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In this Issue
PTSA President Letter
Principal Letter
Student Services Update
PTSA Meeting
School Directory
Madison Virtual Parent Programs
Academic Boosters
Staff Appreciation
Food Pantry & Outreach
Parent Information Relating to Special Education for April
2022 Student Peace Award Winners
Madison World Languages
Mad Drama
Mad Orchestra
Mad Choir
Band and Winter Guard
Athletic Boosters
Soccer dine-out fundraisers
Class of 2022 information
Yearbook sales
Senior Yard Signs
All Night Grad information
Information on Renovation Plans
FCPS Calendar for 2022-23
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Upcoming Events
April
1 Student Holiday, Teacher Work day
4-8 Spring Break
12 PTSA Meeting, 7pm
27 Parent Program, 7pm (virtual)
May
2 Madison Physical Night for 2022/23 school year
30 Student Holiday, Memorial Day
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Letter from PTSA President - Beth Eachus
Dear Madison community-
Our next PTSA meeting will be held (in person!) on Tuesday, April 12th at 7:00 pm in the school library and we hope that you can join us!
Thank you to all that supported Giving Day on Saturday, March 26th. We provided cleaning and hygiene items in addition to food and Madison Spiritwear. Madison High School and the PTSA are proud to partner in supporting our students and families who are food insecure. The Madison Pantry and Outreach team distributes food weekly to these students and their families. And, as we did last year, we are organizing an Adopt a Senior program for some of our seniors who need additional support and encouragement in working towards graduation. If you are interested in supporting one of these seniors, please contact me at president@jmhsptsa.org or beth.b.eachus@gmail.com.
We are also currently looking for members of the PTSA to serve on our Nominating Committee. The Nominating Committee will recruit and present a slate of officers for the 2022-2023 PTSA Executive Board. The PTSA Executive Board is comprised of President, 1st Vice President, 2nd Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary. All Board positions are held for one year with an opportunity to serve a second consecutive year in the same position. Our PTSA secretary Sarah Lundquist is completing her second year while our President Beth Eachus, 1st Vice President Gayle Schlueter, 2nd Vice President Abby Shannon and Treasurer Janine Bruhn are serving their first year in the rotation. The members of the Nominating Committee will be proposed and voted on at our April meeting. Please contact me at president@jmhsptsa.org if interested.
On Monday, March 28th, the PTSA hosted our annual HOLLYWOOD STARS staff appreciation event. Thank you to chairs Angie Gutenson and Dara Dirth as well as Lori Grossman, Christine Stauber, and Karla Mihalak for organizing this wonderful event!
 
And a huge thank you to our Academic Boosters Chair Abby Shannon and all the administrators, staff, students and volunteers on creating and hosting our Academic Awards assembly held on March 22nd! The PTSA is proud to support and honor our JMHS students for their academic achievement. Further information on the ceremony is included in this edition of Mad Memos.
For our Seniors and their Parents: Tickets for our 2022 All Night Grad party are available now - purchase early to qualify for early bird prizes! (and parent volunteers are still needed!). And please watch for information on our Making a Difference Scholarships which will be available soon!
Thank you to chair Elizabeth Terry-Humen for creating our monthly Mad Memos and please check out our PTSA website (thanks to Jennifer O'Beirne) for how to join the PTSA. If you have any questions or ideas, you are always welcome to contact me directly.
Beth Eachus
Madison PTSA President
president@jmhsptsa.org
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Letter from Principal - Greg Hood
Greetings, Madison Community,
This month I will continue to highlight the FCPS Portrait of a Graduate skills. Portrait of a Graduate skills are skills for ALL, interdisciplinary, and key to life-long learning - and they are the skills that have gotten us all through the past two years. Collaboration is one of the skills that our students and faculty are engaged in each and every day - and it has been especially important this school year as we have attempted to return to school and define our new normal together. The FCPS definition of Collaborator is an individual who:
- Respects divergent thinking to engage others in thoughtful discussion.
- Demonstrates the ability to work interdependently within a group to promote learning, increase productivity, and achieve common goals.
- Analyzes and constructs arguments and positions to ensure examination of a full range of viewpoints.
- Seeks and uses feedback from others to adapt ideas and persist in accomplishing difficult tasks.
As we begin to round the corner towards the final few months until the end of the school year, many of our yearly collaborations are well underway.
WINGS & Town of Vienna
One of our annual collaborations that we are excited to reinstate this year after a two year hiatus is the WINGS program. WINGS provides an opportunity for seniors to participate in a two-week internship during the end of May that culminates in an Exhibition of Learning where students share their experiences with the JMHS community. We are thrilled to more formally collaborate with the Town of Vienna to provide meaningful internship opportunities for our seniors this year. More information about WINGS can be found here.
Creative Writing
Our Creative Writing 1 & 2 classes engage in consistent collaboration through the school year by participating in Writer's Workshop protocols. The process requires students to provide meaningful feedback to one another on specific aspects of the writing process. As students engage in this process over the course of the year not only does their ability to provide quality feedback improve, but also their ability to take feedback and use it to make revisions to their own thinking and writing - an important and lifeworthy skill.
We invite you to have conversations with your own students about how collaboration plays a role in their experience in school and outside of school, as well as how collaboration plays a role in your own professional experience. Here are some more resources to support PoG conversations with your family.
As always, I am proud to continue to collaborate with all of you, and look forward to seeing many of you on James Madison Drive this spring.
Sincerely,
Gregory S. Hood, Principal
James Madison High School
2500 James Madison Drive
Vienna, Virginia 22181
Phone: 703-319-2311
Email: gshood@fcps.edu
Website: http://www.fcps.edu/MadisonHS/
One School – One Community – One World |
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Student Services Update
The end of the school year is rapidly approaching. Here are some updates from the Student Services Department:
On March 22, the PTSA recognized our students who achieved a 4.0 GPA for last school year at Madison (our current 10 th-12 th graders). The students received a certificate and either an academic letter or pin if they were recognized for more than one year, that were distributed in their 1 st period class this week. Here is the link to the Academic Awards Presentation: Academic Awards Video.
Coming soon, all FCPS students will have unlimited access to on-demand or scheduled, 24/7 online tutoring through tutor.com, at no cost to families! More information available here and short video here. Tutoring services will start by mid-April and will also be available over the summer. Hundreds of subjects and test-prep areas, including AP, SAT, ACT. Tutor.com will offer drop-off review services for writing, cover letters/resumes. Students will have access to a writing center. Tutors who speak English, Spanish, and Vietnamese are currently available to work with students. Tutor.com is a service of The Princeton Review.
For juniors we recently hosted College Planning Night Part II for students and their parents/guardians. Be sure to take a look at the slides and/or recording here if you weren’t able to join us. We shared detailed information about preparing for college, such as, researching colleges, utilizing Naviance, essay writing, letters of recommendation and more!
Sophomores and their parents/guardians are invited to attend the College Admission Case Studies program that will be held on April 14 at 7pm at Langley High School. This is a JMHS & LHS joint event for sophomores and their parents/guardians to work in small groups, alongside college admissions representatives, as part of a mock admission team to analyze and discuss college applications. For planning purposes, please register here, ONE registration per family.
For students and parents/guardians interested in learning more about Naviance, a college and career planning tool for all FCPS students, here is a video to check out.
We encourage all parents/guardians to have an active SIS Parent Account. Details on how to activate your SIS Parent Account are available here. For questions regarding your SIS Parent Account, contact Ashley Mendez aemendez@fcps.edu.
Parent Volunteers Needed
We are looking for parent volunteers to help us with our AP Testing season May 2 – May 20. A wide variety of dates and times are available. Absolutely no experience (or AP knowledge) necessary. Please contact Lauren Robarge ( elrobarge@fcps.edu) if possibly interested. Thank you in advance. Due to construction we will need more proctors than we have in the past.
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The next PTSA meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 12 at 7:00 pm. Please click here to review the draft March meeting minutes in advance so they can be voted on at the start of the meeting.
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The School Directory
The 2021-22 Madison High School directory is online and accessible for Madison parents, teachers and staff. For more details, click here.
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Virtual Parent Programs for the Madison Pyramid
Please join us next Wednesday, April 27th, at 7pm for a Zoom webinar:
Path to College
Applying to college should be exciting and fun, but it's easy to get overwhelmed by the increasing competition at top schools and the ever-rising cost of higher education. What's more, families don't always know where to start when it comes to securing a spot at a great college or university.
No matter where your student is in their high school career, you can lay the groundwork for an amazing college application. Take this trip with Applerouth - we'll show you how to navigate the college admissions process with confidence.
Through his many years in the education space working with students, counselors, financial advisors, and admissions officers, Dr. Jed Applerouth, Founder & President of Applerouth Tutoring, has gained many insights into the world of college admissions.
We hope you can join us! Please use this link to sign up:
https://www.applerouth.com/signup/?scheduleid=492991
March Video Recording of JMHS PTSA Virtual Parent Program on Digital Safety is available!
Thank you to everyone who attended our Digital Safety Parent Program on March 7th. Richard Guerry, founder of IROC2, gave us a presentation on Digital Safety, Empathy, and Mindfulness. In case you missed it or want to re-watch it, the video recording is available. Please use the following information to access a replay of Mr. Guerry’s presentation. This recording will be available until the beginning of June 2022.
Note: It is highly recommended that the videos are previewed before showing them to any student under 13.
Video Replay:
o Visit: https://www.iroc2.org/376.html
o Username: MadisonParents
o Password: ParentsOnly
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Academic Boosters
Congratulations to students who received an academic award for academic year 2021-2022! Thank you to all for your patience as we navigated COVID and other obstacles while planning this event. Many students, administrators, staff and volunteers were involved in the planning as well as the distribution of wards and certificates. We recognize that some students who received a 4.0 or higher their freshmen year (who are now juniors) may have received a lamp pin but not a letter. If this happened with your student, please ask him or her to stop by Ms. Milan's office in Student Services and pick up the academic letter. She has a list of all students who received a 4.0 or higher in 2020-21.
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Staff Appreciation Committee
The PTSA Teacher and Staff Appreciation Committee have continued "Thankful Thursday", a weekly raffle organized by committee member Karla Mihalik. Every Thursday, staff names are randomly selected to receive (parent donated) gift cards from various restaurants and stores. If you would like to donate, learn more about this effort, or get involved, please send a message to Angie, Dara and Karla at hospitality@jmhsptsa.org.
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JMHS Food Pantry and Outreach
The PTSA is proud to partner with Madison High School in supporting our students who are food insecure. The Madison Pantry and Outreach team distributes food weekly to students and their families.
- Cereal
- Rice
- Pasta
- Canned vegetables
- Granola Bars
- Tomato sauce (please no glass)
- Juice
- Beans (dry or canned)
- Fruit (canned or in plastic)
- Milk (shelf stable)
Donations can be dropped off at Madison at Door 1 during school hours. These items are available through our Amazon wishlist as well. You can also make a cash donation towards this effort at the following link: https://jmhsptsa.org/product/food-bank-donation-any-amount/
Thank you for your incredible support and generosity!
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Special Education Parent Newsletter for April
The Department of Special Services (DSS) publishes a regular electronic newsletter for parents of special education students to provide updated DSS information, and tips and ideas to support you and your family.
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 Congratulations!
Congratulation to Madison's Junior Civitan Club, recipients of the 2022 Student Peace Awards of Fairfax County! The Student Peace Awards are designed to recognize young people who work as peacemakers. Click here to read more about their work.
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Madison World Languages students participated in a few events in the month of March:
FRENCH:
- 14 students (French 4, 5, and AP) participated in the National French Exam.
LATIN:
- 18 students participated in the National Latin Exam.
- 10 students (Latin I-AP) attended the State Latin Convention in person this year and they brought home 45 awards in academic, arts and crafts, and creative arts contests, as well as individual sweepstakes (overall awards given by grade level).
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MAD DRAMA
Rehearsals for our Spring Musical, “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” are in full swing! This delightful musical centers on a fictional spelling bee set in a geographically ambiguous Putnam Valley Middle School. A large group of quirky adolescents compete in the Bee, run by equally quirky grown-ups. In addition, we will have up to 16 Madison teachers and administrators compete LIVE in our fictional Bee onstage with the performers. Come see your favorite Madison teacher have a go at the microphone at the Spelling Bee!” Save the Date: the show will be performed on April 28, 29 and 30, 2022. Tickets for the musical go on sale on www.madisondrama.com on April 11th at 7:30pm.
Facebook groups are the primary means of communication in MAD Drama. Interested students can join the Thespian Troupe #2541 Facebook page and interested parents can join the MAD Drama Parents’ Association Facebook page. There is also a MAD Drama Facebook page you can follow. Parents can also be added to the MAD Drama email list through the MAD Drama website: http://madisondrama.com/.
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MAD CHOIR
Greetings from the Madison Choral Department!
All the choral ensembles performed for the State Music Assessment at Langley HS in March and received straight Superior Ratings. Every group got a Superior for the stage AND their sight reading performances.
Congratulations to Elise McCulloch (soprano), Caroline Cha (alto), Kate Townsend (alto), Sydney Topoleski (alto), Robbie Erickson (tenor) and Luke Mudrick (bass) and alternates Sofia Remondino (soprano) , Corey Furukawa (bass) and Matthew Pearson (bass), who were selected for the Virginia All-State Choir that will perform April 21-23rd in Richmond, Virginia.
Looking ahead, mark your calendars for the end of the year Pops Concert which will be held on May 19th in the Madison auditorium. Everyone is welcome to attend!
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MAD ORCHESTRA
Congratulations to all of the orchestras at JMHS. Each orchestra received STRAIGHT SUPERIORS from every judge at assessment. That is the top score! Congratulations to Mrs. Eberly and to every orchestra student.
Recently 99 orchestra and chorus students went to Williamsburg and Virginia Beach for a spring trip. It may have been chilly but the students got to get to know one another better and celebrate their fabulous assessments.
The orchestra boosters still needs your donations if you haven’t already contributed. Please go to our website: https://jmhsorchestra.com/boosters/ to find out more information and to donate.
Coming up:
Dine for Dollars: April 13th Fosters Grill
Final Concert—May 10th at 7pm JMHS Auditorium
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BAND & WINTER GUARD NEWS
Congratulations to Mr. Hackbarth and all band students! The Wind Symphony and Symphonic Band received the highest rating of Superior at their state assessment performances on March 18th and 19th. At assessment, the bands each performed 3 pieces of music for judges’ evaluation and then performed a piece they were seeing for the first time. These ratings were a result of many hours of individual practice and afterschool rehearsals.
On March 24th, the Jazz Band performed in the JMHS Auditorium with the White House Jazz Band, including renowned jazz artists Dave Detwiler, Matt Niess, Wes Crawford, Bob Boguslaw, Glenn Dewey, and Dave Brown. We were honored to have these professionals perform with our students. On March 26th, the Winter Guard performed their show “Ascent” at South County High School. The exciting show includes choreographed dance to music while spinning and tossing flags, rifles and sabers.
They will end their competition season on April 2nd at the Winter Guard AIA Championships in Hampton Roads.
Finally, the Marching Ensemble was recognized for their State Championship win last Fall by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors on March 21st and by the Town of Vienna on March 29th.
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ATHLETIC BOOSTER NEWS
Important Upcoming Dates and Information
5/2 – Madison Physical Night for 2022/2023 school year
We will need many volunteers to make this night a success! Please be on the lookout for an email to sign up!
5/6- Baseball 2021 State Champion Ring Ceremony during the game vs. South Lakes
A message from our President:
We have several key positions that will become open at the end of the school year or are currently open. We got by during the COVID-19 pandemic with a skeleton crew but the traditional volunteer pipeline fell apart and we need more help from our parent community to grow from here. We are very fortunate at Madison HS to have a strong base of student athletes, the greatest number of coaches of any FCPS high school, supportive school leadership who understands the importance of athletic activities, and a broader Vienna/Oakton community who loves to cheer on our kids and support our mission. Nearly all of our volunteer positions require just a few hours of time per month and 100% of the money we raise goes toward the athletic activities.
Open positions:
President
Treasurer
Secretary
Concession Management Team (4-6 people)
Fundraising Coordinator
Social Media Manager
While each role is unique, all of them can be done with only a handful of hours per month and it's an investment in our kids and school community. Without your help, we'll take in less money and that directly impacts every program here.
I'm happy to answer any questions you may have about the roles and can put interested parties in touch with people currently serving in these positions.
Best,
Scott Garrod
President
Warhawks Athletics Boosters
Be sure to follow the Warhawk Boosters on Facebook for all the latest news:
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 Come grab a bite to eat and support Madison Girls Soccer!
TODAY – Thursday 03/31/22 – Noodles & Company Vienna from 4:00-8:00. Use code ‘GIVING25’ online or mention Madison Girls Soccer at Checkout!
Monday April 25th – MOD Pizza Vienna ALL DAY – Just mention the fundraiser to raise $ for Madison Girls Soccer.
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Yearbook
Buy your 21-22 Yearbook NOW!
Go to www.yearbookordercenter.com and enter the code 5307.
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Graduation date for the Class of 2022 is
June 1, 2022 at DAR Constitution Hall at 10:00 a.m.
Visit the Class of 2022 page for information regarding graduation gown measurements and graduation products ordering information
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Class of 2022 Senior Signs
Click on this link to place your order today!
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JMHS Class of 2022
All Night Graduation Celebration
SENIORS: Discount Deadline 5/15
Sign up early to SAVE click here > JMHSPTSA.org
(NOT part of Senior Dues)
$90 until 5/15/22, and $100 up to event
What: A safe environment of non-stop entertainment, BIG prizes and tons of fun celebrating the Class of 2022! The All Night Grad celebration is an alcohol/drug free event, sponsored by the JMHS PTSA, and partially funded by community and business donations.
When: Wed. June 1st, 2022 – Thursday, June 2, 2022 from 11:00 pm- 5:00 am
Where: Vienna Community Center, 120 Cherry St SE, Vienna, VA 22180
BEST NIGHT EVER!
Want to volunteer? We need you! Join the fun! email Sarah Espanol at allnightgrad@jmhsptsa.org ¿Quieres ser voluntario? ¡Te necesitamos ¡Únete a la diversión! email Sarah Espanol at allnightgrad@jmhsptsa.org.
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Madison High School's addition to the building is progressing on schedule. The plan is for completion at the start of the 2022-23 school year. For more information on the renovation, visit the Renovation page.
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Fairfax County Public Schools Standard Calendar
The 2022-23 School Calendar has been released,
To print this year and next year calendars, click here
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