Goooooood Morning #OneFamily!

I hope you enjoyed the gorgeous weather and were able to get some great family time in! Welcome back to another week. 2 four day weeks come up, which hopefully will give you some time to "catch up" and get some additional family time in. Let's get this week started!

Here is a rundown of the latest information to keep you in the know!

• No School Friday for kiddos (teacher work and professional development day).

• No School Monday (Oct. 14th) for Parent Teacher Conference Day. .

• Family University: Please RSVP HERE. We cannot offer dinner to your family unless you RSVP to ensure we have enough food for everyone. Please RSVP here or zap the flyer below.

• Make-up Picture Day - Tuesday. If you want your kiddo to retake their picture please let your kiddos' teacher know that you would like them to get their picture retaken. We will automatically pull all kiddos who were absent.

• Parent Teacher Conferences: Our teachers are currently reaching out to connect with every family for a conference. We will work with you on the timing and we can even meet on Google Meet if that is the only means possible. We just really want to partner with you and since you are the expert on your kiddo, we need your help! We will also share the beginning of the year test results with you and the plan to help your kiddo continue to grow in all areas this year. If you are meeting on Monday (Oct. 14th), come on in and feel free to head straight to your kiddos' room. Grab a water or some of our other parent flyers on your way past the entrance. Stop in the office if you need help finding your kiddos' room. We got you :)

• ParentVue is our means of official communication regarding your kiddo's Student Reading Plan and other formal assessment results (such as MAP, SOL). Please make sure that you access this information in ParentVue, as data will be updated at least every other week in the “MTSS” tab of your child’s profile (see image below). If you need assistance with your ParentVue account, please use the instructions below or come to Family University. We will have a booth there to help you. You can use ParentVue to do many other things now as elementary parents to include submit absence notices for your kiddos. In middle and HS, you can track your kiddos' grades. Once you register, you are in it for their entire K-12 experience so you may as well join now :)

  
  

• Thank you!

• A huge thank you to a few members of our community who have gone out of their way to support our kiddos and our community. Savannah H and her family have raised now almost $2,000 for Fairy Godmother Project in Lily's name. She raised a significant amount of money on her own by selling bracelets. And then started to inspire others to give. Before we knew it, she had people matching her all over the community bringing her total to over $2000 as of Friday!
• A huge thank you to Mary Patrignani for continuing to collect, wash, and organize our HUGE clothes pantry here at Conway. Lily's Closet is a gently used clothes pantry that we house here at Conway that allows us to get a kiddo a new wardrobe, new outfit, new shoes, or new hygiene products instantly. It is all made possible because of her and her great efforts.

• Wondering what kiddos are doing in specials, click here to see.

• Wear Orange for Unity Day on Oct. 16th: We are excited to share with you that our school community will be celebrating Unity Day on 10/16 this year. Unity Day is an annual event occurring during National Bullying Prevention Month in October that promotes joining together to create healthier communities through kindness, acceptance, and inclusion. It was started by PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center in 2011 and is now celebrated around the world.
  

• Family University: We are super excited to welcome you to our 3rd Annual Family University on Friday, October 18th from 5:00 - 8:00 PM. We have changed it all up to make it awesome for families and to hopefully provide you all that you could want or need. You are not going to want to miss this night. Check out the night:

• 5:00 - 5:30 - Family Dinner (subs, pizza, and salad)
• 5:45 - Kick-Off
• 6:00 - 8:00 - Family Workshops on literacy, mathematics, behavior / discipline, enrichment, and technology safety.
• We will have family resource booths for free stuff, games, and many different family resources and professionals to help you in any way you need.
• Book Fair - The book fair will be open for business as well for the entire night.
• Please RSVP here or zap the flyer below.

• Salad Bar - Starting Oct. 21st, every Tuesday and Thursday, we will now offer a huge salad bar for kiddos and staff. Kiddos will be able to choose a variety of toppings like a real they are at a real salad bar. I sure can't wait for the pickles (thanks to Sasha's advocacy) and tons of croutons :)

• Trunk or Treat - For the first time ever, we are going to move Trunk or Treat on Oct. 25th to Stafford High School's Parking lot. Set-up for all those decorating is still 4:30 and the event still goes from 6:00 - 8:00 PM. We had to move it because the new owner of the parking lot across the street will not allow us to park there any longer. We only have 153 spots to park at Conway and this event usually draws around 1000 people. To prevent us from having to shuttle people back and forth from the VRE lot, we felt it was safer and more convenient to go to SHS. We are hopeful this does not prevent you and your family coming to one of our oldest traditions here at Conway! It will be even better this year because we have tons of space to sprawl out and use for games for kids. And we will still have a DJ and dance party as well! Hope to see you there.

• Mark Your Calendars:

• Parent Teacher conferences will be mostly held on October 14th throughout the day. Much more information how to sign up and about this will come home soon.
• Family University: October 18th from 5:00 - 8:00. FREE DINNER and Parenting Resources!
• Trunk or Treat: October 25th from 6:00 - 8:00 PM. Trick or Treating out of decorated trunks in SHS' parking lot and a HUGE outdoor Halloween dance.

Hope to see you around town this week! Be awesome at whatever you do!

V/r,

JR

Filipino, Italian, Polish, and German Heritage Month

• Tuesday:
• Picture Make-up day
• 3:30 - 5:00 PM - Girls on the Run
• Wednesday:
• Great day to be a Cougar!
• Thursday:
• 3:30 - 5:00 PM - Girls on the Run
• 6:00 - PTA Meeting. All are invited!
• Friday:
• No School for Kiddos. Teacher Work Day.
• Monday - Oct. 14th - No School for Kiddos. Parent Teacher Conference Day
• Friday - Oct. 18th -5:00 - Family University.

High School Redistricting Community Meeting - This community will want to keep an eye on this process for HS redistricting.

Stafford Schools will host Division-Wide Redistricting Meetings to address the redistricting process due to the construction of High School 6, which will affect all high schools in the division. These meetings will allow parents, guardians, and other stakeholders to learn more about the proposed redistricting plans and to provide feedback to Planning Staff and the School Board. We encourage all families to attend these meetings to learn more and share your thoughts as we plan for the future:

• October 1, 7 PM – Stafford High School (Community Meeting #2)
• October 30, 6 PM – Mountain View High School (Community Meeting #3)
• November 12, 7PM – Bandy Administration Building (Public Hearing)

We have created a new mapping tool that allows families to input their address and overlay the different redistricting scenarios to see how their household might be impacted. Families should use the layers selection tool on the right of the map to review each scenario.

Final action on the redistricting plan will be taken by the School Board on December 10, 2024. The new high school boundaries will take effect in August 2026. Please feel free to share this information with students and families as needed, and do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

• Free or Reduced Lunch Application: If your family is in need of free or reduced prices for lunches, please visit this page for details on how to apply. Unfortunately, this is something that you have to redo every year. I believe you will have until the end of September to complete this form if they qualified last year. See more information below on the flyer.

• Simplified Attendance Reporting: In our ongoing efforts to enhance efficiency and convenience, all attendance will now be reported using ParentVUE. This centralized platform will provide parents with a user-friendly, one-stop location to submit attendance updates quickly and easily for the entire family. By consolidating this process into ParentVUE, we aim to simplify absence reporting for parents and ensure accurate attendance records for our schools. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzRfZTHVro4&t=10s

• Want to know more about Conway, see the schedule for next year, or check out information about lunch? Look no further. Click HERE for those details.

Instructions from SCPS on how to use: Click HERE

Family University: Weren't able to make Family University? No worries. We have the workshops right here for you. Click on this folder to find quick videos on how to support your child's mathematics and literacy development. In addition, check out our session on internet safety. Please reach out to any of our coaches for additional help or information: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1EjMz--e9wMlpgXc_8fNPpBbRDNggW_Uc

• Report card Information for Parents: Wondering about your child's progress on the last report card? Wondering what something means? Click on the link below for help with what the academic codes mean, what your kiddo learned and were assessed each quarter, and what standard based grading is: https://www.staffordschools.net/k5grading

• Reading Resources: Use this document below to find ways to support your kiddo's reading anytime of year. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m8rFwzDZdI_vTFo-8ujnzPgFwPFt10Yi7d00lQ2a8sI/edit

• Math Resources: Use this document below to help support your child's math learning anytime of year. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GsfYAmeePjmBQft77YCyXMcXO97hDlOzq9dGN85ajN0/edit?usp=sharing

• Here is some information to help keep your kiddo safe on their devices.

• https://www.commonsense.org/system/files/pdf/2020-08/grades-k-5-family-tips-media-balance-well-being-english.pdf

• https://www.commonsense.org/system/files/pdf/2020-08/grades-k-5-family-tips-media-balance-well-being-spanish.pdf

Parent Resources from Virginia Literacy Partnership (UVA)

Click here for FAQs for SCPS Nutrition.

Click here for all things related to SCPS nutrition.

Click here for the online portal to pay for lunches or to see the menu

Nominate a SCPS employee to say thanks for going above and beyond. CLICK HERE to nominate them.

• How to Translate Smore newsletters: If you would like to translate this newsletter into another language, please click on these links for directions on how to do that. Directions in English click here. Directions in Espanol click here. Directions in Pashto click here . Directions in Dari click here.

Follow JR on Youtube @ JR Raybold and on Instagram @Conway_onefamily.

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Email: rayboldws@staffordschools.net
Website: https://www.staffordschools.net/ces
Location: 105 Primmer House Road, Fredericksburg, VA, USA
Phone: 5403611455
Facebook: facebook.com/Conwayelemsch
Twitter: @conwayelemsch