Timberwolf Times -August 28 2023

Welcome Back to School - 2023-2024

"It's A Great Day to be a Timberwolf""

Dear Timberwolf Families,

Thank you for your patience with our Transportation Department and buses as the bus drivers are taking time to learn all the students to make sure they are always safe and accounted. Hopefully, all will be even more quick this week. Please use this link to monitor buses.

https://www.pwcs.edu/departments/transportation/bus_delays

I also encourage you to download the Here Comes the Bus mobile app that allows you to track your student’s buses in real-time

Reminder. Our School Hours are 9:20– 4:00 pm. We open the doors at 9:10 am.

As a reminder, Friday, September 1 and Monday, September 4, 2023 are holidays and PWCS will be closed for the Labor Day Weekend.

Our First PTO meeting will take place on Thursday, August 31, 2023 at 6:30pm in the Art Room.

I sent out a in-depth Back to School Newsletter for all families earlier on this month - please review here if you did not get it: Parent Welcome Letter 2023-2024 School Year

Click this link for Dr. McDade's August 18, 2023 Letter to the Community

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We truly do Everything Better Together as a Community of Leaders and Learners Achieving Excellence.

I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Dr. Andrew Buchheit

Principal

#TimberwolvesROCK

“At T. Clay Wood, Everyone Belongs”

This week, we will practice a lock down drill at our school. During a lock down drill, classroom doors are locked, and lights are turned off in the classroom. Students move away from the any windows and remain silent during the duration of the drill.

We will also practice another lock down drill the week of September 11, 2023.

Kindergarten students will not participate in the first two lockdown drills. However, they will participate in any lockdown drills after January.

We are required to practice two lockdown drills during the first 20 days of every school year. All PWCS schools shall also conduct one additional drill after the first 60 days of the school year and one during the 2nd semester of school.

Kindergarten students shall be exempt from mandatory participation in the first two lockdown drills but shall participate after the first 60 days in the drills.

Throughout the school year we will practice a variety of drills in order to make sure all our staff and students know what to do in case of a real emergency. We will practice fire drills, additional lock down drills, tornado drills, earthquake drills as well as other types of drills.

We explain these drills as a way for us all to know what we need to do in case of a fire or emergency and as an extra layer of protection and security similar to homes which have more than one lock on their front door and to make sure all students and teachers are always safe at school. If your students has any concerns with any of these drills, please let your child's teacher and/or one of our school counselors know so they can follow up with your child.

Please understand that Prince William County Public Schools requires each school to participate in these drills for the safety and protection of all our students, staff, and visitors.

I have included the link to the PWCS Crisis and Emergency Information Webpage which provides additional information – https://www.pwcs.edu/departments/risk_management___security_services/crisis_preparedness/index

As well as the link to PWCS Regulation 401.01-2 Crisis Management Readiness - https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/pwcs/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=BKF3TF08698D

The safety of our students and staff is always our highest priority.

Thank you for your support.

We truly do everything better together as A Community of Leaders and Learners Achieving Excellence.

Dr. Andrew Buchheit, Principal.

Only students who qualify for free and reduced meals will receive free meals. This year, students whose families qualify for reduced-price meals will also receive free meals, based on a Virginia General Assembly expansion of the program. Applications will be available in August.

Free and Reduced Price Meal Applications were mailed by the School Division to families with children registered in Prince William County Public Schools. If you did not receive an application, please contact School Food and Nutrition Services at 703.791.7314 or your school. You may also complete the application electronically. Visit the School Division Web site at https://pwcsnutrition.com/index.php?sid=0408101731444083to access the electronic application.

Following are the USDA-approved school meal prices for the 2023-24 school year:

Free and reduced breakfast and lunch are free to those who qualify for Free and Reduced

Once you have completed the Back to School Packet, you will be able to see your student's bus number, bus route, and bus stop information.

Transportation’s Late Bus Notification web page is now available for parents and schools. The page will list buses that will be late 15 minutes or more to start their run. Please use this link to monitor buses.

https://www.pwcs.edu/departments/transportation/bus_delays

I also encourage you to download the Here Comes the Bus mobile app that allows you to track your student’s buses in real-time. (In past years, it was not ready the first day of school)

Please contact the Transportation Department if you have any questions - 571-402-3940

The Annual Back to School Packet,, where parents/guardians can review emergency cards, update contact information, and complete annual policy reviews and acknowledgements, is now available in ParentVUE. It will need to be completed by September 15, 2023.

Please see T. Clay Wood ES Supply Lists for 2023-2024: https://tclaywoodes.pwcs.edu/news/2023/03/post

We will practice our first Lock Down Drill this week with 1st-5th grade students. Kindergarten Students do not participate in a Lock Down Dill until the January drill.

Welcome back to week 2

Tuesday, August 29, 2023 Day 1

Wednesday, August 30, 2023- Day 2

Thursday, August 31, 2023 - Day 3

PTO General Meeting; 6:30 pm - Art Room

Friday, September 1, 2023 -Day ---

No School - Labor Day Holiday Weekend.

Space Week is returning to T. Clay Wood ES! We will be celebrating as a school from October 2-6. Last year was our first year celebrating! We had theme days, a poster contest, lessons in the class, a special space lesson in drama class, and guests share their love/knowledge of space with the students! This year the goal is to GET BIGGER and EVEN BETTER! To do so, we are looking for experts in the Space Field to share their love and knowledge with the students! This big goal is to have many people share/educate students about space, professions in space, and how space research affects everyday life and our future. If you work in the industry or have a connection, please contact Mr. Dove (doveax@pwcs.edu

At T. Clay Wood Elementary School, we love to have visitors and volunteers every day. To help ensure the safety of our students, visitors to Prince William County Schools are expected to report promptly to the school’s main office when entering school buildings. Visitors and volunteers will be asked to provide a valid government issued photo identification. There are no exceptions. Every visitor to our school must bring with them a photo id. Visitors will then be issued a temporary identification badge. We will not permit any visitor or volunteer into the building without this identification. Our main goal is to ensure the safety and security of our students and staff at school.

Please feel free to coordinate times to volunteer in the classroom with your child's teacher. Teachers and students appreciate our volunteers. Thank you again for everything you are doing to help us build our Positive School Community. I want to formally invite all parents to become involved in your child’s education at T. Clay Wood Elementary School. It has been shown that strong parental involvement and interest in education is a crucial factor in student success. There are many ways to volunteer at T. Clay Wood Elementary School as well. Joining the PTO or Advisory Council, helping out in your child’s classroom, volunteering in the library, working at our Welcome Table Counter and chaperoning field trips are just a few of the many, many ways you can become a part of our Community of Leaders and Learners. Please review the regulation on volunteering: Regulation 511-10 Please always bring your photo identification.

If a situation occurs which makes it necessary for your child’s transportation home to change, please send in a note with your child in the morning giving clear directions as to how your child should go home at the end of the day. Only a parent/guardian can change their child’s transportation plan for any given day. A note from the parent must be received by the office AND the teacher before noon that day indicating the change. This is for the safety of the children and will alleviate any confusion at the end of the day.

Changing Dismissal Routine – Parents, if you are changing your child’s dismissal, you must send an email/note to the office or notify the office by 3:30 pm. The teacher and bus driver cannot accept a change if a student just tells him or her about the change without a note. In these cases, students are sent home the original way. In addition, please try to avoid changing dismissal procedures in the middle of the day and please send all dismissal changes to our office by calling our office at 703.594.3990 or sending a note in the morning. Emails sent to the teacher in the middle of the day may be missed if there is a substitute that day or if the teacher is not able to check his or her email.

3:30 pm - If you must pick your student up early, please arrive before 3:30 pm. We will not be able to call students to the office after 3:30 pm until all car riders are picked up. Students called for dismissal after 3:30 pm will be sent to the car rider area and will be brought up after all car riders are dismissed with the supervising teachers. This way we can reduce interruptions to the classrooms, provide continual supervision for all our students and give our focus in the office to dismissing students. Parents coming in after 3:30 pm will be asked to wait in the vestibule outside of the office and once their students are brought up to come in and sign their students out.

If it is necessary for a student to ride a bus home other than the one he/she is normally assigned, a bus pass is required and must be approved by the office. A note must be sent to school indicating the bus number that the child should ride and a phone number to verify the information. Thank you for helping us ensure the safety of all our students.

2023-2024 – Calendar link: https://www.pwcs.edu/calendars/school_calendar/index

You can also subscribe to the PWCS Calendar. To learn how, you can go to this PWCS Site and then follow the directions - How to Subscribe to the PWCS School Calendar

Code of Behavior link: https://www.pwcs.edu/about_us/code_of_behavior/index

Link to Family Life Education objectives and Opt out - https://www.pwcs.edu/academics___programs/science___family_life_education/family_life_education

All Students in Prince William County Schools will be issued a school laptop or similar device. This year students in Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade will be given iPads. Students in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade will have Windows Laptops (like they had last year). iPads are covered by PWCS in partnership with Apple for all damage to the device. Families are responsible for any damage to Windows Laptops, however.

Families of 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders can opt to purchase low cost insurance to protect the device in case of accidentally damage. Here is the link for information on the optional digital device insurance. https://securranty.com/pwcs If purchased, the insurance covers unlimited repairs or replacements for everything from broken screens, lost chargers, and accidental damage, with a zero deductible for one year on a school-issued HP device. The insurance cost is $32.95, which may be significantly less than repair or replacement costs without insurance.

I do encourage all families to consider the optional low-cost insurance. After last year, I observed it was very beneficial for families to purchase the insurance PWCS was offering for the devices.

As we get ready to start using the devices again, please look for emails from Mr. Taylor about how to reset passwords, etc.

Also this is a good time to remind all families to always know what your students are doing when they are on the internet, using devices to complete their school work, using social media, texting with friends, or playing online games. We continually are reminding our students about appropriate and acceptable use of technology. I encourage all parents and guardians to regularly check what their students are doing on the internet and while using technology -(school devices, gaming systems, home devices, phones, etc). Just as you monitor where your children go in person, I encourage you to monitor where they go on the internet.

I would also encourage all families to consider adding parental controls on their personal devices that students use. If you have any questions about student devices, please feel free to reach out to Mr. Taylor, our Instructional Technologist at TaylorBi@pwcs.edu. Thank you.

Cell Phones and Watches with text/calling capabilities

Phones - Reminder: If students bring in phones to school they must remain in their backpack and turned off. Please let all your family members know not to call your elementary school student during the day. If you need to change dismissal, please let our front office know by calling 703.594.3990.

Over the last couple of years, we have seen an increase in students using watches to text during the instructional school day. In order to preserve instructional time, students are not permitted to text, on a phone or watch, during the school day.

If you need to relay a message to your child during the school day, please call the front office.

Please refer to the Parent Handbook regarding the use of Cell Phones (which includes calling and texting on watches). It states, "If cell phones are brought to school, they should be turned off and kept in book bags during the school day."

Students may continue to wear the smart watches but calling should be turned off. Our Elementary school students should NOT be receiving messages (or calls) during the school day. If students misuse the watch by sending or receiving calls and/or messages, taking pictures or videos, or making recordings, playing on games or searching the internet, etc.; the teacher will need to have the student put the watch in their backpack similar to a cell phone or another device.

We thank you for your support in ensuring our students are focused on the learning process while at school. We want to be sure watches, phones, other devices are not used to distract from the learning environment or used in a way that is not appropriate for school. I appreciate all our parents and guardians taking the time to have these conversations with their children prior to allowing their students to come to school with a cell phone, smart watch, or other device.

Phones and watches can be removed if students are using them in ways that are distracting or not appropriate to their learning or the learning and safety of other students.

Phones - Reminder: If students bring in phones to school they must remain in their backpack and turned off. Please let all your family members know not to call your elementary school student during the day. If you need to change dismissal, please let our front office know by calling 703.594.3990.

Also I recommend that all parents and guardians turn off the Air Drop feature on their Iphones. I have heard of students at secondary schools air dropping inappropriate photos into all phones that can receive airdrop and then other students accepting those photos. You can turn this off on your students' device.

Dear Parents and Guardians,

Did you know attendance is the number one predictor of dropout and graduation rates? That’s why this year we are increasing communication to our parents and students around the importance of attendance- a critical indicator of success. Attending school every day helps our students build a solid foundation for their future in school and in life.

Our new strategy includes an attendance management system that carefully tracks attendance and ensures that parents are notified in a timely and consistent manner. Our goal is to connect with parents quickly so that we can remove any barriers that families face in getting students to school on time, every day.

You may receive a letter regarding your students’ attendance in the mail. Please understand that these notifications are to bring awareness on how much school has been missed this school year. We pledge to partner with you to find solutions and resources to support your student. If you feel that you have received the letter in error or have questions, please contact your school directly.

We understand there are unavoidable illnesses or other times when your child should remain at home. We also know that absences add up quickly, and that “showing up” is critical to your child’s success in school and in life.

We are committed to achieving our goals and supporting our Prince William County Public School families. Our students stand to benefit the most from this!

Together, let’s create a culture of showing up. Thank you for your continued support.

It is the responsibility of parents and guardians to see that their child attends school regularly and on time every day. Research tells us that the best learning takes place during the interaction of the teacher and child during class discussions. Children who are not in school each day miss important educational opportunities and learning experiences. Simply making up the missed work does not begin to take the place of actual class attendance. Students who enter class tardy are disruptive to classroom instruction and can have a challenging time getting into the classroom routine. The same holds true for students who leave early. We urge you to schedule medical and other appointments so that they do not conflict with class time.

It is important to note that Prince William County policy states that: “students in kindergarten through grade eight, who miss ten or more days of school for the year, excused or unexcused, and who have completed little or no make-up work may be considered for retention.” In addition, we are required to notify our Attendance Officer in cases of excessive absences.

Preapproved absences, such as vacations are discouraged and are only granted in extraordinary circumstances. The principal is not allowed to approve absences for family trips unless accompanied by extraordinary circumstances. The school principal can approve no more than 5 days of these type of absences. Additional absences beyond 5 days will need approval by student services. Please send a note or letter in advance to the teacher and the principal informing the school of your plans. Teachers are not required to provide assignments in advance. We would encourage students to read, keep a written journal and practice math facts while out of school. Students can complete make up assignments when they return.

If your child is absent, please call the school Attendance Line at 703.594.3992 or email cwes-timberwolf-attendance@pwcs.edu. This is for your child’s safety. If you do not contact the school, it will be necessary for the school office to contact you. Students with excused absences are allowed two days for every day of absence to make up work. Students are responsible for making up work when they are absent. Students are marked unexcused if parents do not call the school to inform us that their child is out.

For students who have missed a number of days of school, have been tardy a number of times, or have a number of early dismissals we will be sending letters to parents informing them of the number of missed days or days tardy from school. Thank you for your cooperation and support.

Our 2023-2024 PTO BOARD

President - Kate Case

VP - Kelsey Fisher

Treasurer - Beth Feliciano-Rivera

Asst Treasurer - Cooper Waterman

Secretary - Sandra Oviedo

Director - Tabitha Rich

Teacher Director - Tiana Marshall

Next PTO Meeting, August 31, 2023 at 6:30 pm

Art ROOM

Your TCWES PTO has a lot of fun events and projects planned for the year. Come see what this year holds in store for the PTO! Email tclaywoodpto@gmail.com for more information!

Please take a moment to view our 2023-2024 T. Clay Wood Continuous Improvement Plan by clicking this link: T. Clay Wood 2023-2024 Continuous Improvement Plan

We have three Academic Goals this year - Increase Reading, Math, and Science Achievement Rates for all students at T. Clay Wood to at least 85% or higher.

We also are focused at increasing student satisfaction rates to 90% or higher and increasing number of active business partnerships at T. Clay Wood.

A Prince William County School of Excellence

“A Community of Leaders and Learners Achieving Excellence”

10600 Kettle Run Road; Nokesville, VA 20181

Andrew Buchheit, Principal - buchhear@pwcs.edu

Melissa Yuditsky, Assistant Principal yuditsml@pwcs..edu

“A Community of Leaders and Learners Achieving Excellence”

School hours: 9:20 am – 4:00 pm

(Office hours: 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.)

SCHOOL SCHEDULE

Doors Open: 9:10 a.m.

Students tardy after: 9:20 a.m.

Dismissal: 4:00 p.m.

School Phone Number: 703.594.3990

School Fax Number: 703.594.2653

Attendance Email: cwes-timberwolf-attendance@pwcs.edu

Attendance Phone Line:– 703.594.3992

Motto: “I seek to make a POSITIVE DIFFERENCE AT SCHOOL”

Website: http://tclaywoodes.schools.pwcs.edu

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TClayWoodES

Twitter @TClayWoodElem

Instagram: tclaywoodelementary

Email: buchhear@pwcs.edu
Website: http://tclaywoodes.schools.pwcs.edu
Location: 10600 Kettle Run Road, Nokesville, VA, USA
Phone: 703.594.3990
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TClayWoodES
Twitter: @TClayWoodElem