The Ram Report
Last week, your child was assessed in Reading and Mathematics using i-Ready. The i-Ready Diagnostic is a computer adaptive achievement assessment in Mathematics and Reading. i-Ready is an educational tool established in 2011, which combines both diagnostic testing and a personalized instruction program. Designed for students from kindergarten through eighth grade, i-Ready creates a unique, research-based lesson plan for each child, tailored to their individual performance on the i-Ready Diagnostic test. This gives your child's teacher the ability to modify the sequence of lessons or add new ones based on their understanding of their students’ needs.
What is the purpose?
As an adaptive test, the purpose of the i-Ready is to determine how to best support your child’s learning. i-Ready also includes personalized instruction, which your child’s school may use to complement their everyday curriculum.
How often is the i-Ready Diagnostic administered?
The i-Ready Diagnostic may be administered up to three times a year.
- Fall Administration – Beginning of school year – November 15
- Winter Administration – November 16 – March 1
- Spring Administration – March 2 – end of school year
Assessment Data
If your child has completed his or her assessment, you will receive a diagnostic assessment report on Wednesday. Be sure to review the data. If you have any questions or concerns, schedule a time to discuss the results with your child's teacher.
Although we welcome visits from families, volunteers, and community members, the safety and well-being of our students and staff is our top priority. All visitors will be required to sign-in before entering our building, using our Ident-a-Kid visitor management software. When visiting our school, plan to do the following:
- Bring your Driver’s License or Photo ID
- Enter the building ONLY through the main office entrance. You will need to ring the doorbell and wait for the door to be opened by a front office employee. Students, teachers, and other staff members are NOT allowed to let visitors into the building.
- In the front office, your Photo ID will be scanned via our Ident-a-Kid software, and checked against public offender registries.
- Visitors will receive a temporary ID sticker that must be worn for the entirety of your visit.
- When exiting the school, return your temporary ID sticker to the front office to sign out.
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
JOIN US FOR OUR FIRST MEETING
August 15, 2024
6:30 pm
Please submit this form, if you are interested in helping with PTA and/or serving as an officer.
Link: https://forms.gle/uY2SmmjSg3CDrGPo9
As instruction and student safety are our top priorities, we hope to limit the reduction of instructional time disruptions and the decrease in office chaos in the afternoons. When students are consistently checked out of school early, they are missing valuable instructional time with their teachers. We respectfully ask that all families refrain from office check-outs after 1:45 PM each day. In addition, we can no longer pull children off the bus once we have began our dismissal process as this becomes a safety issue for students. Of course we understand that emergencies happen but we do ask that you work with us as we ensure all students get home safely in the afternoon.
The Georgia Compulsory Attendance Law holds parents responsible for making sure that their children attend school. According to this attendance law, the only legal excuses for absences are
1. Personal illness
2. Death in the immediate family
3. Religious holidays
Although attendance at school is very important, students with a contagious illness or fever should be kept home. Upon returning to school after an absence, a written excuse must be given to the homeroom teacher within three days. Students who are absent miss instruction that is vital to the mastery of the standards. Students are tardy to school after the 7:40 AM bell. Students who are tardy miss valuable instruction and disrupt the class. If a student is late, a parent must escort his/her child to the office for a tardy pass before the student goes to class. Again, students who are repeatedly checked out prior to the end of the instructional day (2:10 PM) miss valuable instructional time.
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 August 1, 2024 | Character: The mental and moral qualities distinctive to an individual
Week of August 5, 2024 | Empathy: The ability to understand or feel what another person is experiencing from their frame of reference
Week of August 12, 2024 | Active Listening: The act of hearing someone’s words includes understanding views and feelings of the person speaking.
Week of August 19, 2024 | Inclusion: The act or state of including or of being included within a group
Week of August 26, 2024 | Honesty & Integrity: Being truthful, fair and adhering to a code of values
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.
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
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.
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 make all transportation changes prior to 1:30 PM.
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.
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
August 15, 2024
Meeting: PTA Meeting
Location: Virtual
Time: 6:30 PM
August 29, 2024
Event: Intramural Interest Meeting
Location: Mt. Carmel Elementary School
Time: 5:00-530 PM
August 29, 2024
Event: Open House, Homework Help and Study Skills for Academic Excellence
Location: Mt. Carmel Elementary School
Time: 5:30-6:30 PM
No School | Labor Day Holiday
Tuesday, September 3rd
No School | Teacher Work Day
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
