THE BEST

March 13 - All Pro Dad

March 16 - Professional Development Day (Students No School)

March 31 - Spring Pictures

April 6-11 - Spring Break

This week began with staff participating in a variety of productive Professional Development meetings and ended with the students back for a busy, productive three days.

On March 18th Northwood will be highlighted as an AVID Elementary Showcase campus! We’re busy prepping for the event, as we’ll be hosting representatives from other elementary schools that are interested in learning how we run the AVID Elementary program. One of the many program highlights will be our ‘College Avenue’ where we display pennants from various institutions of higher learning to model college and career readiness. If you’d like to make sure that your favorite college or technical school is represented, we’d love to have additional pennants sent in. During the showcase, the visitors will also get to see how our students organize their binders, agendas, and cubbies, how they take notes to study, and how they set and monitor academic goals. I’ll send more reminders when it gets closer to the 18th, but we’d love all students to wear any Northwood t-shirt that day.

Thank you to all families who completed the GA CCRPI survey – we reached our goal and look forward to receiving the results!

Fondly,

Heather Rucker, principal

Starting Monday, February 23, 2026, we will be using a system called PickUp Patrol to help us track dismissals. PickUp Patrol provides families with a convenient way to make changes to your child’s dismissal plans and helps ensure that students are accurately dismissed each day.

How It Works:

1. Your child’s regular dismissal plan will be entered into the system. This is considered their Default Plan.
2. Whenever your child is doing something other than their Default Plan, you’ll submit a Plan Change via PickUp Patrol.
3. Examples of a Plan Change:
• Your child normally rides the bus but needs to switch to carpool for the day.
• Your child is getting picked up by someone other than yourself (must be an emergency contact in Infinite Campus).
• Your child has a doctor's appointment and will be leaving early.
4. When the change is submitted, a notification will be sent to the front office and their teacher.

REGISTER: Friday, February 20, 2026, you will receive a registration email from PickUp Patrol with a link to set up your account. The parent portal is free to parents and can be accessed from your phone or computer. The link in your registration email will be live for 48 hours. As soon as you receive it, please log in and confirm your child’s default plan.

Thank you for using PickUp Patrol to make safety a priority and to ensure our dismissal process is efficient for all! Parents can access all of their children in the same account as long as the same email address is used. Once you are registered you do not need to re-register for each child, you will simply log out and back in again to view all children in the app.

If you have any questions, please first check the PickUp Patrol Parent Guide & if you need additional assistance, please reach out to Mrs. Lorraine Robertson at Northwood's front desk, robertsonl1@fultonschools.org. Please note, starting Monday, the Northwood Dismissal email will no longer be utilized.

March 2-6, 2026

Read Across America Week is a week to celebrate the love of all books and reading! To celebrate, we’ll have different themed dress‑up days. Check out the themes above so your child can join the fun!

What is a School Governance Council?

The purpose of a School Governance Council (SGC) is to provide parents, school staff, and community members with a leadership role through monitoring and implementation of the strategic plan.

What is the commitment?

All School Governance Council members serve two-year terms. Time commitment varies from school-to-school, but expect 2 to 3 hours per month which includes meetings, trainings, and school and community events.

When are the 2026 elections?

Candidate Declaration: February 2 - March 27

Voting: April 22 - April 29

Where to declare candidacy?

Visit the SGC website and click on Elections for a candidate guide and/or declaration. Elections - Fulton County School System

According to the most recent Department of Public Health Statement regarding influenza:

"Flu activity is widespread and severe in Georgia, and cases are likely to increase following the holidays and as Georgians return to work and school. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also projects a severe flu season. If you have not gotten a flu shot yet and have no medical conditions preventing you from doing so, the Department of Public Health strongly urges you to take advantage of the health benefits the flu vaccine provides as soon as possible."

We are seeing an increase in confirmed flu cases throughout out building, consistent with what we are seeing across the state. Please read through the attached document. Our teachers will continue to prioritize hand washing and classroom cleaning. Let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Accidents happen - in the classroom, at recess, at lunch or the bathroom. When our Explorers get messy they often head to the Clinic to get cleaned up. We keep extra clothes on hand for those quick changes. We appreciate donations of all clothing sizes, and are currently in need of girls bottoms - all sizes. If you have any clothing items you'd like to contribute you can send them in with your student or drop them off at the front desk. Thank you!

Northwood is proud to be an AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) school. AVID Elementary equips students with the foundational skills and mindset needed for future success. Our staff is focused on enhancing instructional consistency, fostering a college and career readiness mindset, increasing student engagement and building organizational and study skills.

As part of this, each week Northwood will be focused on one goal as a school. Be sure to ask your child about it!

Next week's AVID goal is: to follow along when we read together as a class.

We can help you celebrate your child's birthday with his/her classmates by offering the purchase of ice-cream for $1.00 per child. Please go online and add money to your child's GENERAL LUNCH account based on the number of students in the classroom. Then email your child's teacher and our Cafeteria Manager, Chisthal Austin, at austinc4@fultonschools.org to let us know what date you would like to celebrate it. We will take care of the rest!

This year, with the new lunch system, our school community has the capability to create a Cafeteria Principal Account Fund. This account would be used to fulfill any meal costs for students that reach an account balance of zero. We often have families and extended family members that ask if or how they can pay off lunch balances or support our students in this way, now the process of doing so is easy!

Should you be interested in adding to the Cafeteria Principal Account Fund, just send a check or cash to school in an envelope to Ms. Cristhal Austin, our cafeteria manager in training, and notate that the funds go to the Principal Fund. Please reach out to Ms. Austin, austinc4@fultonschools.org, if you have any questions.

The Fulton County School Nutrition Program is dedicated to serving all students nutritious, safe and customer acceptable meals in support of academic achievement. Click the link below to see what thery are serving up today.

Nutrition.fultonschools.org/MenuCalendar

Parents, please encourage your students to check regularly for lost items in the Lost and Found. Please mark all student belongings clearly with the child's name so that it can be identified. Unclaimed items are donated to local charities after the last school day of every month. February's date is Friday, February 27th.

The Infinite Campus Parent Portal provides quick and easy access to information for all enrolled students in their household. Find grades, attendance, assignments, schedules, ID numbers, school announcements and more. If you haven't already joined, please do so today as Fulton County Schools is transitioning to managing everything via the portal.

For more information, access the Parent Portal Booklet for Infinite Campus here.

The Dining for Dollars crew is back with another opportunity to send a percentage of every purchase back to Northwood at Lava Island! Families should mention Northwood at check-in; and a percentage of the admission sales will go to Northwood!

Where: Lava Island, 7121 North Point Parkway, Alpharetta, GA 30009

When: Thursday, February 26th

Time: 4:00 PM – 9:00 PM

Come have some fun, and don't forget to mention Northwood!

It’s time to pre-order your 2025-2026 Northwood Yearbook—celebrating our 30th anniversary with this year’s theme: REWIND! Reserve your copy now for just $41.

Click here to order: yearbookordercenter.com/job/26362.

Questions? Email us at Yearbook@northwoodpta.com.

Michelle Levine, Assistant Principal

Together We SHINE!

Email: NorthwoodAttendance@fultonschools.org
Website: https://northwood.fultonschools.org/
Location: 10200 Wooten Road, Roswell, GA, USA
Phone: 470-254-6390
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NorthwoodElementaryPTA/
Twitter: @FCS_NWES or @NWES_Principal