We hope that each student and family had a rejuvenating spring break and are energized and focused to return for the remaining 10 weeks of school for the 2024-2025 school year! We will continue to focus on attendance and instruction with a sense of urgency in the final week of our 3rd quarter and throughout our 4th quarter. Please make sure all students have completed and submitted any missing assignments by the end of this week.

Since the National Read Across America week was during our spring break, we will be celebrating Read Across America week this upcoming week. Students will be engaging in a read aloud with each days’s theme and we encourage families to do the same. Therefore, I am sharing the link for you to do so to engage in each read aloud as a family.

Friday, March 14th marks the end of our 3rd quarter for the 24-25 school year. We are inviting all families to come join us to hear a famous storyteller with your child at the following times on Friday, March 14th:

· Kindergarten through 2nd grade families at 8:00am

· 3rd through 5th grade families at 9:00am

All families are then welcome to stay and watch our book character parade featuring our Kindergarten through Second Grade students. We are asking for families to depart from campus by 10:20 am in order for all students to return to more learning for the remainder of their day!

Kindergarten Registration is now open online! Please plan to come to our Kindergarten Registration event on March 12 at Heide Trask High School from 4:30 to 7:00pm. Admission to the event is free, and attendees will have the chance to purchase food from local food trucks while enjoying the evening. This event provides a valuable opportunity for families with children ages 3-5 to meet PCS staff, connect with community partners, and learn more about early learning programs in the district. Children will enjoy games and entertainment, while incoming kindergarten families will receive a Kindergarten Readiness Bag to support their transition to school.

A Kindergarten Registration Station will be available on-site, offering families assistance with the registration process. Parents planning to register their child for kindergarten should bring the following required documents:

· Birth Certificate

· Proof of Residence

· Health Assessment

· Immunization Records

· Parent/Guardian ID

Looking ahead to next week, please note that individual spring pictures will take place on Friday, March 21st. We are still waiting for confirmation on a rescheduled date for our class pictures.

In an effort to continuously move our students forward academically, we have recently implemented a program called Freckle across all grade levels. Students will be coming home with Chromebooks two days of the week to allow them to work on the adaptive pathway for the skills needed. You are able to access it through Classlink

A reminder that the reassignment request period for the upcoming 2025-2026 academic year is now open. Parents who wish to enroll their students in a Pender County school outside of their designated zone, with the exception of Pender Early College and Pender Innovative Learning Academy, are encouraged to participate in the application process. Due to schools in the Topsail and Surf City school districts being over capacity, no new applications will be accepted for those schools. The deadline for submitting reassignment requests is March 31, 2025

The application for the 2025-26 Pender County Schools Preschool Program is now open! If you are interested in applying for our high-quality preschool program, we encourage you to submit your application early. To complete an application, please visit: https://www.pender.k12.nc.us/o/preschool. If you have any questions or need assistance with the application process, please contact our Preschool Office at 910-259-7603.

We are excited to share that 14 of our 19 homeroom classes have reached 80% of families connected in Rooms. If you have not been able to do so, please let us know how we can support removing any barriers to improve stakeholder communication.