Congratulations to our Students of the Month for August. These students portrayed one of the following character traits: Empathy, Active Listening, Inclusion, Honesty, or Integrity during the month of August.

Congratulations to the following students:
Traye Terrell
Bryson Holloway
Colton Crowley
Jesse Tarplin
Timmie Allison
Johnastin Berry
Peyton Metellus
Daniel Abundez Castro
Esteban Orozco Rojas
Randall Wordlaw
Yaritza Arroyo-Martinez
Brantley Warren
Luis Galvan
Eileen Alcantar
Willow McIlwain
Nevelin Avila Bautista
Dezaria Gibson
Evi Ogba
Damaya Stringer
Santi Macias
Alaina Perez-Gourdine

You play a critical role in your student’s success with i-Ready this fall. Visit the Family Center for more information on i-Ready and how you can motivate your student at home. Help track and celebrate your student’s progress by regularly reviewing their i-Ready My Progress page with them. Use the prompts below to help.

1. My Progress: Direct your student to the My Progress section to see all their lesson stats.

2. Time on Task: How much time has your student spent on lessons this week?

3. Lessons Passed: How many lessons has your student passed? How did this number change from last week?

4. Lesson Streak: What is the greatest number of lessons your student has passed in a row this school year? How many lessons has your student passed in a row most recently (i.e., current streak)?

Grandparents Day occurs on the first Sunday after Labor Day every year. This year, Grandparents Day is on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024. We are excited to celebrate our grands by inviting them to breakfast with their Ram on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024.

Parents should complete the Registration form to identify the grandparents that will attend. Click here to complete the form.

Georgia Reads Day is a unique opportunity to create awareness about the need to improve literacy skills in all age groups, engage in community reading activities and participate in the reading activities at Mt. Carmel. We are offering times for parents and community members to come and read to a selected class. If you are interested in being a class reader, please click the link here.

Join us Friday, September 13, 2024 from 3:00-9:00 PM. We'll eat pizza, play arcade games, and enjoy family time. Why come? This will be Mt. Carmel's first chance to raise money for school events, school resources, and teacher appreciation. Not only will you be making a difference for our school, but you'll get to meet the rest of the Mt. Carmel Ramily. Building Community helps our kids have a better chance for the future! So invite your friends and family, and we'll see you there! Be sure to tell them that you are with Mt. Carmel.

We would like to congratulate our newly elected PTA Executive Officers for 2024-2025.

President: Serrina Fowler
Vice President: Tiffany Nottingham
Secretary: Lamesha Lowe
Treasurer: Dominique Tarplin

Our Parent Teacher Association (PTA) goal is to bring together the interests of the parents and the school to support student achievement. PTAs normally meet once a month. Through PTA initiatives and activities, parents work with the faculty to enhance the school environment and improve student achievement.

WHAT DOES THE PTA DO?

• Support and organize schoolwide events
• Provide a forum to discuss issues of importance to parents and teachers
• Provide the volunteers and the organization needed to support school projects
• Conduct fundraising for school activities
• Assist with special school projects development, landscaping or community outreach

PTA dues for the 2024-2025 is $10.00 Click here to join PTA.

UPCOMING CHANGES IN 2025

Georgia PTA Dues increase will go into effect July 1, 2025 amount $1.85 (.35 increase was passed at CLT 2023).

National PTA Dues increase will go into effect July 1, 2025 amount $3.25 (dues increase was passed at National PTA Convention 2024).

As school we want to get better at improving our school culture and get a pulse on the issues that matter to you. We've signed up to a new service that will send you regular, short, anonymous surveys making it quick and easy to get your voice heard.

Please click the link below to sign up https://app.satchelpulse.com/parents?country=us

Please use the school ID (code) 615702 when prompted to join the school.

What is character education? Character Education is a learning process that enables students and adults in a school setting to understand, care about, and act on core ethical values such as honesty, respect, and responsibility for self and others. Below are the weekly character traits for the month of August.

Week of September 16, 2024 | Self-Control: The willpower to control actions and emotions

Week of September 23, 2024 | Empowered: To make stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life and decisions

Week of September 16, 2024 | Tolerance: Respecting the individual differences, views, and beliefs of others

To ensure that you have all the important dates for this year, be sure to visit our school website to access our year at a glance calendar. Click here to access our school calendar.

Important August Dates

Monday, September 2nd

No School | Labor Day Holiday

Tuesday, September 3rd

No School | Teacher Work Day

Wednesday, September 4th

Progress Reports

Monday, September 9th

Grandparents' Breakfast

Friday, September 13th

Chuck E. Cheese Family Night

Thursday, September 19th

Student Performance Data Meeting (Virtual)

6:30 PM

Student handbooks are updated and distributed to families electronically at the beginning of each school year. For questions or information concerning the handbooks, please contact Dr. Boone.

MCES 24-25 Handbook

DCSS 24-25 Handbook (English | Spanish)

Parents, grandparents, guardians, and other family members are always invited to eat lunch with their children. Prior to arriving for lunch, you will have to notify the teachers with a 24 hour notice that you would like to join your child/children for lunch. This will help us to streamline the process and be sure that we have adequate space for visitors.

When planning to eat lunch with your child, please DO NOT bring any food from outside vendors, fast food lunches or carbonated drinks to cafeteria. Be sure to bring proper identification and sign into the front office before going to the cafeteria.

Also, please adhere to our café expectations & procedures as follows:

a. Everyone is to stay in his/her seat.
b. No talking, if the cone at your child's table is turned to red.
c. Clean up your area when you are finished eating.

Grade Level Lunch Times

10:15-10:50 Kindergarten

10:35-11:15 2nd Grade

10:55-11:30 3rd Grade

11:15-11:55 1st Grade

11:35-12:10 4th Grade

11:50-12:30 5th Grade

School Lunch Menu

Click here for the school breakfast and lunch menu.

Nutritional Analysis

Click here for the nutritional analysis of the items that are on the menu.

Cost for meals for guests is $2.00 for breakfast and $4.00 for lunch (be sure to have exact change).

This year, all students (K-5) will use agendas in conjunction with AVID Elementary. Through the implementation of AVID Elementary, students develop the academic habits they will need to be successful in middle school, high school, and college, in an age-appropriate and challenging way. Children learn about organization, study skills, communication, and self-advocacy. AVID Elementary students take structured notes and answer and ask high-level questions that go beyond routine answers.

AVID states that “ When students effectively manage their time, it helps them to meet classroom deadlines, increase the quality of their work, reduce their stress, and accomplish their goals, while also helping to ensure that they have time for other interests and passions.”

All agendas are $7. To purchase your child's student agenda, please use the link below

https://mces.revtrak.net/student-fees/#/list

Parents are required to complete a Free and Reduced Meal Application in order to qualify for free or reduced meals. Meals will no longer be free. Parents will be required to send money for breakfast and lunch until the free/reduced meal application is approved. You can use schoolcafe.com to load money to your child's account or send cash for meals.

Note: If you receive notice that your child has a negative balance, please contact Mrs. Muhammad at 770-651-4201. She will be able to provide you more information on the balance.

Note: If your child has a negative lunch balance, they will not be accepted into any MCES extracurricular activities until that balance is cleared.

We do not allow whole birthday cakes or any birthday treats that are not individually wrapped. We enjoy

honoring our students on their birthday. We announce the birthday child’s name on the morning announcements and allow families to bring in treats within the guidelines below.

▪ Snacks must be store bought AND prepackaged/individually wrapped. [No exceptions!]

▪ Cupcakes must be individually packaged in container or prepackaged wrapping. [No exceptions!]

▪ Any treat should be served during recess.

▪ No invitations to birthday parties should be sent to school unless an invitation is available for every student in the class. A list of student names will not be permitted to be sent home.

When buying treats, please be sure to speak with your child's teachers. Some students have food allergies. Also, you may want to think about non-food items. The items listed below will still make your child feel special and they will last a lot longer than a food item.

• A game for the classroom
• A classroom book (A nice touch would be having your child pick it out, sign it, and date it.)
• A classroom set of items for each child to keep such as pencils, pens, erasers, markers, etc.

Above is an image of what is defined as individually wrapped cupcakes.

All afternoon dismissal and transportation changes must be made in writing. Also, if there is someone other than yourself picking your child up from car riders, please email the name of the person AND provide them with either your child's car rider number or the car rider tag. If he or she does not have the car rider hang tag, please let them know that we will ask to see their license prior to releasing any student. This is to protect the safety of your child. Please send an email stating the change to the email address below no later than 1:30 PM.

Click here to make a transportation change.

There are some days that your child's bus may be late due to busses being combined or a substitute bus driver driving a new route. If you would like to know if your child's bus will be late, you may locate that information here. This information is updated each morning and each afternoon.

Here Comes the Bus is available for parents and students to download now. The highly-rated free app currently has over a million users. To sign up, visit the Apple or Android store, or visit www.herecomesthebus.com. The code needed to complete the registration process is 79003. Students are still encouraged to arrive at their stop five minutes early and to follow any additional instructions given by drivers.

As your children board the bus each morning, please help us and remind them of our bus rules. Students should stay seated in assigned seat, there is to be no eating or drinking on the bus and students should use their inside voices. Students should also keep their hands and other objects to themselves while riding the bus.

School bus transportation is a privilege afforded pupils by the Board of Education. It is not a right. To protect the safety and well-being of all involved, pupils must adhere to established bus conduct rules. Bus transportation privilege may be revoked if the pupil does not observe bus conduct expectations.

Ms. Lizzy Kilgore is our District Bilingual Liaison. Please contact her if you need help with translating or interpreting.

Phone: 770.651.2223

Email: lizzy.kilgore@dcssga.org