J.R. Ingram Parent News

We want to take a moment to remind everyone that our monthly school newsletters are packed with more than just calendar reminders. They include important updates, helpful links, event highlights, and details that support your child's success throughout the school year. To make sure you stay informed, we encourage you to scroll all the way through each issue to catch everything, from new programs and important announcements to school highlights and reminders. If you would like a printed copy of this please visit our front office.

Thank you for taking the time to stay connected and engaged with our school community. Your support makes a big difference!

March 28-April 4~Spring Book Fair

April 1~NCCI 1 Earth Science, 5th Grade

April 1~ 6 pm LCS Strategic Plan Community Presentation and Feedback Session

April 2~5th Grade Tour WLMS

April 3~5th Grade Battle of the Books Competition @ WBW

April 3~Family Book Fair Night, 1st & 3rd grade Spring Music Program, 99 Pledges Pie the Principal

April 4~5th Grade Presentation by WLMS band and orchestra

April 4~4th Grade Battle of the Books Competition @WBW

April 4~5th Grade Track Meet Competition @SLHS

April 7~National Schwa Day

April 7~SIT Meeting

April 8~LCS Board of Education Meeting

April 10~Kindergarten, 3rd, 4th & 5th Grade Field Day & 3rd & 4th Grade Spring Curriculum Meetings

April 10~HWY 55 Spirit Night

April 11~Special Olympics

April 11~1st & 2nd Grade Field Day & Spring Curriculum Meetings

April 11~5th Grade Puberty Talk (parent permission slips will be collected to participate)

April 14-18~Spring Break

April 21~Optional Teacher Workday

April 22-May 9~mClass EOY Window

April 23~Progress Reports

April 24~5:30 pm, Pre K, Kick off to K meeting

April 30~SanLee Middle School Counselors to meet with Rising SanLee 6th graders, 1:30 pm in Cafeteria.

May 5-9~Teacher Appreciation Week

May 5~SIT Meeting

May 6~2nd Grade EOY Reading Assessment

May 13~ELA EOG

May 13~LCS Board of Education Meeting

May 14~Science EOG

May 15~Math EOG

May 16~3rd Grade RTA test

May 20~Kindergarten EOY Awards, 1 pm in Gym

May 21~Second Grade EOY Awards, 1 pm Nest

May 22~Third Grade EOY Awards, 12 pm, Individual Classrooms

May 23~Fifth Grade EOY Awards, 8:30 am Gym

May 23~Last day of School, Early Dissmissal

May 26-30~ Teacher Workdays

Order forms will be coming home this week.

Starting with the 2025–2026 school year, all current LCS parents and guardians must complete an annual review of their child’s registration information through Campus Parent.

By updating your child’s information now through Campus Parent, you can help reduce paperwork in the fall and ensure a smooth start to the school year.

Important Updates Included in the Annual Registration Process:

✅ Transportation Requests – If your child needs to ride the bus next school year, you MUST complete this update to ensure they are assigned a bus and receive bus number and arrival time details.
✅ PE Card – This is now part of the online update, making it easier to complete all necessary forms at once.

See below for more information. If you need help accessing Campus Parent, please contact the school.

📢 Volunteer at the PTO Thrift Shop & Help J.R. Ingram! 🏫💙

We need your help to earn funds for our school! Currently, we have ONLY 3.5 HOURS logged for the year. We must reach at least 150 hours to qualify for a share of the profits—funds that can go toward school improvements like our new playground!

📍 Location: 303 S Steele St, Sanford, NC 27330
📞 Phone: (919) 776-4142
🕘 Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 9 AM – 4 PM

✨ Who Can Volunteer?
✅ Parents, staff, family members, and friends – you can work in a student’s name!
✅ Students (ages 12-18) – must be accompanied by a parent (1 student per adult).
🚫 No students under 12 years old can volunteer.

💡 Volunteers may be asked to sweep, hang clothes, straighten racks, and more. Every task helps profits go back to Lee County Schools!

📅 Sign up today! Let’s work together to support our students and reach our goal. Contact the school or PTO for more details.

Thank you for being Wild About Learning and making a difference! 🦅💚

Parents of students in the fifth grade: Choosing the right middle school option for your child is an important decision. We have loved caring for and supporting your child throughout elementary school, and we want to continue that partnership in middle school! Join us for an interactive informational session with district and middle school leadership to learn more about the opportunities Lee County Schools offers for your child's education. We look forward to seeing you on April 7 at 6 p.m. at the Civic Center!

💙 We are beyond grateful for our amazing JR Ingram families! Your generosity, time, and dedication have helped make incredible things happen for our students. Thank you for being part of our school community and for making a difference!

🎉 99 Pledges Student Prizes will be distributed the week of April 7! We couldn’t have done this without you!

🏆 Class Pizza Party Winners – Congratulations to these classes for their outstanding efforts!

• Kindergarten: Todd ($2,054)

• 1st Grade: McGuire ($785)

• 2nd Grade: Biol ($1,100)

• 3rd Grade: Lesley ($1,240)

• 4th Grade: Castano ($205)

• 5th Grade: David ($450)

🍕 Extra Recess for Kindergarten!
A huge way to go to Kindergarten for being the top fundraising grade! They’ve earned some well-deserved extra recess as a reward!

🥧 Pie the Principal & AP!
As a fun way to celebrate, the following students will get to pie Principal Brewer and AP Perez this Thursday after the music concert:
🎉 Sofia, Alvaro, and Daniel! We can’t wait to see the fun!

⛷️ New Swingset Coming Soon!
Because of your generosity, we raised over $10,000—and with additional support from the PTO, we were able to purchase a brand-new swingset! It has been ordered, and we hope to have it installed over spring break.

🌱 Mulch Workday – Volunteers Needed
We would love your help to spread the mulch for the new swingset! Keep an eye out for an upcoming workday—many hands make light work!

❤️ A Heartfelt Thank You!
None of this would be possible without YOU—our incredible parents, families, and supporters. Your dedication to our school and students makes a lasting impact, and we are so thankful for every donation, every pledge, and every moment of your time. Thank you for making JR Ingram such a special place! 💙💛

Cafeteria & Food Guidelines

We are trying to promote good nutrition and better all-around health for our students. You can help us by not allowing your child to bring soda, candy, chips, or any other non-nutritious snacks to school. Please keep in mind that gum and sodas are not allowed at school. Students are not allowed use of the microwaves nor is staff permitted to warm up lunches for students. Sharing of food from home is not permitted unless it is a pre approved snack provided as part of a celebration and the snack is commercially prepared and served from the original containers that can be traced back to a store for food safety/recall situations and nutrition labeling for allergy. Celebrations should be prearranged and held in the classrooms after lunch has been served for that class.

Outside food deliveries are prohibited. Outside food can only be brought in with a student or parent, outside food can not be dropped off for students. Outside food can only be brought in for your child(ren) and not their classmates or friends unless it is for a class celebration. All outside food must be commercially prepared items in original containers that can be traced back to a store for food safety/recall situations and nutrition labeling for allergy.

Visitors and students should adhere to the following cafeteria rules:

• No soft drinks allowed.

• Due to space constraints and food limitations, please make arrangements with your child’s teacher prior to making a lunchtime visit.

• Visitors during lunch can sit at the table with the class or the visitor and their child ONLY can sit in a booth. Other students are not permitted to sit with someone that is not on their approved contact list in the booth.

• Please advise the classroom teacher if you will be ordering lunch from the cafeteria.
  
  

School Day

7:30 a.m. Earliest Drop-Off Time

7:55 a.m. First Bell

8:00 a.m. TARDY BELL

8:00 a.m. Instructional Day Begins

2:30 p.m. Instructional Day Ends

Morning Carline Drop-Off (7:30- 8:00)

Students may be dropped off in the mornings beginning at 7:30 a.m. in the car rider line.

Our tardy bell will ring at 8:00 a.m. Please give your children the on-time advantage and get them to school on time every day.

If your child is a car rider and will eat breakfast at school, it is encouraged that s/he arrives no later than 7:40 a.m. to allow time to eat and get to class on time. Breakfast will not be served after 7:55 a.m.

If students enter the building with food or beverage, they must go to the cafeteria. No food or drink will be taken to classrooms in the morning. Please do not send students in with breakfast after 7:55.

Tardies:

If your child arrives on campus after 8:00 a.m., the parent or guardian must park and accompany the student in the building and sign him/her in at the front desk.

For the safety of our children, you must drive through the front circle at drop-off and pick-up times. No drop-offs or pick-ups are allowed in the side parking lot. Adults that park in the parking lot will be asked to come into the building and sign their child in or out. Students will exit and enter the car on the passenger side of the vehicle.

Dismissal:

Each afternoon, cars waiting for dismissal must stop out on the main drive and may not enter the front circle until 2:25 p.m. Emergency vehicles must be able to enter the front circle. As a safety and security precaution, we appreciate parents not arriving on school property for extensive wait periods prior to the 2:30 p.m. bell.

All cars in the pick-up line must display the school-issued car signs. Car signs will include student names and a QR code. The code must be scanned by school personnel. If you do not have the school-issued car sign you will be directed to park and enter the school office to sign out your child(ren). No one on car duty is allowed to place a child in a car without the official sign. Two signs per family will be issued for car riders. Additional signs may be purchased at the front desk for .50 cent each, please allow 24 hours for new car tags to be issued.

Car riders should enter and exit the car on the passenger side along the curb.

LATE PICK-UP:

Parents that repeatedly pick up children after 3:00 pm will be contacted by our social worker. If you arrive later than 3:00 pm, your child will be waiting in the front office. Please come in to sign them out.

Early Pick-Ups:

If your child must be signed out early, parents must arrive at the office by 2:00 p.m. Please realize the impact on your child’s education when he/she is consistently late to school or picked up early. Not only will they be missing valuable instructional time, but early sign-outs are an interruption to the teacher and the remaining students.

If you know you have an appointment, please send a note to your child’s teacher so they can prepare for your child’s early dismissal with minimum disruption to class.

An important part of good school attendance is being on time for class and staying for the entire day. Please work with us to ensure that your child can make the most of their instructional day.

We will not make any transportation changes or release students between 2:00 –2:30 p.m. unless there is an emergency or unless the change or early dismissal has been pre-approved by the principal or assistant principal.

In the morning or afternoon, teachers and buses may be waved around the traffic by the traffic director, but no parents are allowed to pass other cars during morning drop-off or afternoon pick-up. At no time should you pass on the curve as you approach the school.

Parents are not allowed to walk children to classrooms after the first day of school. Parents that do walk student(s) to class must sign in and out at the front office and display a Visitor sticker during their entire visit. Parents that do not display the visitor sticker will be escorted to the front office. Parents must sign out prior to 8:00 am. Parents of kindergarten students may walk their children to the classroom on staggered entry day and their first full day of kindergarten.

Attendance Information

Refer to LCS Policy Code 4400: Attendance

The State of North Carolina requires that every child in the State between the ages of seven (or younger if enrolled) and 16 years attend school. Parents or legal guardians have the responsibility for ensuring that students attend and remain at school daily.

Student attendance is imperative. No student shall be tardy in his/her arrival for school or class, without permission or excuse by school officials. No student who attends school during any portion of any school day shall thereafter leave the school grounds prior to the end of the school day without permission or excuse from school personnel.

Ask your doctor or dentist to schedule children’s appointments after school hours. A student must be in school 3½ hours in order to be counted present for the day.

If your child is absent from school, he/she must have a written excuse signed by a parent or guardian and presented to the student’s teacher on the day the student returns after an absence. Examples of excused absences are illness or injury, quarantine, death in immediate family, religious observation, certain educational opportunities with prior approval of the principal, and medical or dental appointments.

• A note from a doctor is needed if a child is absent for three or more days.
  
  

• If your child leaves before he/she has completed 151 minutes of instruction, they will be counted absent for the day.
  
  

• Upon return, your child has three days to make up work he/she has missed.

• Each unexcused tardy and early pick-up results in your child missing valuable instructional time. After 5 unexcused tardies or early pick-ups, BIP may be assigned to help your child make up this missed instructional time. Unexcused tardies and Early Pick-Ups will affect eligibility for attendance awards.

Sixteen (16) absences excused or unexcused may result in retention. As a courtesy to you, we will periodically send you reminders of how many absences your children have if they accumulate more than three unexcused absences.

*The principal or his designee shall notify the parent, guardian, or custodian of his/her child’s excessive absences after the child has accumulated three unexcused absences in a school year. After not more than six unexcused absences, the principal or his designee shall notify the parent, guardian or custodian by mail that s/he may be in violation of the Compulsory Attendance Law and may be prosecuted if the absences cannot be justified under the established attendance policies of the Board and the State Board of Education. Once the parents, guardians or custodians are notified, the school shall work with the child and his/her family to analyze the causes of the absences and determine steps to eliminate the problem, including adjustment of the school program or obtaining supplemental services.

*After ten (10) accumulated unexcused absences in a school year, the principal or his designee shall review any report of investigation prepared under G. S. 115C-381 and shall confer with the student and his/her parent, guardian or custodian, if possible, to determine whether the parent, guardian or custodian has received notification pursuant to this section and made a good faith effort to comply with the law. If the principal determines that the parent, guardian or custodian has not, s/he shall notify the district attorney. If the principal or his designee determines that the parent, guardian or custodian has, he/she may file a complaint with the juvenile intake counselor pursuant to Chapter 7B that the child is habitually absent from school without a valid excuse.

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