The Ram Report

Each year, we determine a theme that will drive us for the year. This year our theme is, "Excellence is Our Charge.

What does this mean for our teachers and students? It means that we will work hard each and every day to do our best. We will continue to strive for excellence for everyone, every day. #E3

Student handbooks are updated and distributed to families electronically at the beginning of each school year. For questions or information concerning the handbooks, please contact Dr. Boone.

23-24 MCES Student Handbook

23-24 Douglas County Schools Elementary Handbook

This year, all students (K-5) will use agendas in conjunction with AVID Elementary. Through the implementation of AVID Elementary, students develop the academic habits they will need to be successful in middle school, high school, and college, in an age-appropriate and challenging way. Children learn about organization, study skills, communication, and self-advocacy. AVID Elementary students take structured notes and answer and ask high-level questions that go beyond routine answers.

AVID states that “ When students effectively manage their time, it helps them to meet classroom deadlines, increase the quality of their work, reduce their stress, and accomplish their goals, while also helping to ensure that they have time for other interests and passions.”

All agendas are $5. To purchase your child's student agenda, please use the link below

https://mces.revtrak.net/student-fees/#/list

This documents linked below are parent letters which contain Georgia’s 2023 Mathematics Standards for Grades K – 5. The standards are organized into big ideas, grade level competencies/standards, and learning objectives. The grade level key competencies represent the standard expectation of learning for students in each grade level. The competencies/standards are each followed by more detailed learning objectives that further explain the expectations for learning in the specific grade levels.

Kindergarten

Grade 1

Grade 2

Grade 3

Grade 4

Grade 5

Our students in Grades K-5 will be administered the STAR Assessments. Star Assessments are short tests that provide teachers with personalized learning data for each student. Star tests are computer adaptive, which means they adjust in difficulty to each answer students provide. This helps teachers get the best data to help students in the shortest amount of testing time (about one-third of the time other tests require). Students may take a Star test for early literacy, math, or reading. Teachers will analyze the data they receive from Star Assessments to learn what students already know and what they are ready to learn next, to monitor student growth, and to determine which students may need additional help.

We will begin the Fall benchmark assessment on Monday, August 6, 2023 and conclude on August 18, 2023.

Please check your child's Tuesday folder for their latest STAR report on August 22, 2023.

What is character education? Character Education is a learning process that enables students and adults in a school setting to understand, care about and act on core ethical values such as honesty, respect, and responsibility for self and others. Below are the weekly character traits for the month of August.

Week of August 7, 2023 | Empathy: The ability to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from their frame of reference.

Week of August 14, 2023 | Active Listening: The act of hearing someone’s words includes understanding views and feelings of the person speaking.

Week of August 21, 2023 | Inclusion: The act or state of including or of being included within a group.

Week of August 28, 2023 | Honesty & Integrity: Being truthful, fair and adhering to a code of values.

Strong attendance has a proven impact on school success. Chronic absence — missing 10 percent or more of school days due to absence for any reason—excused, unexcused absences and suspensions, can translate into Kindergartners not mastering vital foundational skills and third-graders unable to master reading.

The faculty and staff of Mt. Carmel Elementary School encourage parents to ensure that scholars attend school every day in order to achieve academic success!

As instruction and student safety are our top priorities, we hope to limit the reduction of instructional time disruptions. 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 begun 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. If your child is tardy, he or she is missing valuable instruction and may also disrupt the class when they enter

Car riders begins each day at 7:10 AM. If you are in the car rider line at 7:40 AM, your child will be marked tardy. Please work to ensure that each morning you leave your house on time to prevent any late arrivals to school. Also, as a courtesy to others, when your child enters the car rider lane, please make sure that they are ready to exit the vehicle. When we are waiting for children to be unbuckled by his or her parent from car seats, this slows down the car rider lane potentially causing a back up for other vehicles. You may want to use the self-service lines for those children. In addition, if you have a van that does not require one of the car rider staff members to open the door, please utilize the self-service lanes.

Lastly, 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.

Effective family-school communication emphasizes the value of communication between home and school that is ongoing, two-way, meaningful, and focused on student learning. It also points to communication as the foundation of solid partnerships and the fact that when parents and school staff communicate effectively, positive relationships develop, problems are more easily solved, and students make greater progress.

Communication between home and school is vital to the success of all of our scholars. We encourage all parents to join us on Remind and Class Dojo. 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 770-651-4200.

Our school code for Remind is: @mceramsga

In regards to Class Dojo, make sure you're connected with Mt. Carmel Elementary School (2356 Fairburn Road, Douglasville, GA) and your child's teacher. Once you join our school, you can join your child's classroom via a code or you can request to join. If you need help with this, please contact your child's teacher.

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.

Are you interested in joining Road Runners?

What is it? The Road Runner Program promotes physical activity and healthy lifestyles. Providing a running enrichment program, that gives the opportunity to improve running knowledge and skills, encourages participation in running events, and helps students meet other students in the school and community.

Eligibility: Road Runners is open to all students grades K-5 who enjoy running.

Cost: $10 Membership Dues and $15 for your Road Runner Shirt (If you already have a Road Runner shirt that still fits you do not need to buy another)

Practice: Practice will be in the morning from 7-7:30 on Wednesdays. You may drop students off starting at 6:50.

Interested?: Fill out this Google Form HERE and I will send more information home with your student.

Parents, grandparents, guardians, and other family members are always invited to eat lunch with their children. Prior to arriving for lunch, you will have to notify the teachers with a 24 hour notice that you would like to join your child/children for lunch. This will help us to streamline the process and be sure that we have adequate space for visitors.

When planning to eat lunch with your child, please DO NOT bring any food from outside vendors, fast food lunches or carbonated drinks to cafeteria. Be sure to bring proper identification and sign into the front office before going to the cafeteria.

Also, please adhere to our café expectations & procedures as follows:

a. Everyone is to stay in his/her seat.
b. No talking when the music is playing.
c. Clean up your area when you are finished eating.

Grade Level Lunch Times

10:15-10:55 Kindergarten

10:40-11:15 2nd Grade

10:55-11:35 3rd Grade

11:15-11:45 1st Grade

11:30-12:10 4th Grade

12:10-12:40 5th Grade

School Lunch Menu

Click here for the school breakfast and lunch menu.

Nutritional Analysis

Click here for the nutritional analysis of the items that are on the menu.

Cost for meals for guests is $1.65 for breakfast and $4.00 for lunch (be sure to have exact change).

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.

Note: If you receive notice that your child has a negative balance, please contact Mrs. Muhammad at 770-651-4201. She will be able to provide you more information on the balance.

Note: If your child has a negative lunch balance, they will not be accepted into any MCES extracurricular activities until that balance is cleared.

We do not allow 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.

▪ Snacks must be store bought AND prepackaged/individually wrapped. [No exceptions!]

▪ Cupcakes must be individually packaged in container or prepackaged wrapping. [No exceptions!]

▪ Any treat should be served during recess.

▪ No invitations to birthday parties should be sent to school unless an invitation is available for every student in the class. A list of student names will not be permitted to be sent home.

When buying treats, please be sure to speak with your child's teachers. Some students have food allergies. 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.

All afternoon dismissal and transportation changes must be made in writing. Also, if there is someone other than yourself picking your child up from car riders, please email the name of the person AND provide them with either your child's car rider number or the car rider tag. If he or she does not have the car rider hang tag, please let them know that we will ask to see their license prior to releasing any student. This is to protect the safety of your child. Please send an email stating the change to the email address below no later than 1:30 PM. Email to mcestransportationchanges-dcss@dcssga.org.

If for some reason you lose or need additional car rider tags, you may purchase additional hang tags at https://mces.revtrak.net/student-fees/#/list

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. This information is updated each morning and each afternoon.

Here Comes the Bus is available for parents and students to download now. The highly-rated free app currently has over a million users. To sign up, visit the Apple or Android store, or visit www.herecomesthebus.com. The code needed to complete the registration process is 79003. Students are still encouraged to arrive at their stop five minutes early and to follow any additional instructions given by drivers.

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.

To ensure that you have all the important dates for this year, be sure to visit our school website to access our year at a glance calendar. Click here to access our school calendar.

Important August Dates

August 17, 2023

Meeting: School-Wide Data Presentation

Location: Virtual

Time: 6:30 PM

Please register in advance for this meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckcuqoqT8iEtQIBsYJDYeSFua6aohDQEPb

August 29, 2023

Event: Open House, Homework Help and Study Skills for Academic Excellence

Location: Mt. Carmel Elementary School

Time: 5:00-6:30 PM

September 1, 2023

Event: Back to School Boogie

Location: Gym/Outside Lawn

Time: During Specials

Cost: $3.00 (Snacks will be sold for $1.00)

September 4, 2023

Labor Day (No School)

September 5, 2023

Teacher Work Day (No School)

September 8, 2023

Event: Grandparents Day Breakfast

All grandparents and grandfriends are invited to eat breakfast with their Ram.

To ensure that we have enough food, please use this link to RSVP.

Time: 7:00-7:40 AM

September 10, 2023

Grandparents Day

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