Pontiac School News

October 18, 2018

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SCHOOL PRINCIPAL:

Join us this week in encouraging your child to participate in Red Ribbon Week!

The purpose of Red Ribbon Week is to present a visible commitment to living a safe, healthy, and drug-free life. The campaign is designed to create awareness concerning the problems related to the use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs and to support the decision to live a drug-free lifestyle.

This awareness campaign observed annually in October in the United States.

See flyer below for details on this week!

Fall Picture Make-Up Day: Monday, October 29

For any students who were absent or have enrolled since September 7.

Please remember to either send in the payment for your child's pictures that have already been sent home or return the pictures that you do not wish to purchase within the next week.

Thank you for supporting this fundraiser for Pontiac Elementary.

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Woodcreek Farms

The Blake at Woodcreek Farms Retirement Home would like to invite Pontiac families to come "Trick or Treat" with their residents at 5:30pm on October 31st.

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PTO NEEDS YOUR HELP

PTO needs your help on October 31! Due to Hurricane Michael, our school Fall Fest was cancelled. PTO wants to provide a mini-Fall Fest to our students on October 31. A schedule has been created and we need volunteers to supervise games in our courtyard beginning at 9:30am-2:30pm! The DUNK BOOTH and PIE IN THE FACE events will be held also and students will be able to watch this LIVE from their classrooms on video!

Thank you for supporting PTO. If you are available to volunteer your time to our mini Fall Fest, please email pontiacpto@gmail.com and let PTO know the times you are available on October 31. PTO will confirm the date/time as well as game that you will supervise.

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Music Fundraiser

It is October and time for our 4th annual Music Fundraiser! Last year we raised enough money to buy 30 ukuleles which 5th graders are playing right now, and enough soprano recorders for every 3rd, 4th, 5th grader and Upper Montessori student to keep! Our goal this year is to purchase a recorder for every 3rd grader and any new student to Pontiac in grades 4-5, as well as some classroom rhythm instruments that need to be replaced.

The fundraiser will run the month of October. All orders are due to Ms. Rayner by Wednesday, October 31st. You do not need to return anything if you choose not to participate, simply recycle the catalogs.

Ms. Rayner

MAKE UP DAYS

In order to make-up days missed because of Hurricane Florence, Richland Two will now have school on:

October 18, 2018 (originally a student holiday/teacher inservice day)
October 19, 2018 (originally a student/teacher holiday)
December 21, 2018 (originally first day of winter break)

As you know, Governor Henry McMaster issued an order for all schools in Richland County to close from Tuesday, September 11, through Friday, September 14.

State law requires all districts to make up a minimum of three days missed. For any schools that are closed four to six days due to snow, extreme weather conditions, or other disruptions, S.C. Code Ann. §59-1-425 allows for the local school board of trustees, by a majority vote, to waive those missed days or to require the days to be made up. For any schools closed six to nine days due to snow, extreme weather conditions, or other disruptions, the local school board may request a waiver from the State Board of Education.

As also required by the state law, Richland Two includes make-up days in our school calendar in anticipation of inclement weather. Since we missed so many days at the beginning of the school year, district administrators felt it was important to consider additional options. Making up the missed days this way ensures that semesters will remain balanced, which is important for semester-long classes that students will complete in January. This solution also allows for minimal impact on instruction and family schedules around traditional holidays and breaks.

To help make the best decision possible, a survey of seven different options was sent to a group of 210 people that included our school principals, our faculty advisory committee and our parent advisory committee. We received responses from 132 people, for a response rate of around 63 percent.

The top choice of the seven options received 47 percent of the votes. The next highest option received approximately 17 percent of the votes. Additionally, the top overall choice was the most popular choice among principals, faculty, and parents. As a result, the district will use October 18 and 19, and December 21 to make up three of the days missed so far in the 2018-2019 school year. We would like to thank those who completed the survey and helped us to arrive at this decision.

Once a final decision has been made regarding the fourth missed day of school, we will be sure to communicate that with everyone. Thank you for your understanding of the necessary changes to the school calendar, and we apologize for any inconvenience caused by the closure last week. We look forward to continuing our journey this year on our pathway to Premier.