Monthly Update #10

Email: tosha.wright@dcssga.org
Website: fses.dcssga.org
Location: 2375 Mount Vernon Road, Lithia Springs, GA, USA
Phone: 770.651.3900
Facebook: https://facebook.com/Factoryshoalselementaryschool

Week of May 5, 2025 | Respect for the Environment: Understanding and appreciating our responsibility to the environment

Week of May 12, 2025 | Integrity: Adherence to a code of values

Week of May 19, 2025 | Accomplishment: Appreciation for attaining one’s goals, or something that has been achieved successfully

• Week of May 5th: ALL LIBRARY BOOKS/MATERIALS DUE
• Monday, May 5th-Friday, May 9th: Teacher & Staff Appreciation Week

• Monday, May 5th-Thursday, May 8th: BOGO Book Fair
• Tuesday, May 6th | 4th and 5th Grade Field Day
• Wednesday, May 7th | Kindergarten and 1st Grade Field Day

• Wednesday, May 7th - Friday, May 10th: Fifth Grade Field Gatlinburg, TN Overnight Trip

• Thursday, May 8th | 2nd and 3rd Grade Field Day

• Thursday, May 8th - Spring Night of the Arts/Transition Night at 5:30 PM

• Tuesday, May 13th @ 12:30 PM - 1st Grade Awards Ceremony
• Tuesday, May 13th - Last Title I Parent Advisory Council Meeting @ 4:30 PM - Virtual --> link here
• Tuesday, May 13th - 5th to 6th Middle School Orientation at respective middle school - 5:30-7:00 PM. Click here to enter your address to see your zoned middle school.
• Wednesday, May 14th @ 10 AM - Rising Kindergarten Informational Meeting - Virtual (link is here)
• Wednesday, May 14th @ 12:30 PM - 2nd Grade Awards Ceremony in the Cafe
• Wednesday, May 14th @ 3 PM - Rising Kindergarten Informational Meeting in the Media Center
• Thursday, May 15th @ 9 AM - 3rd Grade Awards Ceremony in the Cafe
• Thursday, May 15th @ 12:30 PM - 4th Grade Awards Ceremony in the Cafe
• Friday, May 16th @ 10 AM - 5th Grade Awards Ceremony @ NMHS
• Friday, May 16th: Last Day of ASP and Dolphin Club
• Friday, May 16th: Last Day for Bookbags

• Monday, May 19th @ 8:30 AM Kindergarten End of Year Celebration in the Gym
• Monday, May 19th: Last Full Day of School
• Tuesday, May 20th: Half Day- Dismissal at 11:00 AM
• Wednesday, May 21st: Half Day- Dismissal at 11:00 AM - LAST DAY OF SCHOOL

We are thrilled to recognize Mrs. Henry for her unwavering dedication, passion, and commitment to students and staff. As a math teacher and 21st-century Co-Coordinator, she brings energy, heart, and excellence into everything she does. Her colleagues describe her as the definition of a servant leader—an educator with a heart of gold who would truly give you the shirt off her back.

Mrs. Henry advocates for all students and exemplifies what it means to be an exceptional teacher. Her enthusiasm for teaching is contagious, and her genuine care for each student’s academic and personal growth is felt in every lesson she teaches. She works tirelessly to ensure that every student is learning and feeling seen, heard, and supported.

What truly makes Mrs. Henry stand out is her commitment to lifelong learning. She is constantly growing in her craft, attending professional development, collaborating with colleagues, and staying current with best practices. Her drive to improve continuously is inspiring and speaks to the high standards she holds for herself and her students.

Not only is she a champion for kids, but she’s also a rock for her team. She’s collaborative, supportive, and always willing to step up— truly a leader among her peers. One of her colleagues states, "If we had a 'Team Lead of the Year' award, she’d win that too!

Join us in celebrating Mrs. Henry's much-deserved honor! We are so proud to have her in our Factory Shoals Elementary family.

We are proud to honor Mrs. Lotemo, one of our amazing Kindergarten Paraprofessionals, as this year’s Staff Member of the Year! Mrs. Lotemo is the true definition of a team player—hardworking, dependable, and always willing to go the extra mile for students and staff alike.

Whether in the classroom supporting instruction, covering lunch or bus duties, or stepping in wherever help is needed, Mrs. Lotemo does it all with a heart full of love and a smile on her face. She is known for her patience, dedication, and care for every student, from kindergarten through fifth grade.

Her colleagues describe her as “very dedicated, loving, and patient,” “a positive role model,” and “always willing to step up.” Mrs. Lotemo also brings that same energy and compassion to her work in our After School Program, consistently supporting students and ensuring they feel safe, successful, and valued.

She is the kind of person who quietly makes a big impact, always stepping up without being asked and seeking to make things better for those around her. Her initiative, positivity, and love for children make her an invaluable part of the Factory Shoals Elementary family.

Please remember all transportation changes must go through the office -- in writing. You may send in a note or send an email to fses-transportation-dcss@dcssga.org before 1:00 PM. Please help us get your child home safely!

Yearbooks are on sale in-person (first come first serve; while supplies last) CASH ONLY $40. See our Media Specialist, Mrs. Jiles for more information.

Our students will be taking part in field day activities next week! Here are a few reminders about the event:

• Students must have good behavior to participate. Your child's teacher will notify you by next week if he/she hasn't earned the opportunity to attend field day.
• Parents are welcome to attend field day. You will need to communicate with your child's teacher before you attend. Parents must sign in (using a state issued ID) before reporting to the field.
• We encourage you to make sure your child has everything he/she needs before being dropped off at school. All students will need to bring a change of clothes (including underwear, socks, deodorant and shoes).
• Students should bring a water bottle with his/her name on it for the day. Students may bring snacks and drinks for themselves or the class.
• Students can wear bathing suits UNDERNEATH shorts and t-shirts.
• Swim shoes are suggested (students will be on the concrete).
• Do not forget sunscreen!

The Douglas County School System Title I Department is in the process of reviewing and revising the district’s Parent and Family Engagement Plan. This plan outlines how the district will implement programs, activities, and procedures for the involvement of parents and families in Title I programs. The plan will establish the district’s expectations for parent and family engagement and how the district will carry out federal and state parent and family engagement requirements. Parent input into the revision of this plan is requested and required. The input forms linked below will be active until Friday, May 16, 2025 at 12:00pm.

To view a draft of the plan, please click here: 2025-2026 Douglas County School System Parent and Family Engagement Plan draft

To view a draft of the plan in SPANISH, please click here: 2025-2026 Douglas County School System Parent and Family Engagement Plan SPANISH draft

To provide suggestions or input in the document, please click here: Input form for the 2025-2026 Douglas County School System Parent and Family Engagement Policy

To provide suggestions or input in the document in SPANISH, please click here: SPANISH Input form for the 2025-2025 Douglas County School System Parent and Family Engagement Plan

We are committed to ensuring that our students continue to learn and grow during the summer months. On Thursday, May 15th, your child will be sent home with a Summer Learning Backpack. The bag contains summer bridge activities in all subjects, math flashcards and reading books. There is also a parent guide on how you can enrich your child's learning during the summer months. Our school made tremendous growth this past year, and we want to continue to 'Level Up'!

Eye exams are available for children ages 5–18 (Grades PreK–12) and will take approximately 20–30 minutes. Please arrive 10 minutes before your scheduled appointment to complete necessary paperwork. Wait times may be up to 1 hour.

1. Children 17 and under must be accompanied by an adult.
2. If you’re booking for multiple children, please schedule a separate appointment for each child.
3. If no appointment times are available, email georgia@visiontolearn.org to be added to the waitlist.
4. If applicable, vision services will be billed to your child’s Medicaid benefits—there will be no out-of-pocket cost to you.

For any questions, please contact Vision to Learn at georgia@visiontolearn.org.

Important: When booking, be sure to enter the child’s first and last name as the patient—not the parent’s name.

Mark your calendars! The Douglas County School System invites all current DCSS students and their families to our exciting Back to School Kick-Off on Saturday, July 19, 2025, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. at Legacy Arena (9030 Hwy. 5, Douglasville, GA 30134).

Join us for a fun-filled day packed with food, games, free school supplies, and much more! Community agencies will be onsite offering valuable resources, information, and assistance to help your family get ready for the new school year.

🔸 Please note: A clear bag policy will be in effect.

We can’t wait to see you there as we kick off another amazing school year together!

If your child is currently enrolled using a multi-family form, you should have a received a letter in the mail on how to update for the upcoming school year. Douglas County School System policy states that multi-family forms are valid for a period of one year. Your child’s multi-family form will expire on May 21, 2025.

New documents may be submitted to the school’s office beginning July 14, 2025. If new documents are not received by July 18, 2025, your child will NOT be placed on a class list or scheduled for classes for the 2025-2026 school year.

The Douglas County School System reserves the right to verify residency and the authenticity of utility bills at any time. False swearing of the multi-family form and any other enrollment documents is a violation of Georgia law and is punishable by a fine or by imprisonment.

If you have any questions, please contact our school registrar, Mrs. Denise Hoyos at 770.651.3901.

As school we want to get better at improving our school culture and get a pulse on the issues that matter to you. We've signed up to a service that will send you regular, short, anonymous surveys making it quick and easy to get your voice heard.

Please click the link below to sign up https://app.satchelpulse.com/parents?country=us

Please use the school ID (code) 735095 when prompted to join the school.

We are excited to announce that Factory Shoals Elementary School has partnered with Concentric Educational Solutions, Inc. (CES) to enhance our support for students, families, and the school community. This partnership aims to strengthen the connection between home and school by providing evidence-based solutions that address academic and social needs.

Through our collaboration with CES, we will enhance existing supports and resources while identifying effective strategies to improve your child’s attendance and academic success.

One of the most exciting aspects of this partnership is the opportunity to learn about the barriers impacting our families so that we better understand and address any needs. For the remainder of the school year, at the recommendation of the School Support Team at Factory Shoals Elementary School, CES representatives will be conducting informational home visits. These visits will help us gather valuable insights from you and your child, allowing us to create an enriching learning experience focused on improving attendance, fostering appropriate social-emotional behaviors, and boosting academic achievement.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Principal Wright. We are looking forward to a productive and engaging partnership with you and your child!

Students love to read using Epic, a reading app that gives 24/7 access to a digital library of over 40,000+ premium books. It’s great for their daily reading and for keeping up the momentum on weekends and during school breaks. Here are the login instructions:

𝗙𝗼𝗿 𝗟𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗼𝗽𝘀: Open browser and

1. Go to 𝗸𝗶𝗱𝘀.𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗽𝗶𝗰.𝗰𝗼𝗺/𝘀𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀

2. Enter class code to log in.

𝗶𝗢𝗦 & 𝗔𝗻𝗱𝗿𝗼𝗶𝗱: Download & open Epic for Kids app

1. Tap on “Students”

2. Enter class code to log in.

Here is a link to the class codes for your child's homeroom teacher.

As instruction and student safety are our top priorities, we hope to limit the reduction of instructional time disruptions and the decrease in office chaos in the afternoons. When students are consistently checked out of school early, they are missing valuable instructional time with their teachers. We respectfully ask that all families refrain from office check-outs after 1:45 PM each day. In addition, we can no longer pull children off the bus once we have began our dismissal process as this becomes a safety issue for students. Of course we understand that emergencies happen but we do ask that you work with us as we ensure all students get home safely in the afternoon.

The Georgia Compulsory Attendance Law holds parents responsible for making sure that their children attend school. According to this attendance law, the only legal excuses for absences are

1. Personal illness

2. Death in the immediate family

3. Religious holidays

Although attendance at school is very important, students with a contagious illness or fever should be kept home. Upon returning to school after an absence, a written excuse must be given to the homeroom teacher within three days. Students who are absent miss instruction that is vital to the mastery of the standards. Students are tardy to school after the 7:40 AM bell. Students who are tardy miss valuable instruction and disrupt the class. If a student is late, a parent must escort his/her child to the office for a tardy pass before the student goes to class. Again, students who are repeatedly checked out prior to the end of the instructional day (2:10 PM) miss valuable instructional time.

Here you will find the FSES Student & Family Handbook.

Here you will find the DCSS Elementary Student Handbook.

All afternoon dismissal and transportation changes must be made in writing; we cannot accept changes made by a child or over the phone. Please send notes in with students in the morning. If you need to send an email, those need to be made prior to 1:00 PM to our transportation team. The transportation team email is fses-transportation-dcss@dcssga.org.

Do you want to shout out a teacher or staff member for the amazing job they're doing?! Well, now you can! Use this form to recognize a teacher or staff member. All recognitions will be shared with the appropriate staff member and may also be posted on our Facebook page. Please submit one form per teacher.

Complete the FORM here.

Here are the district approved calendars for the next two years. [2024-2025 and 2025-2026].

Our school code for Remind is: @fsesga

Join our school on Class Dojo using this link.

We will use Remind for all communication with families. We will use Class Dojo as our school-wide behavior management tool. Please be sure to sign up for both. Our staff is also available via email (first name.last name @ dcssga.org) or via phone at 770-651-3900.

GoGuardian is a Chromebook monitoring and teacher facilitator application that helps students learn safely, stay focused, and get engaged. Administrators and teachers can see everything your child does on their school issued device and when they are logged into their DCSS portal. Administrators get alerts when students search inappropriate or explicit content on their device. Students will lose device privileges if their account is flagged for inappropriate content.

Parents are required to complete a Free and Reduced Meal Application in order to qualify for free or reduced meals. Meals will no longer be free. Parents will be required to send money for breakfast and lunch until the free/reduced meal application is approved. You can use schoolcafe.com to load money to your child's account or send cash for meals.

If your child has a negative lunch balance, they will not be accepted into any FSES extracurricular activities until that balance is cleared.

Here is the link for directions on signing up for the Parent Portal for our Student Information System, Infinite Campus. We use Infinite Campus school for student's grades, attendance and other important data.

Here Comes the Bus is available for parents and students to download now. To sign up, visit the Apple or Android store, or visit www.herecomesthebus.com.

Students are still encouraged to arrive at their stop five to ten minutes early and to follow any additional instructions given by drivers. Please sign up for Here Comes the Bus. You can use code 79003.

As your children board the bus each morning, please help us and remind them of our bus rules. Students should stay seated in assigned seat, there is to be no eating or drinking on the bus and students should use their inside voices. Students should also keep their hands and other objects to themselves while riding the bus.

School bus transportation is a privilege afforded pupils by the Board of Education. It is not a right. To protect the safety and well-being of all involved, pupils must adhere to established bus conduct rules. Bus transportation privilege may be revoked if the pupil does not observe bus conduct expectations.

There are some days that your child's bus may be late due to busses being combined or a substitute bus driver driving a new route. If you would like to know if your child's bus will be late, you may locate that information here. Our school is abbreviated as FSES. This information is updated each morning and each afternoon.

Morning Arrival to FSES

• Car riders may only be dropped off and picked up within the designated car rider zone.

• Morning student drop-off begins at 7:00 AM in the car rider lane.

• As the car approaches the drop-off location, students should unbuckle themselves, have their bookbag on, and place any materials being carried in their hands.

• Please move forward until directed to stop. Once stopped, please remember to unlock doors. In the morning, we typically unload three to four cars at a time.

• Students MUST wait until FSES School Staff opens the car door in order to proceed from vehicles. Students should not get out of the car by themselves. This is for the safety of all students.

• If possible, all students should be loaded and unloaded through passenger side doors- Curb Side.

• Do not drive around or pass cars that are still unloading. Vehicles will wait until all children have exited their vehicle before proceeding to the exit. Like school bus loading and unloading zones, violators will have license plates turned over to the DCSS Police Department.

• Vehicles NOT in line when the clock turns 7:40 AM will be directed to sign the child in through the front office.

• Students coming in through the front office must be escorted into the building by a parent or guardian.

Afternoon Dismissal from FSES

• The afternoon car rider line begins at 1:50 PM.

• Afternoon dismissal of car riders begins at 2:10 PM.

• Please do not use cell phones once the car pick-up line begins to move.

• The school-issued car rider tag is required for pick-up. (Even if we know who you are. You must have a car rider tag to pick up a child.) If you do not have a tag, you will be directed to the front office to get one. Additional tags are $2.

• A staff member is responsible for radioing your child's car rider number. Please wait until they have done so before moving on in the line.

• Move all the way forward until directed to stop.

• Vehicles should be placed in park.

• Normally, three students are loaded into cars at a time.

• Children will enter the car on the right-hand side.

• Parents or Guardians should remain in the vehicle at all times.

• Once the child is loaded, you may proceed to the exit.

• If a child needs assistance with getting buckled in, your vehicle should move forward towards the exit. Do not assist while in the line.

• Vehicles need to be in line by 2:35 PM. After 2:35 PM you will need to pick your child up from the front office.

• Students waiting after the car rider line ends will be placed in the After School Program and a fee will be assessed.

If you or the person who is picking up your child in the afternoon does not have the hanging FSES 2024-2025 Car Rider Identification card, they will have to pick up the child from the front office and have their ID available for our front office staff to check. This is for the safety of your child. Thank you for your understanding.

We thank you in advance for adhering to our rules as they all help keep your students safe around moving vehicles.

We recognize that electronic devices are an important part of our everyday world and are increasingly being used in teaching and learning. However, we want to be sure that any devices at school are being used as an appropriate instructional tool, and their use does not interfere with our students’ learning environment.

Factory Shoals is proud to provide student access to Chrome Books in all of our classrooms. Students should only use electronic devices under the direct supervision of their teacher, so there is absolutely no need for students to bring their own devices from home. This includes cell phones, smart watches, iPads, and tablets. We believe that elementary school students are not equipped to deal with the responsibilities of having unsupervised access to technology, and their brains are not quite ready to handle such distractions at school.

If your child must bring a device to school in order to communicate with you after school hours, then please remind them of the following:

Electronic devices brought from home will be kept in the backpack turned off during the school day and will not ring or cause disruption to the instruction in the classroom.

Thank you for helping us to make Factory Shoals an amazing place where students value their education!

We do not allow birthday parties during lunch, whole birthday cakes or any birthday treats that are not individually wrapped.

We enjoy honoring our students on their birthday. We announce the birthday child’s name on the morning announcements and allow families to bring in treats within the guidelines below.

Cupcakes/snacks must be store bought AND prepackaged/individually wrapped.

Also, you may want to think about non-food items. The items listed below will still make your child feel special and they will last a lot longer than a food item.

• A game for the classroom
• A classroom book (A nice touch would be having your child pick it out, sign it, and date it.)
• A classroom set of items for each child to keep such as pencils, pens, erasers, markers, etc.

Mr. Hector Cotte is our Bilingual Family Liaison. He speaks Spanish and is here to help parents improve their understanding of the school and the school system, while maximizing their involvement in school activities and helping to minimize any linguistic barriers. You can reach Mr. Cotte at hector.cotte@dcssga.org or 770.651.3937.

Ms. Lizzy Kilgore is our District Bilingual Liaison. Please contact her if you need help with translating or interpreting.

Phone: 770.651.2223

Email: lizzy.kilgore@dcssga.org