Notes from the North Park Hive

Welcome, parents! It's hard to believe, but school begins THIS WEEK (Thursday) for kindergarten students! We are SO EXCITED to launch our 2026-2027 school year!

Thank you for attending our Open House this past week. We hope you enjoyed exploring our school campus, meeting teachers/staff and getting connected to our various programs and resources!

We want to make sure you are prepared for the first day of school, so please read the "first day of school" section further down in the newsletter. Our first day of school is VERY special at North Park, so be sure to read carefully so you know exactly what to expect!

Please be patient with our bus routes and car rider line the first few days of school. It is always slow and a bit tedious the first first days due to the age of our students and the fact that most of our students are new to the school. It will improve - we promise! We appreciate your patience!

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

We are utilizing a digital system to streamline our transportation information and help ensure that students get to their intended destination consistently and safely. In the past, we have relied on handwritten notes, a google form and a system that was effective, but could be much more efficient. Transportation is one of the greatest challenges at the beginning of the year at North Park due to the ages of our students. Our #1 goal the first day is to get everyone home safely and efficiently. In order to make that happen, we MUST have your child's transportation information entered into the system. This is not optional; we do need information entered for every student. In the past, we would have to reach out to each of you individually. It will take you under 5 minutes to complete this process and it will help our office staff save hours of work AND, most importantly, we will know that our transportation plans for your child are accurate. When you want to make changes, you will use this same link to login and make a change. It will send you a confirmation and will notify our office and teachers. We will make sure this link is pinned on our facebook page, Dojo page and school website. Please see Mrs. Morgan's instructions and a great video created by a Woodland teacher and NPES parent for us. If you have issues connecting with your child while completing the steps, simply email sabrina.morgan@hardin.kyschools.us or call tomorrow between 7:00-3:00. We are happy to help.

Parents, we have a new program for transportation changes. It is called PickUp Patrol. We are very excited because you will have more control to make plan changes, and it will speed up our dismissal process.

One of our kindergarten parents made a video showing how to complete the process. A link to that video is located here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/16IBWwFRmFRIh4JlT8YfGFpVvjK_2hDUa/view?usp=sharing

You will be receiving an email from PickUp Patrol soon, so make sure to check your spam folder. This invite will only be sent out to Guardians who registered their child with an accurate email.

I am also including a link to a file that can help you locate what bus your child will ride. There is a file for the streets in the Meadow View, Radcliff, Vine Grove, and Woodland districts. We will have the transportation department at North Park on Open House night to assist with any questions or concerns. If your child is going to be a car rider, we will assign you a number that night as well.

This is the link to the bus numbers and street names: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GgLpKJMtZkKAqZtFCMwva-Y7lV2jS1Cg?usp=sharing

Please be patient as this is a new system for all of us. There will be kinks, but we feel it will smooth out soon, and you will like the efficiency of the program.

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!

As the beginning of school approaches, we would like to expedite the paperwork process for you.

One of the documents that we ask all families to fill out is the CEP (Community Eligibility Provision) form. This is a federal program that allows schools and districts to provide free breakfast and lunch to all enrolled students. As you may have heard, there were some schools within our district that no longer qualify for free meals for all. It is all due to the completion of this form. North Park can provide free breakfast and lunch to our students because we were successful in obtaining parent participation last school year in completing this form. To continue providing free meals to our students, this form must be filled out each year - even if you do not qualify!

We are including images of what the start page looks like in case you have already completed this form when you did your annual Infinite Campus update. If you are brand new to school and registered your child for kindergarten, you may or may not have completed it that day.

For those of you who have not completed this form, please complete it now. We will be asking families to do this on Open House night if you have not done it before. It can be time-consuming depending on your qualification for the program.

If you are unable to scan the QR code to access the form, I am including a link below.
https://www.myschoolapps.com/Application

Other than the first day of school, all kindergarten students being transported by a parent should be dropped off in our car rider line. You can find this road (wraps around our school property) off of Logsdon Parkway. If you are coming from Rogersville Road, it is on the right side of the road (across from the cemetery). If you are coming from North Hardin, the car rider lane is on the left side of the road). There is a sign posted as well.

Our lunch menu at NPES is slightly different than the one posted on the HCS website, due to when our trucks are able to deliver and the needs of our students. We will share it on Dojo each month. It should be ready tomorrow or Tuesday. Stay tuned - we will share it! Typically, you can find the menu in this weekly newsletter.

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!

The first day of school for kindergarten is August 6th. School begins promptly at 7:30 AM. On a normal day, all kindergarten car riders utilize the car rider road that wraps around our school property. The entrance for the car rider road is off of Logsdon Parkway just toward the edge of our property as you are traveling toward the Rogersville Road intersection (just across from the edge of the cemetery). On the first day of school, we allow parents to walk students into the cafeteria where you will find several fun photo opportunities AND a large amount of staff ready to assist you and escort your child to class. We also have the NHHS cheerleaders and football players cheering students on in both the bus lane and at the front doors. You will say your goodbyes in the cafeteria, which helps make the separation process easier for your child. We will open our front doors around 7:10. Of course, your child is also able to ride the bus or utilize the car rider line. We are very excited to welcome our Tiny Trojans!

Our theme for this school year is THE ADVENTURE BEGINS! Check out a video Mrs. Hayes and Mrs. Morgan made for the students and staff to launch our theme!

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!