Monthly Update #6

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 January 6, 2026 | Conscientious: Wishing to do what is right, especially to do one’s work or duty well and thoroughly

Week of January 12, 2026 | Humble: Being modest, not overly proud, haughty, or not being arrogant

Week of January 20, 2026 | Ambitious: Having or showing a strong desire and determination to succeed

Week of January 26, 2026 | Ethical: Being in compliance with the rules or standards

January 6 - Students return to school

January 7 - Report cards available in Infinite Campus

January 19 - MLK Day (No School)

January 21 - 100th Day of School

February 16-20 - Winter Break (no school for staff and students)

Happy New Year and welcome to 2026! We hope your family enjoyed a restful and joyful holiday season. As we embark on this new year, it's an ideal time to reflect on the past and set meaningful goals for the future, both individually and as a family.

The Importance of Goal Setting with Your Children

Engaging your children in goal-setting activities can be a transformative experience. It encourages self-reflection, responsibility, and a sense of purpose. Here are some benefits of setting goals with your children:

• Fosters Personal Growth: Goal setting helps children identify areas they wish to improve or new skills they want to acquire, promoting continuous personal development.

• Enhances Motivation: Having clear, achievable goals can boost your child's motivation and enthusiasm for learning and personal achievements.

• Builds Confidence: Accomplishing set goals provides a sense of accomplishment, building self-esteem and confidence.

• Teaches Responsibility: Setting and working towards goals teaches children about commitment, responsibility, and the value of perseverance.

Tips for Effective Goal Setting

To make the goal-setting process enjoyable and effective, consider the following tips:

1. Involve Your Children: Encourage your children to express their aspirations and interests. This involvement ensures the goals are meaningful and personalized.

2. Set Specific and Achievable Goals: Help your children define clear and realistic objectives. For instance, if they aim to improve in a subject, set a specific target grade or a study schedule.

3. Create a Visual Reminder: Use charts or vision boards to display goals. This visual representation serves as a constant reminder and motivator.

4. Celebrate Progress: Acknowledge and celebrate milestones achieved along the way to keep the momentum and enthusiasm alive.

By setting goals together, you not only support your children's development but also strengthen family bonds through shared aspirations and collaborative efforts.

Wishing you and your family a prosperous and fulfilling 2026!

As part of our ongoing efforts to keep you informed about your child’s progress, retention letters will be included with report cards on January 7th. If your child is currently identified as a candidate for retention, please know that there is still time for them to improve their grades and academic standing. I strongly encourage you to reach out to your child's teacher(s) to see what you can do to partner with him or her to support your child's academic progress.

We want to emphasize the importance of daily attendance and punctuality, as regular and timely participation in school is critical for your child’s success. Missing even part of the school day, including early checkouts, can lead to missed valuable instruction and learning opportunities.

To support punctuality, please be aware that the car rider lanes will close each morning at 7:40 AM. If your child is not in their classroom by 7:40 AM, they will be considered tardy. After the car rider lanes close, parents must walk their child into the building and sign them in.

Your partnership is vital in helping your child achieve their full potential. If you receive a retention letter, we recommend reaching out to your child’s teacher(s) to discuss strategies and support to help your child succeed.

We are incredibly proud to celebrate our school's outstanding gains on the CCRPI!

For parents, the CCRPI (College and Career Ready Performance Index) is Georgia's report card for schools, showing how well your child's school is preparing students for success by measuring test scores (Content Mastery), student growth (Progress), closing achievement gaps (Closing Gaps), readiness for the next level (Readiness), and graduation rates (Graduation Rate).

Our growth this year:

• Content Mastery: 46.2 ⏩ 50.5
• Progress: 76.4 ⏩ 87.5
• Closing the Gaps: 80.0 ⏩ 94.1
• Readiness: 73.3 ⏩ 77.2
• Overall CCRPI Score: 67.3 ⏩ 75.3

How can parents help us maintain and/or increase our overall average?

• Attendance - we need your child here at school each and every day. Attendance affects our Readiness score, and we have many families that have reached the 5 day absentee mark by the mid-year checkpoint. Please continue to bring your child to school each day and on time. Also, we need your help with reducing the number of early check outs. We can't give your child quality instruction if they are not here.
• Reading at Home - we need your help with encouraging your child to read for at least 30 minutes a day at home. Your child should have a library book to read each day, or your child can log in to Epic books to read thousands of selected books online. Be sure to log their minutes with Beanstack with a phone, tablet or laptop. Independent reading affects our Readiness and Progress scores.

Thank you for your continued partnership in making Factory Shoals an amazing educational community for all!

During the weeks of January 6-16, 2026, students in Grades K-3 will participate in Literacy Task Assessments and students in K-5 will participate in benchmark assessments in iReady Reading and Mathematics. These assessments are an important opportunity to measure your child’s progress and growth in key academic areas.

These evaluations help us celebrate student growth and identify areas for continued support.

If you have any concerns about your child’s progress, please reach out to schedule a conference with your child’s teacher(s).

Thank you for your continued partnership in supporting your child’s academic success.

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 information throughout the year.

Not signed up yet? Click here for directions on how to create your Parent Portal account:

English | Spanish

Parent Portal Link

Stay connected and information about your student's progress.

Save the Date!
Our next PTA General Body Meeting will be held virtually on January 26, 2026 at 5:30 pm.

Come join us—your voice and input matter! Help us shape what’s next and stay connected with all the exciting happenings.

Join the meeting here:

General Body Meeting
Monday, January 26, 2026 · 5:30 – 6:30pm
Time zone: America/New_York
Google Meet joining info
Video call link: https://meet.google.com/cwj-zkfx-vyn

Save the Date!

Valentine’s Day Candy Gram pre-orders will be open from January 5 – January 30, 2026! Students and families can pre-order Candy Grams to send a sweet message to friends, teachers, and staff for Valentine’s Day.

Look out for order forms coming home soon — we can’t wait to help spread a little extra love this Valentine’s season!

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!

The Douglas County Schools System will use the Parent ProTech platform to teach digital citizenship lessons to all students in grades K-12. Every teacher, staff member, student, and guardian in the Douglas County School System has access to the platform. Users can sign up for an account using this unique Douglas County School System link.

Important: Senate Bill 351, “Protecting Georgia’s Children On Social Media Act of 2024”, mandates in section 2.2 that students in grades 6th - 12th receive digital citizenship and online safety instruction, and that districts certify compliance. The four required lessons indicated in the guidance for middle and high schools satisfy the requirements of this portion of the bill.

Elementary, Grades Kindergarten - 5th

The ProTech platform provides four lessons for each grade level. One lesson will be taught every nine weeks. These lessons represent the minimum requirement, but schools can include additional lessons throughout the year. The minimum amount of time required for a mini-lesson is approximately 15 minutes. Lessons contain multiple resources and activities, however, and can be expanded.

All medication (prescription and non-prescription) must be brought to the school by the parent or guardian.

No student will be allowed to bring medications to school or on the bus. Students may not have medication in their possession except with a physician's order for emergency situations only. There is zero tolerance for drugs and alcohol in Douglas County Schools.

Medications must be in the original container. Medications brought in Ziploc bags or other unmarked containers will not be given. Prescription medications must be in the pharmacy container labeled with the child's name, date, name of medication, name of prescribing physician, times(s) medication is to be given and name of the pharmacy filling the prescription. We request that you ask the pharmacist to give you two labeled prescription bottles so that you have one bottle at home and one at school.

Do not bring medication to school which needs to be given once daily or two/three times a day unless the physician specifically states a time during the school day for the medication to be given. If the medication can be given at home, please do so.

Parent/guardian must provide specific instructions, including the drugs and related equipment to the school. It will be the responsibility of the parent/guardian to inform the school of any changes in pertinent data.

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

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.

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.

• 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 2:25 PM. After 2:30 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 2025-2026 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. Please see the district policy regarding cell phones in our Family Handbook.

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.

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