Panther Post: Welcome Back!

• September 9th: First day of Kindergarten (Kindergarten families, please join Principal Ritch for a Welcome Breakfast and Info Session immediately after our morning message at 9:15am)
• September 14th: Early Release- Dismissal time 2:10pm
• September 15th: First day of ECEAP
• September 28th: Early Release- Dismissal time 2:10pm

Hello wonderful Panther Lake families and community,

The start of school is right around the corner and we can’t wait to see our scholars on Tuesday (Kindergarten starts on Friday, September 9).

Every Friday, I send out our Panther Post which serves as our weekly community newsletter with highlights from the week, upcoming events, and information about school happenings. Please make sure you take a look at your spam settings in your email to ensure you don't miss important information or your scholar highlighted in the Panther Post.

Seeking Your Partnership for a Strong Start to the School Year!

Parents and families, we are very excited to welcome your child back to school. This year as we launch the year we will be focused on the following in the first days of school:

At Panther Lake, there is no place for hate.

We are safe.

We are kind.

We are responsible.

We will be using the first days and weeks of school to teach and re-teach positive behaviors and teach expectations and norms for our school community. While we anticipate a safe and positive start to the school year, our schools are safe places for all and as a result we will not tolerate words, actions or items coming to school that may cause harm to others and impact student safety.

It takes all of us working together to keep our schools safe, and I appreciate your continued partnership in this area.

Social Media:

As you are aware, social media can be a positive force, but it can also be a source of challenges. We recognize social media posts can create negativity and sometimes interfere with the creation of a safe and inclusive school environment. We will continue to work to stay aware of social media trends during the school year and promote responsible social media usage, focusing our efforts on supporting student safety. We will not tolerate the use of social media to cause harm to others or the school community. Please partner with us in ensuring social media is being used in a positive way by having conversations with your student about what they are posting and sites they belong to. When social media posts impact student safety or well-being, we will follow the Rights and Responsibilities with appropriate re-teaching and/or apply consequences when necessary.

Rights and Responsibilities:

We look forward to your partnership this year to promote a safe learning environment. As a reminder, here is a copy of our Rights and Responsibilities handbook to review with your scholar to help promote the safety and well-being of our community: https://www.fwps.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=20116&dataid=247494&FileName=RR%202022-23.ENGweb.pdf The handbook is also available for download in our top 7 languages at https://www.fwps.org/Page/2123

You can also view our Rights and Responsibilities video using this link: https://vimeo.com/734518462/e696a5634d

School Attendance:

It is very important that your child(ren) attend school starting the first day of school. Being in school every day enables scholars to do well in school, and graduate from high school ready for work or college.

How to Support your Child:

• Develop a regular bedtime and morning routine.
• Help your child lay out clothes and pack backpacks the night before.
• Avoid missing school unless a child is truly sick, or is COVID-19 positive, and and seek help if chronic illness is a challenge.
• If your child seems anxious about going to school, talk to teachers, school counselors, or other families for advice on how to make her feel comfortable and excited about learning.
• Reach out to a family member, a neighbor, or another parent if you are having trouble getting your student to school.
• Arrange medical appointments when school is not in session.
• Avoid extended vacations when school is in session.

As we prepare to welcome our scholars back to school, here are a few important reminders:

• Staff and scholars are not required to wear a mask, but may choose to wear a mask
• We will continue to follow all Department of Health guidance related to COVID-19.
• Students and staff that are positive for COVID-19 will be required to isolate and stay at home for a minimum of five days.

School Supplies:

School supplies are provided free of charge for all scholars and will be distributed on the first day of school. All your scholar needs is their own backpack! Please visit https://www.fwps.org/Page/2127 to view provided supplies.

Bus route schedule information is available to view at https://www.fwps.org/busroutes. Information will be also provided directly to parents from Transportation.

Bell time schedule reminder:

Breakfast (8:50-9:10)

School Starts: 9:10am

Tardy Bell: 9:15am

School Dismisses: 3:40pm

Resources to Support the Transition:

School Bell Times: https://www.fwps.org/Page/8153

Thank you again for your continued partnership! We truly appreciate every one of our Panther Lake families!

Tabatha Ritch

(Principal)

tritch@fwps.org

253-945-3634

253-391-7444 (Cell - Text okay)

and

Emily Smith

(Assistant Principal)

emsmith@fwps.org

253-945-3608

253-391-6251 (Cell - Text okay)

The first day of school is here! We are extremely excited to welcome our scholars back to school and we wanted to provide a quick reference to combat those first day jitters!

Please take a moment and review our Jitter Buster newsletter, packed full of information to prepare you and your scholar for back to school and the first day at Panther Lake Elementary. Please note, we want to welcome our families into our school and we know the first day can be full of big emotions for our scholars and our families. If you want to walk your scholar to their classroom, please check-in at the office. All visitors on our campus must be checked-in for safety. You can also walk them to the commons/cafeteria doors under the LIME GREEN awning of our school. We appreciate your understanding as we prioritize all our scholars' safety.

All Panther Lake scholars enter the school building through the commons/cafeteria doors, located directly under the lime green covered area of our school.

Your scholar has a chance to earn a Panther PAW first thing in the morning! How do they earn that Panther PAW? Upon arrival, they can tell a staff member who their teacher is!

When scholars arrive to school, either by bus, car, or foot, adult supervision will be located at three designated locations: Bus drop off, car drop off, and cross walk. When your scholar arrives to school, they will be greeted by a Panther Lake staff member and guided to breakfast. All scholars at Panther Lake Elementary can eat breakfast for free.

Breakfast will begin being served at 98:50 and will end at 9:10. Our last breakfast will be served at 9:05 to ensure scholars arrive to class on time. If your scholar arrives late, you will want to check your scholar in at the office to excuse the tardy prior to going to class. Scholars must have a pass from the office when arriving to class late.

Due to capacity in our common cafeteria area, scholars will be served breakfast on a first come, first serve basis. Just as we do with lunch, scholars begin cleaning their area after they have finished eating and line up with their class in the gym for our morning meeting as a school. Scholars will be asked to quietly read or use a voice level 1 or 2 and talk with their neighbors. Scholars are expected to sit with their class and remain seated for safety.

If your scholar will not be eating breakfast at school, they will go directly to the gym and line up with their class.

Scholars will go directly to class on the first day of school only.

In the classroom, teachers will be focusing on ensuring scholars feel safe, welcome, and comfortable at school. Scholars will be getting to know one another through social-emotional focused activities and curriculum while also adjusting to in-person learning. Our focus at Panther Lake is ensuring our scholars enjoy coming to school and each classroom is a safe space for learning and taking cognitive risks.

This week, scholars will also be enjoying time with their specialists (PE and Music) as we introduce our scholars to various schoolwide expectations. Scholars will learn about inclusive and safe play at recess, lunchroom expectations, and bathroom/hallway transition guidelines in our school.

Remember, breakfast and lunch are free this year!

All scholars at Panther Lake have the opportunity to eat lunch for free this school year!

Scholars will have two recesses with one 25 minute recess prior to lunch. Scholars will engage in community building activities at the start and finish of recess to ensure all scholars are safe, kind, and responsible.

At Panther Lake Elementary, we do not tolerate harmful or hateful words being used towards one another.

The use of racial slurs and derogatory language will result in disciplinary action.

After lunch recess, scholars will be lined up by class under the covered play area and our recess coaches will begin to transition scholars into lunch. Scholars will wash their hands or sanitize on their way into lunch. Once scholars have washed their hands, they will enter the lunch line to receive their lunch and sit at their assigned table. Scholars will need to use their lunch card with student ID to pick-up their lunch.

Once scholars are finished eating, they will begin cleaning their area. Scholars will use a spray bottle with a soapy water mixture and a paper towel to clean their area after they eat. After scholars clean up, they will sit at their seat and wait for their teacher to arrive for pickup.

Scholars will have an opportunity to apply for our school's Green Team this year.

This team ensures our school is clean and giving back by recycling and learning about wasteful habits.

Similar to arrival, scholars will be escorted outside by a Panther Lake staff member. Teachers will escort scholars to walking routes, busses, and car pick-up area. Please note the above yellow outlined parking lot is for BUSSES ONLY and PRESCHOOL PAREENT PICK-UP. Scholars picked up by car will be escorted to the blue outlined parking lot for pickup. We ask that you wait in your vehicles, forming two lines (one at each curb) and pulling up to the first cone to maximize space for our Panther families to pull in, without creating traffic on the busy roads outside (see picture below). Please note the star in the picture below is a NO PARKING ZONE. The first line (closes to the curb) is reserved for families with scholars in Kindergarten-2nd grade. The second line (with the curb on the left side) is for families with scholars in grades 3rd-5th. Please select the line of your youngest scholar when arriving for pickup. Once your scholar is in your vehicle, we ask that you merge into one line of traffic as you exit.

Please note:

For efficiency, we ask parents to refrain from conferring with the teacher or exiting their vehicle in line. If your vehicle is left unattended in the pickup line, this can cause an unsafe traffic backup in our lot as well as the busy street in front of our school.

Please park your vehicle in the marked parking spaces if you are walking up to pickup your scholar.