The Jr Bulldog Pride

Greetings Jr. Bulldog Families,

We hope everyone had a great first week back. We enjoyed seeing our Jr. Bulldogs back on campus as they were proactive and putting first things first with their learning and leadership! While we know many viruses and germs going around, we want to take a moment to stress the importance of being at school every day. Missing school equals missing out and we do not want any of our students to miss out on the awesome learning and leadership opportunities that are accessible to every child, every day.

As we approach the end of quarter 2, let's challenge ourselves to be on time, present, and engaged in learning every day. Over the next few days our team will be looking some of the incentives we will using to help our students become excited about prioritizing attendance.

#AllDayEveryDay

#GameOnJRBulldogs

Flu and cold season are here. It is important that we all do our best to stay healthy by washing our hands, covering our cough, and staying home when sick.

Students should stay home if

• If the student has any of the following symptoms they should stay home:

• Fever (temperature of 99.6 degrees Fahrenheit or higher) (WITHOUT MEDS),

• Diarrhea or vomiting

• Constant cough and sore throat

A student who has a fever of 99.6 or above or any student that has thrown up will be sent home. Therefore, you will need to come for him/her immediately when the school contacts you. It is extremely important that you provide your child’s teacher with several emergency contact numbers so that someone can be reached if your child gets sick or injured. We cannot allow students with these symptoms to ride home on the bus or daycare vans.

• Students need to be fever-free for 24 hours, WITHOUT THE USE ON MEDICINE, before returning to school.
• Anyone throwing up or with diarrhea at night or in the morning should not attend school.

January is School Board Appreciation Month!

Looking Ahead:

-January 15th: Martin Luther King Jr. Day- NO SCHOOL for Staff and Students

-January 18th: PTO Meeting 5:30

-January 19th: End of 2nd Nine Weeks

-January 22nd: Teacher Workday- NO SCHOOL for Students

-January 23rd: Teacher Workday- NO SCHOOL for Students

-January 26th: Clubs, Q2 Awards Assembly (more info to come), Report Cards

• School begins at 7:50 a.m. for ALL students Pre-K-5. Students that arrive by car should be in the building at 7:50. To make sure our students have enough time to get in the building, get through the breakfast line and arrive in class to start their day, the car rider line cut off time is 7:49 (cell phone time) each day. If you are arriving on campus at 7:49 or later, you will need to park and walk your student in to the front office to sign them in.
• Changes in transportation - If you need to change your child's afternoon transportation, please call the front office at (336) 570-6115 before 2:00 p.m. Teachers cannot check and respond to messages and emails throughout the day when they are teaching. Please do not expect an immediate response from your child's teacher during instructional hours. Office hours for teachers begin after 3:00 p.m.
• Signing Students out early: If you are signing your students out early (before 2:20 p.m.), you must go inside the front office and check them out. No student early check outs will be allowed after 2:20 as students are beginning to transition for dismissal. We appreciate your cooperation with this matter!
• Lunch Visits- Families may come to eat lunch with your students. Please reach out to your child's teacher 24 hours in advance to let them know you are coming so they can plan for seating. Remember: NO OUTSIDE FOOD OR DRINK MAY BE BROUGHT IN. Upon arrival, please sign in at the front office and get a visitor's tag. This must be worn while on campus. All visitors will wait for their child’s class outside the office until their student's lunch time. At the end of lunch, all visitors will need to come back to the office to sign out. Visitors are not permitted to walk down to classrooms.

  Lunch visits will end the Monday prior to Memorial Day in May. We look forward to opening this back up and thank you in advance for following the procedures.
  

For the full month's menu, please click here.

Our district's number one goal is to operate schools as safely and effectively as possible, following the published annual school calendar schedule as closely as possible. When there is inclement weather forecast for Alamance County, ABSS is prepared to make adjustments to schedules as needed which may include announcing a later arrival time, an early dismissal time, possible school closure or a remote learning day.

Three Options:

● Closed for all students & staff

● Closed for all students, staff workday

● Delayed Opening/Early Dismissal

Making decisions about closing or delaying school and bus transportation schedules when inclement weather is imminent for our community are among the most challenging ones every school district makes. But, we don't make these important safety decisions alone.

ABSS is in close contact with the National Weather Service about their forecast predictions and with local emergency management officials who also monitor the national weather information and North Carolina Office of Emergency Management forecasts about impending weather conditions.

In addition to consulting with weather and emergency management experts, ABSS performs late night and/or early morning visual inspections and assessments of actual road and weather conditions. We gather input from experienced staff with Alamance County Emergency Management, local law enforcement agencies, North Carolina Department of Transportation and Duke Energy. Our experienced ABSS Facilities and Maintenance staff members and our Transportation experts have years of experience and knowledge in identifying potential issues and potential trouble spots.

Assessments are made on road and bridge conditions in addition to inspecting our multiple campus parking lots, sidewalks and steps to determine if we can operate safely and effectively on a regular or modified schedule.

When a schedule change is needed, notifications to families and staff are made as quickly as possible and include automated messaging notifications via phone, email, and text messaging, the ABSS website, and social media posts and alerts shared with multiple TV and radio stations across the region.

How to find out if we have a weather-related delay/closing:

If at all possible, a decision to close or delay school is made no later than 5:00 a.m., and the notification process begins, within minutes, in the following order:

● An email is sent to all ABSS email accounts

● Announcement is posted on the district website and all school websites

● Announcements are posted to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter

● The following TV and radio stations are contacted:

• Radio Stations: WKRR 92.3, WPAW 99.1, WQDR 94.7, WSML 95.1, WQMG 97.1, WSMW 98.7, WMAG 99.5, WMKS 100.3, WYMY 101.1, WJMH 102.1, WTQR 104.1, WBAG 105.9, WKZL 107.5
• TV Stations: WFMY 2 (CBS), WRAL 5 (NBC), WGHP 9 (FOX), WXII 12 (NBC), NEWS 14 CAROLINA, WTVD 11 (ABC), WXLV 45 (ABC)
• Websites: WFMY News 2, WRAL, Fox 8, News 12, Spectrum News, ABC 11, ABC 45, The Times News, Mebane Enterprise, Alamance News

Families that wish to send in a special treat to the classroom to honor their child’s birthday must pre-arrange this with the classroom teacher 24 hours in advance. Treats for celebrations must be dropped off in the office. Please check with your student’s teacher to determine if there are any classroom food allergies that should be considered when purchasing food for the class. The teacher will distribute the treats at a time and manner that does not disrupt instruction or the overall workings of the school. The school cannot provide serving utensils. Student birthday celebrations can only include snack items such as cupcakes, donuts, chips, juice boxes, etc. According to state law, any cupcakes or other snacks must be store-bought and labeled. Items such as treat bags, noise makers, balloons, party favors, etc are not allowed. Parents are not allowed in the classroom for this event. Treats for celebrations cannot be brought to the cafeteria during lunch per ABSS food service guidelines. No homemade food items are allowed. Special food from off campus (like pizza) cannot substitute food service offerings.

Duke Energy is starting a new program this month to help low-income customers across North Carolina. The Customer Assistance Program (CAP) will give eligible customers a $42 monthly credit for 12 months. Eligible customers will be automatically enrolled in the program. These customers include families below the poverty level, households with a person aged 60 or older, or families with disabled persons.

Please visit the link for all the details.

https://www.wunc.org/environment/2024-01-02/duke-energy-launches-assistance-program-low-income-customers?fbclid=IwAR3Ow12ZPyMXHG6Kg8P2b23mcB3oWRhS_lZzb9xLkPmafuBHNCe-9leKCf0

Every U.S. household may place an order to receive four free COVID-⁠19 rapid tests delivered directly to your home.

Order Free At-Home Tests

Need help placing an order for your at-⁠home tests?
Call 1-800-232-0233 (TTY 1-888-720-7489).

The U.S. government will continue to make COVID-⁠19 tests available to uninsured individuals and underserved communities through existing outreach programs. Please contact a HRSA health center, Test to Treat site, or ICATT location near you to learn how to access low- or no-cost COVID-⁠19 tests provided by the federal government.

For more information, click the link.

Welcome to Grove Park Checklist:

• Complete Forms in PowerSchool

• Review the GPE Student/Family Handbook: English; Spanish
• Meet our Awesome Staff - Take a moment to view video introductions from our staff. Simply click on this link http://bit.ly/3Z26amy, locate your student's grade level to view each grade levels' welcome back video

Grove Park Elementary School

Find Us

Phone:336-570-6115

Fax:336-570-6205