Blue Ridge Family Newsletter

Thank you to everyone who took time out of your busy schedules to attend a conference with us; we truly appreciate partnering with you to support these amazing students! If you did not get a chance to connect with your teacher, please don't hesitate to reach out so we can get something scheduled!

It's a busy couple of weeks with our fundraiser, Fancy Lunch for students on Thursday, Good Dads Breakfast next week, followed by Thanksgiving Break, and International Night & Music Concerts the week after. Please read below to stay informed!

It is my Wildly Important Goal to end this school year with a vision and mission that proclaims what Blue Ridge Elementary stands for. It make it a true vision and mission for our school community, we need to hear from all of you! Please take a few minutes to provide your input on this survey, and to look for our grafitti wall available at International Night!

Thursday, November 20th- Fancy Lunch for students during their lunch time, students are encouraged to dress up in their fancy attire if they choose!

Tuesday, November 25th- Good Dads Breakfast @ 7:00-7:45, prizes at 7:20

Wednesday, November 26th- Friday, November 28th- NO SCHOOL for Thanksgiving

Thursday, December 4th- International Night & Music Concerts @ 5:00-7:00

Let's Sell!- We are off to a good start in our chocolate fundraiser, but we have plenty of boxes left to sell. Boxes can be picked up in the office for $20 due at pickup. We accept cash, Venmo or Cashapp. After you and your student sell the bars for $1 each, you will need to return $40 to the school for the balance. Several families have asked to pay the whole amount up front, which is perfectly fine.

Prizes- Students who sell boxes of chocolate will receive "prizes" in the form of their choice of privileges, including stealing the princpal's chair for the day (though I totally think they should steal Mr. Pittman's and not mine!), being a guest on the morning show, earning popsicles for their whole class, and more! A few lucky sellers will also win a "golden ticket" to be turned in for a 1 lb chocolate bar. The top seller will also receive a 5 lb chocolate bar.

Individual Bars for Sale!- We also have individual chocolate bars for sale in the office for $1. We will continue to have bars for sale at future BRE events until we are sold out of our surplus. We now have access to a Venmo and Cashapp account to make payments easier.

We invite our students to dress "fancy" this Thursday for our Fancy Lunch in the Pumpkin Patch (aka the gym)! We are so excited to be able to host this event for our students yet again this year. As it is a student event, guests are unable to join their student for lunch on this day. Students bringing a lunch from home are absolutely still included. We can't wait to see our fancy students!

We had an amazing turnout at our last Good Dads breakfast, and we hope to see everyone who can make it there again. Students and their guest may enter through the back parking lot for a donut and activity. Please be there NO LATER than 7:15 to complete the activity and be eligible for the family prizes that are given out. We hope to see you then!

Please mark your calendar to attend your student's scheduled concert if they are in 3rd, 4th, 5th or choir. Students will meet in the music room shortly before each concert.

We are excited to add some craft stations to our museum walk event, so please come early or stay after your concert to visit these stations. If you are in Kindergarten, 1st or 2nd, you do not have a concert, but we still hope to see you come to this event for the stations and to show your learning displays to your guests!

Our November habit is Habit #2: Begin with the End in Mind. For this habit, we are learning about setting goals. A big part of this is creating a mission for our classes and even for ourselves. As part of this, we will be asking for input from our students, staff and families in writing our own Blue Ridge vision and mission so that we know the goals we all have for our school community!

Blue Ridge keeps a stocked Marketplace supported by our Partner-in-Ed Simmons Bank and the local food pantry. We send home bags of food with students on a regular basis, referred to as Buddy Packs. If you are not currently receiving one and would like for your student (s) to start, please contact our Home-School Communicator Tyree Goolsby at agoolsby@cpsk12.org or by calling the school.

Mr. Goolsby also maintains our Clothing Closet where we receive donations from Simmons Bank and other organizations to support our students who may be needing a coat or other basic clothing, as well as hygiene products. Please reach out if you need access to items for your student.

We know that this month, and coming months, may be especially challenging for some of our families with food and other resources. The list below contains a list of food resources in Columbia for families by week and day if you click on the attachment.

We’re a month into the Mustang Half Million Minute Reading Challenge! We’ve made it to 43,989 minutes. That’s a pretty big number, but we’re still way behind in making our goal. Follow these directions to help your child log their reading at home: http://bit.ly/4nEHJ9i.

Please join our Family Teacher Organization for their next meeting in person or via zoom. Thank you for helping to support our Mustangs!

BRE currently qualifies for FREE BREAKFAST AND LUNCH FOR ALL OF OUR STUDENTS. We still ask our families who may qualify to complete the Free & Reduced Lunch form to support this qualification in future years. Any funds that are in lunch accounts from past years can be used by students to purchase extras. If you would like to make changes to your account, you can reach out to our cafeteria manager, Ashley Guerrero at aguerrero@cpsk12.org.

The Family Portal houses multiple apps and pieces of information for families. Please make sure you can get into the Portal: https://login.classlink.com/my/cpsfamilies

Can't get into the portal?!

For technical assistance accessing the CPS Families Portal, visit our FAQ page.

Your guardian ID and/or password information can also be found at the CPS Families Portal Username and Guardian Email Check.

• Forgot your ID?
• Forgot your password

Rebecca Babcock, Principal

rbabcock@cpsk12.org

Mitchell Pittman, Assistant Principal

mpittman@cpsk12.org

Becky Evans, Secretary & Registrar

revans@cpsk12.org

#WeBelieveinBRE

Website: https://bre.cpsk12.org/
Location: 3700 Woodland Drive, Columbia, MO, USA
Phone: 573-214-3580