Notes from the North Park Hive

What a great first two days we had at North Park! I am SO proud of our students and staff. Our Tiny Trojans ROCKED the transition! They are continuing to learn all about being a kindergarten student. However, they were so brave and incredible. Parents - I am so proud of you, too! I know walking away or putting your child on the bus was difficult for many of you. Watching our children - at any age - take steps toward independence is very challenging. Your emotions were valid; but look at how much fun your kids were having and already learning! (I'm reminding myself of this as I am currently watching my daughter pack for college while typing this newsletter). Change is hard, but it leads to great things!

Our preschool Open House is THIS THURSDAY, August 13th! We are so excited to welcome our preschool families!

Thank you for your continued patience with bus routes and the car rider line. Our students are still adjusting to getting out of cars and quickly walking inside the building. We have watched the progression of the car rider line for YEARS, and, honestly, it just takes time for things to speed up - and some help from you. Here are some ways you can help ALL families get to work or the next school on time:

• Have your child seated behind the driver side of the car if at all possible. This expedites the process so much!
• Have your child unbuckle and put their backpack on.
• Say your goodbyes and any goodbye routines back on the car rider road.
• Limit the videos/pictures at this point. That slows everyone down.
• Be watching and ready to roll - we all have to have a sense of urgency.
• Understand that if our staff is exhibiting urgency and haste, it's not to be rude, but to help everyone. We know everyone wants a quick-moving and efficient car rider experience. But that only happens if we all do our part.
• Please understand that we do not take front door drop-offs due to the fact that, in just a few days, a few hundred preschoolers will be dropped off at the front doors. This is because they are legally hand-to-hand drop-offs AND they eat breakfast in the cafeteria. We have worked over the last four years to streamline very efficient procedures and they do work if we all follow them for the good of one another and, most importantly, our students.
• Car rider lines at all schools are typically long - especially in August. The bus is a great alternative if it is too long or frustrating. We understand your feelings and we do everything we can to make it as efficient as possible.

PICKUP PATROL IS GOING WELL! Please remember that if you need to make a change to your child's transportation, you MUST use our PickUp Patrol system. Thank you to those who have made accounts and uploaded a default plan. If you need help with how to make daily changes, watch the short video below! A parent guide is available at PickUp Patrol Parent Guide. To make changes, you can find the link on our facebook page, pinned on Class Dojo, on our school website, at the bottom of this newsletter, or you can bookmark or save the site,

https://app.pickuppatrol.net/parents

If we can support your family or your child in any way, please do not hesitate to contact our office (or me directly at laurabeth.hayes@hardin.kyschools.us).

- Mrs. Hayes, principal

If you were not able to attend Parent University during Adventure Camp, you can access the slide deck below. Many of your questions can be answered using this link!

You will start to hear about our main school fundraiser for the year, Buzzy's Fun Glow Run (Buzzy the bee is our school mascot) VERY soon (next week). Due to the way funding is designated for our school (regarding different funding sources for preschool and kindergarten), we have a VERY limited school budget. We rely on fundraising to be able to help us send ALL of our students on field trips, pay for resources for school clubs and buy incentives for things like our Bee store and our monthly PBIS (behavior) rewards. Each year for the last few years, we have raised over $12,000 during our Fun Run! We've added to our playground and ensured that 100% of the money raised goes directly to STUDENTS. We will send out the kickoff info soon. The event will take place in September so that both our preschool and kindergarten students can enjoy the event.

We want to have great attendance at North Park. Attendance is typically a growth area for our school, and we want this year to be the year we really improve! Part of the challenge is that young students do get sick more often. That is understandable. However, we want to help students learn GREAT work ethic habits and that starts with great attendance - even in kindergarten. Typically, missing around 8 days or less a school year is very acceptable and to be expected. Sometimes, we encounter situations where students have missed 20-40 days. This is very significant and nearly a month (and more) of instruction. Research - and real life experience - tells us that kids learn and grow the most when they are at school and keep routines.

If your student needs to miss and you have a medical or doctor note, please send those to the emails below.

You may also write 6 parent notes a year.

Excuses need to be submitted within 5 days of the absence or we are not allowed to "count" them.

Be sure to follow class Dojo for all of our important North Park announcements and weekly snapshot. We use our facebook page to showcase learning, events and activities and celebrate our student achievements. If you are not receiving Dojo notifications, please check your phone settings. Be sure you have downloaded the app and connected to your child's classroom. We send out multiple reminders and announcements each week. You can also directly message your child's teacher or administration staff. We also utilize the HCS app for announcements as well.

Be sure to follow the HCS facebook page and website for important district announcements and reminders.

Click the image (it will expand) for our week at-a-glance!

We have a special painted tree in our cafeteria called our "Reading Tree." We add paper leaves to this tree when students read a book at home with family! We get excited to see how many leaves are added to the tree each month. Additionally, students earn a special sticker (like the kind at the doctor's office) each month. They LOVE collecting these seasonal stickers and adding their leaves to the tree. Paper copies of the leaves will go home the first full week of school. You can also print them using the file below. Send in your completed leaves and let's fill our tree for August!