Colgan High School
Home of the Sharks
Dear Colgan Families, It’s finally here!
The opening of our beautiful school and the start of our new community is really happening. All the meetings, all the planning, and all the debate have finally resulted in what school should be really about – the energy and excitement that your children bring to the school when they walk the halls, attend classes, participate in activities, and compete in athletics. I can’t promise we will be perfect. In fact, I know we won’t. We will make mistakes. I can promise that we will be focused on your child having an amazing high school experience. We will be focused on exactly what our school vision says, “Preparing and Inspiring Students for Their Future.”
Construction is ongoing. Several areas of the building and campus are not complete. Mostly these areas are cosmetic and while everything is not perfectly done, it is functional. Most things are “punch list” items that will be corrected over the coming months. As you can imagine for a project this size, the list is really long. Not to worry, the Construction staff from Prince William County Schools have great experience and expertise in this area and will make sure all of our items get rectified.
One challenge starting a new school is establishing all the procedures and protocols. This can be especially difficult as we attempt to bring together our staff from different schools. We will work through all of these issues and are prepared to adjust our thoughts if something is not working as expected. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we discover the Colgan Way!
One relevant such issue is class changes. Our Counseling Department has worked many hours putting together the school’s master schedule. This task is monumental as there are so many moving parts. As we begin the school year, we will be unable to accommodate immediate requests to change classes. The counselors must focus on major conflicts or problems in student schedules (i.e. student enrolled in English 9 when he/she should be in English 11). Any class change impacts our master schedule and class sizes. Sometimes students want to change classes for reasons that might seem valid to them, but really are not something we can accommodate (i.e. a student wants a different elective so he/she can have the same lunch shift as a friend or a student wants to change classes because they “heard” that one teacher is harder than another).
Based on these reasons, please be aware that students wanting to change schedules at this point will not automatically get approved. If your child wants to drop a level of the same course (i.e. from A.P. or Pre A.P to a general section of the course), this will be considered at the end of the first marking period. These drops will be allowed if the parent, teacher, counselor and I come to consensus that it is in the best interest of the student. Of course, in very isolated cases where by agreement of all parties that a student is inappropriately placed the course may be changed. Thank you for your understanding regarding this procedure and, I hope, everyone understands and supports our efforts to make the beginning of school a positive experience for everyone.
Back to School Night is scheduled for Thursday, September 8th at 7 pm.
I hope you can attend to meet your child’s teachers and hear a little bit about their classes.
Thank you for entrusting us with your child’s education. I am excited you are a part of the start of Colgan High School History. Please let me know if there is anything I can do to make your child’s experience better.
Sincerely, Tim Healey
SCHOOL COUNSELING OFFICE NEWS AND VIEWS
The time has finally arrived! The School Counseling Department is excited to meet and work with our new Colgan students and families for the 2016-2017 school year. Thank you for your patience and understanding these past months as we prepared for the arrival of our students. We have four amazing counselors who were selected to be part of the Colgan counseling team. Mrs. Claire Handville (A-D), Mrs. Levette Hull (E-K), Mrs. Yanet Boyd (L-P), and Dr. Leah Byrd (Q-Z), are ready to assist our students not only in the transition to a new high school, but also in preparing them for their future.
Student Schedules
The counselors arrived in the building on August 15 and have been working diligently with students and families on resolving conflicts in their schedules. The master schedule presented some challenging opportunities with over 100 courses being offered in only one period. With no senior class and a smaller junior class, we were unable to offer as many electives and sections as usual. We will have more course offerings and sections in the next school year. As some families have been on vacation and unreachable, we will finalize these adjustments during the first week of school. Students will receive their official schedules during their 1st period/homeroom class on August 29th. If the student is in a wrong class in the areas of English, Social Studies, Health and PE or Math, your teacher will send you to the Counseling Center during the block in which you are in the wrong class. Please check Parent Portal the weekend prior to August 29th, in case an adjustment has been made to the student’s first period class. Again, we appreciate your flexibility and support, and we understand that some students had to make difficult decisions in final course selections.
Scheduling an Appointment with Your Counselor
Students will be able to request an appointment with their counselor online from any computer or mobile device, at home or school. The link for the online appointment requester will be posted on the counseling website during the first week of school. Students may also visit the Counseling Center before school, during lunch, and after school to make an appointment. Please allow 24-48 hours to process your request; however, in the case of an emergency, please visit the Counseling Center immediately (or during the next school day). Parents can also email their students’ counselors to set up an appointment.
Parent Portal
If you are new to Prince William County, please sign up for Parent Portal to view your student’s test information, homework, grades, and attendance. You can also view and edit your contact information. Your Parent Portal user name and password will also be your login for your school website to view your child’s classroom activities and homework. Instructions on registering for an account can be found under the Parent section of the county website. After submitting the registration online, you will receive a validation email sent to you which contains your user information; however, the account is inactive until you bring the validation email to Colgan High School. The person applying for the account must print the email, sign the bottom and take it to your student’s school with a photo ID. Ms. Theresa Kaufman, the front office receptionist, or Mrs. Mellany Williams, school counseling secretary, will activate your parent portal account. All parent portal accounts are issued to an individual, therefore the individual that applied for the account must be the person that signs and presents the email and their photo ID.
All students and parents currently registered with Parent Portal will be able to login with their current username and password. After 4:00 PM on August 26, student schedules will be uploaded to Parent Portal. Students will now use their PWCS login to access their schedule and teacher class pages on the school websites; however, they will still use their Parent Portal login for the Parent Portal.
The school counseling department looks forward to working together with you to make this a fun and exciting first year at Colgan High School.
Lien Weakland, Director of School Counseling
School Counseling Department
Lein Weakland, Director of School Counseling
Claire Handville, Counselor: A-D
Levette Hull, Counselor: E-K
Yanet Boyd, Counselor: L-P
Leah Byrd, Counselor: Q-Z
Tammy Degrood, Registrar
Mellany Williams, Counseling Office Secretary
Catric Marshall, Testing Coordinator