Pleasant Grove Gazette

Dear Families and Students,

Welcome to the 2026-27 school year! Our thriving community of learners will benefit from many supports this year, including an excellent team of teachers, our wonderful yard supervisors, our friendly office staff, a new school librarian, our current mental health therapist, and a new counselor.

Our faculty and staff have been working diligently to prepare an inviting environment where your student(s) will learn and grow. This year, we are committed to providing access to grade level content standards for all students, incorporating active participation, a schoolwide focus on writing, and an emphasis on targeted small group instruction. We believe in setting high expectations and providing the support necessary for every student to reach their full potential.

Beyond academic excellence, a cornerstone of our mission at Pleasant Grove Elementary School is to nurture kind, compassionate, respectful, and responsible young citizens. Through our new Second Step social-emotional learning curriculum, we will emphasize core competencies of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, responsible decision making, and relationship skills.

To support our positive school culture, we will continue to strengthen our Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) framework. PBIS is a proactive approach to creating a safe and positive school environment where all students understand behavioral expectations and are recognized for meeting them.

We look forward to collaborating with our wonderful parent and family community again this year. There are lots of ways to get involved, from visiting the classroom, to chaperoning a field trip, to joining one of our parent committees. My office is always open to you, so if you are looking for a way to join the fun, or would like to share feedback or ideas, come on in!

Finally, we will continue to publish our school newsletter, the Pleasant Grove Gazette, once a month through email and our website (http://pleasantgrove.egusd.net), as well as weekly parent bulletins through email utilizing our new Smore platform to help us get information to you as clearly and timely as possible. Teachers will send home weekly school-wide communication folders as well.

I am excited to meet our newest learners and continue to join you on the journey of educating and growing your children. Go Tigers!

Sincerely,

Tara McCartney

Principal, Pleasant Grove Elementary School

Tuesday, August 11 - Back to School Night

TK/Kindergarten (classrooms) 5:00 pm

Principal's Message (outdoor stage) 5:45 pm

1st - 6th Grade Classroom Presentations 6:00 pm (repeated at 6:30 pm)

9:00 am - 11:00 am (teachers will send you a specific time)

Breakfast 7:50 - 8:15 am

Gates Open 8:05 am

School Starts for 1st - 6th at 8:20 am (see bell schedule for Levels and TK/K times)

THURSDAY IS OUR EARLY OUT DAY. 1st - 6th grades get out at 1:50 pm this Thursday, and every Thursday this year.

Friday, August 14 - First PTA Meeting

South Slope Winery @ 6:00 pm

Friday, August 28 - School Site Council Ballots Due

ParentVUE helps parents/guardians stay informed and connected by providing day-to-day insight into their child’s academic experience. This is the best way to keep your information updated with the school, see your child's transcripts, attendance, and grades, and receive school communication.

If you haven't already done so after June 1, you will need to delete your old ParentVUE and/or StudentVUE apps from your devices and download the new ParentVUE and/or StudentVUE apps. If you had an existing account, opening the old app should automatically prompt you to download the new one. Directions are located below.

Please complete the Educational Benefits section in ParentVUE as soon as possible! It helps in many areas beyond just school meals. This form ensures continued funding to support all students in EGUSD, including protection of class size reduction, buying school euqipment, supporting student mental health, and lowering the cost of transportation.

Join us at our first PTA meeting of the year, Friday, August 14, at 6:00 p.m. at South Slope Winery! This location has plenty of outdoor seating, space for the kids to play, and food. Check out our new PTA page here for more information and to get your 2026-27 PTA membership! Being a member helps support all our PTA activities, keeps you updated on upcoming events, volunteer opportunities and gives you the chance to help make an impact in our Tiger Community!

This year we are using a new curriculum - Second Step. It is similar to Character Counts, but focuses more on the SEL competencies of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and decision making. It also supports our ELA Listening and Speaking standards!

Are you interested in being a part of the input process into our site LCAP spending? This is the committee you want to be on! The School Site Council is a decision-making group of parents, students, and school staff, which has major responsibility for the development, implementation, and evaluation of the School Plan for Improvement. The committee also oversees a budget each year that provides enhancements to the standard school budget.

Nominate yourself for the School Site Council by clicking here and submitting your information by Friday, August 21. Elections will be held via Google Form the following week, and votes will be due by Friday, August 28.

Are you the parent of a multilingual student? We would love your participation on our English Learner Advisory Committee! The committee advises and assists the school principal, staff and School Site Council (SSC) as follows:

• The school’s program for English learners
• The school’s needs assessment
• Efforts to make parents aware of the importance of regular school attendance.

Sign up for the English Learner Advisory Committee by clicking here!

In our small community, we don't have a lot of extra space for drop off and pick up! Plan on arriving early if dropping your student off in the morning. Consider:

• Using the early program with ExL (drop off between 7:00 am - 7:50 am)
• Bringing your student to breakfast (7:50 am - 8:05 am)

The gates for 1st - 6th graders open at 8:05 am, and students will get their morning steps in before lining up promptly at 8:15 am.

At pick up, remember to pull all the way forward so we can fit as many cars in the pick up loop as possible. Remind your student(s) to pay attention to the car loop, and move to the yellow line as soon as they see your car. Consider:

• Using the afterschool ExL program (pickup windows are strictly adhered to)
• Bring your patience! The line typically is worst from 2:40 pm - 2:50 pm, but most cars are gone by 2:55 pm.

This year, two students in each class will be recognized each month as students of the month at our monthly assembly. Students will be chosen for character and academics. Also at this assembly, an attendance award will be given to one primary class and one intermediate class. Then one student per grade level will be drawn for a perfect attendance prize.

Students will be recognized in the classroom for AR, perfect attendance, and Computer Lab awards.

Students earning excellent attendance, AR levels, and student of the month awards will have their names published here in our Gazette!