Pioneer Post

Thank you to all the families that have returned their intent to return forms for the 2023-2024 school year. This helps our admin team during the planning for the school lottery. We are still waiting on about 150 Intent to Returns; please check your email for the email address noreplyregistration@powerschool.com. This is the email address that the intent to returns were delivered from. This is imperative. If you haven't already filled out the Powerschool Intent to Return online please do so immediately. If you didn't get a confirmation email please make sure to check again that your intent was processed. At this time it's hard to know if some of our grades will go to a sibling lottery or not, without this information. We can say at this time that the following grade levels will NOT go to a sibling lottery and all siblings that did apply will get a seat. More information will be forthcoming regarding how to accept the seat prior to 2/24 (the day of the lottery).

Grades NOT going to a sibling lottery at this time:

• Kindergarten
• 1st Grade
• 6th Grade
• 8th Grade

Again, if you applied for a sibling to attend PSPA for the 2023-2024 school year for one of these grades we can say at this time your child is receiving a seat. More information to come in the future weeks regarding the lottery, possible sibling lotteries, and accepting of seats!

We need your help for our 8th Grade Promotion Ceremony. We are asking all parents to upload their child's kindergarten school photo into the respective drives below. If you do not have a kindergarten photo please upload a picture from their kindergarten year. However, kindergarten school photos are preferred.

8TH Grade Photo Turn In For Graduation (For Last Names: A - G)

8TH Grade Photo Turn In For Graduation (For Last Names: H - N)

8TH Grade Photo Turn In For Graduation (For Last Names: O - Z)

We would love to have all photos uploaded by March 3rd. More details to come next month regarding the ceremony- thank you in advance for your help!

The board approved our calendar in November. If you haven't already please download your copy and make sure to plan vacations accordingly for next school year. It is imperative for students to be present on the first day of school.

Attached is the Spring sports Interest Google Form. Parents please complete the form if your child is interested in trying out for our spring Sports listed on the form. https://forms.gle/QFnn2aLDk5SXFvFBA

Parents that are interested in volunteering for our spring athletics please reach out to our Athletics Director, Corey Davis at cdavis@pinespringsprep.org .

ONE SCHOOL | TWO BOOKS | ORDER NOW

New and returning PSPA families, this year we are doing TWO YEARBOOKS! A K-5 yearbook and a middle school yearbook! The beginning of each book will offer identical social events on and off campus that celebrate all our Pioneers. The second half of the book will focus on various events and classroom activities that are tailored to each campus. Some different options and pricing are listed below:

Soft Cover - $34, plus tax

Hard Cover - $36.51, plus tax

With your purchase, TreeRing offers two free CUSTOM PAGES that you can fill with all the memories once you make your purchase. You can also purchase additional pages through their site.

When you're ready to make your purchase, there will be a unique school code for each campus yearbook listed below

Elementary School Campus - 10pinespringsk5

Middle School Campus - 10pinesprings678

Website - www.treering.com/validate

You can email smarsico@pinespringsprep.org with any questions you may have. If you need TreeRing Support, they are also happy to help with questions! Their contact number is 877-755-8733.

The NJHS is once again partnering with The Blood Connection to host a blood drive at the middle school.

When: February 21, 2023

Time: 12-4pm

Where: Parking lot behind the middle school

Sign up: time slots for blood drive

There is a high need for blood reserves at this time, so please consider donating!

Each donor will receive a gift card, and $10 will be donated to the school for each donor.

Thank you for your support!

High School Registration is fast approaching! Here are some important dates to mark on your calendar:

• Magnet High School application period is October 14th, 2022 - January 25th, 2023

• Early College High School applications period is October 14th, 2022 - December 14th, 2022

• To learn more about the magnet and early college schools fair: Magnet and Early college fair

• Here is a list of early college and magnet high schools

• View the calendar for Open Houses/School Tours 2022-2023

• Mrs. Breslin's Quick Guide to High School Enrollment

• Here is a spreadsheet with the links to the WCPSS high school planning guide and important Wake County high schools.

I highly recommend attending the sessions before beginning your student’s application as applications are NOT first-come, first-served. In addition, I will be providing more in-depth information about the application process and high school registration later this month. A presentation with all this information will be posted in my Counselor google classroom, so please let me know if you or your student do not have access to this google classroom! Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions, or if I can assist you and your student in this process.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Breslin

TBreslin@pinespringsprep.org

984-217-1724 ext. 3249

February is National Heart Health Month and National Children's Dental Health Month. There will be different activities going on throughout the month to teach the students about the importance of caring for their heart and their teeth!

Also, we have seen an increase in viral illnesses recently. Please remember if you have a student who has a fever, vomiting, diarrhea or tests positive for Covid-19 they must stay home. If you have any questions on their return to school please contact our nurses who are happy to help guide you.

Please remind your child to remember their lunch. Students will be asked to call home in the morning if their lunch is forgotten. If a student doesn't have a lunch by lunchtime we have Lunchables we can provide to them. Forgotten school lunches are $5 and can be paid via e~Funds . Please make sure to reimburse PSPA if we provided your child with a lunch.

If your child is absent for 3 or more days, a note from a physician IS REQUIRED to return back to campus. Upon return from an absence, all notes (whether from a physician or handwritten) need to be turned into the Main Office at either campus. Mrs. Coomer is collecting absence notes at elementary school and Mrs. Marsico is collecting notes this year at middle. They can be emailed or delivered to the office.

Please make sure to complete your background check before volunteering in any classroom or school wide event. You will not be allowed to volunteer if you don't have a cleared background check. Background checks need to be updated annually. There is required $19.45 background check fee that is required to process all background checks.

When the background check has been cleared and a Key Fob is purchased we will send it home with your student. Your Key Fob will be ready for use the next time you come in to Volunteer. You will scan the Fob as you come into the front office, and scan it out when you leave the premises. You will not need to purchase a Key Fob every year, however you will need to update your Background Check each year in order to use it. (Key Fobs are optional purchases).

To stay connected with the Athletics Department and see what new and exciting events are coming up please visit Pine Springs Preparatory (bigteams.com) . Here you can also sign up for event alerts.

Don't forget to purchase your tickets for basketball games or you can purchase season pass for just $13 for students!

PLEASE label your children's coats, jackets, sweatshirts, and sweaters. Any articles of clothing with names on them are returned to the student. Before break we donated over four bags of clothes, lunch boxes and water bottles because they didn't have names and hadn't been claimed. Please cross through old names and use a permanent marker to label your children's outwear ASAP. Thank you!

If your child is missing any items please tell them to check lost and found!

• 2/2- Middle School Store
• 2/3- 5th Grade Field Trip to United Skates
• 2/3- Spirit Wear Day
• 2/3- Middle School Dance @ 6PM
• 2/6- 100th DAY OF SCHOOL
• 2/8- Basketball Game Team B @ 4:30PM (HOME)
• 2/9- Elementary School Store
• 2/10- Elementary Sweetheart Dance (Elementary Gym)
• 2/14- Midterm for Quarter 3; Check Powerschool
• 2/17- Dress Down Day
• 2/20- President's Day, NO SCHOOL
• 2/21- Blood Drive @ PSPA (12-4PM; Anyone over the age of 16)
• 2/22- PTO Meeting @ 9:30 AM (Elementary Campus)
• 2/24- Sibling & Public Lottery (need not be present)
• 3/1- Spring Pictures & Class Pictures
• 3/3- Spirit Wear Day
• 3/3- 3rd Grade Field Trip to The Planetarium