DRES FAMILY MESSAGE

Good Evening DRES Family,

Carpool Parents- Please arrive by 3:30pm to pick up your students from carpool. At 3:30pm, all students left will be taken back into the building and parents will need to come into the school to get their children. School staff have meetings many days directly after school.

School Lunch Applications- We will begin our raffle drawings starting 2/20/24 for those of you that have completed the Lunch Application form and returned it to school or completed online and signed up for the drawing. We appreciate you taking the time to help us reach the next level of funding for our school. We are at 60% and need to get to 65% by 3/1/24 in order to earn an additional $300,000 of funding for staff for next school year.

Mark your Calendars:

This Tuesday, February 20- Join us at United Skates of America 6-8:30pm- 2901 Trawick Rd, Raleigh. $8 admission. A portion of admission will go back to the school. Join us to roller skate, have fun, and support our school.

March 5 will be a Teacher Workday. The WCPSS School Board recently voted to change this day so students are not present at schools since many are polling places for voting.

March 6- Virtual Parent Academy Workshop- 5:30pm in English and Spanish

Learn How to Motivate Your Child to Thrive in School: Why is it so hard to motivate kids? As parents, you cannot force your child to be self-motivated just because you want to. You might get in the way of their motivation. In this workshop, parents will learn strategies to inspire and motivate their children to thrive in school.

This workshop will only be offered virtually. Links will be sent out at a later date for the workshops!

March 21- All students should attend our Family Collaborative Event at DRES from 5:30pm-7:30pm. If a parent can't attend, send them with a trusted relative to participate in the following:

- Student Led Conferences

- Take Home Math Games

- Family STEM Games

- Collaborative Art Project

- Literacy Strategies and Take Home Books

- Raffles from camps and local businesses

- ESL Resources

- Snacks, and more!

Please take a few minutes out of your busy day to read over the information below so you can stay up to day and informed on what is going on around Durant Road Elementary School.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Sanchez

Please fill out a Lunch Application to see if your child will be able to receive lunch at little or no cost to you. https://www.myschoolapps.com/

Whether you think you may qualify or not, give it a try.

Why?

1. Your child may get to have school lunch every day at little or no cost to you.

2. Our school will get extra funding for every student that qualifies, to help us keep all of our teacher hired for next school year. We are currently only 7% of our student population away from receiving hundreds of dollars more per student next school year. (Without Title 1 funding, we receive only $63 per student).

When?

Our numbers lock in March 1st for next school year so you will need to complete it within the next two weeks. We need to get about 40 more students to qualify for Free or Reduced Lunch status to gain this extra funding.

How?

Complete the online form here: https://www.myschoolapps.com/.

If you prefer paper- we'll send one home with you, just let your teacher know.

Not sure how to fill it out? Give us a call at 919-870-4220 and we will help direct you on how to fill it out.

Thank you for this little thing you can do to make a BIG difference for our students.

Parents- It is a school rule that cell phones must remain on silent and in their book bags, which hang in their cubbies. Students may NOT answer their texts or phone calls during the school day and their phones should not be going off, causing a disruption to the learning. If you need to contact your child about something, you must call the office and leave a message for us to get to your child or reach out to the teacher via Class Dojo. Many students are not mature enough at this age to be able to hold onto their phones throughout the school day. If students have their phones out or on them throughout the school day, they will be taken and give to admin. Parents will be responsible for coming to the school to pick them up. At no point are students allowed to get on Social Media at school and will receive consequences for doing so, if discovered.

If a parent provides a child with a phone, it is the parent's responsibility to frequently check the child's phone to monitor what is happening on the phone. Monitor their social media, messages, and videos closely. We are at school to educate children, and should not have to spend a lot of time intervening with inappropriate messages being sent between students outside of school that are causing a disruption to the learning environment. Thank you for partnering together with us to minimize unnecessary distractions to our students' learning.

Congratulations! Our school raised over $20,000 to purchase books to go home with every student in our school!! We are so excited that all students are able to benefit from this amazing event, whether they were able to participate or not. The books should be here in a couple weeks. Thank you for your participation and understanding the importance of every home having books!

Mrs. Troy was surprised by the WRAL for being nominated as WRAL Teacher Of The Week! Check out here video here: https://www.wral.com/video/teacher-of-the-week-stephanie-troy/21283760/

DRES has various clubs that our students are welcome to participate in. Some of our clubs include:

Lego Club- Sponsored by Mr McKey- Mondays and Tuesdays- 7:15am-8:00am in the Media Center- Kindergarten-5th Grade

Chess Club- Sponsored by Mr McKey- Wednesdays- 7:15am-8:00am in the Media Center- 2nd-5th Grade

Math Club- Sponsored by Mrs. Troy- Fridays- 7:30am-8:00am in the Media Center- 4th and 5th Grade

Garden Club- Sponsored by Mrs. Lever- Wednesdays- 3:00-4:15pm- Kindergarten-5th Grade- Starting in March

If you are interested in participating and having signed up yet, please reach out to the sponsors.

2-19-24- Q3 Interims Go Home

2-20-24- United Skates Of America Family Night 6-8:30pm

3-2-24- Campus Clean Up 9am-12pm

3-4-24- PTA Meeting 6:30pm

3-5-34- Teacher Workday

3-6-24- Parent Academy Workshop- Virtual- "Learn How to Motivate Your Child to Thrive in School: Why is it so hard to motivate kids?"

3-12-24- McTeacher Night 4:30-7:30pm- 9698 Falls of Neuse Rd, Raleigh, NC 27615

3-16-24- Millbrook Exchange Park Meet Up

3-21-24- Family Collaborative/STEAM Night/Student Led Conferences 5:30-7:30pm

3-28-24- Last Day before Track Out, Last Day of Q3

4-1-24 to 4-19-24- Track Out

4-22-24- Quarter 4 Begins

4-26-24- Q3 Report Cards Go Home

4-29-24- PTA Meeting 6:30pm

5-2-24- Chorus Singing at Mudcats Game

5-4-24- Marsh Creek Playground Meet Up

5-18-24- Campus Clean Up 9am-12pm

5-20-24- Q4 Interims Go Home

5-23-24- NC Under The Stars/Spring Carnival 6-8pm

6-3-24- PTA Meeting 6:30pm

6-22-24- Durant Nature Park- Final Fling and Popsicles

6-26-24- Last Day of School, 5th Grade Celebration, Q4 Report Cards Go Home

Here are a few articles that I found to provide you with information on resources to help you monitor your child's devices.

https://www.techradar.com/best/best-parental-control-app-of-year

https://www.safewise.com/resources/parental-control-filters-buyers-guide/

https://www.safetydetectives.com/blog/best-really-free-parental-control-apps/

Please view the 23-24 DRES Parent Student Handbook here:

https://www.wcpss.net/Page/22935

Be sure to read this and refer to it throughout the school year. It is located on our school website in the Parents section.

In order to continue to build community, we will have Saturday meet ups at different parks throughout the county. We'd love for you and your family to join us to meet one another and provide a time for the kids to play. Reminders and times will be sent out throughout the year. We have set a time for the first one and will communicate the other times going forward.

3/16- Millbrook Exchange Park

5/4- Marsh Creek Playground

6/22- Durant Nature Park- Final Fling and Popsicles

Join our next PTA Meeting 3/4/24 at 6:30pm in the Media Center at school.

Our February School Spirit Night is 2/20/24 at United Skates of America- 2901 Trawick Rd. Raleigh, NC 27604 from 6-8:30pm.

Our March School Spirit Night is 3/12/24 at McDonalds- 9698 Falls Of Neuse Rd, Raleigh, NC 27615 from 4:30-7:30pm. Come see the staff at the McDonald's Drive Thru for McTeacher Night.

Join our PTA here: https://durantroadpta.weebly.com/pta-membership.html

Looking to Sponsor a Classroom need? Does your place of employment make donations? Check out our open Donors Choose grants here at this link.

Do you plan to volunteer at DRES this school year to chaperone a field trip or help in the cafe, classroom, or library?

You can register as a volunteer from the comfort of your own home using the link below.

https://myvolunteer.com/wcpss/volunteer/login

Learn about the WCPSS Strategic Plan using the links below.

Video Click Here

Website Click Here

Families- It is extremely important to be connected with your child(ren)'s teacher through Class Dojo. Teachers use this as their primary means of communicating with families, as well as a school-wide communication tool for upcoming events and happenings around the school. Contact your child's teacher through email or call the school if you are not able to connect with your teacher(s) through Class Dojo.

Do you have a School Messenger account so you don't miss important texts and emails from Wake County Public Schools and Durant Road Elementary?

Read more at this link: https://www.wcpss.net/schoolmessenger