Oakhurst Weekly

Hello Families,

Spring is on the way and there are already wonderful things blooming here at OAK. Our Better World Day Committee has set out to make a caring impact on our community by creating “Bags of Hope” for those in need. Funds raised during our upcoming Dine Outs will support the PTA’s contribution to this project. The Rusty Taco dine-out is from 4-10 p.m., but I’ll be hanging out from 5-7 p.m. and we are giving free churros to each kiddo! Thank you in advance for supporting OAK.

In CSD we select our Teacher of the Year for the next year during the Spring Semester and we are thrilled to announce that the Teacher of the Year for the 2025-2026 school year is our wonderful Media Specialist, Erin Guerrieri! Not only is she our Teacher of the Year, but she has also been selected as a Top 3 Finalist for the CSD District Teacher of the Year! We look forward to celebrating you in our special Oakhurst way in May!

CLICK IMAGE TO PREORDER YOUR CLASS PHOTO.

Wellness is an active process of making choices that lead to a healthy and fulfilling life. Every day, people make choices about how they spend their time, what they eat, and who they spend time with. These decisions create a healthy lifestyle.

Join us at Tour Decatur THIS SATURDAY, March 15th at 8:00am to celebrate our physical, social, and mental/emotional wellness. IT IS NOT TOO LATE TO SIGN UP!

Below are the days and times that you can pick up your race number and t-shirt. Picking up your number and shirt in advance will allow you to bypass the lines on Saturday morning and go straight to the football field at Decatur High School, which will be the waiting area for both the 1-mile and 5K races.

If you are NOT able to pick up prior to race day, same-day registration and number pick-up will open at 8:00 am in the DHS cafeteria.

The one mile fun run will start at 8:30 but there will be some fun warm ups happening on the football field before. The 5k will start at 9:15.

Feel free to contact Stacie Kenner with questions regarding iRUN or Tour Decatur scholarships at skenner@csdecatur.net

Greetings Oakhurst Families!

The annual CSD district-wide art show will take place April 1st-3rd at the Solarium from 4:00-7:00. Due to this being a district-wide event, we only have space to hang a limited amount of each school's artwork. If your student has a piece hanging in the show you will be contacted by Ms. D before April 1st.

If your student doesn't have a piece hanging up this year they can still be involved in the show! All students have created a form of wearable art that they are welcome to wear to the show. Wearable art will be sent home towards the end of the month.

Thank you for supporting the arts!

Briana Dams

Art Educator

Oakhurst Elementary School

March is in full swing and with that comes even more opportunities to read! It has been so amazing to see the excitement the students have had for creating their own poetry and bookmarks over the past couple of weeks.

Tomorrow is the last day to turn in bookmark designs! No late entries will be accepted as voting begins next week! Click here for Bookmark Contest information.

We've been talking about poetry in the library a lot this year, and now we get to write our own! If your Oakhurst student would like to submit poetry for consideration in this year's Young American Poetry Digest, click here to watch a video with all of the details and helpful information for poetry writing!

Submissions for the digest are due to Ms. G by March 21st.

(Even if your student doesn't want to submit poetry for the digest, the link will take you to great K-2 poetry resources you can access and use as family literacy activities!)

As we spring into Spring 🌼 consider finding new settings outside with your child to read. Reading an amazing adventure story or perhaps a book about animals or insects in a beautiful outdoor setting can be just the thing to get your child motivated to read. Porches, parks, shady trees, and even lounging inside a tent can change things up and create new excitement around reading. If you haven’t had a chance to check out nearby Hawk Hollow, it’s a gorgeous park with nature at every turn and provides a stunning setting to enjoy some time reading. Check out this site for more details.

Did you know that children should read at least as much nonfiction as fiction? Studies show that for many, nonfiction is the preferred genre, as there are so many topics to choose from and explore. Encouraging your child to read more nonfiction can help build vocabulary and overall knowledge of a variety of subjects. There are a number of these engaging books available in bookstores and libraries, but podcasts can also provide children with additional ways to access nonfiction as well.

If your child has not already become an avid audiobook listener, there are a multitude of options that are family and kid friendly. Audiobooks are a great way to enjoy a book on a road trip, before bed, or even while your child is helping to make dinner or do chores. Check out this website for some free places to find them.

Maybe you have that kid who loves a good joke or is the silly one in your family. Joke books are a really fun and easy way to get in daily reading. This website has some great suggestions of books to read and giggle to with your child.

There are lots of ways to encourage and support literacy! We hope you have fun exploring some new ones this week.

Oakhurst families, please complete and submit this food insecurity request form if your student is experiencing food insecurity within the home and is in need of some supplemental weekend snacks.

The Decatur Education Foundation supplies Oakhurst with snack bags for any student in need. This request form will go directly to our school counselor, Ms. King, and she will send home a snack bag with your student every Friday. Please go through each week's snack bag to remove any snack you may not want your child to have due to allergy concerns, etc.

The 2025-2026 CSD enrollment opens on Monday, March 3, for rising Kindergarten students or students new to CSD. Registration may be completed entirely online. Find more registration information here.

New Families: See CSD's Key Contacts & Resources for Families, available in multiple languages.

REMINDER: If your currently enrolled student has a sibling who will be new to CSD for the 2025-2026 school year, you must register this new sibling via the Parent Portal.

1. Select "More" from the menu in the Parent Portal.

2. Select "Annual Data Update."

3. Select "2025-2026 New Student Registration."

As part of the enrollment process, you will also need to email residency documentation to CSD's district enrollment specialist, Patrice Moore, at pmoore@csdecatur.net, as the Parent Portal will not allow you to change or upload this field. Information about required residency proof documents is available on the CSD website. Please contact pmoore@csdecatur.net or 404-371-3601 x1063 for assistance.

This year's Bulldog Bash is Saturday, March 22 at Independent Distilling Company. The event will feature a live online auction with everything from artwork, experiences, trips, restaurant gift cards, sporting event tickets, self-care and much more. Plus, Hapa Kitchen will serve delicious Hawaiian comfort cuisine. All proceeds support Decatur Athletics, including more than 1,100 student-athletes on 57 teams representing 19 sports at DHS and BHMS. Buy tickets here.

The City of Decatur offers the Animal Crackers program at all K-2 school sites and the Whiz Kids program at all 3-5 school sites. Enrollment for incoming students is done through a lottery process, which opened on February 20 and closes on April 18, 2025. The lottery spin will be April 25, 2025. Full details on registering for the afterschool lottery are on the City of Decatur website at How to Register for 25-26 Lottery on the Forms and Documents page. Contact the Out-of-School Time Division for more information at dprd@decaturga.com or 404-377-0494.

Families can find various afterschool options for students for the 2025-26 school year on the CSD website.

• You can check out multiple books from the DEI Book Cart at once.

• Return books at the next DEI Book Cart event in the coming weeks.

• Watch for an automatic due date reminder via email from the new Libib system, used by both the DEI Book Cart and Game Center.