Good evening, Dragon Nation.
The General Assembly’s ‘bell to bell no cell’ bill will come into effect on July 1. In compliance with this, we are sharing a timetable. Starting this week, we plan to enforce what is already in our Code of Conduct (p.14) for the remainder of the year. Students will still be able to use phones in the cafeteria and transitions, but during class time, phones will need to be powered off and stored in backpacks (not pockets). As this is a cultural change for our school, we plan a long runway, with plenty of input, grace, and communication. In June, we will reassess to see if further steps are needed to comply with the law.
Best Wishes,
Dr. Smith
Acting Director
AP Testing Cancellation Deadline/Other Reminders
Attention students taking Advanced Placement exams in May!
Exam Cancellations: If you are considering cancelling one or more AP exams for May, the final deadline to cancel an exam and receive a partial refund of $59 is 11:59 pm on Tuesday, April 15th. To cancel an exam, students must complete the following form: https://forms.gle/9iXjXgsjukeef6TL6. This form is geared primarily toward seniors who now have a better idea of what exam scores will transfer to their selected college (they should read the AP and dual enrollment credit transfer document available on their college’s website), and have determined they will not receive additional credit for one or more of their AP exams. Please read ALL of the text and advice on this matter at the top of the form before submitting it. Refunds will be processed by early May. Students may still cancel exams after April 15th, but no refund will be issued.
Unpaid Exam Fees: There are some students with unresolved AP exams payments. These fees will be applied to students’ accounts and could result in a hold on transcripts if not resolved.
Transportation arrangements during AP Exams: As students and parents plan for AP testing, remember that morning exams begin at 8:30 and students are advised to arrive at their testing room between 8:00 and 8:15 (or 12:15 for an afternoon exam). Students will want to be in their seats and ready to log into Test Day Toolkit on a school computer by 8:30 (or 12:30 for an afternoon exam). We will make every effort to hold an exam for a late bus, but because morning exams must be underway by 8:50 (including reading directions), we may need to proceed with testing without students who are running late. We encourage students to use the transportation method on exam day that will allow them to be in place and ready to test by 8:30am.
Afternoon exams will almost always run past the end of the school day. For students who ride the bus, alternate transportation will need to be arranged for afternoon exams. Afternoon exams will release at varied times, but 4:30 is our generally anticipated time. It could be earlier or later depending on the varied length of the morning and afternoon exams. Students should notify their coaches or employers of their potential late arrival to practice or jobs if taking an afternoon exam.
Logging into Test Day Toolkit: Because students are testing on school computers, it is critical that students have their College Board login credentials committed to memory.
AP Testing Schoology Group and Other Reminders: Students are reminded that, per College Board regulation, cell phones and other electronic devices are not permitted in the exam room. More information about this and other things to bring or not bring will be available through updates in the AP Testing schoology group. If students have not accepted their invitation to join the AP testing schoology group, they will want to do so immediately to ensure they are receiving real time updates on testing locations, start times, etc.
Mech Tech Dragons:
I wanted to let everyone know that the team did very well this weekend.
The robotics team dominated the First Chesapeake District Championships. They placed first during qualifications which resulted in the team being the first seeded alliance captain. The team also won the event. In addition, they received the District Championship Impact Award and Sophia Santos was the Dean’s list finalist. In addition, they are the first team to earn the maximum number of Championship qualification points. They have now moved to the top 15 in the world.
The Team will compete next week in Houston at FIRST Championship (aka World Championship). If you would like to follow along or check in on the team next week use the following links. Qualification rounds are Thursday and Friday, with Division and Einstein tournaments on Saturday.
The Blue Alliance – https://www.thebluealliance.com/event/2025cmptx
UNCOVERING FASHION – Community engagement project with VCU Department of Fashion + Merchandising
MLWGS, through SECSEE and Students Against Climate Change, is partnering with VCU Department of Fashion Design + Merchandising on UNCOVERING FASHION, a community engagement project focused on collecting unwearable or unusable garments. The pieces will be used by artists at VCU to create works addressing the myriad problems related to textile waste generated each year. An opening reception for the exhibition will be held on October 2, 2025 at the Main Street Station Gallery.
Please participate by bringing clean, unwearable or unusable clothing to the Bluestone Lobby collection box. It will be available from Monday, April 14 – Friday, April 18. For more information go to: https://www.popupstop.org/upcomingevents Signage at the exhibition will note our role as a participating partner.
Enrollment is open for the 2026 Spring Break trip to Belize
Your student will spend the week immersed in the beautiful rain forests and coral reefs of this vibrant Latin American nation. We will learn about Mayan culture and tropical ecology while having fun zip-lining, canoeing, cave tubing and snorkeling. Follow this link for enrollment details
https://www.eftours.com/tour-website/2860907SV?utm_source%3Daccount-hp
Or contact Mr. Barnes [email protected],va.us
Mu Alpha Theta Guest Speaker, April 16: Emily R. Lutken
Mu Alpha Theta is pleased to announce a guest speaker in celebration of “April = Math Awareness Month + National Poetry Month”. E. R. Lutken (https://www.erlutkenpoetry.com/about-5) will be at MLWGS on Wednesday, April 16. She has agreed to do a lunch-time workshop as well as an afterschool presentation.
Dr. Lutken, a physician on the Navajo Nation most of her career, later taught science and math at a middle school/high school in rural Colorado for six years. Her poems have appeared in Reed Magazine, Think, Prime Number and many other journals, and her poetry collection “Manifold: poetry of mathematics” (3: A Taos Press, 2021) won the New Mexico First Book Award in 2022. Her poems also appear in the AWM publication “Women in MathArt” ( Springer Nature, 2024).
To read one of Lutken’s poems titled “Ars Parabola”, please go to “Intersections—Poetry with Mathematics”, the blog authored by Joanne Growney (another mathematical poet). This poem is written in the Vietamese “luc bat” poetic form. https://poetrywithmathematics.blogspot.com/2021/11/manifold-poetry-inspired-by-mathematics.html,
The lunch-time workshop will be held in the Media Center. In this workshop, participants will learn about a new form of poetry involving an ancient method used to find prime numbers. Participants will then work on a short poem using that form.
The presentation will be in the Forum from 3:30-4:45. Here is an abstract of her talk, “Math and Poetry – “a fire in the mind”: “Although poetry and math are rarely considered alongside each other, they have many aspects in common. Each in its way also has the capability to enhance the other. Several examples of poems involving math, ranging from basic arithmetic to advanced mathematics are presented, and the ways in which these poems may foster understanding and creativity are discussed.”
If you have questions, contact Lynn Foshee Reed at [email protected] .
Senior Letter/Senior Events 2025
Every year, MLWGS publishes a letter with information about senior-related events taking place for the remainder of the year. As it is only April, we want to remind you that some details may change. We hope that you will bookmark this letter and refer back to it as we near each activity and opportunity. If you have any questions, please contact the individual(s) responsible for the event.
You can access the letter here.
We look forward to celebrating all of our seniors as we get closer to the end of the year!
Scholarship Opportunities for MLWGS Seniors
Seniors, if you are interested in applying for a MLWGS-exclusive scholarship (the Dr. Smriti Bardhan Scholarship, the Rajan Scholarship, the Priscilla Green Memorial Scholarship, or the $10,000 Robert E. and Jacquelyn Pogue Scholarship), you are encouraged to revisit Ms. Forquer’s Schoology post in the “College Information for the Class of 2025” page about these opportunities. The application deadline for the Bardhan, Rajan, and Pt. 1 of the Pogue is NOON on Wednesday, March 26, 2025. The application for the Priscilla Green can be found here and is due by March 31: https://bit.ly/PGMS2025
For more scholarship opportunities, check out the MLWGS Class of 2025 Scholarship List: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1t1CNmRcjxs9SSXjTh1g5Z-oDDQ8XLlZJN57s9cAWrvs/edit?usp=sharing
Juniors:
Senior/College Counselors Dr. Loving and Ms. Forquer encourage you to visit their SignUp Genius links on the “College Information for the Class of 2026” Schoology page with your parents to discuss the scheduling of your individual Junior College Meeting.
SPANISH and FRENCH STUDENTS NEED HOST FAMILIES IN JULY OR AUGUST!!!
Share your heart and home this summer! Host a student from Spain or France (ages 13-17) in your home for 3-4 weeks. Learn about their culture while he or she learns about living in an American family just being a part of what you regularly do. We have a variety of programs to suit your family’s work or non-working schedule. Families receive stipends to help out with expenses. We can help work out transportation or vacation concerns. This will be a treasured memory for your family! Contact Debbie Hardy 804 909-3190 or [email protected] To see the available students- https://secure.smore.com/n/2y7xr
Host a Spanish or French teen this summer and make unforgetable memories!!
Express Your Support for Transcription Projects through the Library of VA
Do you appreciate being able to earn community service hours through the MLWGS Library’s Transcribe Team? Have you learned something valuable through your transcription work? If so, please help support the continuation of this program by coming to the MLWGS Library during lunch on Thursday, April 17, to write letters of support for the Library of Virginia’s Making History project which makes our Transcribe Team service opportunity possible. Over the past eight years, the MLWGS Library’s Transcribe Team has engaged hundreds of Dragons in transcribing historical documents for community service hours through an ongoing partnership with the Library of Virginia. In recent weeks, the federal funds that support their Making History project have been put in jeopardy by the significant cuts to funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). Funds from IMLS support several facets of the Making History program. Without those funds, this program’s future is uncertain. If you appreciate being able to earn community service hours through our MLWGS Library Transcribe Team, or have learned something valuable while doing so, please show up on Thursday to write letters to state and federal officials to share how Making History matters to you. This advocacy event will be from 11:45am to 12:15pm. You can earn up to 30 minutes of community service time for participating. Hope to see you there!
GO DRAGONS!!!
“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.” – Abraham Maslow
