Hello Berkeley Lake Families,
It’s hard to believe we’ve just finished our last full week of the 24-25 school year. This will also be our last Bear Essentials for the year. Thank you for your continued support throughout this year. Our students have persevered through this school year and accomplished so much. We are proud of them!
I would like to use my last Bear Essentials message to honor the great work and dedication of our 24-25 retirees. They have all contributed many of years of service to the students and families of Berkeley Lake Elementary and we owe them a tremendous amount of gratitude.
- Betsy Fenton (officially retired in October) proudly served as a BLES kindergarten parapro since 2022. Before that, she held the same role at Roberts elementary in Suwanee. Now that she is retired, she is enjoying time with her family and traveling. Ms. Fenton always greeted the students with a warm smile and supported the teachers with high-quality instruction. We wish her nothing but the best in her retirement!
- Pam Frey started working at Berkeley Lake as a front office clerk in 2004 before moving into the role of Student Data Manager in 2005. She moved into her current roll of Administrative Assistant in 2017. During her time at BLES, Ms. Frey has welcomed and supported thousands of students, their families, and the entire staff. To say she will be missed in an extreme understatement. Her care and compassion for the Berkeley Lake school community has made a lasting impression on our staff. When she retires, she plans on spending more time with her friends and family.
- Jessica Craig has proudly served Gwinnett County Schools for 30 years. Since joining the Berkeley Lake team, Ms. Craig has served as our Instructional Technology Coach. Her work has helped our staff create engaging and innovative lessons and our students grow in their understanding of advanced technology tools. As she moves into retirement, Ms. Craig is looking forward to traveling during the off-season, spending time with her family, and working on some projects around the house! Thank you, Ms. Craig, for all you've done for BLES!
- Wendy Shaw has also dedicated 30 years to education. She joined BLES 17 years ago as a classroom teacher. In her most recent role as our instructional coach, Ms. Shaw has positively impacted instruction across all grade levels. She has supported teachers by helping them implement new strategies and navigate new curriculum. As she retires, she is looking forward to spending time with her family (her first grandchild was born last month), traveling, and not setting her alarm clock! We will miss you, Ms. Shaw!
- Finally, Maricruz Sosa started her teaching career in 1996. She joined BLES in 2003 and has served as a kindergarten teacher (2003-2021) and first grade teacher (2021-present). Over the years, Ms. Sosa has welcomed hundreds of students as they started school for the first time. Her dedication to her students and their families has made a lasting positive impression. So much so, her students continue to come back to visit and give updates on their lives. When she retires, she also plans to turn off her alarms! She is looking forward to spending more time with her family and loved ones. Thank you, Ms. Sosa, for all you've done for Berkeley Lake!
We are excited for our retirees and their journey into retirement. Their commitment to our school community will not be forgotten.
As always, I appreciate your continued support. My door is always open for feedback. Have a wonderful summer break!
Your Proud Principal,
Ashley Coughlin
PTO has no more yearbooks to sell, BUT, you can still order one directly from Treering, our yearbook company. If you would like to order one from them, you can do so online here, BUT know that the yearbook will be mailed to your home address and not to the school. It will not be delivered in time for next Tuesday's yearbook signing day on Tuesday.
If you pre-ordered a yearbook, they have been distributed to classrooms. Some teachers may hold onto them until yearbook signing day on Tuesday, while others may go ahead and send them home today. If your child's is sent home before Tuesday, please make sure he/she brings it back to school on Tuesday for yearbook signing day.
If you did not purchase a yearbook, your child is welcome to just bring a notebook of some sort for signing.
If your child has medicine in our school clinic, all medicines must be picked up by the last day of school (Wed. May 21) by 3:30 PM. Medicine may not be sent home with students. It must be picked up. If you have any questions about this, please reach out to Rodrigo Maragni at 770-582-7515. Any medication not picked up will be disposed of after the last day of school.
Families, it is that time of year! This is a friendly reminder that if your child has a Residency Affidavit, please submit a form for the 2025-2026 school year no later than July 10th, 2025.
It's time to elect the 2025-2026 PTO Executive Board. Please review this year's candidate slate and then vote to approve the board.
There are over 150 items in our Lost and Found!!! All items in the lost and found will be donated after the last day of school. If your child is missing a lunchbox, jacket, sweatshirt, etc. we encourage you to come by the school to check and see if it is in the lost and found before the last day. The Lost and Found is located in the school cafeteria.
Who is ready for summer? We want to hear all about your summer plans.
The PTO board at the front of the school has sticky notes and pens for you to share your summer plans. Students, teachers and staff can draw or write about what they will be up to this summer.
We can't wait to hear about what you are going to do!
From BLES PTO
Thank you to everyone that has donated for the 5th grade fun day! We still need funds to make this event memorable for our 5th graders!
- Monday, May 19, 2025: Senior Walk at BLES
- 5th Grade Senior Walk with drum line at 1:00 PM.
- Wednesday, May 21, 2025: Last Day of School at BLES
- Last day of school and 5th Grade Fun Day. Students are encouraged to wear any BLES t-shirt.
- July 22, 2025: "Cat Camp" at DMS
- Rising 6th graders join us for a day of activities and a 6th grade schedule on July 22! Meet your teachers and get exclusive access to DMS before anyone else! Please reach out to Duluth Middle School directly with questions about this camp or payment at 770-476-3372 . Students signed up will get lunch and a t-shirt included.
BLES' Beanstack
The Beanstack Summer Reading Challenge runs from June 1 to July 31, 2025. All students will be enrolled automatically in the challenge on our Beanstack site. We challenge our students to participate and keep track of their reading on our Beanstack site at http://gcpsk12berkeleylakees.beanstack.org/.
Mrs. Norby will be monitoring the progress of BLES students who participate in the challenge and rewards will be given to those who participate! Students who participate will also be helping our school get to the top of the leaderboard! We're competing against schools and libraries across the nation for a chance to win cash prizes from Beanstack.
- Click here to log into your student Beanstack account. For student login, students should use their student number and 4-digit birthday (mmdd).
- Once students are logged in, they can access the Summer Reading Challenge, where they can log their reading and receive badges!
Please note: The Beanstack Summer Reading Challenge is not affiliated with the Gwinnett County Public Library Summer Reading Challenge. Students are more than welcome to participate in Gwinnett County Public Library's summer reading program too!
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Gwinnett Public Library Beanstack
- Challenge Dates: June 1 – July 31 (Pre-registration begins on May 1)
- How To Participate: Sign up here, log minutes, and win prizes!
- Each child that signs up for our Summer Reading Challenge will receive a free child’s ticket to the Aurora Children’s Playhouse.
- LOG MINUTES: Keep track of your reading minutes this summer and earn prizes along the way. There are two ways to track your minutes: Visit the library and ask a staff member for a paper log. We will give you a picture of a bookshelf to color in. Color a book each time you read for 30 minutes. When you’ve colored a whole shelf, you win a prize! OR Visit the library Beanstack page to log your minutes. You can either go online or download the Beanstack app for your mobile device. Beanstack will let you know when you’ve reached a new prize level.
- WIN PRIZES: Each time you reach a new reading goal, you qualify to win a prize. You can see the prize levels here.
Students can keep their skills sharp this summer with self-paced, digital support opportunities. Digital summer support will be available to KG - 8th grade students from June 2 to July 2 on the Digital Summer Support eCLASS page.
Students can log into their Student Portals/Student VUE and in the middle "Additional Resources" they will find a link, beginning June 2, labeled "Digital Summer Support". Students can then select iReady for Math and Reading.
There are also links to support parents with iReady.
Click here here for directions on how to access the summer resources. Remember they will not be available until June 2.
The Georgia Department of Education has put together some resources for parents to find healthy summer meals at no cost: https://gadoe.org/snp/seamless-summer-option/
How to Find a Program
Parents/guardians, find out where your child/children can get healthy, daily meals this summer. There are multiple programs that offer summer meals at no cost. Check all these sources to see if there is a meal distribution site in your area. Those who are looking for summer meal sites can easily find locations through their cell phone or online.
Options include:
- Text “FOODGA” to 877877 from a mobile phone beginning June 1 and be provided geographically based results on the closest sites
Visit GeorgiaFoodBankAssociation.org for a GPS-enabled map of the closest sites.
Dial 1-866-3-HUNGRY (1-866-348-6479) to find locations.
Visit Food Banks in Georgia to use an interactive map for additional summer meal support.
