April 4th

This week is National Assistant Principal Week and I want to be sure to pause and say thank you to two amazing ladies who are committed to doing whatever it takes for the staff and students at PVES. We are so blessed by the leadership of Mrs. Horn and Mrs. Martin. These two ladies are incredibly gifted and passionate about education and seeing students learn at high levels. They go above and beyond each and every day to pour into the students we serve and their families. They also are intentional about supporting our staff members and making sure that you are set up for success. I hope you will join me this week as we honor them and say thank you to them for all they do each and every day! 

Some great things happening around PVES...

Parents were invited in for the first time in a couple of years for the Battle of the Books competition. Mrs. Black did a fantastic job leading this for our school, and we want to thank all of the teachers and staff who made quizzes and helped behind the scenes on the day of. 

The Writing Wall of Fame breakfast was a great opportunity to celebrate the amazing writing happening in our classrooms. Ellie Mae even made an appearance because their writing was so "dog gone" good!

Coin Wars was a big success! Thanks for encouraging our students to donate this past week.

Mr. Little led our students at the state tournament this past week. They did a great job, and we are proud of their hard work and improvement! 

Classrooms are getting creative with ways to engage their students. As the year goes on, thinking outside of the box helps students get excited about their learning.

Important Information for PVES Staff: 

March of Dimes Jeans Week

We have had great success so far with our themed Fridays for students and jeans opportunities for our staff. This week will be our final jeans opportunity for staff. If you would like to participate you have the option of paying $20 to wear jeans for the whole week or $5 per day you would like to wear them. Monies will be donated to March of Dimes and may be turned in to Ms. Patty in the front office. Some of you have paid already for this when we did our first opportunity in March. Thank you for your continued support. We will all be wearing our PVES pride school shirts this week on Friday as we prepare for spring break! 

Spring Parties

We will be having class spring parties on Friday, April 8th at 1:45 p.m. A room parent will be working with the classroom teacher to prepare a snack and activity for students. Your room parent may sign in at the front office on Friday at 1:30 and come down to your classroom to prepared for the party. We ask that they not come down before as you and your students will be focused on learning. Parents will be able to attend the class parties. We ask that your parents sign in before going down to the classrooms. We will have several tables set up in our atrium area for parents to sign in. Parents will be sent down to the classrooms starting at 1:45 p.m. We did share with parents that many of our classrooms are limited on space so it may be best to limit one visitor per student. (We will not turn away parents if there is more than one with a child.) Parents are welcome to sign out their child from the classroom at the conclusion of the party (2:25 p.m.). We will ask that our hallways be clear of visitors at 2:35 p.m. so we can begin our bus dismissal (2:40 p.m.) followed by car riders at 2:45 p.m. We are so excited to welcome our parents back into the building. We know our students are excited to have their spring parties this year as well! Please let us know if you have any questions. Thank you for your flexibility. We will have non-homeroom teachers in the hallways to help as needed. 

Sub Plans - Coverage

Over the past couple of weeks, there have been many days where multiple absences were left unfilled. When this happens, coverage is pieced together as best we can to avoid canceling related arts for our homerooms. When leaving sub plans for your class, please consider that it may be multiple people stepping in to help, they may not have access to slides and technology, and we do have occasional days where the internet drops for students completely. To ensure the class can continue with their day, please leave detailed plans that consider a sub that has never been in our building, try to include paper copies of plans and slides that are being used in case slides cannot be accessed, and if at all possible, adjust activities to where the internet or technology is not needed to complete it or a backup option is stated for the sub if the internet is not working. We appreciate all that you do to ensure your class continues learning and the teamwork that each of you shows when someone has to be out due to emergency needs. 

Here are some additional resources that can help the sub reward students who are doing an excellent job while you are out and communicate how the day went. 

While You Were Out - Template for the sub to leave notes. 

Sub Exit Ticket - Students reflect on their day.

Sub Tickets for Students - Incentive for good behavior.

TDA Field Test / SCReady Training

We will have our mandatory state testing training on Wednesday, April 27th after school. Please make plans to be in attendance. This training can also tend to run longer so we ask that you plan accordingly. We will be participating in a TDA Field Test on Friday, April 29th. This will serve as a practice for our students as the state department will be field testing different prompts and TDA items. This will not be scored for students but is simply a data collection tool. We will provide more information about this process. It is important to begin preparing students with the online tools tutorial when they return from spring break. A separate email will be sent to homeroom and resource teachers about this test prep tool. 

Little Mermaid Junior Musical

Powdersville Middle School and Powdersville High School will be presenting the musical Little Mermaid Junior on Monday for our third graders. Third grade teachers will walk our students over at 8:30 a.m. Related arts teachers will come over at 9:00 and will stay with students until they walk them back over at 10:15 (or immediately following the play). Third grade homeroom teachers will need to provide class rosters with correct attendance for the day to the related arts teacher. We are excited for our third grade students to join Concrete's second graders to enjoy the performance. The musical will be performed for general audiences on Monday and Tuesday nights at Powdersville High School. Doors open at 6:00 p.m. and the musical starts at 6:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $5 if you are interested in attending. 

IEP Meetings

This week marks the beginning of IEP season for our special education teachers. This is an incredibly busy time for our Sped Team as they work to schedule meetings, prepare IEPs, collect data, etc. As of now, collectively we have over 100 IEP meetings between all our Sped team members at PVES. We ask that you be flexible and understanding as some of these meetings will cause them to readjust their schedules. It is also important for our general education teachers who are invited to the meetings to be present and be active participants in the meetings. Finally, an administrator (or guidance counselor) is required to be at each of these meetings to serve as an LEA so please understand that we will do our best to be available to you as soon as possible. 

Cell Phones

It is not necessary for our elementary students to have cell phones at school. Some of our students do have them because their parents want them to have them for communication after school when they get home. The expectation is that these devices are to be off and completely out of sight in a backpack. Students should not have these out at all during the school day and should not be using them to communicate during the school day. This was communicated to parents in our April "In the Know" and it is also in our handbook and school board policies. 

Lost and Found

Lost and found items are currently placed in the front hallway for students to look over. Please let your students know that all items left in lost and found at the conclusion of Friday, April 8th will be donated.

 

Important Dates for PVES Staff:

• National Assistant Principal Week- April 4th-8th
• Spring Pictures- April 6th
• Class spring parties- April 8th at 1:45
• Spring Break- April 11th-18th
• Anderson One Strings Concert- April 25th at Wren High School at 7:00 p.m.
• PVES Art Show- April 26th in the Multi-Purpose Room 5:00-7:00 p.m.
• TDA Field Test- April 29th
• Chorus Spring Concert- May 2nd at PVHS
• SC READY Testing- May 10th-12th (All Grades), May 17th (4th Grade only)
• Writing Wall of Fame Breakfast- May 20th at 7:20 a.m.
• Real Men Read Event- May 20th at 8:30 a.m.
• Senior Signing Day and Parade- May 20th
• Awards Day (3rd Grade)- May 24th (AM)
• Award Day (4th Grade)- May 24th (PM)
• Field Day (3rd Grade)- May 25th, 8:30-10:30 am
• Field Day (4th Grade)- May 25th, 11:30 am-1:30 pm
• Yearbooks- May 26th (All grades)
• Awards Day (5th Grade)- May 26th, 9:30 am
• Field Day (5th Grade)- May 27th, 8:30 am-12:30 pm

You can find our April "In the Know" Parent Newsletter HERE. It may be very helpful for you to read over this to know what information has been shared with our parents.