Tiger's ROAR Newsletter

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• Early check-out Ends at 2:00 pm
• School day Ends at 2:20 pm
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We Have Exciting News, College Park Families!

On Friday November 7, 2025, College Park Elementary was recognized as a Literacy Leader School by the Georgia Department of Education! This honor celebrates the growth and progress our students are making in reading. We are so proud of our scholars, teachers, and families for the teamwork that made this achievement possible.

We know that reading well opens the door to every other subject. When students become strong readers, they build confidence, creativity, and strong problem-solving skills. This is why reading remains one of our biggest priorities from PreK through 5th grade.

How Families Can Support at Home

Over the next few weeks, we will be partnering with families to help students set personal reading goals. You can support by:

• Reading with your child daily (even 10 minutes makes a big difference!)

• Asking your child to tell you what the story was about in their own words

• Helping your child choose books they enjoy and feel excited to read

• Celebrating small wins — finished a book? mastered new sight words? Let’s cheer!

We will share simple goal-setting sheets to use at home for PreK, K–2, and 3–5 to help track progress and talk about reading success. Look for these in your child’s folder and ClassDojo this week.

Why This Matters

The Georgia Department of Education recognizes schools that show strong student growth and progress in reading. Our student leaders are becoming more confident, more fluent, and more joyful readers — and that success is happening because school and family are working together.

Thank you for being our partners.
Thank you for believing in your child.
Thank you for reading at home and encouraging learning every day.

We are so proud — and we are just getting started.

College Park Reads. College Park Leads.

With Tiger Pride,

Dr. Maisha N. Otway

Principal, College Park Elementary School

November

Nov. 11 Schoolwide Spelling Bee

Nov.14 House Mtg

Nov. 19 Thanksgiving Luncheon

Nov. 19 Princeton's Pop Up Food Giveaway

Nov 24-28 Thankgiving Break

A total of 406 schools met the qualifications for recognition as 2024-2025 Literacy Leaders. Awards were given based on the outlined criteria at the elementary and middle-school levels, and at the high-school level based on the American Literature EOC, which is the state test for ELA in high school. Literacy Leader qualifications use the Georgia Milestones Reading Status indicator, which is based on the Lexile score associated with students' performance on a subset of questions on the ELA assessment.

College Park Families,

We need your voice! As part of our Leader in Me school program, we are asking all families to complete a short survey. Your input helps us understand how our students are growing as leaders and how we can continue to strengthen our leadership culture for the rest of the school year.

The survey takes just a few minutes and your feedback is very important to us.

Please complete the Family Leader in Me Survey here:
[Survey Link]

Thank you for partnering with us as we develop confident, responsible student leaders who lead at school, at home, and in the community. We appreciate your time and support!

Warmly,
College Park Elementary Leadership Team

Families are invited to join us for our Thanksgiving Luncheon on November 19, 2025. Tickets will be on sale starting November 1 and sales will end on November 16. We look forward to celebrating this special occasion together and sharing a wonderful meal in the spirit of gratitude.

Book Checkout Data

Hardcopy: 185

Sora: 35

Beanstack: 52 students were awarded 30 minute and 60 minutes badges.

🎉5th grader Emily White read and logged the most minutes on Beanstack with 337 minutes this week.

Emily earned all Beanstack Badges for October. Congratulations Emily!

Ms. Harmons 5th grade class has the highest student engagement on Beanstack. Congratulations Ms. Harmon.

The November Beanstack Challenge is Read Grateful.

Our school is swiftly approaching Igniter Status in Beanstack. November is a season to express gratitude for all the wonderful parts of life! Snuggle up with a book, log your reading, and earn cozy badges all month long. Each student should strive to read 120 minutes this month and unlock 3 badges.

We’re excited to invite 8–10 parents to become officially certified in Leader in Me® Parents! This half-day (4-hour) training will introduce you to the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families and empower you to take part in future Leader in Me events and initiatives at College Park Elementary.

This opportunity is open to Pre-K through 4th grade parents who want to grow as leaders and partners in our school community. Once our parent leadership cadre is formed, we’ll finalize dates and times.

Our Leader in Me trainer, Betsy Weirda, will lead this engaging session designed to strengthen home-school connections and family leadership.

If you’re interested, please email Dr. Otway directly at otway@fultonschools.org to reserve your spot!

Together, we grow leaders—at school and at home. 🐯💛

This Week’s Leadership in Me Focus

Check out this week’s Leader in Me Article of the Week: Listen before speaking. Families play a vital role in a child’s success not just in academics, but in their growth as leaders and individuals. This week’s article highlights the importance of the home school connection and reminds us that when parents and teachers work together, students thrive.

We had a great time at Technology Night at Skate Towne Friday, Nov. 7, 2025 at 4:30pm. We are thrilled that you joined us for this workshop/meeting. We hope you learned something new and found it productive. We look forward to having you again.

For those that were unable to attend, please review the attached Technology presentation or click the links below. The purpose of this communication is to share the important information shared at Technology Night. After reviewing the information, you should have a better understanding of how to better support your child’s learning at home.

Thank you for working together at College Park Elementary School to learn and partner with your school community to ensure your child is reaching their full academic potential. If you have any additional questions or comments, or suggestions for new learning, please let us know at 470-254-8040.

To access the survey, the link and QR code is below. Your feedback helps us improve the services and events we offer to build your confidence and ability to academically support your child(ren) at home and partner with the school in their education.

Technology Workshop PPT 2025.pptx

Harms of Copyright Piracy - parent handout.pdf

This week’s house meeting had a special twist! Our 3–5 students were paired with a K–2 buddy from their same house to launch our House Buddy System a wonderful tradition that helps build community and connections across grade levels. These buddy pairs will stay together all year long, giving older students the chance to be positive role models while our younger learners gain new friends to look up to.

During their first meeting, buddies reviewed Princeton’s Creed, shared fun facts about one another, and enjoyed getting to know their new house partner. It was heartwarming to see so many smiles and meaningful conversations!

We’re already looking forward to next month’s buddy meeting, which will be all about literacy and the joy of reading together.

We want every student to feel confident and ready for school each day.

If your family could use assistance with school uniforms, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

You can call us at 470-254-8040. Let us know, and we’ll do our best to provide assistance and support.

College Park Mission

Empower the whole child to become a lifelong learner to ensure that they reach their full potential academically, socially, and emotionally.

College Park Vision

Consistently provide high quality learning experiences that cultivate, nurture, and promote academic excellence

College Park Six Core Beliefs

Everyone can be a leader, Everyone has genius, Change starts with me, We lead our own learning, Develop the whole person, WE ROAR

College Park 8 Habits

1. Be proactive 2. Begin with the End in Mind 3. Put First Things First 4. Think Win-Win

5. Seek First To Understand, Then to Be Understood 6. Synergize 7. Sharpen the Saw

8. Find your voice, and inspire others to find theirs