News from the Nest

• September 26-30 - Bus Ridership Count (see letter below)
• September 28 - Chorus Auditions 2:45 - 3:30 pm
• September 29 - 2 hour Early Dismissal Day & Fun Run Kick-off (Dismiss at 12:25 pm)
• October 4 - Fall Picture Day
• October 4 - Volunteer Training 1:30 pm at Weaverville Primary School
• October 7 - Fun Run
• October 31 - 2 hour Early Dismissal Day

Weaverville Elementary Families,

Spirit Week was SO much fun! I hope you were able to see all the pictures on Facebook. Our students (and you!) really put a lot of great work into the dress-up days.

I have a few important reminders for this week:

1. Bus Ridership - Our funding for transportation is based on how many students ride our buses! If you can, have your child ride the bus this week as many times as possible!
2. Early Dismissal - Thursday, 9/29, is an early dismissal, and all students will dismiss at 12:25 pm. Please make sure you have a plan! Students will eat lunch before they dismiss.
3. Fun Run KICK-OFF - It's almost time for the Fun Run! Thursday our PTO will be leading an all-school assembly about one of our favorite events of the year! We'll be sending a lot of communication about Fun Run in the next couple of weeks.
4. Mr. Morgan's PE classes will begin fitness testing this week. Please have your child wear tennis shoes for the next 3 weeks (for PE). If you can remember, have them wear tennis shoes every week when they have PE. Mr. Morgan thanks you!

I would also like to ask for your cooperation with the following three requests so that we can speed our afternoon car line up a bit...

• Keep your car tag visible until your child gets in the car. Sometimes students forget which number they are supposed to go to, and it can really help our staff get them where they need to go.
• Please pull all the way up. Sometimes folks stop when they see their child walking towards their car. Please pull all the way up to the next empty space. Your child will meet you there.
• Please do not get out of your car (in the morning or afternoon) during car line.

Finally, thank you to everyone who attended the volunteer training Friday morning! Taking this training allows you to be a Level 2 volunteer. To be a volunteer in BCS, you must go to this website and complete a background check every year. Here's the website with more information about volunteering in BCS. Our next volunteer training will be Tuesday, October 4th, 1:30 pm at Weaverville Primary School.

Have a great week!

-Mrs. Nichols

Find all previous newsletters here.

Approximately 750,000 students ride more than 14,000 school buses each school day in North Carolina. State funding for pupil transportation in each school district is determined by three factors: number of school buses operated, total expenditures, and number of students riding. The number of students riding is determined by an actual count taken in September each school year.

The student ridership count this year will be taken the week of September 26-30, 2022.

Funding from the state is based on the number of students that we transport daily. It is important for us to operate as efficiently as possible to work with current funding and bus allotments. If your child is going to ride a school bus to and/or from school anytime this school year, it is very important that he/she ride as many days as possible during the week of the count. Changes in service (e.g., combined routes, double runs, and a reduction in the number of buses operated) may be required if ridership and/or state funding is insufficient to justify our current service schedule.

I encourage you to let your child ride a school bus. The school bus is a safe form of transportation to and from school. It is our goal in the transportation department to provide safe, reliable, and efficient transportation service to our state’s most valuable resource (OUR STUDENTS).

Sincerely,

Jeremy Stowe

Director of Transportation

Buncombe County Schools

Calling all 3rd and 4th Graders! We will hold our CHORUS Auditions on Wednesday, September 28th from 2:45 - 3:30 in the music room. Audition Permission Forms will be sent home within the next week - please read and sign the form, and return by September 26th to qualify for auditions. Students should plan to sing a short song (examples: Jingle Bells, Twinkle Twinkle etc. as long as the song/lyrics are appropriate - the simpler the better!). Students will sing for Mrs. Dauphinais and Mrs. Benfield only.

Please contact Mrs. Dauphinais [ maegan.dauphinais@bcsemail.org ] with any questions. Hope to see you there!

Parents and Caregivers of 4th Grade Students,

It's already time for our school yearbook team to start working on the 22-23 yearbook! Every year we have several pages of yearbook devoted to fourth-grade students' baby photos. It's always so much fun for students and staff to guess who each student is!

If you would like your child to be included in this part of the yearbook, please email a BABY photo of your child to Karen Adair, WvES staff member. Her email is karen.adair@bcsemail.org.

If you are not able to scan or upload a photo for us, please let us know and we can do this for you in our front office. Go ahead and start searching for that favorite baby photo to send to us!

The deadline for accepting photos will be October 30th.

We will begin allowing parents to join their child for lunch starting the last week of September (week of September 26th). We wanted to give our students and teachers time to get settled in their routines.

• Please always schedule ahead of time with your child's teacher. This is important as some days schedules are different or there are other activities that make having visitors more challenging.
• Please plan to sit with your child's class in the cafeteria.

Here is the section from our Student & Parent Handbook about visiting for lunch:

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 invited to have lunch with their child at the end of September. Please wait for an announcement from the principal that parents/family can come to school to have lunch with their child.

Due to possible COVID precautions, WvES might modify these protocols for eating lunch with your child at school.

• Free/Reduced Lunch Application: www.lunchapplication.com
• Please do not check your child out between 1:55-2:55 so that we can have a safe and calm dismissal for students each day.
• Please always let us know in writing if there is a transportation change for your child.
• Please let us know by 1:00 pm if you are changing your child's regular dismissal procedure.

We are asking for your assistance in keeping our schools safe. As you know, our schools are usually bustling with activity such as visitors dropping by for various reasons. As a reminder, here are our guidelines when multiple people are arriving at the same time.

If you have buzzed in and are being screened and you notice another visitor is arriving, please don’t hold the door and allow anyone in without being screened first.

If the other visitor is 15 feet or less from the door, please buzz in and be screened together. If the visitor is more than 15 feet from the door, please buzz in and ensure the door is closed completely after you enter.

We certainly want to encourage politeness. Please understand that it is unsafe to hold doors and allow visitors in without being verified by front office staff first. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.

Phone: 828-645-3127

Address: 129 South Main St., Weaverville, NC 28787

Email:

Mary Nichols - Principal (Mary.nichols@bcsemail.org)

*Please email both office staff if you have a dismissal change.

Dawn Flanigan-Bryson - Data Manager (dawn.flanigan-bryson@bcsemail.org)

• attendance
• student information/records
• immunizations
• enrollment

Ashley Mendoza - Head Secretary (Ashley.mendoza@bcsemail.org)

• general inquiries
• money questions related to school
• bus questions

• If a student tests positive for COVID (at home or at a healthcare provider), they would isolate for 5 days from when their symptoms began. We will recognize the guidelines established by the CDC and NCDHHS regarding the use of a face covering to be worn for days 6-10 upon return to school.
  
  

• Our normal exclusionary symptoms of fever, diarrhea, and vomiting are in effect. If a student has a fever, diarrhea, or vomiting, they must remain at home until symptoms are resolved for 24 hours.
  
  

• Hand hygiene, enhanced cleaning protocols, and improved ventilation are all still priorities and important mitigating strategies.
  
  

• Face coverings remain optional, to be worn by anyone at anytime.
  
  

• Physical distancing such as 3 ft or 6 ft apart is no longer required.
  
  

• Contact tracing is not required.
  
  

• Following the guidelines established by the CDC and NCDHHS, MAHEC will not be providing rapid antigen testing in our schools. Staff and families may order at home tests for free via this link: https://www.covid.gov/tests.
  
  

• MAHEC will send home further guidance regarding when students need to stay home due to an illness.

• For students where an absence is Covid related please indicate this in your parent or health provider's note.

• Students/teachers will follow the same guidelines for makeup work as they would for any other illness or injury.