From the Principal's Office
Dear Tuscumbia School Community,
August is officially here, which means it is almost time for the new school year to begin. As we prepare to begin a new school year, I wanted to extend a warm welcome back to each of you. I hope everyone has had a wonderful summer and that you are getting excited about returning to school.
Our staff members have been hard at work over the summer ensuring our school is ready to welcome students back in a couple of short weeks. We have some new staff members joining us this year, and I am very excited to have them as part of our Pride! Please help me in welcoming the following new teachers:
Ms. Scrivener: 1st Grade
Ms. Burge: 5th - 8th Grade ELA
Mrs. Byrd: 5th - 8th Grade Science
Mr. Schaffer: 5th - 8th Grade Math
Ms. White: HS Agriculture
Mr. Hall: PE/Health
Mr. Varner: HS Math
Open house is scheduled for Thursday, August 15 from 5:30 - 7:00. During this time the Back to School Fair will also take place. We look forward to seeing everyone in the building this day!
As we get closer to school being back in session I know parents are starting to plan how the first day of school will go when it comes to getting students to class. If you have a student in kindergarten through 4th grade we welcome you to walk your student to class on the first day of school. If you plan to walk your students to their class this day, please review the following guidelines. There will be building administrators outside to help direct parents and students where to go.
Parents with students in kindergarten should enter the door by the kindergarten class.
Parents with students in 1st - 4th grade should enter the door by the nurse’s office. This is the closest door to these classrooms.
Parents may walk students to their class between 7:30am - 8:00am.
Please do not park in the bus lane. This needs to be kept clear so buses can get in and out easily.
If you need to speak with the nurse or drop any medication off, she will be available at 7:30am.
The first day of school will be here before you know it, and we are excited to welcome students back into the building! Enjoy the rest of your summer! See everyone in just a couple of short weeks!
Sincerely,
Kyla Kirtley
Principal
Early Registration Dates
All students must complete an enrollment packet at the beginning of every school year. We have early enrollment dates so that you can do this prior to the first day of school.
- Wednesday, August 7: Grades K-4
- Thursday, August 8: Grades 5-8
- Friday, August 9: Grades 9-12
We appreciate your cooperation as we try to make the first week of school less hectic for everyone and make sure we have all the information we need on the first day.
Meal Prices and Food Service Information
The following are student meal prices for the 2024-25 school year:
Breakfast
Breakfast: $1.80
Reduced breakfast: $0.30
Lunch
K-8 lunch: $2.35
9-12 lunch: $2.50
Reduced lunch (K-12): $0.40
Extras
Extra milk: $0.45
Extra servings: $0.50 (after everyone is served)
Extra milk and extra servings charges apply to everyone, including those on free/reduced lunch.
One Week of Breakfasts: $9.00
One Week of Lunches:
K-8, $11.75
9-12, $12.50
One Week of Breakfast and Lunch Every Day:
K-8, $20.75
9-12, $21.50
We will be mailing meal account reminders monthly this year. Please deposit money ahead of time for your student to avoid meal charges. A reminder that our Extra-Curricular Handbook does not allow students to participate in extra-curricular activities if you owe more than $50 in meal bills.
If you need help with meal costs, please complete the Free/Reduced Meals Form in your enrollment packet and make sure it gets back to the office. When they are returned with students, sometimes we do not receive them, so either deliver the form to the office or call to see that we received it if you send it with your student.
I have had several inquiries about why our district does not offer free student meals through the Community Eligibility Provision like some surrounding schools. Our district does not qualify for this program. To qualify, a district has to have 25% of its students qualify for free meals through Direct Certification, which means the family receives SNAP or TANF benefits. This information comes directly from the State, it is not self-reported by parents. Our percentage is 19.46%, so we do not currently meet the qualifying threshold. However, we will continue to check annually to see if our numbers change enough to qualify.
Summer Improvements
Our custodial and maintenance crew have been hard at work this summer getting our building in tip-top shape for our students this school year. We've also had some outside help with some improvements. When you come for open house, please look around--we're very proud of our school and hope you are too! Improvements include:
- Elementary classrooms have been painted, have new shades, and several have new whiteboards and bulletin boards. Our PTO purchased Smart TVs to replace the projectors in two of our elementary classrooms, and we appreciate their donation.
- We replaced the flooring in the kindergarten classroom, elementary computer lab, middle school ELA room, the ITV room, and the offices to remove the carpeting.
- The gym has new doors going into both the elementary and high school hallways, thanks to our safety grant.
- Our weight room has a new treadmill, rowing machine, a Smart TV, and mirrors, thanks to a grant from the Miller County Health Department.
- We have a new shop table for the Ag shop, donated by Carey Edwards at TMI.
- We've taken care of some drainage issues at our bus barn, cleaned some trees and brush up behind the building, and poured a ramp for our rock storage building so we can get items in and out easier. We still have some roof work on the high school to be done to fix some leaks.
The floors have all been waxed, the rooms are being deep cleaned, and we're putting some final touches on some maintenance items. We want all of our students, staff, and community to be proud of our school and for that Pride to show in all we do. We can't wait to welcome everyone back!
