FAQs!

~Mrs. Bryant

School Day: 7:40 am to 2:40 pm (doors open at 7:15 am and pick up ends at 3:00) After School program is available until 6:00 pm and sign-ups will be available at Open House.

2026 Open House date: Monday, August 3rd from 3:00-6:00 pm

Teacher Announcements: Students will find out who their homeroom teacher is through a scratch-off post card mailed directly to them from their teacher! Please be sure your address is up to date! (If for some reason you do not receive a post card, please attend Open House and we will connect you with your child's teacher.)

Cell phones and Smart watches: These devices are not allowed during the school day. If a child needs to have a device coming to or going home from school, it should be off and in their bookbag while on campus. We are a one-to-one school with laptop access for all students. In addition, there are digital clocks in all classrooms and hallways. So, there is not a need for these devices during the school day. (See below for additional information and clarification.)

Arrival for bus riders: Bus riders will stay on the bus at CPS while Pre-K through 3rd grade gets off. Then they will ride the bus to CES to start their school day.

Arrival for car riders: Car riders will enter the school at the entrance by the marquee and proceed to the drop off area in front of the school. Students should remain in the car until they hear the whistle to signal it is safe to exit the car and enter the building. Teachers do not open car doors, so we recommended making sure child locks are set to allow your student to exit the vehicle on their own.

Breakfast: Breakfast is served on the 4th grade hallway and is available every day. Please make sure your child knows your expectations for purchasing breakfast. Some students enjoy a "2nd breakfast" when they arrive! 😀

Lunch: We have an amazing lunch menu including wings and chicken & waffles - two of our students favorites! We also have "extras" available for purchase including drinks, cookies, chips, ice cream, etc. Please make sure your child knows your expectations for these purchases if they have money on their account. (See below for specific information about meal prices, online payments, free/reduced applications, menus, and more!)

Classes: Students will have two teachers - one for ELA and Social Studies, and one for Math and Science. The teacher they see first in the morning will be their homeroom teacher. We refer to their 2nd teacher as their "switch teacher." Students will carry their belongings between classrooms with their bookbag.

Special Programs: If your student is part of a special program area, such as EIP, ESOL, special education, 504, or gifted/Challenge, we are ready to support them at Cartersville Elementary School. You can find out more about how we serve students in these program areas at our Open House.

Special Areas: Students have five special areas, and they rotate weekly rather than daily. Every other week is PE, and music, art, and computer science are alternated between PE weeks. An example six-week rotation is below:

Week 1: Computer Science

Week 2: PE

Week 3: Music

Week 4: PE

Week 5: Art

Week 6: PE

Our school meals are made fresh with wholesome, nutritious ingredients that fuel students’ learning and growth, while offering delicious flavors everyone loves.

See Our Menus

The National School Lunch Program (NSLP) is a federally assisted meal program that provides nutritionally balanced, low-cost or free lunches to qualifying children each school day.

We encourage all families to complete the application online

Apply Today

We are delighted to invite you to join your children for lunch at our school. To ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience for everyone, we kindly ask that you follow these guidelines:

1. Sign In at the Office: Upon arrival, please sign in at the school office and present a valid ID.
2. Lunch Visitors: Parents and other guests on a student's pickup list may sign in and join their child for lunch. If a guest is not on the pickup list, they may still join for lunch if a parent/guardian sends a note giving permission. This ensures that all visitors are known to the parents/guardians, maintaining a secure environment.
3. Friends at visitor lunch tables: Students may invite one friend to eat with their guest(s) provided the friend’s parent/guardian sends a note giving permission prior to their scheduled lunch time.
4. Team Lunches: To keep the focus on academics during the school day, we are unable to accommodate team lunches for recreational sports.

Thank you for your cooperation and understanding. We look forward to seeing you!

Bus Riders: On a typical day, our school busses leave CES between 2:45 and 2:50. Please remember 4th and 5th grade students do not require an adult to be present for drop off. Drivers will release students to their homes without an adult present. Please make sure your child knows how to enter the home and what to do in the event they cannot get in their residence..

Car Riders: Car rider students will wait in the cafeteria until they hear their name called. Parents will be given car rider tags at Open House. Please use all three lanes in afternoon car rider line. When students hear their name called, they will exit to a purple line on the sidewalk and wait to be dismissed to their car. Teachers will not walk students to their vehicle. Please make sure your child knows what color and type of car you have.

CES STUDENT CELL PHONE/WATCH EXPECTATIONS

The number of students with cell phones and cellular watches in grades 4 and 5 has grown tremendously over the past several years. In order to minimize distractions during the school day and prepare our students for middle school expectations, the following rules for student electronic devices will be in place at CES.

CES Student Cell Phone/Smart Watch Expectations: In accordance with Georgia House Bill 340: Distraction-Free Education Act, CES has created the following expectations regarding cell phones and smart watches. (A link to GA House Bill 340 is below.)

Student cell phones and smart watches are expected to be off and remain in students' backpacks during the school day. (This includes day and over-night fieldtrips) If a cell phone or smart watch is visible or used during the day, the following consequences will be put in place:

· First Offense - Student Warning

· Second Offense - Infraction: Warning - Parent Contacted

· Third Offense - Infraction: Teacher assigned consequence - Parent Contacted

· Fourth Offense - Infraction: Teacher assigned consequence - Parent Contacted

· Fifth Offense - Office Referral to Administration – ISS

*A student refusing to put away an electronic device when asked could result in an additional office referral for defiance.

*Smart phones/watches are exempt from this rule if the watch is used for medical reasons. Parents must contact the school nurse to put a plan in place for the device. Example: Diabetic

• Please note that if the device is being used for any other purpose than medical purposes, the student may be subject to the consequences listed above.

We are fortunate to be a one-to-one school, with a school laptop available for every student. In addition, all of our classrooms have phones and digital clocks.

Should you need to get in touch with your child during the school day, please call the school at 770-382-0983.

As we prepare for the upcoming 2025-2026 school year, we would like to inform you of some important updates regarding our After School services.

New Pricing Structure:
The daily price for After School services will be $12 per student. Additionally, the registration fee will be $20 per student, with a maximum of $40 per family per school.

Registration Opportunities:
To make the registration process as convenient as possible, we will be offering registration opportunities at the Primary School, the Elementary School, and Middle School during their respective Open Houses. We encourage you to take advantage of these opportunities to ensure your child's spot in our After School program.

We have a lot of activities and ways for students to be involved! Below are the opportunities available to students while at CES! Some of these clubs require an application, test, or try-out. I will communicate details about each once school is up and running in August. Look for information in our Monthly Family Newsletter.

• Art Club
• Audio/Video Club
• Purple Rain Singers
• Frisbee Golf
• National Elementary Honor Society (5th)
• Safety Patrol (5th grade)
• Student Council
• Math Fest

• DARE (5th)
• Spelling Bee
• Young Georgia Authors
• Canes Buddies
• 4H
• TOME Reading Club

• Attendance: Please remember the importance of attendance, especially as the academic expectations of students begins to increase. If your child misses school for any reason, please remember to send in a parent note or a doctor's excuse within 3 days,

• Field Trips: Because many field trips are local and allow us to return to school before lunch, we do not allow check-outs on field trips. (We do reserve the flexibility to adapt this to specific field trips that may not fit the norm.)

Parent Portal on Infinite Campus is the best way to stay involved and up-to-day on your child's grades and attendance. You can even set alerts to notify you if a grade drops or an absence is entered. Please see the information below to set up your account, if you haven't already!

Click on the link below and follow the instructions in the attached pdf.

Parent Portal Activation

In addition to Infinite Campus, we send out an electronic newsletter each month in the same format as this FAQ. In addition, we use student agendas to communicate as well as our family text/e-mail communication system. If you would like to view this year's newsletters, they are currently linked on our CES website under the CES Announcement section. Our website is: Cartersville Elementary School / Homepage

There are many ways to be involved at CES! Our PTC is always looking for support and volunteers to help us with events like Spooky Science Night, Book Fair, Fundraisers, Teacher Appreciation and more! We are also always looking for mentors willing to invest consistently in a child. In addition, if you or your business is interested in partnering with us during Career Week and speaking with students about what you do, we would love to hear from you. If you are interested in any of these opportunities, please reach out to our PTC president via our monthly newsletter e-mail and posted monthly at Principal Newsletter - Cartersville Elementary School.

We love to engage our students in opportunities to be active participants in their education. Our students create our tardy bell ringtones, and we highlight a new student each week. Our students also help us select our field day shirts, agenda covers, school store items, and more. In addition you may see our students as greeters for school guests, announcers for our morning announcements, and raising and lowering our flags.

Below are some highlights from our school year. We cannot wait for your child to be a part of the School level:

• Capturing Kids’ Heart National Showcase School - 2nd consecutive year
• Official Get Charged UP School
• Advancing status towards STEAM state certification
• Raised $16,000 for our school through Glow Run fundraiser
• Raised over $23,000 (including a $5k donation from Piedmont) for Bartow's Advocates for Children.
• Our cafeteria received a 100% on their health rating!

• Participation and awards in Young Georgia Authors, Math Fest, and Special Olympics.
• Five students participated in state honor chorus.
• A 4th grade student was an honorable mention in the state Young Georgia Authors contest.
• Our TOME reading club participated at the national level and won 2nd place
• Our Purple Rain Singers were chosen to perform at the GMEA Conference in Athens, Georgia.
• CES student's work was chosen for the Booth Museum's permanent student art exhibit.