NBEL PRETZEL PRESS

What an amazing first few days we have had here at NBE! The students are doing a great job getting back into the routine of school and learning some of our new procedures.

In order to learn more about student experiences at school, we will be asking for your child’s feedback via an online survey they will be completing online. The survey shouldn’t take more than 20-30 minutes to complete.

We are asking that all of our students in Grades 3-12 participate in the survey, as their feedback will provide invaluable insights into their experiences and how we can improve and adapt our district to their needs. If a student doesn’t feel like they have enough information to answer a question, they will be able to skip the item altogether. The responses to these surveys will be completely confidential. We are partnering with a third-party vendor to support us in administering these surveys.

The survey content will ask students to self-reflect on Challenging Feelings, Emotion Regulation, Growth Mindset, Positive Feelings, Self-Efficacy, Self-Management, Social Awareness, and Supportive Relationships.

Please notify us if you would like your child to opt out of taking the survey by filling in your name and your child’s name below and emailing it to me by Wednesday, September 7th. We thank you in advance for your thoughtful responses. If you have any questions about the survey administration, please don’t hesitate to contact us by email.

Survey Opt Out Request

All 21-22 yearbooks were sent home last week. If you think you ordered one and did not get it please contact Angie Marr in the office at amarr@pretzelpride.com.

Our school picture day is September 13th. Order information was sent home last week. If you would like to order online you can go to:

mylifetouch.com and use code EVTJC3TX7

The Sangamon County Advocacy Center will be here October 17th and 18th to educate students on being safe. A parent opt out form was sent home this week. Please return this form if you do not want your child to participate. Below you will find the letter that was on the top of the opt out letter that was sent home.

Dear Parent or Guardian,

This year, your child’s school will be using the MBF Child Safety Matters® program (the Program) from the Monique Burr Foundation for Children. The goal of the Program is to help keep your child safe.

The Program empowers children to spot and respond to bullying, cyberbullying, child abuse, and digital dangers. Most importantly, it teaches that adults are responsible for their safety but there are things they can do to help adults keep them safe. The Program is based on the latest research and has been reviewed and endorsed by national experts.

Why does your child need a safety program?

» 10% of children are abused before their 18th birthday

» 14% of children have been solicited online

» 28% of students have been bullied

» 90% of children between 8 and 16 years have viewed explicit material online

The Program teaches about these dangers by:

» using age-appropriate, easy to understand language.

» playing fun games and activities.

» providing take-home items to remind children and parents of the lessons and Safety Rules.

When children are taught safety information and rules to help them stay safe, they perform better in school and enjoy healthier, happier, and safer lives.

You can learn more about the Program at www.mbfpreventioneducation.org.

Our school day hours are 8:15-3:21. Classes start with morning meetings and classes at 8:15 so please have your child to school before 8:15am. Our dismissal process will start about 3:15 with busses loading about 3:21pm.

Students should be picked up at 3:21 dismissal. We will be using PikMyKid again for all walkers/car pick up students. Information about registration for PikMy Kid was sent home. If you have questions about getting it set up please contact the office.

We ask that all parents stay in the car and allow the staff to help your child get to the car. This allows traffic to keep moving and dismissal to be quick and safe. If you are parking to pick up a pre-k student or need to come in to the school from 3:00-3:30 we ask that you use the south parking lot. This helps keep everyone safe in the pick up lane as there is no one crossing in front of cars. Thank you for your help in keeping our students and staff safe.

TREATS

We love to help students celebrate their birthdays! Due to an increasing number of students with food allergies, we are “food free” for birthday celebrations. The teachers each have special ways to help students celebrate a birthday at school. If you would like to help your child celebrate at school, some options are:

• Selecting and purchasing a “Birthday Book” for the library in your child’s honor

• Sending pencils, bookmarks, or other small items for your child to hand out to classmates for each child in the classroom.

Special deliveries (i.e. balloons, flowers, etc.) will not be delivered to the classroom and will be held in the office until after school. These items do not transport well on the bus, so parents should make other arrangements for end of the day transportation.

Each year to celebrate Fire Safety Week, we take a walking field trip to the New Berlin Firehouse. This year we will be going over on Friday, October 14th, 2022. Permission slips will be sent home to let us know if your student can attend this walking field trip. Please return the permission slips as soon as possible. We know our students love to visit the fire house!

Shopping the book fair is a great way to support our students and teachers. If kids find books they LOVE, the more likely are to LOVE reading!

Our goal is for every child to be able to purchase at least one book from the book fair. Students can bring money from home & shop during library time or parents can add money to Scholastic EWallet, & PTO gives $5 coupons to children who forget or cannot bring money from home.

Scholastic has lots of great titles under $5. The company is really focusing on diversity, exclusive paperbacks, and characters kids love! Plus the more books we buy, the more FREE books our teachers and librarians will be able to choose for our school!

Email ptopretzelpride@gmail.com if you'd like to volunteer to decorate, help kids shop, or run the cash register. A sign-up genius link will be posted in the Pretzel PTO Facebook group later this month. Thanks for your support!

The NBE PTO is a big part of our school community. They are continuously supporting staff through grants that then impact each of our students. The PTO also organizes Book Fairs, Milk and Cookies with

September 6th-At Texas Road House

October 4th

November 1st

December 6th

January 10th

February 7th

March 7th

April 4th

May 2nd

If you are interested in more information about Boy Scouts for K-5th grade students please use the link.

Boy Scouts

August

August 29-Sept. 2nd-MAP Benchmarking

September

Sept. 6-PTO @ Texas Roadhouse

Sept. 7-2:21 Dismissal

Sept. 7-Administrators Meeting 9-11:00AM

Sept. 7-Grandparent's Day for 2nd Grade Only

Sept. 7-5th Grade Instrument Trial Night

Sept 8. Practice Fire Drill 9:15 AM

Sept. 8-Pretzel First Meeting-Mentors not required to be in attendance

Sept 12-16th-Panorama Survey

Sept. 13-Elementary Picture Day

Sept. 16-Midterm-Login to Skyward to view your child's current academic progress report.

Sept. 21-2:21 Dismissal

Sept. 22-Pre K Picnic @ 6:00PM

Sept. 22-Board Meeting

Sept. 23-11:45 Dismissal