Grassfield High School

October Grizzly Growl

One Team. One Goal. All Heart.

A Message from Mr. Haughinberry:

Principal

Dear Grizzly Families:

As we move into October, I wanted to take a moment to connect with you. I am grateful for the partnership we share in your student's educational journey and for the trust you place in our school.

Our dedicated faculty and staff are committed to providing a nurturing and engaging environment where every student feels supported as they learn, grow, and pursue excellence. We look forward to a month of continued progress and shared successes.

Our homecoming game and parade information are highlighted in this newsletter, as well as, PSAT and Writing SOL Information. Thank you for your unwavering support. Please remind your students to come to school prepared and well-rested on both of these important testing days.

Please also follow our social media pages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for any last-minute updates. If you have any questions, please contact us at 757-558-4749.

Sincerely,

Brian Haughinberry, Principal

September Events

October 3

Military Appreciation Football game, 7:00 pm.

October 4

Homecoming Dance-Ticket must be shown at the door.

October 10

Homecoming Parade: Parade begins at 5:30 pm; please arrive before 5:30, as Scenic Parkway will be closed.

Homecoming Game: 7:00 pm

October 14-16

PSAT for all 10th graders and qualified 9th and 11th graders.

October 22

Juniors enrolled in English 11 courses will complete the required English 11 SOL Essay portion. October 23 serves as the makeup date.

October 29

Juniors enrolled in English 11 courses will complete the required English 11 SOL Multiple-Choice portion. October 30 serves as the makeup date.

Instructional Updates

Thursday, October 2 marks the end of our first marking period. Please make sure that your students are communicating with their teachers to complete their missing assignments. Please see more information regarding make-up work and late-work below.

If your student needs a Chromebook case, please have them request one from Mr. Winslow at the Help desk.

Make-up work is defined as assignments or assessments missed due to a student absence. Students shall be permitted to make up work because of excused or unexcused absences, including in-school or out-of-school suspensions (School Board Regulation 6-44). Students who are absent on the day an assignment or assessment was assigned, or are absent on the day the assignment or assessment is due, are permitted to submit work according to the make-up work policy.

  1. It is the student’s responsibility to access and submit all completed work missed when absent. Students absent between one to three consecutive days have up to five instructional days to submit make-up work for full credit.

  2. When a student is absent the day of an assessment, the student should be prepared to make up the assessment as soon as possible as agreed upon with the teacher.

  3. Teachers will use a zero in Synergy for all missing work with a comment of “absent”. This will compute as a zero until work is made up so as to not inflate grades in ParentVue or StudentVue.

  4. After the five-day window, missing make-up work is considered late work. See protocol for late work below.

Late work is defined as assignments or assessments submitted after the due date/time with no related absence.

  1. It is the student’s responsibility to access and submit all work on time to avoid a late work penalty.

  2. Teachers will respond to late work with a grade deduction of no more than 10% per day, not to exceed 30% total deducted for being late.

  3. Late work must be submitted within five instructional days of the date the work is due for credit.

Until a student submits late work, teachers should use a zero in Synergy for all late work with a comment of “late”. This will compute as a zero until work is submitted so as to not inflate grades in ParentVue and/or StudentVue.

This information and more is available in your students instructional syllabus for each course.

Study Hall

2025-2026

Please review the Study Hall Schedule below.

*Note-Students are responsible for their own transportation; there is no activity bus.

Study Hall Information

Assessments

PSAT/NMSQT

PSAT:

The PSAT will be administered over the course of two days. All sophomores and registered Freshmen and Juniors will take the PSAT on Tuesday, Oct 14 or Thursday, Oct 16. Students will receive communication on their testing day and location via their student school gmail accounts.

Fall Writing SOL:

The Fall administration of the writing SOL will begin in two weeks for those students who are currently enrolled in English 11 courses. If you have any questions regarding whether or not your student will be completing an SOL, please reach out to their School Counselor.

Other Instructional Updates

Impact Aid Cards

Impact Aid Cards will be distributed on October 14th through the student's homeroom. Please complete these forms and send them back to school on October 15th. They should be turned into the student's bell 1 teacher.

Please see the letter for more information. If you have any questions, please email Mrs. Stevens with questions: Sonja.stevens@cpschools.com

A note from our Attendance Secretary:

Parents and Guardians are to use ParentVUE to report all absences, tardies, and dismissals. Parents can submit one attendance note via ParentVUE per day. If you need to edit or send another note, please call or email Morgan.Wilkins@cpschools.com with your update.

New Attendance Codes:

  • TEC: Students that have a valid reason for missing more than 30 minutes of class

  • TUC: students that do not have a valid reason for missing more than 30 minutes of class

  • To ensure all students are accounted for in emergency situations, CPS introduced two new attendance codes, Tardy Excused Class and Tardy Unexcused Class.

  • Should a student be present for less than an hour of instructional time, they will no longer be marked “Absent”, however they will be marked “TEC” or “TUC”.

Course Loss of Credit: 10 blocks of the following codes: AE, AU, AUV, TEC, TUC

Reporting Absences, Tardies, and Dismissals:

Attendance 1

On the main navigation page, you will see a blue "Report Absence" button. When reporting departures via ParentVue, parents do not need to come into the building to sign out their students. Students will scan their student ID to check out at the attendance office and meet you in the car! Directions below and visuals below!

Click Report Absence → Select Date → Select the reason (Absence or Tardy/Depart) → Scroll to "Notes" portion of report → Type the reason and time for dismissal → Click Save

The Attendance office will notify your student with permission to depart one of two ways:

  1. E-Hallpass

  2. Call to the classroom for dismissal.

  3. Parent walk-in

Students with PC submissions for departures with a quick turnaround time will receive a call to their classroom.

If Parents submit a departure submission requesting a time within the hour, the attendance office will do their best to call out your student on time.

ParentVUEAttendance Features Video: Click Here

Walk-in Dismissals: Walk-in dismissal cut off time is 3:45pm. The attendance office is not permitted to call a student out of class without written permission. Adults signing out a student must be on the student's Pick-Up list and show their physical ID to the attendance secretary.

Student Tardy Check-in and Dismissal Kiosks: Students are to have their StudentID cards or StudentVUE QR Code ready to scan for check in and dismissal. When students scan their StudentID or QR Code, they are able to quickly and efficiently enter and exit the building.

Reminder: Per Chesapeake Public Schools, written early dismissal permission is required for all students including those students over 18 years old.

Accessing StudentVUE ID QR Code: Students will open the StudentVUE app → Click Menu option in the bottom left corner (three lines on iPhone. + on Android) → Click "ID Card" → Screenshot We recommend screenshotting StudentID QR codes so students can quickly access their QR code for checking in and signing out for dismissal.

Parents can also access their student's ID QR code in their ParentVUE app. ID QR codes are not available on the web version of StudentVUE or ParentVUE.

Access Student ID & Screenshot

Attendance 2

Student Leadership Updates

Hoco Parade
Hoco Spirit Week
Hoco Dance
Key Club Event

Looking for something fun today AND want to support the Grassfield High School Key Club? Consider checking out the Craft & Create Club at Major Hillard Library.

Student Parking

Parking passes are sold out. Mrs. Ott will be opening a wait-list in December for mid-year sales, if spots become available.

Portraits, Photos, & Yearbook

Senior portraits: Attention, seniors! This is your final call to schedule your senior photos at Grassfield. Lifetouch/Prestige Portraits will be in the auditorium on October 20–21. Please use this link for scheduling: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/GrassfieldHSGY26

Can’t make it those days? You can also book an appointment at one of our senior portrait studios by visiting www.prestigeportraits.com/studio.

Seniors sitting for portraits with outside studios must have the photographer submit the photo to patricia.walsh@cpschools.com by Nov. 16. 

Senior ads: Celebrate your senior with a recognition ad in The Pawprint yearbook! Ads can be purchased at https://schools.lifetouch.com/yearbooks-for-parents/, but don’t wait — the deadline to reserve your space is Feb. 2, 2026.

Underclass photos: Fall underclass photos will be taken on October 27-28, with retakes scheduled for December 1. An alphabetical schedule will be shared as the dates near, so please stay tuned for more details. If you have any questions, please email patricia.walsh@cpschools.com. 

Yearbook sales: Don’t miss your chance to own the limited-edition collection of memories from this school year! The Pawprint yearbook is now on sale, with prices starting at $85. Order your copy today at https://schools.lifetouch.com/yearbooks-for-parents/.

Field of Valor

Field of Valor

The Field of Valor is a tradition aimed at generating a visual and heart-felt salute to military service members in recognition of Veterans Day through a display of American flags. Individual miniature flags can be sponsored to recognize family, friends, Grizzly alumni, Chesapeake Gold Star Service Members as part of our Field of Valor. Flag sponsorship is just $3 and flags are labeled in honor of the service member. All proceeds go to benefit our local Chesapeake veterans through Chesapeake’s own Veterans of Foreign Wars post command. Be a part of this Grizzly Tradition!

Sponsorship forms are available through Friday, October 31st.

The Field is planted by our students and ready for observance of the holiday. Flags are planted alphabetically and folks are encouraged to visit their flags. Our hope this year is to sponsor over 1,200 flags to fly in front of Grassfield High School and around the Cody Childers Memorial. Please consider supporting this wonderful service-learning activity.

Option 1: Mail a sponsorship payment and use the Printable Sponsorship Form. Include one for each flag sponsorship. 

Printable Sponsorship Form

Option 2: Complete BOTH steps. 

Step #1 - Online Payment Link:   https://osp.osmsinc.com/p/DD059-VAR5 

Step #2 - Service Member Google Form: https://forms.gle/6Anxt2fbdLwjvT9t9

Option 3: Flag sponsorships will be available in-person at a variety of HOME varsity football games, during select lunches (dates announced on the G-News), and in classroom D105.

School Counseling Corner

Welcome to School Year 2025-2026

School Counselors

Students should have an ehall pass from their teacher or an appointment entered in ehall pass by their counselor before visiting their counselor's office. Please contact the school counseling department at 558-4509 for additional help.

School Counselor Alpha-List:

  • Ms. Lenhart: A-Be

  • Ms. Butler: Bf-C

  • Ms. Askew: D-Gn

  • Ms. Edmonds-Young: Go-J

  • Ms. Creamer: K-Me

  • Mr. Lubelski: Mf-Ra

  • Ms. Davis: Rb-St

  • Ms. Morris: Su-Z

Monthly Updates

✨The Erika's Lighthouse Depression Education and Awareness program will be presented to all freshmen during their PE 9 class.  Students who have PE 9 as a full year or fall semester class will receive the training in October.  Parents/guardians, please ask your student for the letter from their PE teacher about the program with the date of their presentation listed.  If your student is absent, a make-up session will be offered in the spring.  If your student is scheduled for PE 9 in the spring, they will receive the opt-out letter next semester from their PE teacher.

✨All seniors will have a meeting with their counselor in October to review graduation requirements, diploma type, plans for after high school and answer any questions. 

✨Additionally, seniors who have not completed the hands on CPR/FA/AED training that is required to earn the standard or advanced studies diploma should save the date:  Friday, December 12th at 2:30.

✨Attention Military Families! Grassfield High School is dedicated to supporting military-connected students and offers the Military and Family Life Counseling (MFLC) Program for all active duty and recently retired servicemembers and their dependents. MFLCs provide free confidential non-medical counseling and support for a range of issues to include military life challenges, academic stress, relationship building, and adjustment to transitions. If you would like to access these services or if you have questions, please contact Hannah Spanik, MFLC at 757-719-9654 for more information. 

✨October 22nd is Unity Day.  WEAR and SHARE ORANGE to come together in one giant message uniting our nation for kindness, acceptance and inclusion, and even the world, to visibly show that we believe no child should ever experience bullying.  This is a day when we can come together to send a visible message of building commUNITY through kindness, acceptance, and inclusion. The call to action is simple: wear and share the color orange. 

Transcripts

Transcripts include students' final grades, class rank, GPA, SAT/ACT scores, Industry Credentials, and courses in progress for the year. Transcripts may be ordered, processed, and delivered using Parchment. Most students have created a Parchment account. If your student has not created a Parchment account, directions will be emailed to them around October 15th explaining how to create the account.

Athletic Updates

Tickets & Passes

Cash is NO LONGER accepted at Chesapeake Public Schools athletic events. All tickets must be purchased via Gofan.co (not .com) prior to the game.

Adults - $7 Student - $5

Parents are highly encouraged to purchase a “Parent Pass” at Gofan.co. Parent passes are ONLY $60 and allow you entry into any high school or middle school regular season sports event in the city of Chesapeake. This pass is good for the entire 2024-2025 school year!! (Does not include playoffs events.

“Student passes” are available at Gofan.co as well. Student passes are ONLY $30 and are good for the entire school year to any sports events at the high school or middle school levels.

(Does not include playoffs)


Purchase the 2025-2026 athletic pass using the QR Code.

Acceptable passes for entry into Athletic Events:

🔹 VHSLPass
🔹 VHSCA (Coaches Pass)
🔹 Media Credentials
🔹 Gold Card/CPS Senior Citizen Pass (regular season ONLY)
🔹 Faculty passes of those schools participating in the competition and CPS badges

GO Fan QR Code

Purchase GoFan Tickets

Winter Cheer Information:

  • Tryout Information Meeting: October 28th at 6pm

    • (Parent & Athlete are both encouraged to attend) 

  • Tryouts: November 13, 14, & 17th from 4:30-5:45pm

PTSA Updates

The following individuals will be serving a two year term as officers of our PTSA for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 school years. Thank you very much for volunteering your time to serve our school community.

✨President- Sandy Huneycutt
✨1st Vice President (Legislation)-Amy Fannon
✨2nd Vice President (Craft Show)- Meghan McDermott
✨Treasurer- Dawn Tenorio
✨Secretary-Charlene Shearer

Please check out our Facebook for meeting details or for link to Join. New Members are always welcome!

Join the PTSA!

It's that time of the year that we invite all parents and students to join our PTSA. The cost is $8.00 and you may join at the link below. Any senior student wishing to apply for a $1000 scholarship(possibly 3), needs to be a member to win. We hope to have many members as we all work together to make this a fabulous school year for all!

Givebacks (memberhub.com).

Please follow us on Facebook- Grassfield High School PTSA and Instagram-GFHSPTSA

If you have any questions, please feel free to email GFHSPTSA@gmail.com

Special Giveaway

Updates

Thank you to everyone who came out to support the PTSA at our annual Craft Fair!  We would especially like to thank the many students and parent volunteers who devoted their time to help at our event.

Our next PTSA meeting is Tuesday, October 14 at 4:30 PM in the main office. 

Reflections

The PTA Reflections contest is back this year and the theme is "I Belong."  Please email schraedfam@gmail.com if you have any questions or would like more information.

Reflections