On behalf of the LNC Elementary School faculty and staff, Ms. Latza, and the administrative team, I would like to officially welcome you to the 2021-2022 school year! I hope all of our families are finishing up a wonderful, safe, and healthy summer break, and that our students are getting ready for the start of school! Your LNC ES school family is beyond excited to welcome back our former students and welcome aboard our newest Knights!
MEET YOUR TEACHER
By now you should have received a “Meet Your Teacher” letter via email introducing you and your child to his or her teacher for the school year. The teachers are looking forward to meeting their students at the upcoming Meet the Teacher Open House to be held on Wednesday, August 11 between 9:00 AM- 12:00 PM. We are thrilled to be hosting our Meet the Teacher Event for the very first time in our new building.
Please take note of the following important information regarding this special morning. This is a drop-in style event for over 600 students. Therefore, we are asking that our families stagger their visit and consider coming a little later in the morning. This will assist with parking availability as well as crowded hallways and classrooms. This event is an opportunity for students to quickly meet their teacher and see their classroom. There will be other opportunities very soon for parents to have more time with the teacher (Back to School Night, parent teacher conferences, etc.). Please do not arrive on the ES campus that morning until after 8:45 AM. If you arrive before 8:45, the entrance will be blocked and you will be asked to come back later by Officer Bononno, our school resource officer. Our staff needs time to arrive to work and prepare for the event, which includes parking, as several staff will be outside to assist with that. We will use the parking lot as well as the two outside carpool lanes (keeping the middle lane open for movement of vehicles coming and going throughout the morning). Thank you for your cooperation and understanding to help make this open house event successful and exciting for our students.
NEW ES STAFF
While most of our teachers will be familiar faces to the majority of families, we do have three new staff members to introduce. Please join me in officially welcoming the following new staff to our school family:
Sierra Wiley will be joining the elementary school as a fourth grade teacher. She was formerly a fourth grade teacher in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools. She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology. She began her teaching career through the Teach for America program, which afforded her the opportunity to teach third and fourth grade in Title 1 schools. She is currently pursuing her Master's in School Administration at UNC-Chapel Hill. Of special and exciting note, Sierra attended our HS and is a member of the LNC graduating class of 2014. Please join me in welcoming Sierra to the LNC school family!
Shreya Sarkar will be joining the elementary school as a Teaching Assistant. Shreya earned her Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Calcutta in India and additionally has an Associate Degree in Early Childhood Education from Central Piedmont Community College. This past school year, Shreya was truly integral to the success of our in-person learning as she served as a reliable, professional, knowledgeable and dedicated substitute teacher at LNC (elementary). In addition, Shreya has prior teaching experience in pre-K and kindergarten. Lastly, Shreya has two daughters, Sneha Mitra and Aarya Mitra, who will be joining us as students this August (first and fourth grades). Please join me in officially welcoming Shreya to the LNC school family!
Christine McDonough will be joining the elementary school as an Exceptional Children’s Teaching Assistant. Christine studied at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and was an air traffic controller and specialist for the US Air Force as well as in Charlotte for over 13 years. Christine became a substitute teacher for Lake Norman Charter in 2020. She also was integral to our success of in-person learning in the 2020-2021 school year as she provided the needed teaching and supervision when our staff was absent for various reasons, including to receive the COVID vaccine. Christine has a daughter, Addie, who attends LNC and is a rising second grader. Please join me in officially welcoming Christine to the LNC school family!
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL
As you know, school begins Thursday, August 12! Please note the elementary school start time of 8:30 AM and the dismissal time of 3:30 PM. Drop-off begins at 8:05. Please do not allow students out of the car until staff is on morning carpool duty. Please be mindful that it always takes a few weeks at the beginning of the school year before carpool is running smoothly and efficiently. Your patience during the first few weeks of school is greatly appreciated as we all adjust to learning the carpool procedures.
Student safety is always our number one priority! Since we are a carpool school, we do not have the space and staff supervision to allow walking your child into the building. Please know that your child will be safe and cared for as you drop them off in the mornings as staff members will be opening car doors and supervising/assisting students in the building as they report to their classrooms. (The only exception is for kindergarten families, who are welcome to walk their child in on their staggered start day. This date will come from your child’s teacher.) We will communicate additional carpool information before the opening of school.
It is imperative for school funding purposes and for your child’s secured spot in our school that your child attend school on August 12 and August 13. As such, failure to check-in without prior communications to either Sue Scott (sscott@lncharter.org) or me for an excused reason could result in the student forfeiting their spot at LNC. (The only exception would be for a child who is truly sick and for our kindergarten students who are following a staggered start schedule from August 12-17.) Thank you for your understanding and cooperation in this important matter.
If you haven’t done so already, please complete the parent acknowledgement form prior to the first day of school. We must have this completed form from every LNC parent.
Please remember, the PTO does not offer an ordered lunch option in the first few weeks of school, so our students will need to bring a lunch. We will share more information about the PTO-led lunch program before school begins.
BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT
Also, please go ahead and mark your calendars for our elementary school Back to School Night on Thursday, September 9 beginning at 6:30 PM. You will have the opportunity to hear from your child’s teacher and learn about the curriculum and other grade level information. We will have two repeat sessions in case you have more than one child (6:30-7:10 PM and 7:20-8:00 PM). Please be mindful that this night is for parents only. The information shared is parent-specific, and we truly don’t have extra space nor supervision available for children. Thanks for your understanding. More details and reminders will be forthcoming.
FAMILY RE-ENGAGEMENT
We are excited to recommit to our school’s mission of service as well as family engagement. With that, LNC’s Day of Service is Friday, October 29 and Serve10, our parent volunteer program, is returning. Furthermore, we anticipate having many volunteer opportunities within our Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO). This is a very important way our parents can contribute to the school as the PTO provides many benefits and services to our teachers, which in turn, benefits our students. More information will follow on these once school is in session. Please also be aware of our upcoming social events for 2021-2022, the Royal Golf Outing on November 7 and Boots Bulls & BBQ on April 2, 2022. We invite you to connect with other LNC families through our PTO-sponsored LNC Family Directory.
Also on the family engagement front, I would like to make those who are new to LNC ES aware that our original LNC ES parents played an integral role in your child’s beautiful new school building through our Rise Together campaign. We invite our parents to visit our main LNC campus (12435 Old Statesville Road, Huntersville) where the high school and middle school are located and see the upgrades taking place there thanks to the parent partnership through our Elevate LNC campaign. Elevate LNC is a campaign with one more goal – Knights Fieldhouse – left to accomplish!
PRINCIPAL/PARENT CONNECTION
Upon review of the information in this letter, please feel free to contact me with any questions at mholland@lncharter.org. I look forward to working with you to make this an exciting, fun and rewarding year for our students. I am committed to making your child’s education the best it can be no matter what challenges or obstacles they faced last school year. TOGETHER has never meant so much over the last two years.
Parents, I appreciate you more than you will ever know! Thank you for supporting my staff, and all you do to support your child’s education. Please feel free to follow me on Twitter @MichelleLNCS and/or join my Schoology group to get your questions answered. (“Holland Coffee Chat Channel” using this join code: SG74N-7RTGW.) I will also be hosting monthly Principal Coffee Chats beginning in September.
Lastly and most importantly, thank you for sharing your children with us as we partner together to make the 2021-2022 school year an exciting and memorable time in the lives of our elementary students! I am humbled and honored to be your child’s principal.
Sincerely,
