FCS Community
FCS Community News
Grandfriends Day at FCS
Friday, April 25, 2008
9:00 am - 1:00 pm
Grandfriends Day is an opportunity for your child to invite a Grandfriend to spend part of the day at FCS and see the school in action! It is also a chance for the school to share all the exciting things that are going on in our classrooms with the community that support our students.
Who is a Grandfriend?An adult who plays an important role in your child's life! Grandparents, aunts, uncles, older cousins, a longtime nanny or babysitter, a coach, a scout leader are all Grandfriends. Ask your child with whom he/she would like to share this day. If time or distance makes it difficult for your child's Grandfriend to attend, your child is welcome to invite a parent.
How does it work?You fill out the attached form and send it back to school in kid-mail, or email the information to Quillin McLean at quillin@friendscommunityschool.org. We will send an invitation to your Grandfriend along with this schedule of events:
- 9:00 - 9:30am Arrive, coffee in the foyer
- 9:30 - 10:00am Tour of the new, "green" building
- 10:00 - 10:30am Performance in the multi-purpose room
- 10:30 - 12 noon Classroom visits and Meeting for Worship
- 12 noon - 1:00pm Lunch and Greeting from Connie Belfiore
We are looking forward to sharing the school with the Grandfriends of FCS. We will mail out invitations as soon as we receive the attached form from you!
Download the Grandfriends Day Form, (PDF, 44KB).
Thanks!
Students to Place Time Capsule in One of World's Largest Straw-Bale Buildings
COLLEGE PARK, Md. - On Monday, March 12, 2007, at 11:30 a.m., students from Friends Community School (FCS) will fill a time capsule and place it in the school's new eco-friendly building, now under construction at 5901 Westchester Park Drive in College Park, Md. To be completed this spring, the 26,885 square-foot facility is one of the world's largest structures built primarily out of straw bales.
If the school were constructed from masonry, the time capsule might go in a cornerstone. Instead, it will be placed behind plexiglass in a lobby wall, where it will remain on display for 25 years.
Inside the capsule will be artifacts of 2007, and student contributions that will include lists of students' predictions for environmental progress over the next quarter-century. Their predictions include the invention of solar-powered vehicles, a complete ban on synthetic pesticides, and entire cities heated with geothermal energy. FCS plans to invite students back in 2032 to open the capsule and check the accuracy of their predictions.
FCS' faculty and trustees hope the new "green" facility will serve as an example for buildings of the future. It will be LEED certified, and serve as a world-wide model of straw-bale construction for large projects. It also features a vegetated roof to help with insulation and storm water management, an environmentally friendly ventilation system, and a rain garden to reduce soil erosion and filter pollutants from rainwater.
"Respect for the environment is one of this Quaker school's core values, so when creating a plan for its new campus, we sought to create a setting in which students could learn about, and contribute to, sustainability first-hand," said Tom Goss, FCS' head of school.
The $5.7 million project was designed by Hord Coplan Macht of Baltimore, a firm with expertise in sustainable building design. Harbor View Contractors, Inc., serves as general contractor.
Like nearly all of the building's materials, the straw bales came from a local source. A natural byproduct of harvesting grain, straw is a renewable resource, and baling requires little energy compared to the production of other materials. Straw bales provide excellent insulation and, when encased in plaster, are at least as impervious to wind, rain, pests and fire as traditional building materials.
The school is surrounded by 17 acres of woodlands, which will have a variety of common areas, such as hiking trails, playing fields and nature trails. "We look forward to offering meeting rooms, as well as environmental projects and community service opportunities, to our neighbors and the wider community," states Mary Kate O'Neill, clerk of the FCS board of trustees.
Friends Community School exists to teach young people in grades K-8 to be life-long learners, to find that of God within themselves and others, and to strive to reach their fullest potentials as individuals and contributing members of society.
For additional information, please contact: Connie Belfiore, Director of Institutional Advancement, Friends Community School, tel: 301-699-6086 x239.