Dear Northern Oaks Lower School Families,

We were so thrilled to welcome our incoming kinder students and families at our New Family Orientation yesterday. A special thank you to the over 35 faculty members and parent volunteers who joined on Saturday morning to meet our new families and incoming students. We truly have a unique space where both current families and teachers welcome in our new kinder and transfer families. We have over 97% of our students returning next year and have hit the highest student retention in the district two years in a row! Thank you, families, for your commitment to the school and community.

We are entering our last five weeks of school. The month of May will certainly keep us busy. The students are excited to perform for you at our annual Spring Music Concert, taking place on the evening of May 3^rd at Trinity Baptist Church. This will be an early release day so that families have time to grab dinner and change before the concert. For more information on the dress code, directions, and parking, please click here. During our winter concert, parking was tight due to a high school dance for GH Monte Vista, but parking should be easier for this spring concert. Please ensure you arrive early enough to be on time, but we do not plan on opening doors until 5 pm so that teachers can get set up and organized before receiving students.

We are entering the final week of our STAAR testing window. The campus will continue to have limited access to volunteers and visitors by invitation only. Please make sure students arrive at school with plenty of sleep, a good meal that will help sustain mental energy, and enough time to get situated to start their day off organized. Please remember that this coming Friday, April 26^th, is the Battle of Flowers and there is no school. This week will be the last week of class library visits for this school year! On April 25^th, the library will close for the year, which will give us time to take inventory and collect missing books. All library books are due on Friday, May 3.

We are excited to invite parents who are interested in learning more about the Parent Service Organization and getting more involved with volunteer opportunities to a PSO Information Meeting on May 2^nd at 8:30 am in the MPR. The PSO Leadership plans to continue to offer quarterly meetings next year to increase awareness about volunteer needs and leadership opportunities. In this meeting, we hope to gather interest from the various PSO committee teams and discuss volunteer opportunities for next year and are seeking applications for open PSO leadership positions. Parking will be tight, but we hope many parents who would like to be more involved can join this event.

We look forward to hosting the Boy's and Girl's Basketball and Girl’s Flag Football Intramural Championships on May 4^th. If you would like to catch a glimpse of our 5^th and 6th-grade house system in competition, we invite you to join. Championship Game times can be found here.

We will wrap up the year with our promotions, celebrating Kinder during the school day on the 29^th and Sixth Grade on the evening of the 29^th at 7 PM. Our 5^th and 6^th graders will enjoy the end-of-year House Banquet Lunch on May 30^th. If your child belongs to one of these grade levels, please be on the lookout for forthcoming details on each of these events.

We are gearing up for a strong finish to the school year. Remember, at Northern Oaks, every minute matters, learning, and academics continue through the last day of school, May 30^th and students need to be present to receive credit for the end-of-year tests. 

Sincerely, 

Charles Brogan-Headmaster Lower School

Thank you to all the students who donated a book this week to their classroom libraries in honor of their birthdays! We are so excited to continue this tradition to celebrate our students and expand our classroom libraries at GHNO! If you’d like to donate a book for your child’s birthday, click here for more info.

Unlock a summer full of discovery and adventure!

Great Hearts Summer Camp offers 2 exciting weekly themes chock-full of hands-on activities, songs, games, special visitors, and friendship.

Give your child a summer they will always remember and register today!

https://northernoaks.greatheartsamerica.org/academy-life/summer-programs/

As a charter school, GHNO depends on our families’ financial support each year. Scheduling monthly donations is the best way to break up your charitable giving into affordable installments. Click here to schedule monthly contributions! if you have questions about how your gifts are set up for the 24-25 school year reach out to DeAnna Macias our Director of Community Engagement and Academy Giving.

·        Charter Priorities for Texas’ 89^th Legislature: The 89^th Legislature will not convene until January 2025, but charter schools are already working to set their legislative agendas. The Texas Public Charter School Association has identified increased funding for charter school facilities as its top priority in the next legislative session.  TPCSA will advocate for removing the current funding cap for charter school facilities; creating a stairstep increase over the next biennial budget cycles; and converting the facilities’ allotment to a per-pupil basis.

·      Stay in the Know:  The Texas Public Charter School Association (TPCSA) is our statewide organization representing all Texas charter schools. They are working to ensure that those who have benefited most from charter schools have the opportunity to share their experiences with legislators and make their voices heard. Great Hearts works closely with them to protect educational choice as an option for our families. Please consider signing up to receive TPCSA’s emails, updates, and action alerts to participate in their important grassroots efforts by clicking this link. To learn more about charter advocacy, contact GH’s Family Advocacy Manager Bridie Chaudoir

Volunteering: Interested in supporting the school through volunteering, go to www.ghnopso.org and see how. To reach out to PSO leadership email at northernoakspso@gmail.com.

Stay in the Know: The Texas Public Charter School Association (TPCSA) is our statewide organization representing all Texas charter schools. They are working to ensure that those who have benefited most from charter schools have the opportunity to share their experiences with legislators and make their voices heard. Great Hearts works closely with them to protect educational choice as an option for our families. Please consider signing up to receive TPCSA’s emails, updates, and action alerts to participate in their important grassroots efforts by clicking this link.

To learn more about charter advocacy, contact GH’s Family Advocacy Manager Bridie Chaudoir at bridie.chaudoir@greatheartstxschools.org

Attendance Matters-

We receive state funding for all students who are in their classes at 10:45 a.m. each day!

If a scholar will be out for a doctor's appointment during attendance time, please be sure to submit a doctor's note upon return so we may count him or her present for the day.



For full-day absences, please notify the Lower School Registrar, Mrs. Lauren Clark

Batlle of Flowers – No School – April 26^th

Spring Music Concert – May 3^rd

For more events including early release Fridays and special dates see our Family Campus Calendar.