September 2, 2004
Welcome back to Prairie Creek Community School for the 2004-2005 school year! Yesterday we had many parents who met the bus here at school and stayed for rolls and coffee afterwards. All of your children seemed very happy and the day went very smoothly.
“Backpack Express”
Each of your children will have brought home a pocket folder today which we call the “Backpack Express”. Whenever the classroom teacher or the office has something to send home we will use this method. Please check this folder each night and use it to send notes to the teacher or to return forms to school. It is standard practice for us to check these folders each day.
“Prairie Creek News”
We will be sending home the “Prairie Creek News”, our school newsletter, every other Thursday. The Prairie Creek News has two purposes. The first is to let parents know important details about life here at school and, secondly, to educate parents about the philosophy and practice of our school. I hope you will find this school publication helpful and that you will feel informed about all that is happening at the school. I welcome any feedback that you have about how we communicate with you. It is very important to me that all parents are well informed and “in the loop”.
Bus Safety
All of our children did a great job on the bus for the first day. At the end of the day the bus company called to ask us if we had any extra kids around! You will be happy to know we did not, all of our children got home safely! Benjamin Bus does an excellent job transporting our children and keeping them safe. Please talk with your child about bus safety, especially if they are waiting at the bus stop for the bus in the morning. I understand there are a lot of children waiting at Washington Street. Please remind them to stay well back off the road and to remember to be very careful around the bus.
At the beginning of the day and the end of the day at school we have a lot of activity in our parking lot and outside the school. In order for us to keep the children safe please regard the following safety guidelines,
ß Always escort your child to and from your car and never allow them to run alone in the parking lot.
ß Please park on the street, on the south side of the school. Please leave the parking lot for our staff. We have 19 staff this year that need places to park.
ß Avoid parking on the bridge north of the school. There are signs there restricting parking and the township has requested we not park there.
ß Never drive in or out of our parking lot while the bus is standing there. If you wish to drop children off in the morning please come before the bus. (This is different from last year!) I just learned this morning that the bus will not be able to get here any earlier than 8.20am. So, if “car” children arrive by 8:15am we should not have any congestion in the parking lot. I apologize for the confusion but it is always this way for the first few days and the new Middle School transportation issues are affecting us all. Thank you for your patience and for your understanding as we work with the bus company to figure this all out.
SCHOOL WILL START SHARP AT 8:25 AM. Please be on time as we are losing precious minutes out of our day due to this new bus schedule!
Your help is needed!
If you have not returned the parent survey that we sent you during the summer it is very important that you do so now. We are still waiting for about 25 of them and we need them to complete this section of our Annual Report. Please help us by returning them in the envelope we provided. Our Annual report is due October 1st at the State Department. If we do not hear from you in the next few days we will be calling you. Please save us a call.
PCCS New Website!
In a week or so we will be launching our new website. This site had been designed by Michelle Martin and is very beautiful. It will be there for your convenience so we hope you will check it often. You will find a monthly calendar, announcements from the school, classroom pages, links for parents and many more wonderful features. All this year we will be reminding you to check it out often.
There was a huge amount of work happened over the summer at school. The list of people to thank is very long indeed. My sincere thanks to everyone who helped get the offices up and running, the library organized and the courtyards weeded. We had cubbies built, walls painted, and lots of very old furniture removed. Our volunteers at Prairie Creek are amazing. We think the world of you all. Thank you!
“First Six Weeks of School”
We are recognizing the first six weeks of school as we have for a number of years. While parents are always welcome in the classrooms at Prairie Creek we ask them to wait for the first six weeks as we get our classes settled and our communities built. We have many things you could do around the school if you are anxious to come and help. Please talk to me and I will put you in touch with someone who would love your help!
I look forward to getting to know you this year. Please call if you have any questions.
Caroline