Rachel Carson Middle School

Infobox Education in the United States
name= Rachel Carson Middle School


imagesize= 100px
motto= Ocean's Eleven: A Sea of Success
city= near Herndon
state= Virginia
zipcode= 20171
url= http://www.fcps.edu/RachelCarsonMS
district= Fairfax County Public Schools
principal= August Frattali
assistant_principals=Shawn Brown Tamara Ballou
fundingtype= Public
schooltype= middle school
grades= 7-8
mascot= Panthers
colors= Teal and black
founded= 1998
enrollment= 1,140
enrollment_as_of= 2007
bgcolor_section= #BBDDBB
bgcolor_label= #BBDDBB
bgcolor_value= #EEEEEE
bgcolor_address= #EEEEEE
bgcolor_url= #EEEEEE
free_label_1= Feeds into
free_1= Westfield High School, Oakton High School, South Lakes High School, or Chantilly High School

Rachel Carson Middle School is a middle school in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, southwest of Herndon. The school is part of Fairfax County Public Schools. Its principal is August Frattali. Opened in the 1998-1999 school year, it is named after the biologist Rachel Carson and has been a School To Watch in Virginia since 2004. [cite web |url=http://www.schoolstowatch.org/state/list.htm#virginia |title=Schools to Watch |accessdate=2007-12-10 |publisher=National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform]

Students attend either Westfield High School, Chantilly High School, Oakton High School, South Lakes High School, or other private Catholic schools as their high school. If they qualify, they may go to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Virginia. Students graduate from Floris, Crossfield, McNair, Fox Mill, Poplar Tree, Hunters Woods, Lee's Corner, Oak Hill, Waples Mill, Navy, Dogwood and other elementary schools to Rachel Carson.

School begins at 8:00 AM and ends at 2:50 PM. The school is divided into eight "teams" (also referred to as "pods"), which are very similar to the idea of high school sub-schools. The pods are as follows: 7th grade: All-Stars, Trailblazers (Gifted and Talented), Champions (Gifted and Talented), and Dream Team. 8th grade: Wolves (Gifted and Talented), X-Treme, Yellowjackets, and Dolphins (Gifted and Talented). Four of the pods offer GT classes. Each team has its own set of lockers, sometimes a computer lab, and core classrooms (Science, English, History/Civics, and Mathematics - unless students are taking 7 Honors, 8 Honors, Algebra 1, or Geometry 1 (occasionally Algebra 2)). There are also a number of mobile computer labs equipped with Dell Inspirons laptop computers.

Every year, the school's motto changes. The motto for the 2007-2008 school year was Decade of Dreams, as 2008 marked the 10th anniversary of RCMS's opening. The motto for 2008-2009 is Ocean's Eleven: A Sea Of Success, representing the 11 years that RCMS has been around.

The school offers a Japanese language immersion program, a Latin language program, and features the Gifted and Talented Center Program. The school has partnerships with EDS, the [http://www.scitor.com/index.php Scitor Corporation] , and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Food Tampering Incidents

In April 2007, a seventh grader was charged with tampering with the food in the cafeteria. [cite news |first=Maria |last=Glod |title=Boy Charged With Food Tampering |url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/09/AR2007050901259.html |work= |publisher=Washington Post |page=B05 |date=2007-05-10 |accessdate=2007-12-10 ] The boy was alleged to have put a pin in an applesauce container. This is one of three April 2007 incidents involving food tampering at the school. The others, which were under investigation, included a pin in cranberry sauce and a pin in a yogurt. The student no longer attends Carson.Fact|date=April 2008

External links

* [http://fcps.edu/RachelCarsonMS/ Official website]
* [http://commweb.fcps.edu/schoolprofile/profile.cfm?profile_id=171 School Profile]
*Fairfax County Public Schools

References