Mr. Burns's Sunday Message

It was a great first week of school! Thank you to all our families for your patience as we always need to work out the logistical components for the first few days. If there is something that you wouild like to see improved, please reach out and let us know:)

I wanted to provide a reminder for those parents who allow their child to bring a phone or smartwatch to school. Students will need to keep these items in their backpack throughout the entire day per MCPS policy. Students can access their devices once school is dismissed for the day. Thank you for your cooperation.

Kindergarten Families: This week, our K students will not meet in the gym upon arrival. They will enter the building with all our other students, however, we will have staff positioned throughout the hallways to ensure students get to their classroom safely.

Finally, I want to welcome our PEP students and families who will begin this week. We look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

The following topics are addressed in this newsletter:

Back to School Night

Attendance Information

Car Riders

Walkers

Bus Routes

Withholding Directory Form

ParentVue Accounts

Important Information from our PTA

Back to School Night will be on September 5th for Grades 1-5. I know when you have multiple children in the school, it can be a challenge to get to all of their classrooms during BTSN. Therefore, I will provide all the teachers BTSN presentations in my Sunday message. In addition, always feel free to reach out to your child's teacher if you have any questions.

Grade 1: 5:30- 6:00 p.m. (Session 1) 6:05-6:40 p.m. (Session 2)

Junior Academy (Grades 2-3): 5:30-6:00 p.m. (Block 1) 6:05-6:35 p.m. (Block 2)

Upper Academy (Grades 4-5) : 5:30-6:00 p.m. (Block 1) 6:05-6:35 p.m. (Block 2)

The school must be notified any day your child will be absent. You may call the school office at 240-406-1670 or email the classroom teacher and the Attendance secretary Mrs. Norton; christine_e_norton@mcpsmd.org

When reporting the absence please include the following:

• Child’s first and last name

• Grade Level

• Teacher’s name

• The reason for the absence

If we do not receive a call from a parent, the absence or tardiness will be considered unexcused. A written explanation of each absence is required from the parent/guardian within three days of the student’s return to school (email is acceptable)

Arrival: Please pull all the way forward when driving through the car loop to drop off your child. Our staff and patrols are ready to assist your child. Please do not get out of your car to assist your child. This is what we are there to do:) If you feel like your child needs assistance from you, please park in the side parking lot of the school and walk your student to the walker entrance (back of the school).

Dismissal: Please make sure you have your dismissal number displayed when picking up your child by car. If you don't have your number, just roll down your window and let Mr. Burns know what is your child's dismissal number. If you are unsure, please contact our front office and they will be glad to help.

All walkers enter the building through the back entrance. If you are bypassing the car rider circle, please make sure that you are parking your car and walking your child to the entrance at the back of the school. This entrance is where all K-5 students will enter throughout the year, however, this is only where Grades 2-5 wakers will exit from at dismissal.

Kindergarten Walkers: Dismissed on the Snowden Farm Pkwy side of the building toward the back of the building. Please provide your child's dismissal number to our staff when you are picking your child up.

Grade 1 Walkers: Dismissed on the Snowden Farm Pkwy side of the building toward the front of the building. Please provide your child's dismissal number to our staff when you are picking your child up.

Please find the bus routes for the 2024-2025 school year below. The first attachment is a welcome letter from the Department of Transportation: Clarksburg Depot. The next two documents are arrival and departure for our bus routes.

Please click on the follow link for directions on activating your ParentVue account.

ParentVue Directions

Greetings, Wildcats!

Hopefully all students, staff, and parents (because we’re in this, too!) had a great first week back to school. In addition to sending my own little Wildcat back to Wilson Wims, I also survived my first week as a middle school parent - no small feat!

Back-to-School Night is this week and while the PTA is typically not present at this event, we will have a table with forms to join the PTA, information about what we do and upcoming events, and links to join our social groups to stay informed. Please consider joining the PTA! *New this Week* in the Sunday message, we will begin to highlight some of the open volunteer opportunities that we have up for grabs - we are an all-volunteer organization, and we really need your help and support this school year. And don’t forget, you can join the PTA any time by visiting our website wwespta.org.

Our first PTA meeting of the year will be here before you know it, on Tuesday, October 1st. This is a great meeting for anyone new to Wims and/or interested in getting involved. We will be introducing the PTA Board, providing an overview of what we do here at Wims, and talking about upcoming events and needs. If you haven’t already, please follow the PTA on our Facebook Page (@wilsonwimspta)and join our brand new WhatsApp Community (https://bit.ly/WWESPTAchat) so you can stay informed.

Have a Wonderful Wildcat Week!

~ Ashley Zuraf, President

Registration is OPEN for fall after-school activities! Below are the fall offerings.

• Monday: Chess by Magnus Chess - REGISTER HERE

• Tuesday: Spanish by Uno, Dos, Tres Ms. Daniela - REGISTER HERE

• Wednesday: Coding by Coding with Kids - REGISTER HERE

• Thursday: Pottery by Mudskippers Pottery - REGISTER HERE

• Friday: Sewing (3rd-5th) by You Too Can Sew Ms. Glassic - Please EMAIL sewgeniusnow@gmail.com to reserve your spot.

Please watch your child’s take-home folder for flyers with additional information. Clubs will start the week of 9/16, and each does have an associated cost. Times vary slightly between programs, so please be sure to check your registration. Don’t forget to notify your child’s teacher as to which day(s) they will be attending an after-school program! If you have any questions about after-school programming, please contact Danni.

Grab your lawn chairs & fuzzy blankets and get ready for one of our FAVORITE events - Movie Night on the Lawn! Join your fellow Wildcats and catch Inside Out 2 on the giant, inflatable screen. This is an immensely popular event and is a great way to come together to kick-off the school year! Concessions including fresh popcorn, pizza, and more will be available for purchase. We need donations for our concession stand! By receiving donations to sell at this event, the PTA is able to keep event costs down while raising funds to off-set the cost of the movie vendor. If you are able to support the PTA with a donation, please SIGN UP HERE. We also need volunteers to make this event a success! You will have a great time and get to interact with our wonderful community. If you can help out, please SIGN UP HERE. ** Please note the 27th is an early dismissal day, which makes volunteering more convenient!

Please mark your calendar for our first PTA meeting of the year on October 1 at 6:30pm in the Media Center. A zoom link will be shared in an upcoming Sunday Message for those who cannot attend in person. We do encourage in-person participation as much as possible as this better facilitates our family environment. The PTA hopes to provide free childcare during the meeting through Global and will share more information as we get closer to the meeting.

On your mark, get set, GO - it’s Fun Run time! The Wildcat Fun Run is the PTA’s biggest fundraiser of the year and one of our largest events. Funds raised through Fun Run provide approximately 90% of our PTA budget for the year - it is the sole reason we are able to provide free events to our school community. Fundraising will start 3 weeks before the run and we need help from our entire Wims Community! Help your child’s classroom and grade level win some awesome experiences such as extra recess and a special movie showing at school. If Wims meets our 2024-25 goal of $20,000, the entire school will get to enjoy a dance party later in the year! The Fun Run takes place during the school day and families are invited to come and cheer on their favorite Wildcat. Many volunteers are needed to pull off the Fun Run! Look for more information in mid-September, both in our social groups and in your students’ take-home folders, about getting started with Fun Run.

The PTA is looking for a volunteer to serve as Chair for PTA Reflections. The Reflections program is a county-wide arts competition featuring talents of students in the areas of visual arts, dance choreography, music composition, photography, film making, and literature. Reflections begins at the local PTA level and then the top students from each local PTA compete at the MCCPTA level. The PTA was able to re-introduce Reflections to Wims last school year, but our parent volunteer has since moved on to middle school. We even had a couple of students make it all the way to the state level! We would love to offer this program again for the 2024-25 school year. We are also in need of a Chair for the Spelling Bee. The Spelling Bee typically takes place in February and is held during the school day for grades 3-5. The Chair will take care of details such as ordering medals/ trophies, circulating a flier and sign-up form, and communicating with the families. This volunteer must also be present on the day of the Bee and will assist the Wims staff as a judge and scorekeeper. Committee Chairs will be fully supported by the PTA Board throughout the duration of these roles. Please contact us at pta@wwespta.org if interested!

Did you know that you can earn for our school simply by shopping at Harris Teeter? HT has donated over $32.8 million to Together in Education schools since 1998. By simply visiting the website & linking your Harris Teeter VIC card, a percentage of your purchase is automatically donated to Wims (TIE #2814)! Our school relies on these funds and we hope to increase participation! Visit the TIE website today to start earning for Wims. Returning Families: Please note VIC cards must be re-linked annually!

We want to hear from you and be sure you are hearing from us!

Stay connected to the PTA and other families by joining our *new* WhatsApp Community (https://bit.ly/WWESPTAchat) and by following us on Facebook (@wilsonwimspta).

If you have any questions regarding the PTA or our supported activities, please reach out to us at pta@wwespta.org and you are also welcome to contact the PTA President, Ashley Zuraf, at president@wwespta.org.