Cheatham Achieves

Welcome to the new school year! We hope you have had a fun-filled summer. We have worked throughout the summer to prepare for another exceptional educational experience for your child. As the first day of school approaches, we want to provide our families with news and information that will be useful this year. Our families will receive this newsletter each month during the school year.

Our schools have announced their open house schedules for the 2024-2025 school year. For the complete schedules, including dates and times, please click here. Please contact your child’s school with specific questions about open house events.

The first day of the 2024-2025 school year is Wednesday, Aug. 7. On this day, only students in grades 1-9 will attend and they will be dismissed at 10:45 a.m. (only breakfast will be served; no lunch on this day). The first full day of school is Thursday, Aug. 8 for students in grades 1-12. The first full regular day of school for kindergarten and Pre-K students is Wednesday, Aug. 14. Our complete calendar can be found here.

The 2024-2025 application for free and reduced meals is now available. It is extremely important that all families who believe their children qualify for free or reduced meals complete the application. Only one application per family is needed. If you qualified for free/reduced in the past, the application must be submitted within 30 operating days of the new year or the student will be moved from free/reduced to paying beginning September 18. Applications can be completed online via Skyward. Printed applications are available at each school. Applications must be submitted and approved each school year for a student to receive benefits. Families can click here for more information, including a Frequently Asked Questions document about free and reduced-price school meals and a free and reduced-price application for the 2024-2025 school year (both in English and Spanish).

Did you know? We operate an extended childcare program at our six elementary schools. Children have the opportunity to engage in activities which will benefit them emotionally, physically, and educationally. The program includes crafts, sports, games, snacks and many other creative activities. A special time each day will be allotted for homework and tutorial assistance if it is needed. Our daycares are open to children in our Pre-K program through fourth grade, and they operate year-round from 6 a.m. (before school) to 6 p.m. (after school). Please call each site to check availability and pricing. The contact information for each site can be found on our website by clicking here.

We have updated our grading procedures for the 2024-2025 school year. The grading procedures will form a foundation for consistent grading practices. Grades will accurately communicate what students have learned, and each student will be an active participant in learning and assessment processes. For more information, click here.

The safety of our students and staff is a top priority, and we continue to take steps to ensure that our schools are safe learning environments. This year, we will continue with our policy of requiring all middle and high school students to put all backpacks, lunch boxes and sports bags into their locker each morning. These bags will be not carried from room to room throughout the day.

One of our goals is to create a welcoming, safe, and focused learning environment for students, and the best possible conditions for staff to support students. Student cell phone use at school has been identified as a tremendous detriment to meeting that goal. Today’s youth battle constant distractions caused by cell phone alerts and messaging that interrupt their ability to focus, which creates a negative impact on school culture and learning. Therefore, we wish to inform our students and families about our expectations regarding cell phones for the 2024-2025 school year. To read more, please click here.

In an effort to increase security at sporting events, several spectator rules will continue to be enforced during the 2024-2025 school year. Those include:

• One clear tote bag per person will be permitted. All bags are subject to be searched by school employees or law enforcement.
• Outside food and drinks in open containers are prohibited.
• Children who are middle school age or younger must be accompanied by an adult for entry into an athletic event.
• The no re-entry policy, which has already been in place, will continue to be enforced.
• The use of cigarettes, vapes and any other nicotine product and/or drug is prohibited on our campuses, which includes athletic stands and fields.
• Only service animals are allowed on our school campuses. This means no dogs or other pets are permitted at any school event, which includes indoor and outdoor sports, unless it is a service animal.

We are excited to grow our Jobs for America's Graduates program at our three high schools this year. Formerly known as Jobs for Tennessee Graduates, JAG focuses on career preparation and work-based learning opportunities for all our students. Each class focuses on work essentials, crafting resumes, practice interviews, work readiness, personal finance, and much more. Danny Waltman leads the program at Sycamore High School, April Williams at Harpeth High School and Kristina Pardue at Cheatham County Central High School. The CCCHS program, in its first year, was named the 2024 Most Outstanding Chapter by JAG Tennessee.

An event benefiting Cheatham County School District students will be held on Friday, August 16 at 6:30 p.m. at Gateway Church, 1642 Highway 12 South in Ashland City. The Heartstrings for Hope concert, which is being sponsored by the community, will feature many talented musicians. The event is free, but donations are requested. The proceeds will help with student needs such as food, clothes, coats, glasses and various other items. Concessions will be available. The first Heartstrings for Hope concert was held in 2019 and funds raised at that time were able to assist many of our students. We hope you can make plans to attend!

The Cheatham County Homeless Coalition, working to raise awareness about homelessness in the community, wants to give the public a better understanding of what it means to be without a home. The Coalition will host its second annual Cardboard City challenge on Saturday, September 7 from 8:30-11 a.m. at the Cheatham County Courthouse in Ashland City. Families, churches, schools, nonprofits, civic organizations, and businesses are invited to form a team and participate in this experience. Teams, which are limited to 4-6 people, will be given cardboard boxes and duct tape and can pick one extra item such as rope, tarps, blankets, and scissors to build the homes. The homes will be judged, and prizes will be awarded. Teams need to register in advance for the event and can do so through the Cheatham County Homeless Coalition website by clicking here or directly at this link. The registration deadline is August 23. There is no cost for teams to participate. There will be both youth and adult categories this year. Registered participants will receive a free T-shirt. On the day of the event, teams should arrive by 8:30 a.m. A welcome and rules will be reviewed at 8:30 a.m. and the actual building will take place from 9-10 a.m. Announcements, speakers, judging, and awards will follow. A free breakfast, courtesy of Hardee’s in Ashland City, will be available for participants.

One of our top priorities is to provide students, families, staff and the community with the safest schools possible. We regularly conduct structural inspections of our high school football bleachers, and it has been determined that the Cheatham County Central High School football bleachers be immediately replaced. Due to the project timeline, there will be no home football games at CCCHS for the 2024 season. To read more about this project, click here.

Tickets for our middle and high school athletic games and other ticketed events can continued to be purchased through GoFan this year. For additional details and the GoFan links for our middle and high schools, please visit here.

We want to remind our families about our school safety email tip line. The tip line is designed as an online reporting and prevention tool. If students, parents, or community members know of an unsafe situation in one of our schools, they can pass on that information to school officials by sending an email to tip@ccstn.org. Sample issues could include cyber or physical bullying, situations of abuse, talk of a fight, drug abuse or anything that could impact the safety and well-being of students and staff. When making your report, please include as much detailed information as possible because doing so will greatly assist school administrators in investigating and addressing the concerns. This is NOT a two-way method of communication. For immediate emergency situations, please call 911. If you have questions regarding the tip line, contact Health and Safety Director Shelley Duke at shelley.duke@ccstn.org.

We are still accepting applications for our Pre-K program. Children must be 4 years old on or before Aug. 15, 2024, in order to be eligible to start Pre-K. The district offers Pre-K at four elementary schools: Ashland City Elementary STEM Academy, East Cheatham Elementary School, Pegram Elementary Fine Arts Magnet School and West Cheatham Elementary School. Some of our schools are almost full for Pre-K, so families need to get their applications completed and turned into the Board of Education office. For more information about Pre-K, please click here or contact Tiffany House at the Board of Education office at tiffany.house@ccstn.org or 615-746-1414.

We want to thank the Cheatham County Community Enhancement Coalition for sponsoring our mass notification system again this year! This is such an important resource as we notify families about emergency situations, school closings, school updates and more through this system. We want to remind our families that we use the contact information from your child's registration and/or emergency cards to send out district notifications via phone, text and email. PLEASE ensure that your contact information (phone numbers and email addresses) is up to date by contacting your child’s school. Also, please contact your child's school if you are not currently receiving these notifications.

We want to remind our families that they can pay online for just about anything school related (such as school meals, yearbooks, daycare, club/organization events, laptops, etc.) via our RevTrak payment system. We have individual school links on the district website. To access the RevTrak system, click here.

Email: info@ccstn.org
Website: cheathamcountyschools.net
Location: 102 Elizabeth Street, Ashland City, TN, USA
Phone: 615-792-5664
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ccboe1/?ref=bookmarks
Twitter: @CCBOE