Can’t make that evening?  You’re in luck – they will be performing at the VHSL Competition on January 25, 2025 at 11:15 am at George Marshall High School (7731 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church VA 22043).

Winter Sports – Spectator Information

With winter sports competition beginning this week, a schedule of events is available on www.yorktownsports.org. Many gym events are available online at www.nfhs.com Tickets for gym events are available online at www.gofan.co. Discounted student-priced tickets are $5 cash only at the gate.  Backpacks, as well as outside food or drinks, are not permitted.  Students in middle school or below need to be accompanied by their parent/guardian for admission to sporting events.

Arlington Parks and Rec Reduced Fee Events

Did you know Arlington Parks & Rec provides fee reductions for summer camps, programs, memberships, and more? Whether you have a short-term set back or something longer term, join us on Thurs. Jan. 23 from 6-8 p.m., or Thurs. Jan. 30 from 12-2 p.m. at Arlington Mill Community Center to get your household signed up, just in time for Summer Camp registration starting this February! Learn more here.

Where to find Athletics Information

Athletic Website – www.yorktownsports.org

Athletic Twitter – @yhssports

Athletic Instagram – @yhssports

Athletic Specific Sport Information – www.teamapp.com

Athletic Registration – https://yorktownhs-ar.rschooltoday.com/

Home Events Next Week

Looking Ahead to Spring Sports – February 24

For your planning purposes, spring sports begin on February 24th.  Students can join www.teamapp.com for specific off-season and tryout information for spring sports, which will be posted as it becomes available.  Please make sure to register on the new athletic registration site before attending any off-season activities or tryouts (see information above).

Looking Way Ahead – Fall 2025 Sports

For planning purposes, Fall sports will begin as early as July 31 with most beginning on August 4. Check Team App or the website for more information.

Please note, that playing a high school fall sport requires a commitment to be present for the duration of tryouts and daily practices thereafter. Families are advised that vacations planned after the start of fall sports will not be considered favorably during the tryout process because there is limited practice time to build a team prior to the start of scrimmages and games in mid to late August.

SENIOR UPDATES

Be sure to bookmark the Seniors website, which is linked on the Yorktown HS homepage under Quicklinks and contains essential information for senior year. Find answers to your questions about these and more:

• Announcements and Rings
• Caps & Gowns
• Class Dues
• Graduation
• Off Campus Lunch Privilege
• Prom
• Senior Experience
• Senior Portraits
• Yearbooks

Senior Dues

Senior dues are $80. Senior dues cover the cost of cap and gown, diploma, diploma covers, as well as other senior activities. Senior dues can be paid at https://arlingtonva.schoolcashonline.com/ or by cash, money order, or check (made out to Yorktown High School) and given to Sabrina Ashby in the main office.

 Senior Experience

The Senior Experience Application is now open! All required documents can be found on The Senior Experience Canvas page and must be submitted by March 14th!

Cap and Gown Orders

This is the last week to order your cap and gown!  Please stop by the Activities Office to do so. No payment is required at this time. Price is included in the senior dues.

Save the Date 

Class of 2025 Graduation – 7 p.m., Wednesday, June 4, at DAR Constitution Hall.

UPCOMING DATES

or more details, refer to the YHS or APS calendar.

• Monday, January 20th – No School, Dr. MLK Jr. Day
• Wednesday, January 29th – End of 2nd Quarter
• Thursday, January 30th – No School for Students (School-Based PL for Staff)
• Friday, January 31st – No School for Students (Grade Preparation Day)
• Wednesday, February 5th – early release for professional learning (1:00 pm)