We had a wonderful Back-to-School evening last Thursday for Pre-Kindergarten through fifth grades.  It was an opportunity to meet your children's teachers and get an overview of schedules and to review academic and behavior expectations for each class and teacher.  This Tuesday, our Middle School Back-to-School evening will begin at 6:00 PM.  We do middle school on a different evening so as to allow parents to fully meet with every middle school teacher.  Parents should go directly to your child's homeroom where general grade level information will be shared.  Then parents will follow their child's schedule and meet the teachers. Specials and resources will be in the lobby for parents to gather more information.  Unfortunately, we will not be able to do a repeat session, but there will be time for parents to meet with missed teachers after the first session. 

Thank you to all who volunteered to be a Room Parent.  In some grades we had an overabundance of volunteers and had to select two main coordinators.  Selection was made simply by experience in the position.  Oddly, in some grades we had few volunteers and our coordinator, Mrs. Lisa Keller, had reach out to parents for the positions.  If you were not selected to be a parent coordinator, please know that the coordinator will need your help.  It is a team effort to accomplish all the activities for each grade level.  The coordinator is simply the liaison between teacher and parents.  Regardless of our journey, we have a great group of parents willing to help the teacher and students in each class' projects.  One important and timely project is the creation of gift baskets for the annual auction.  This year the auction is a little earlier than in past years, therefore, it is critical these baskets get completed as soon as possible. Very shortly you will be hearing from your homeroom Parent Coordinators.  All grades create one basket based on a theme.  Further, some grades create an item that is a hands-on project with all the students from that grade.  These projects cannot be made with classroom funds only, so further donations of money or items will be requested.  Please know that the classroom funds go to some auction costs, class parties, birthday and end of the year gifts for teachers and assistants, and other special grade specific items.  Each coordinator will keep a budget that can be shared with anyone. 

Our Auction Committee extraordinaire is extremely busy getting donations, making plans, and now ready to delegate.  The first organizational meeting will be on Thursday, September 7th, at 8:15 AM in the Home and School room (110).  Anyone wanting to help in any capacity is asked to attend this meeting.  So much help is needed to make this event successful.  If you wish to help, but cannot attend this meeting, please reach out to one of our chairpersons listed below in the volunteer opportunities.  There are many projects that can be done from home by our working parents.  Please save the date for the Home and School's biggest fundraiser and an amazing fun night - Saturday, November 4, 2017 at Jupiter Beach Resort.

As it has been mentioned in many notes and letters home, we begin our MAP's fall testing period this week. This will run for three weeks to accommodate all grades from Kindergarten through sixth.  Each class only takes two - one hour tests, one in English Language Arts and one in Math. Very little class time is used for testing.  We have to spread this testing out to ensure each class has sufficient proctors, particularly the lower grades.   Parents, please be sensitive to your child's testing times so that you do not bring him/her late or remove them for early dismissal during the testing times.  Teachers should be reaching out to your about those specific dates and times for testing. We hope to get all our data back by the middle or end of September and will share this with parents as soon as possible.  We realize this is the first time our teachers and students are involved with this test and there may be some difficulties.  However, unlike the Iowa series, tests can be reset and done over.  The beauty of this test is that it is never the same for each child.  A child's answers leads to questions in different areas and difficulty.  Our entire faculty will be attending professional development over the next month, specifically on the understanding of student data.  This will allow our faculty to best meet the needs of each child.

I would like to remind parents of safety in the car line.  During drop off, all passengers in a vehicle should remain in seat belts until the car comes to a complete stop.  Further, all children should be buckled into seat belts before the car takes off after pick up. Our faculty see far too many children freely roaming the car while it is in motion.  A minor collision can have devastating results for a child not secured in a car.  Further, while there is no law requiring students to sit in the rear of the vehicle, it is recommended that children 12 and under sit in the back seat.  This would mean that even some of middle school students should be in the back. We see many students well below this age recommendation, sitting in the front.  Please see the following link for safety tips, https://www.flhsmv.gov/pdf/childsafety/childsafety-parenthandout-safetybelt.pdf.  It is critical home and school partner to keep our children safe.