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Important Dates
October 27th - PTSA Restaurant Night at Chipotle
October 31st- End of First Quarter - 2 Hour Early Release
November 3rd - Student Holiday (School Planning Day for Staff)
November 4th - Student Holiday (Teacher Workday for Staff) – Election Day
November 8th - West Potomac Marketplace
Principal’s Message
Happy Friday Wolverines,
I hope all Wolverines had a great week. Just a reminder about cell phones, they must be away in the halls, bathrooms and during class time or they will be confiscated. Please help us remind your students.
In addition, there has been incidents with students being very disrespectful in how they speak to adults in our building. If a student uses profanity toward an adult or is disrespectful, we will be using progressive discipline, and the student could be suspended out of school. Please help us remind your students to be good people!
This week Marketing students visited the Commanders stadium on a field trip. Students received a tour of the stadium (field and locker room). They were able to hear from three guest speakers, Digital Marketing Executive, Inside Sales Executive, and Group Sales Executive. All these professionals shared their sports marketing journey and how they attract audience attention and continue expanding the Commanders brand equity. They touched upon the rebranding effort and the excitement around the new stadium. Students learned that there are other positions in the competitive sports field than just professional athletes.
This week we also hosted our very popular Spooktacular Festival with Orchestra. It culminated with a West Potomac Pyramid Concert on Thursday. Thank you to Ms. Day for coming back to help!
In addition, this week our Spanish Honor Society held their induction ceremony, they inducted 58 new members that are ready to promote Spanish culture and language with their current 90 members this year!
In community,
Jessica Statz, Principal
West Potomac Outstanding Employee Award Nominations for 2025-26 are now open!!!
Here at West Potomac, we believe that our staff is truly unparalleled, and that the work we do for our students deserves celebration and recognition beyond our building. Each year, FCPS looks to honor several staff members for outstanding excellence in their roles. We hope you will help us to celebrate the amazing work done every day at West Potomac High School by highlighting some of our amazing staff members!
To nominate a West Potomac HS staff member, please complete the Nomination Form. If you are interested in learning more about the overall FCPS awards process, you may visit the FCPS Outstanding Employee Awards Website. Nominations are due by 4:00PM on Friday, November 14. Questions? Contact Sebastian Cabezas at jscabezasbas@fcps.edu.
Look at the flier below for extra information and categories to nominate for.
The Wolverine Athletic Booster Club is hosting the 3rd annual West Potomac Marketplace! We will have 82 talented artists and crafters selling their handmade items. We will have a silent auction, 50/50 raffle, and a raffle for gift cards to favorite local businesses. It will be a fun day for the kids too! We will have Rita’s Ice truck outside and concessions inside. And don’t miss our signature scavenger hunt: the kids can go booth to booth searching for the 12 hidden mascots of the neighborhood schools. After they find all 12 animals they can claim their prize, and then make a fun, kinetic, paper craft.
- We are looking for a few students who would like to sell their handmade items.
- We are looking for volunteers who can help in 2-hour shifts.
- We are looking for shoppers who will check out high-quality handmade items by local artists and crafters. We have a wide variety of wonderful vendors and you will find something special for everyone on your list.
West Potomac Marketplace
Saturday, November 8, 2025, 10am-3pm
West Potomac High School Gymnasium
6500 Quander Road, Alexandria 22307
Volunteer link
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C084DA4AE22A1FDCE9-58792371-2025#/
PTSA News
Mark your calendars for our next Restaurant Night on Tuesday, October 27th from 4:00PM - 8:00PM at Chipotle. At checkout, please mention the West Potomac PTSA. Funds raised go directly to student activities, teacher grants and administrative recognition.
Our next meeting will be Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 6:30pm with a presentation from our substance abuse prevention counselor. We'll discuss current trends counselors are seeing in schools, symptoms to look for if you suspect substance abuse, how to talk to your kids about tough subjects involving substance abuse and we will also have Narcan training. It will be a very worthwhile and hands-on meeting!
Still need to join the PTSA? We'd love to have you! Click HERE to purchase your membership today. All funds go directly to supporting our school community.
Our school clinic is in need of new or gently used clothing to have on hand for young women in our school. We're collecting hoodies, sweatpants, leggings, and new packages of underwear. Items can be dropped off in the main office, please label them for Nurse Nikki.
It's about that time to think about holiday cards! Ordering yours through Minted saves you money and helps our school! See the flyer below for a code to use at checkout:
Senior Committee News
SWAP-N-SHOP November 13th - Please join us for the 5th Annual Swap-n-shop fundraiser! Your ticket includes an evening of shopping, fun, community, light fare and a live band! All proceeds benefit the Class of 2026. Spouses and friends are welcome. This is an adults only event.
Date: Thursday, November 13
Time: 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Location: 8418 Stable Drive, Alexandria VA
Entry Fee / Suggested Donation: $40
Click HERE to purchase SWAP-N-SHOP TICKETS!
We also need many hands to help to pull off this fun event. We are seeking:
Donations: new/like-new accessories and clothing (all seasons), shoes, jewelry, handbags, scarves, reading glasses and women’s clothing. Items can be dropped off on the front porch of 8418 Stable Drive between 10/6-11/11.
Silent Auction items: Please let us know if you would like to lead this, have items to donate to be auctioned, or are willing to ask local businesses for gift cards to auction.
Food Donation: Click HERE if you would like to contribute to the night's fare.
SAVE THE DATE: CHIPOTLE RESTAURANT NIGHT, NOV 5th- Visit Chipotle (6770 Richmond Hwy) from 4-8p on 11/5. You must show a copy of our flyer when you place your order or use the code Y42EMYN when ordering online. The Class of 2026 will get 25% of the sales.
VOLUNTEERING - If you are going to volunteer or senior events, you will need to register as a volunteer with FCPS (new this year). It takes some time for the approval process so plan ahead! Here is the Link to Register for Level I service.
$26 BEFORE ‘26 DIRECT DONATION CAMPAIGN: We have kicked off our $26 before ‘26 fundraising campaign! Please consider donating to help fund our Senior Bash in May.
VISIT THIS LINK TO DONATE
SENIOR YARD SIGNS - Celebrate your soon to be graduate by purchasing your Class of 2026 Senior Yard sign today!
VISIT THIS LINK TO PURCHASE
CHECK OUT OUR SOCIAL MEDIA!
JOIN our Instagram page! “WestPo2026”
JOIN our Facebook page! “West Potomac HS-Class of 2026 Parents & Families"
This is a private group for parents and students.
Senior Administrator: Brian Valentine (bvalentine@fcps.edu)
Senior Class Sponsors: Virginia Lintot (vmlintot@fcps.edu), Aimee Gervacio (agervacio@fcps.edu), Mariam Younossi (myounossi@fcps.edu)
Parents Committee Co-Chairs: Emily Wild (emilywild7717@gmail.com) and Sandy Forti (sandyforti@gmail.com)
PTSA’s Test Prep is up and running for the 2025/2026 School Year!
New 11/8 Mock SAT and ACT Test Date Added
There’s still time to determine your test preference/strength! With all the changes to the ACT, why not give it a try? Register on our event landing page. New enhanced ACT (eACT) Mocks at West Po are currently being offered in the paper and pencil version as the new, official *digital* version of the eACT has not yet achieved a good user experience. Applerouth is not advising anyone to take the official eACT digitally, if they can avoid it.
Wondering how close to the “real thing” the mock tests are? ~ For Applerouth's Mock SAT's, to ensure our students are still receiving detailed, question-by-question and section-by-section score report breakdowns to pinpoint their exact areas of strength and opportunity, we continue to send our instructors and curriculum writers in, to take the official tests. Our Instructional Design team then uses this intel to create practice tests based on the official, College Board SAT students would experience on the digital Bluebook app.
That way, our Mocks are still as close as possible, both content-wise, and digital experience-wise, as the real thing, but still measurable and useful to our students and their tutors (whereas if they took a "retired" digital SAT, they would merely receive a number, but no score breakdown that they or the tutor could use, to improve upon.)
~ For the Applerouth's Mock ACT's, it's a much shorter, quicker answer: The old (legacy) Mock ACT, and any paper Mock ACT we've ever administered, will always be official ACT's. That hasn't changed and won't change, so as long as students are opting for the paper ACT, be it legacy (old) or enhanced (new), it will be an official version of that test!
Even for the new, enhanced ACT, we recommend students opt for the paper version when taking it officially, since ACT.org hasn't ironed out all of the bugs in its digital version yet (and take it WITH the optional Science section, at least once, just in case they end up applying somewhere that requires it.)
What’s New about the ACT?
Plenty! Applerouth tutors have taken the new Enhanced ACT (eACT) and share their thoughts below.
The ACT is Changing: What the Enhanced ACT Means for Juniors and Seniors by The Applerouth Team, August 8, 2025, 5 min read.
The Enhanced ACT: The Good, The Bad, and What Your Students Want to Know by Christine Ingari, August 20, 2025, 2 min read.
To Science or Not to Science? Navigating the Biggest Change to the New ACT by The Applerouth Team, April 28, 2025, 3 min read.
MORE RESOURCES
eACT pdf – Talks about the design of the new eACT and compares the eACT to the Legacy ACT (the old version).
SAT vs. new eACT Comparison Chart – offers a detailed comparison of the two tests. With all these changes, give the eACT a try with a mock test!
2025/26 Official Test Dates and Deadlines – A handy list to help you plan your testing dates and prep.
SAT/eACT Concordance Table – helps you compare your SAT and eACT scores to determine test strength. If you take both the SAT and eACT mock relatively close together and score 70 points or less difference (using the Concordance Table), that is considered equal strength in both tests.
Scholarships - WPHS student need-based scholarships for mocks and classes are available through the College and Career Center Specialist, Karen B, Young, kbyoung1@fcps.edu
Test Prep Web Page – General information about test prep and links to West Po prep events
Applerouth Tutoring – Experienced tutors are available for questions at 202-558-5644
PTSA Test Prep Chair – Marilyn Aboff, marilynaboff@yahoo.com
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