Hawks Happenings

October is always such a busy month and I always look forward to November. The month of November brings pause as we take a breath from busy October and enjoy some calm before the Holidays hit. I use this brief time period to focus on being thankful. I am very thankful for my family. I am thankful to have the opportunity to work at NBES! I am thankful for so many things! What are you thankful for?

This Friday is a big day at NBES! We have our PTO Glow Dance-a-Thon Party that all students will participate in. We also have our first quarter PBIS reward. Students who do not have any office referrals and two or less minor reports will get to have extra recess on Friday! I bet you will have some tired kiddos coming home on Friday afternoon!

This month we are hosting two tour dates for students enrolling in Kindergarten during the 2024-2025 school year. Feel free to share these dates! Guests should call the school to sign up.

This newsletter may be a little longer than normal. There is a lot of information that I need to share so you can stay informed!

I'm looking forward to a great month of growing, learning and succeeding here at NBES!

-Mrs. Allison

• PLEASE REMEMBER TO BRING YOUR ID IF YOU ARE CHECKING YOUR CHILD IN TARDY OR CHECKING YOUR CHILD OUT OF SCHOOL EARLY.
• Buncombe County Schools has a new front desk sign in/ check out system that all schools are using. While this will be great after everyone is added to the system, right now it is slowing down the check in/out process. A HUGE thank you to parents who have been extremely patient with this change!

Changes are coming to the NBES campus!

As you know the NBES car rider line has been a concern for quite a while. In fact, it was a concern when I was a teacher here in 2001! This year we have made a few changes to add more room for car staging in the afternoon. Unfortunately, we still have many cars on Flat Creek Church Road in the afternoon and we still have situations that require some cars or buses to pass on a double yellow line while on our campus.

Recently, we received word that the School Capital Fund Commission and Buncombe County Commissioners have approved funding for a new entrance and car rider staging area to be built at NBES! Our campus is currently being surveyed and then a plan will be created. Construction should begin this summer! Thank you for your continued patience over the previous years and this year as we wait on this new road to be built!

The NBES school building was built several decades ago and the main entrance is not aligned to new school safety recommendations. This year our front office and main entrance area will undergo renovations to provide more focus on school safety. The timeline that was shared included demolition over Spring Break and construction through the end of the school year. This means that our front office will be temporarily relocated and our main entrance will shift to somewhere else. Stay tuned for these plans!

When it is all completed, it will be so nice for our school campus to have some much needed updates but while we are in the thick of things, we will all need to be extra patient!

Please note that in the morning cars go up the hill towards the main entrance as normal. Starting at 1:30, the only cars going this direction should be Headstart, Early Checkouts and those with appointments. Once the car rider line starts at 2:30, no traffic should go this way even if you have an appointment.

The car rider line cues up in this area starting at 2 PM.

Due to the overwhelming response and popularity of these events, only the families of the KINDERGARTEN and SECOND grade students are invited to join us in November. All other grades will be invited for a lunch later in the school year.

Please see the invitation below that was shared with Kindergarten and Second grade families.

We will send home report cards on Monday, November 13th. This date is different than the county calendar because we have our fourth grade field trip on Thursday, November 9th.

Please review your child's report card with them. It is a great idea to help your child make goals about what they want to achieve during the second nine weeks.

This year, all Buncombe County schools are including a Conduct Comment in the Homeroom section of the report card. This comment reflects whether or not your child is following our school-wide behavior expectations - the 'HAWKS' Expectations. Here is a link to our website where you can see our HAWKS Expectations matrix. HAWKS Expectations

The comments and what data is used to determine which comment your child will receive is listed below.

Student Conduct Meets or Exceeds Expectations

• Your child will receive this comment if he/she does not have any office referrals and two or less minor referrals as documented in Educator's Handbook.

Student Conduct Does Not Meet Expectations

• Your child will receive this comment if he/she has any office referrals and three or more less minor referrals as documented in Educator's Handbook. If your child has a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP), they will also receive this comment. Please note that bus behavior can be documented as a major office referral.

Soon Buncombe County Schools will implement the Panorama Survey. Students in grades 3 - 13 will complete the survey. The information will be used to plan instruction and identify environmental supports that best meet the needs of students. In addition, results will give schools an overview of what skills need more direct instruction, intervention, or support. To provide consent, learn more, and view the surveys please visit the BCS Panorama site. If you would like a paper copy or more information please contact our School Counselor, Jayme Benfield.

Parent permission is required for your child to participate in this survey. The deadline to provide your consent is November 15, 2023.

Please visit our BCS Panorama site to learn more, view the surveys, and provide consent. If you wish to simply provide consent, you may click here.

Students may participate in the upcoming Health Fair with parent permission. Earlier in October, a letter was sent home explaining the different screenings for each grade and providing a place for parents to provide permission. These letters are due back by Friday, November 3rd.

We have also been asked to share a copy of the 'Record of Health Screening' card that resides in your child's Cumulative Record folder. This card will be where the results of any assessment are listed after the Health Fair. Please see the images below for a reminder of the letter that was shared and to see a copy of the 'Record of Health Screening' card.

If you need another copy of the letter so you can give permission for your child to participate in the Health Fair, please contact the main office (828) 645-6054 or your child's teacher.

What happens when we must close our buildings to students due to inclement weather?

• If a weather event is truly severe and impacts power or the internet in our area, the day would be a ‘no school’ day where no instruction would occur.
• For significant but less severe weather events, we are able to utilize a certain number of remote learning days that will count toward our state-mandated instruction per year. This means we will not have to make up those days later in the school year.

What happens during a delayed start?

Should a minor weather event cause us to delay starting school for students, you will receive more specific instructions that day to let you know when to drop your child off or have them at the bus stop.

• The bus schedule and campus opening adjust to match the time delay.
• For example if we are on a two hour delay, bus pick up times are two hours later and the building opens at 9:15 for student drop off.
• Breakfast is served on a two hour delay but not on a three hour delay.

What happens during an early dismissal?

Should we have to send students home early due to a weather event, students will eat lunch before they leave. The district will let families know when they can begin picking up students or expect them on the bus. We’ll also include information for after-school activities and athletics. If a parent is delayed in picking up their child from school, the child will be safe and supervised until the parent arrives.

Please note that it is our policy that if weather is impacting more than two districts, the schedule change will impact ALL BCS Schools.

We want to remind you of the various ways you can receive weather and emergency notifications.

• The fastest way to receive notifications is through the Buncombe County Schools app for your smartphone or tablet. Simply download the app and turn on push notifications. Visit buncombeschools.org/app to download the app for iOS or Android.
• Please follow Buncombe County Schools on social media. (@BuncombeSchools)
• Also, our local TV stations post the most up-to-date closings and delays on-air and online via their weather ticker.
• Please ensure your phone number and email address are correct. This information should be verified each school year. You can check that in the PowerSchool Parent Portal.
• Finally, if you don’t have internet access, you can call our weather hotlines for updates: 828-255-5939 (English) or 828-255-5948 (Spanish).

Please log on to buncombeschools.org/notifications to learn more about the ways you can stay informed during severe weather or emergency situations! We also maintain a list of inclement weather daycare providers in our area.

Remote Learning can be used during inclement weather events to keep students learning even when they are at home. Remote learning would be asynchronous on the first day of the weather event and synchronous on all subsequent days of that weather event. Any work assigned must be made up within five days.*

• Asynchronous means that the teacher will assign tasks that will be completed online or on paper and there will be no live teaching.
• Synchronous means that there will be a blend of live virtual instruction and independent work.
• Should an isolated area of the county be severely impacted by a storm or your family has extenuating circumstances, please work with your school and teacher to make up the work.
• If we expect a weather event, all students to take their school-issued device home with them.
• This year we are using Google Meet for any live teaching.
• Right now our plan is to meet with students at 10 AM on Google Meet. Teachers will explain the assignments for the day which may include some lessons. Then the students will have time to work on their assignments. The class would meet back at 2 PM to check in on how their work time went and get answers to any lingering questions.

• Let us know if you need a Hotspot. A Hotspot provides reliable Internet access at home. This is filtered Internet access just like students would have at school. If your family needs this support, please let your child's teacher know or contact Angela Woehl in the Media Center. Securing a hotspot is a process so we need to plan ahead.
• In November, we will start Technology Tuesdays. Students will take home their device and chargers on designated Tuesdays and have a very simple assignment to complete. The device and charger should come back fully charged on Wednesday.
• One of the first assignments should be to connect to the Internet at home. BCS Devices have to use the Zscaler Content Filter. Students do not often have to login to Zscaler so they may not remember their Zscaler Content Filter login if/when they are prompted at home or on a loaner pool device, etc.

• The Zscaler username is the student uid@k12bcs.net (not a valid email address)(ex. 1234567@k12bcs.net) It may prompt you for a "Microsoft" login, which will be the same, student uid@k12bcs.net and it doesn't normally require a password due to Azure single sign-on, but if it does, use your computer password (current my.ncedcloud.org password).

• More info on Z-Scaler: https://www.buncombeschools.org/page/zscaler-security-certificate

Technology Tuesday days - November 14 and November 28

Due to some scheduling conflicts, PTO meetings have been changed to the second Wednesday of the month at 8 AM. Here is a list of the upcoming PTO meeting dates. Everyone is welcome to attend PTO meetings!

• November 8
• December 13
• January 10
• February 7
• March 13
• April 10
• May 8

📣Contact us at nbespto@gmail.com or on Facebook: North Buncombe Elementary PTO if you would like to help, have questions or are interested in joining our GroupMe chat to stay even more involved.

NBES welcomes volunteers! There are many ways for individuals to volunteer at our school. All volunteers must fill out an online volunteer application and be on the approved volunteer list before volunteering. Potential volunteers may go ahead and start on this process by following the link below. Thank you in advance for your support!

Level 1 Volunteers - General volunteer - never supervising students.

Level 2 Volunteers - Volunteer who supervises/gives directions to students or serves in a leadership role (such as PTO board). This level requires a background check (conducted by Buncombe County Schools).

https://www.buncombeschools.org/o/bcs/page/volunteering

To attend a field trip, volunteers must have Level 2 status!

Link your Advantage Card to NBES to help support our school each time you shop! Remember to sign up EACH year!

https://www.ingles-markets.com/tools-for-schools-link

ALL parents and visitors to campus must sign in at the office and obtain a visitor sticker (or a volunteer pass if applicable). Please note that you must sign in even if you are only visiting the cafeteria. Your cooperation in helping us to follow Central Office policy and ensuring the safety of all children is expected and appreciated.

If you have an appointment or scheduled time to be at school in the morning, and wish to walk in with your child, please still plan to follow the established procedure of coming to the office, signing the visitor registry, and obtaining a visitor tag.

Visitors will only be allowed to visit a classroom (during instructional time) if the visitor has scheduled the visit with the teacher beforehand or if the visitor is a scheduled volunteer.

Parents are invited to eat with their child in the cafeteria; however, as a courtesy to other students, we ask that you do not bring outside food such as fast food and/or sodas into the school cafeteria. Parents should arrive at school in time to get a visitor’s pass and report to the lunchroom hallway five minutes before the scheduled lunch time. Please always let the teacher know ahead of time if you plan to eat with your child.

Parents are welcome to join their child during lunch AFTER September 15th. This gives our school time to teach the procedures and expectations of cafeteria behavior to our students. Special holiday meal lunches will be scheduled for specific grade levels throughout the school year. Parents of identified grade levels will be invited to attend these lunches.

The daily lunch menu will be read during morning announcements. Occasionally there will be a menu change due to late deliveries or snow days. You can find links to BCS menus here: https://www.buncombeschools.org/page/menus-and-pricing

Should you desire to bring in a special snack for your child’s birthday or another event, please coordinate this with your child’s teacher so as not to conflict with our lunchroom policies. In addition, any food brought into the school to be shared with students must be store bought with ingredients listed. Please allow school staff to distribute snacks due to their knowledge and understanding of students’ allergies and dietary needs. Our school also encourages healthy snacks and choices.

November:

3 - PTO Dance-a-Thon Glow Party!

3 - PBIS Reward

6 - NB Youth League basketball starts using the NBES gym

8 - PTO Meeting @ 8 AM in Room K04 (please sign in at the front office before going to the meeting)

8 - Music in the Schools Program for grades 2-4 @ 9 AM

9 - Fourth Grade Field Trip to Raleigh

10 - No School - Veterans Day

13 - Report Cards sent home!

14 - Technology Tuesday - we will send home devices and chargers! Please send them back on Wednesday fully charged!

15 - Holiday Meal - Kindergarten and Second Grade families are invited - all other grades will be invited later in the year

16 - 4th Grade Grandparent Program - 9:30 AM

16 - 3rd Grade Honor Roll - 1:15 in Classrooms

16 - 4th Grade Musical Program - 6 PM

17 - Makeup Picture Day

17 - 4th Grad Honor Roll - 1:15 in Classrooms

20 - Kindergarten Tours for students enrolling in Fall 2024 - 8:30 AM

21 - Career Day

22 - 24 - No School - Thanksgiving Holiday Break

28 - Technology Tuesday - we will send home devices and chargers! Please send them back on Wednesday fully charged!

30 - Kindergarten Tours for students enrolling in Fall 2024 - 12 PM

December:

4 - Health Fair

6 - Midterms reports!

8 - Staff Holiday Luncheon - Volunteers Needed!

13 - PTO Meeting @ 8 AM in Room K04 (please sign in at the front office before going to the meeting)

15 - NBMS Music Department Performance at NBES - 10 AM

December 20 - January 2 - No School

January:

3 - Welcome Back to School!

Growing, Learning, Succeeding at NBES!

Email: heidi.allison@bcsemail.org
Website: https://nbes.buncombeschools.org/o/nbe
Location: 251 Flat Creek Church Road, Weaverville, NC, USA
Phone: (828) 645-6054
Facebook: facebook.com/www.facebook.comNBuncombeES

Instagram: @northbuncombees

Twitter: @NorthBuncombeES