Sanders Memorial Stallion News

Dear Parents,

As we approach the holiday season, we have several important updates and reminders to share with you.

Angel Tree Program We are pleased to inform you that our “angel” giving tree has been set up in the front office again this year. Each year we support different families in our community during the holiday season. On the tree you will find different ornaments that have gift requests/ family needs. If you are interested in sponsoring a student or family this season. Please stop by and pick up an ornament.

• All purchases must be dropped off at front office no later than December 18th.
• Any gifts that are purchased must be unwrapped.
• Return your purchases with your ornament.

Parking and Speed Limit Reminders: We kindly ask for your cooperation with parking and speed limits during school events, arrival and dismissal times. When parking for big events, like tonight, please be mindful of our neighbors that live close by and limit parking to the school, church, and the LOL Rec Center during these events. Additionally, adhere to the posted speed limits to ensure the safety of all our students and families during events, arrival and dismissal. We do not ever want an accident to happen due to frustration or impatience. During the event tonight, we will do our very best to get everyone in and out of the school. Please be patient when looking for a parking spot and when you are complete with the performance and the holiday shop, please make sure you exit safely and swiftly as there may be someone looking for a spot to see their student.

Fundraiser Update We are thrilled to announce that our recent fundraiser was a tremendous success! Thanks to your generous contributions, we raised over $13,000, which will be helpful to all of our students this year. We are grateful for your continued support and dedication to our

Winding down to Holiday Break: Please go over the rules with your children as we wind down to Holiday break. We are seeing a lot of students choosing not to complete work, hands-on behavior and classroom disruptions. This week take some time to go over our 4 rules: Be Respectful, Be Responsible, Be Safe and Be Kind.

Thank you for your attention to these matters. We wish you and your families a joyful and safe holiday season.

Have a great week!

Mr. Petry and Mrs. Hedgspeth

Come see your child's artwork on display and enjoy holiday music from our amazing Stallions.

Parking Info: Please park in our parking lot, the church's parking lot (across the street), heritage park parking lot, or the field in heritage park. Do NOT park along Lake Thomas Road /School Road or on any private property.

There may or may not be special guest (The Grinch) at Winter Showcase!

Watch this video to see

• Tuesday December 10th we will be distributing all fundraiser sales and prizes.
• Distribution will run 3:20pm (dismissal) -6pm. Pick-up will be car side and located in the car rider loop only.
• Everything must be picked up that day, please make accommodations accordingly.

Our winter progress monitoring window (testing window 2) is from Dec. 2- Dec. 20th. We are excited to see how much our Stallions have grown across subject areas. Our staff and students have worked so hard this semester. We are asking for your support in ensuring your students are at school on time on their designated testing dates and to do your best to refrain from early check out on their specific testing dates. We know these tests are just a snapshot of our students progress this year but we want to ensure it is as accurate as possible; a good night's sleep, healthy breakfast, and getting to school on time all help with that. You can see our school testing calendar below but it is also linked here.

Come on, Stallions, keep reading! Make sure you are logging all your minutes. We are currently at 355,562 minutes logged! Let's try and break 500,000 before Winter Break! We can do this! We have 70% student participation in Beanstack!

📖Reading in the car? Log the minutes!

📖Reading in class? Log the minutes!

📖Reading with a sibling? Log those minutes!

Our Thanksgiving Reading Challenge winners are:

Kindergarten: Violet Charles, Lorenzo Maldonado, Luna Stolz, Olivia Young, Aryansh Edapa, Devansh Tampade, and Brooke Stephenson

First Grade: Elliott Leung, Payton Vanguilder, Sophia Zafar, Luis Romero Cabrera

Second Grade: Addison Sailer, Emmie Hamada, Arella Simmons, Micah Ball, William Baker, Devin Novak

Third Grade: Tyler Barnett, Noelle Hart, Dhanyatha Nellori, Isabella Newberry, Anna Price, Sreenidhi Padala, Laine Olson

Fourth Grade: Gia Camacho, Joshua Messina, Maddox Moore, Charlotte Kogut, Fedor Drobish

Fifth Grade: Aiden Toney, Gavin Murphy, Sebastian Rivera, Kaden Clisset, Declan Delillo, Sophia Kriess

Our Winter Reading Land Challenge has begun! Log those reading minutes into Beanstack, Stallions! We are trying to crush our goal of 1,000,000 minutes before the end of the school year! Top readers from each class will earn spin tickets!

If you know SMES, you know we take the holidays seriously around here. You will find our Holiday Dress schedule for the week before Winter Break! We can't wait to see our festive Stallions!

Please remember to return your library books so all Stallions can enjoy our collection!

They can return the books when they are finished but they will go to the library at their assigned class time every other week. We want all Stallions to have a chance to check out our library books, so please make sure you return your books on time. For Sunshine State books, they need to be returned in one week.

🖐🏻We are in need of volunteers! 🖐🏻

We need 3 volunteers every Friday to help reshelve, check in return books, organize books, and any other things that might be needed for the library. Please sign up if you are available every Friday for the remainder of the year.

Sign Up to Volunteer for the Library

📱Wireless Communication Devices (WCDs) 📱

Policy Overview: Students in grades Pre-K through 5 are encouraged to leave their WCDs at home. If students do bring WCDs to school, they must ensure that the devices remain on silent mode and completely out of view for the entire school day. Classroom teachers may provide a designated cell phone storage area in their classrooms for students to use. This includes cellphones, watches and other communicative devices.

Why This Policy Matters at school:

1. Minimizing Distractions: Keeping WCDs out of sight helps minimize distractions, allowing students to focus better on their studies and classroom activities.
2. Promoting Social Interaction: Without the presence of WCDs, students are more likely to engage in face-to-face interactions, fostering better social skills and relationships.
3. Ensuring Safety and Security: By adhering to this policy, we can better ensure the safety and security of all students, as WCDs can sometimes be a source of disruption or misuse.

How You Can Help:

• Encourage Compliance: Please encourage your child to leave their WCDs at home or ensure they understand the importance of keeping them on silent and out of view during school hours.
• Discuss the Policy: Take a moment to discuss this policy with your child and explain why it is important for their learning and the overall school environment.
• Support Teachers: Reinforce the idea that teachers may provide a cell phone storage area in the classroom and that it is a safe place for their devices during the day.

We appreciate your cooperation and support in helping us maintain a focused and safe learning environment for all students. If you have any questions or concerns about this policy, please do not hesitate to contact the school office.

MyStudent Emergency Contact Information

Please make sure to log into MyStudent and update and acknowledge your contact information. This is essential so that we can get a hold of families and ensure you are receiving our communications weekly.

Signing Students out Early

We are requesting that students who need to be signed out early for the day, be signed out by 2:45 p.m. at the latest. after that point, they will not be called up to the office until they have arrived in their designated dismissal room. Unfortunately, we are not able to call students down to the office before parents arrive, as safety is our priority and ID's are required.

Carline Reminders

NO CELL PHONES IN THE CAR LINE!! Please put vehicles in "PARK" while children are loading and unloading. All children must remain in their seats while their vehicles are in motion for loading and unloading. For the purpose of safety, children cannot hang out of windows and sunroofs while cars are in motion.

Transportation Dismissal Changes: VERY IMPORTANT

Any changes in mode of transportation home must be entered in to the Transportation Change Request form on our SMES website by 2:45 p.m. EACH DAY to ensure a safe and smooth dismissal for all students.

Attendance Calls Reminder

Starting from the first day of school, we are enhancing our communication regarding your child's attendance. Keeping parents informed about their child’s attendance is vital for the safety and security of all students.

• Elementary School: If your child is absent, you will receive a notification (phone call and email) one hour after the start of school. Since school starts at 9:20, you will receive a call by 10:20.

Parking for events, arrival and dismissal:

We want to remind everyone about the importance of parking in designated areas only. Recently, there have been instances of vehicles being parked on the grass, over sidewalks and in non-marked parking spots along School Road and Lake Thomas Road.

Please be aware that these actions are ticketable offenses if a sheriff’s office deputy comes by. Additionally, parking in these areas is not conducive to being good neighbors to the residents along these roads and reflects poorly on our school community.

Parent Bill of Rights:

Parents, please ensure that you have completed all the Parent Bill of Rights information in your myStudent parent portal. These forms must be completed yearly.

Volunteer updates:

Volunteers (NEW REQUIREMENT): Sanders welcomes volunteers! Effective August 1, 2024, and every five years after, volunteers will need to pay a fee, currently $41.25 for a Level 2 Fingerprinting and Background Screening that will be monitored. Please visit the district volunteer website at https://www.pasco.k12.fl.us/hreq/page/volunteer to apply to be a volunteer. Volunteering includes any time an individual is around students other than their own.

Field Trip Reminders:

it is important to remember our field trip guidelines and to follow them. These guidelines are in place to ensure the safety and educational value of our field trips, which are an extension of the classroom.

Violation of Field Trip Guidelines

Failure to comply with these guidelines will result in either a reduction of field trip opportunities for all students in the next grade level or a limitation on opportunities for parents to serve as chaperones.

Importance of Compliance

It is crucial that these guidelines are followed to maintain a safe and productive environment for all students. Field trips are designed to enhance the learning experience, and your cooperation is essential in achieving this goal.

Tutoring Interest:

If you are looking for possible tutor services, please reach out to:

👩Caitlin Gryte

📧 cgryte@pasco.k12.fl.us

If you haven't already, please join our amazing PTA! Our PTA is always looking for new ideas to serve our school community.

To join click Join the PTA

If you are interested becoming a PTA business partner please fill out

Become a SMES PTA Business Partner

12/2-12/20 Testing Window 2

12/5 Winter Showcase

12/13 K Field Trip to HarvestMoon Farm

12/16 1st Field Trip to Homosassa Springs

12/12 SMES STEAM DREAMS

ll students will be able to receive breakfast and lunch from the cafeteria free of charge. To help expedite the breakfast and lunch lines, as well as, to ensure your student wants the lunch of the day, please view the Sanders Meal Calendar for breakfast and lunch options.

Lunch with your child: Parents are welcome to have lunch with their child by making a reservation at 813-794-1500 ahead of time to check for availability. Lunch reservations are only for the current month and are only available Tuesday-Friday.

Parents must sign in, with an ID at the office to receive a visitor badge. To ensure the safety and supervision of all children, parents may only have lunch with their child(ren). We ask that you limit your visit to once a month. Lunchtime is one of the few times of the day where children can socialize with their classmates.

Sanders Meal Calendar

Pasco County Schools Calendar

Pasco County Student Code of Conduct

Student Quick Pay

School Spirit Shirts, School Fees, Field Trips, ID Badges, Car Tags

Houses:

🔴House of Friendship – Red Wolf

🔵House of Dreamers – Bobcat

🟢House of Courage – Alligator

⚫House of Givers – Rattlesnake

This Houses system will encourage “House” building and bonding between students in all grade levels. It will continue SMES’s path of positive culture and relationships with students and staff.

House Points: Throughout the year the houses will compete against each other in competitions and events to accumulate House points. Individual students can also continue to accumulate points for their House by demonstrating Stallion expectations and beyond.

Spin Tickets: Students can earn spin tickets from house leaders, and other random staff members. If a student earns a spin ticket, they will get to spin the wheel on Spinning Days.

House Champion: At the end of the year, the House with the most points wins the House Championship and all of the honor and glory that comes with it!