Dear Parents, 

We are now just three days away from our Meet the Teacher event and six days away from welcoming our first group of students back into the classrooms for our staggered, phased reopening! Our faculty and staff are busy with additional technology training this week, and we are counting the days until we can reconnect with you!

Here is some important information for our families in these final days of summer:

Communication:

1) Eagle Edition

Beginning August 31, you will receive the weekly school e-newsletter on Mondays. We strongly encourage you to read or skim this information EVERY SINGLE WEEK. We take great care to fill your e-inbox with only the most important news during the school year and the Eagle Edition is the very best way to stay informed about everything going on at our school!

2) Social Media

News and events in all areas of the school are posted on our social media accounts. Please take a moment to "like" or "follow" us on your favorite apps below. It's a great way to stay connected. Feel free to "like" and "share" our school posts or tag @palmettochristianacademy on your personal posts and photos. Your online interaction with us is an easy way to share the great news about PCA!
3) Text Messaging System

We will keep you updated on important information throughout the school year via the website, email, social media and our emergency text messaging platform. Our text messaging allows us to quickly communicate in the event of a school closure. If you have not opted-in to our PCA emergency text messaging system, please do so by texting YES to 87569. We want to ensure that you receive all Palmetto Christian Academy text messages. Please note, it is an FCC requirement to opt-in to receive emergency messages.

Deciding When To Stay Home:

Keeping our campus healthy will be a collective effort, one we are asking everyone in our school community to support. Knowing when to keep your child home from school will help us minimize risk and maintain a healthy environment. Please review the key protocols below. You will find a printable PDF of the "Deciding When To Stay Home" flow chart at the bottom of this email for your convenience.
Important Email Addresses To Know:

As we begin the school year, we want to remind you how to report a student absence. Parents should email attendance@palmettochristianacademy.org if their child will be absent, late to school, or will leave early. Lower school parents should also email their child's teacher. We ask that you provide 24 hours notice if you will be picking up your child for an appointment. This will allow us to better serve you in making sure we have your child ready at the front desk to sign out.

If your child is experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or if a member of your household is positive for COVID-19, parents must notify the school nurses at schoolnurse@palmettochristianacademy.org. We ask that you put "COVID" in the subject line of the email.

Of course, you can find email addresses for all faculty and staff on our website at
https://www.palmettochristianacademy.org/welcome/faculty-staff/. We will be adding our new faculty members soon!


Ordering School Lunches:

EZ School Apps is the third party entity that our cafeteria uses. You can access it through MYPCA, then Resources. There is no need to create an account with them as entering through MYPCA automatically logs you in to the program. Should you have an issue accessing the site, please contact Selina Zubia at szubia@palmettochristianacademy.org.

Click on the lunch icon to be transported to the lunch site. Select the name of the student whose account you'd like to fund from the upper right hand side of the page. Click on "meal payment" on the toolbar and select "add money". Should you have multiple children, you can add a larger amount to one and then distribute funds between the other children.

Menu items for the month of August are listed. Lunch MUST be preordered by 6 am the day of purchase. Cash will not be taken at the door.

Please wait until Friday, August 14 to fund student accounts to give us time to double-check that all information is correct.


Upper School PE:

As a measure of precaution, upper school students will not change into their PE clothes. Rather, they will remain in the clothes that they are wearing. On days when a child is scheduled for PE, they are able to dress in their uniform or in Eagle FAM attire (please see the handbook for details). This will allow them the flexibility to wear clothing that they may be more comfortable in during PE activities. 


Meet the Teacher:

Here's a quick reminder of our Meet the Teacher event on Friday, August 14 from 9 am to 3 pm for Grades K-12. This will be an alphabetical, staggered schedule in order to limit the number of students and parents in the building.

The times are as follows for family last names:
9-10 am   Adorno - Craft
10-11 am  Crawford - Horton
11am-12pm   Howard - Murphy
1-2 pm   Myers - Shaw
2-3 pm   Sheets - ZumBrunnen

Upper School students, we ask that you please print out a copy of your schedule and bring it with you. Meet the Teacher is an optional and casual drop-in, so uniforms are not required.


Student Schedules & Rosters:

Upper school student schedules and lower school class rosters are now available via MYPCA.

Student Life Center:

We are super excited to welcome you back to campus so you can see the incredible progress on the Student Life Center! If you missed last Friday's email, be sure to take a look at our new Student Life Center Giving Registry. Our design development team has created a fantastic plan for space layout and design.

With this new registry, you can select a specific area in which to give - toward the purchase of new video scoreboards, bleachers, student/teacher lounge furniture, technology upgrades, science lab equipment, lockers and more. Your investment will abundantly bless the daily experience of every student and teacher. 

There is much to celebrate at PCA! We are convinced that this will be a year of which we can be proud, and one that will bring an even greater appreciation of the love and connection we share within our PCA family.

In Christ,
Darla Rourk
Director of Marketing and Communications