Back to School Update

• September Attendance Incentive (Invited Students): Friday, October 2nd
• Food Truck Friday- Icy Delights: Friday, October 2nd from 11am-1:30pm
• September Student of the Month Celebration (Invitation Only): Friday, October 9th from 8:45-9:30am
• No School for Students: Friday, October 16th
• Learn With Me (Grades: PK, 2, and 5): Thursday, October 22nd
• More details to follow
• Food Truck Friday- Don's Dogs: Friday, October 23rd from 11:00am-1:30pm
• Trunk or Treat @ Patapsco HS: Thursday, October 29th from 5-7pm
• Fall Parade: Friday, October 30th at 9:30am
• End of Quarter 1/3 Hour Early Dismissal: Friday, October 30th at 12:30pm
• October Food Pantry: Friday, October 30th from 1-3pm

Please use the link to purchase your new SPES gear! All orders must be placed by October 11th.

We have a Turkey Trot shirt available for purchase this year for your student to wear to the event in November!

This month students will be participating in a variety of anti-bullying activities. Each Friday we will host a different spirit day; please see below for the planned themes. This Friday (10/2), we are asking students to wear gear from their favorite sports team!

Wear the color listed for each day next week to represent character traits we aspire to be!

As a community school, we are able to provide some household essentials to families once per month. If you are in need of household essentials, please fill out the link below.

We are off to a great start of attendance for the 2026-2027 school year! We have had over 94% attendance school-wide most days since school began! Our current attendance rate is 95.79%, which is down from last week.

As a reminder, we have many attendance initiatives running to support positive attendance:

• Each day we have 94% attendance or above as a school, we add a letter to our SOARING board. When we will the board, we will earn a school-wide celebration. We earned our second prize this week! We are excited to start working towards our next one!
• Students are working to fill individual SOAR HIGHER charts. After 10 days present, students will be able to turn their charts into the office for a prize. OVER 500 STUDENTS EARNED THEIR FIRST PRIZE!
• Students with 2 or less absences in the month of September will be invited to watch and be included in the raffle to play in our Students vs. Staff Kickball Games TOMORROW.

Please note, in order to volunteer in our school or chaperone a field trip at Sandy Plains this year, you must attend one of our volunteer orientation meetings AND complete the BCPS online volunteer training.

We will be hosting monthly, virtual Volunteer Orientations via Google Meet to ensure everyone has access to the meetings. We will host our next sessions on Thursday, 10/8 at 9am and 6pm. More information will follow via TalkingPoints.

Please contact Mrs. Draper (sdraper@bcps.org) with any questions!

Please complete the following link if you are interested in hosting a trunk, donating candy, or both for this exciting event:

Accidents happen! Whether it’s a spill, a bathroom accident, or getting wet during play, we are always happy to help students get comfortable and ready to return to learning. Our nurses have a limited supply of clean clothing available for students who need a change of clothes.

We kindly ask families to:

• Send your child to school with an extra set of clothes (shirt, pants/shorts, underwear, and socks) to keep in their backpack or classroom.
• If your child wears clothing provided by the school, please wash and return the school-owned clothing as soon as possible so we can have it available for another student.

Thank you for helping us keep our clothing supply stocked and making sure our students are comfortable, confident, and ready to learn!

Please read the attached letter from our school counselors, Mrs. Lyons and Ms. Oxendine, for important information regarding classroom guidance lessons for this month.

At SPES, TalkingPoints is our most-used form of communication with families. Please download the TalkingPoints Family App.

Please follow us on Facebook (Sandy Plains Elementary School)! We regularly post important updates and information to our page.

Opt in to receive our text messages. Text YES to 67587.

Please review the attachments below for important information about the 2026-2027 school year.

Our virtue of the month for October is RESPONSIBILITY. Students will participate in a variety of activities throughout the month that teach them the virtue and how to use it.

Responsibility Dinner Question

• At dinner, ask: “What is one responsible choice you made at school today?”

Family Helper Challenge

• Choose one way to help your family at home today without being asked! Remind your student that responsibility means doing what you are expected to do, taking care of yourself and others, and making good choices—even when no one is watching.

Arrival- 8:30-8:45am

Dismissal- 3:30-3:45pm

8:00-4:00pm

Please note that at Sandy Plains, we do not allow early dismissals after 3:00pm.

Anyone picking up a student must be listed on their contact list in FOCUS. Please contact the office if you need to make edits to your child's contact list.

Main Office: 443-809-7070

Christina Davis, Principal (cdavis21@bcps.org)

Meghan Davis, Assistant Principal (mdavis18@bcps.org)

Kelsey Kinnear, Community School Facilitator (kkinnear2@bcps.org)

Corrie Pusinsky, Administrative Secretary (cpusinsky@bcps.org)

Erika Villaneuva Angel, Enrollment/Records Secretary (evillanuevaangel@bcps.org)

Stephanie Draper, CARE Liaison/Attendance Liaison (sdraper@bcps.org)

Megan Caplan, Nurse (mcaplan@bcps.org)

Thank you to The Thrift Boutique of Dundalk for their generous donation of numerous pairs of kids-sized pants to restock our clothing closet in the nurse's office to ensure all students have access to clean and fresh clothes when needed. We are so appreciative of your partnership!

If your family is in need of budget-friendly clothing and household items, please consider checking them out!