Haycock Cougar Coffee Talk

I had to blog today about the trials and tribulations of snow removal. 

This picture to the left is a picture Kelly Sheers took as she stood in line today waiting to buy a shovel!  This is a line at a small hardware store near where she lives.  As you can see, shovels continue to be a hot commodity, especially when you are preparing for round two of Snowmageddon.

My other picture posted today is of Haycock custodians and the broken Haycock snow blower.  Today Haycock custodians reported to work to take on the monumental task of clearing the snow from the sidewalks around the school.  Unfortunately, it was just too much for the school’s lone snowblower and it broke down earlier this morning.  Our amazing custodians continued on and made a lot of progress getting the sidewalks ready for when we return.

If any Haycock parents read the blog and have an extra snowblower they can loan to Haycock for the next storm, please e-mail me.

Stay safe during the next storm!  Hopefully I’ll see everyone soon.

I’m writing this post from the warmth of my own house!  We got word earlier today that schools and offices are officially closed tomorrow (Monday).

It’s hard to fathom the amount of snow that fell.  The picture to the left is the view of Haycock from the Kiss and Ride parking lot.  Thank you to a Haycock parent for e-mailing me this awesome picture. 

I hope all of our students are enjoying the snow.  Don’t forget to read while you are home waiting for school to re-open. 

Hopefully, I’ll see all of you soon!

The picture to the left shows one of the units of the modular arriving to Haycock.  If you’ve been at the school lately, you will see that there is quite a bit of progress being made.  We have now received 3 of these units, so in essence we have 6 of the 8 rooms of our modular. 

The delivery of these pieces has made parking at Haycock even more frustrating.  I just ask that parents have patience in finding a place to park as we work through construction.  We will all be thankful when the modular is up and ready to go and our parking lot is returned to us.

I’ll continue to post about progress on this blog.  There is still no word about move in time, though.

We welcome into the world, Farah Sophia.  She is the daughter of 6th grade teacher Unushe Walker.  Farah arrived on Friday at 7:20pm, weighing 7 lbs and measuring 2o inches.

Mom and baby are doing great!

Our Haycock family is happy to welcome Kelly Ann into the world!  She was born on Tuesday to Emily Kight, 4th grade teacher, and weighed in at 7 lbs.  She was 19.25 inches long.

Emily and Kelly Ann are doing great!

Tuesday was an exciting day at Haycock as the cement for the new modular was poured and smoothed.  It made for a tricky day in the parking lot, but it also captivated the eyes of many of our students.

Here are a few pictures that highlight the action.

This is the awesome bulletin board that is currently in the lobby of Haycock.  It is a map of the world that shows where our students and families are from.  Thanks to Adeana Alvarez and Prabha Rollins who are co-chairing  International Night this year and were instrumental in compiling the information to make this display.  It really is amazing to see how diverse our population is.

We hope to see you all at this exciting night and the next time you are at Haycock, take a look at the bulletin board!

Just a quick post to show you the work that is being done to get ready for the placement of Haycock’s 8 room modular unit.

The students in the quads have a lot of stories to tell thus far from their upclose view of the construction.

I’ll keep you posted via this blog throughout the process.  No word yet on when the actual modular will arrive, or what the anticipated “move in” date will be.

Thanks to a Haycock parent for this wonderful shot of Haycock under a blanket of snow.  As all of you know by now, school is out until after the scheduled break because of our record breaking snowfall.  Offices are closed today (Monday), but should be open tomorrow and Wednesday if I can get out of my driveway!!

I hope everyone has had a fabulous time being snowed under.  My own children have been sledding virtually non-stop for 2 days.  It has been nice to really NOT be able to go anywhere and to spend time as a family.

This picture below is my daughter Anna sledding down the best slope in our neighborhood.

 My wish to all of you is a wonderful holiday and a joyous New Year!  I’ll see you all back on Monday, January 4th.

December 8th marked the one year anniversary of my Haycock blog – what I like to think of as a virtual Principal’s Coffee.    It was also the day of my real-time afternoon Principal’s Coffee.  In this picture you see the Haycock parents in attendance.  We also welcomed our new parent liaison, Tina Amin, at this coffee.

What was interesting to me about this group pictured is that it highlighted the uniqueness of the Haycock parent community in that four of the five participants had children at other elementary schools.  Represented in the group were Chesterbrook, Franklin Sherman, Kent Gardens and Lemon Road parents, in addition to Haycock.

This characteristic made clear to me that with so many parents split between two elementary schools,  we need to continue to work diligently to bring Haycock together as one school community and to make sure things are in place to make all parents feel welcome.

Although the group was small, we had a great discusson about the new modular unit, which should be arriving soon, and the FCPS budget outlook.

My next coffee will take place one evening in January.  I’m working on determining the date.  To all of you who have dilgently read my blog for the past year, or to those who are currently new readers, I thank you for keeping up with Haycock news.  Please comment if there is anything you’d like addressed at this virtual “coffee house”.