Weekly Family Newsletter

Burns Park Elementary

September 5, 2022

Happy Monday Burns Park Families!

We hope you are enjoying your Labor Day weekend. Did you know the first celebrated US Labor Day was on this exact day 140 years ago in New York City, planned by the Central Labor Union!

Leslee and I want to share what an amazing first week we had with our Burns Park community. Seeing all of our students, the community building and overall excitement over the past few days has been truly wonderful. We hope that your student brought home stories to share with you about their first week of this school year.

We appreciate your support and patience as we worked to run things as smoothly as possible with arrival/dismissal. It will get easier as the weeks continue, we promise! We also want to give a BIG round of applause to our amazing staff. They have been working tirelessly not only to build community with their students, but to also support in arrival, dismissal and lunch. We simply couldn't do this without them.

Enjoy your Monday! We look forward to seeing you and our students tomorrow morning.

With gratitude,

Heather & Leslee

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Kindergarten Clap In

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Y5 Read Aloud

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Fun at Lunch Recess

Curriculum Night

You're invited to Curriculum Night! We are excited to announce that this year Curriculum Night will be in person! Join us on Thursday, Sept. 15th starting at 6:00 PM. Teachers will host two identical sessions, followed by a presentation by the principals. More details will be sent next week, but please mark your calendars!

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Buses

We appreciate your patience as our Bus Team works to iron out all issues that have caused busing delays. Please know, this is our default procedure for buses:

If you do not hear from Durham Bus Services or Burns Park Elementary, understand that the bus is late and the students are with Principal Bullock or Principal Miller and are being well cared for. We will always be with the students until the bus arrives.
If there is an issue outside of the bus being late, we will contact you via email or phone call.
There is no need to worry otherwise. We’ll all just have to activate and practice having patience as we smooth out the beginning of a new school year. Please note: Bus Tracker is being phased out and a new system will be coming in October.

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AAPS Masking Policy

As of today, September 5th, Washtenaw County is in the CDC MEDIUM/YELLOW Community Level. Masks are encouraged indoors.

Link to CDC Community Level page here.

For more detailed information about the AAPS Fall 2022 COVID and Health Guidance, please click here.

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Breakfast/Lunch

School meals will no longer be provided free of charge for all as they were in the 2021-2022 school year. Families will need to fill out free & reduced lunch forms to qualify: 2022-2023 Free & Reduced Lunch Application. Please note that families are responsible for the cost until the application is approved. If you need help, please refer to this document. Paper copies will be available in the main office once the school year begins.

For more information about this change and to learn how to load funds onto your child's account, please click here. Student ID information was sent home last week. You may set up your meal magic account with that information.

Please have a conversation with your child if you would like them getting food from school or not. Families are responsible for the cost of food. We will ALWAYS feed children if they say they don’t have food. We will not question it. Make sure they know the plan.

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Personal Devices

Last week, technology distribution for students began and will continue into this week. All students are expected to care for their school-issued devices. These devices will be transported to and from school daily. Students should charge devices at home so they do not need to bring their charger to school with them.

Students are to leave their cellphone in their lockers and should not use their smart watch to communicate with others. The office phone is the required method for communication between students and their families. Please call the office phone (734-994-1919) if you need to get ahold of your student. If your student needs to get ahold of you, they will call from the office phone.

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Forms Coming Your Way!

Volunteer iChat background check forms will be sent out soon. These forms are required every year and must be completed and approved before you can volunteer in the classroom.
We will be saving paper, time, and energy by asking you to sign one Burns Park Field Trip form. This form will grant permission for your child to go to all field trips throughout the 2022-23 school year within Washtenaw County. If the trip involves leaving Washtenaw County, we will seek your permission with a specific field trip for. This form will be sent to you via email in the coming weeks.

Please complete these forms in a timely manner once they are sent to you.

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From the PTO

Happy Holiday Weekend Burns Park Families

We hope everyone had a great first day of the 2022-2023 school year. It was great to see the community return to school and to interact with parents at the Principal’s Coffee on the first day. We hope each family can enjoy this long holiday weekend as one final tase of summer life for kids and grownups alike.

There are a couple of upcoming engagement opportunities that your PTO is starting to work on for the next month :

- Specials Volunteers (Library/Art)

- Room Parents

- Fall Picnic

- Walk & Talk

Everyone is invited to learn more about these and other PTO activities by attending the first meeting of the year on Wednesday, September 14th at 7:00pm on ZOOM.

As a volunteer organization, the PTO depends on the willingness of parents to contribute their time and energy to creating an enriching experience for the kids. To that end, we currently have a need for additional volunteers to complement the existing Executive Board including At-Large members and Committee leads.

The most timely need is for a second volunteer Coordinator to help facilitate the parent class room (Library/Art/Room) volunteers. This role historically works most efficiently with two parents in the role so we are in need of a second parent and we have both of last years parents who are able to train/support this year’s volunteer coordinators. At this link is a job description for the volunteer coordinator role.

The spring PTO elections purposefully leaves open a portion of At-Large member slots until the first fall meeting (Sept 14) for parents who are new to the community or new to volunteering. If you are interested in learning more about the At-Large role please either email info@bpepto.org or attend the first meeting.

Your Burns Park PTO

Al Masias, PTO President

info@bpepto.org