Dragon Tales

I want to start this week's message to families with a shoutout to our amazing custodial staff! Terry, Corky and Sage worked so hard over the summer to make this old building sparkle in anticipation of the return of staff and students in the coming weeks. I can literally see my reflection in the polished floors. There is no longer dust in places dust balls used to collect. Our classrooms have each received a deep clean to the point of which I suspect some teachers may not recognize their own rooms! I feel fortunate to have these three individuals working so hard for our students and staff.

Our custodian's hard work makes me even more excited for this Saturday's Community Care Day. I hope families can join us from 10am-12pm to help spruce up the exterior of our building. We'll need help pruning bushes, spreading mulch, cleaning up our stair cases and much more. Community Care Day is a great way to give back to your school and to connect with other da Vinci students and families.

As you have likely already experienced, we encourage all families to make sure they have set up their Remind account. This will be our main method of communication to families. We appreciate your patience as we work through some kinks using this new tool. Remind is supposed to sync nightly with our student information system, Synergy, to accurately update student and family rosters. We are hearing that some families aren't receiving the communication and others are who no longer attend da Vinci! Again, we'll get this all worked out and appreciate your patience in the meantime.

Warmly,

Mr. Roosevelt

Cell phones and other electronic devices, such as earbuds, iWatches, and game consoles, are to be OFF AND AWAY IN LOCKERS ALL DAY. We will remind students of this expectation at the start of the school year, but we also need families to remind their student to put their phone in their locker at the start of the day.

Last year, a number of students were caught violating the cell phone policy due to messages they received from their families. If you need to reach your student, please call the main office and we will get a message to them.

Here is a breakdown of the how the policy works:

1st Violation = Student hands their device to an adult who brings the device to the office. Student may get their phone at the end of the day.

2nd Violation = Student hands their device to an adult who brings the device to the office. A parent or guardian MUST come into the building to pick up the phone.

3rd Violation = A electronic device plan will be developed, likely resulting with the student turning in the device at the start of the day to the main office and picking it up at the end of the day.

Each student will need to bring a combination padlock for the locker that they will be assigned to use to secure their belongings throughout the year. Cell phones and backpacks must be stored in their lockers and be kept locked at all times.

Key locks are not recommended. The office maintains a list of all combination codes in case a student forgets the combination. We will have very few replacements for locks, so please purchase one and begin working on it with your student. While you can find a wide array of lock options, we have found the Master Lock combination padlock works best.

We are excited to welcome our Sixth graders, and any 7th and 8th grade students new to da Vinci, at Jumpstart on August 27th.

Jumpstart helps kick the year off with a bang. School will begin at 9:15am and end at 4:00pm on the 27th. Students wanting breakfast can enter through the gate by the playground. All other students will enter through main doors at the front of the building.

Our new students will attend school that day without returning students on campus. This allows them to find their classrooms easily, make connections with their peers, and enjoy activities planned to welcome them to da Vinci!

Students need not bring school supplies that day, but a backpack and water bottle are a good idea. Lunch will be served to students.

We are making available the 2024/2025 da Vinci Carpool resource, which is compiled annually for families to use for carpooling to school and transportation planning. Your participation is voluntary.

Please only fill out the above da Vinci Carpool form if you wish for your information to be shared and only enter the information you are comfortable being shared with other households.

We will send out information to families on Monday who have opted-in to sharing their information.

6th graders and any students new to da Vinci are encouraged to join us on August 22nd from 6:30-7:30 at the da Vinci playground to get to know their peers and begin building positive connections with our school and community. We hope to see you there!

Shout out to Ellie Savage, current 7th grade student at da Vinci, for putting together this awesome flier and to her mom, Erin, for helping run this event!!!

A parent or guardian must provide consent by reviewing and agreeing to the Acceptable Use Policy in order for students to utilize District software or any technology resources.

This information is included in Online Registration via ParentVue and included in the paper registration form.

This is a one time consent that follows the student through their PPS career. This information has also been shared with School Admin Assistants.

Here is the Required Technology Consent Policy & Agreement

On Friday, August 23rd after 5pm Class schedules can be accessible in StudentVue and ParentVue. Schedule change forms will be available the first week of school. Due to budgetary constraints, we will less flexibility for schedule changes than in years past. The only changes to schedules that will happen is if your student did not receive any of their elective class choices.

On behalf of the PTSA, I would like to invite families to this adult-only event at Migration Brewing on Thursday, August 29th. This is a great way to meet other families and to learn about ways you can support our PTSA and da Vinci community.

5:30pm to 7:30pm
Migration Brewing on Glisan
(adult-only event)
Free appetizers and drinks for the first hour!

RSVP here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090F45A5A82FAAFF2-50756174-welcome

Thank you, all, we're looking forward to seeing you!

Students need a few essential supplies to be prepared for success each day. Students will use their lockers to store backpacks, lunch boxes, dance clothes, cellphones, extra supplies, etc. They need something that can be easily carried from class to class. We suggest a zippered 3-inch binder with 3-hole punch and separate tabs for each class and a pencil pouch for a few essentials.

Students also carry their assigned PPS Chromebooks throughout the day. Most students zip this up into their 3-ring binder. Students will need to keep them protected and ensure their safety as we do not have many loaner computers this year.

A complete supply list can be found here.

Last year we had over 100 chromebook chargers NOT returned. These chargers cost the school roughly $15 to replace and unfortunately, our budget this year does not support purchasing 100 new chargers. Please take a moment to look around your house to see if your student may still have one. If you are able to help make a donation for us to purchase new chargers, please click here.

Donations of supplies are always appreciated and we would be grateful to receive any of the following items to help offset costs, especially with recent budget cuts.

Items that are frequently needed include: Kleenex, hand sanitizer, face masks, pens, markers, pencils, composition books, tape (ie Scotch magic), snacks for students, reams of copier paper, etc. If you’re able to donate any supplies, please bring them (or have your student bring them) to the main office.

da Vinci is still in need of a family representative for our school on the District Family Advisory Council. I believe it is important for a da Vinci voice and perspective to be heard at these meetings. If you are interested in participating and representing our school, please email email me (sroosevelt@pps.net).