Welcome Back, John Kerr Cardinals! We are so excited to have you back in the building tomorrow. We have missed you! Your teachers have prepared their classrooms for your arrival and are anxious to see you and start the year.
It has been an exciting summer at John Kerr. We hired 19 new staff members, which we will highlight regularly in our weekly newsletters along with returning staff members. Our hope is you get to know every staff member a bit better over the course of the year. One of our most recent hires is our new Assistant Principal, Mrs. Wendy Houser. Mrs. Houser is a Winchester native and served most recently as the Assistant Principal at James Wood Middle School in Frederick County, Virginia. We are thrilled to have her with us at John Kerr. During the first week of school, she and I will be around to classrooms to see everyone and introduce her so you will know her when you see her.
A big change this year is breakfast in the cafeteria. This will be a slow start since food services are moving to a barcode system. Until that happens, students in PreK-Grade 1 will have a bag breakfast delivered to their homeroom classroom each morning. Students in Grades 2-4 will eat a bag breakfast in the cafeteria. Breakfast is from 7:25 AM-7:45 AM. Class begins at 7:50 AM.
Another change is parent drop-off/pick-up is now called Kiss โnโ Ride. You will see the Kiss โnโ Ride Expectations further down but please have your student prepared to exit the car when you pull up (dressed, shoes/socks are on, backpack, etc. ready to go). While we know some of our younger students require assistance exiting the vehicle, our older students can exit the vehicle without staff assistance. The other ask is for students to exit on the sidewalk side of the vehicle. This is paramount for safety.
We want to encourage every family to check our website regularly for ever-changing information and updates and for their childโs grade level quarterly newsletter. Families should also begin to receive weekly updates through Talking Points from their childโs classroom teacher beginning the week of August 19, 2024.
It is going to be a great year at John Kerr and we look forward to seeing every student, every day ready to learn when the bell rings at 7:50 AM.
Mrs. Pryor and Mrs. Houser
