Talley Street Update

IEP 101 for Parents (Virtual Meetings)

The CSD Special Education team will give an in-depth look at key sections of the IEP document. The Special Education team members will give clear examples to help families with understanding the IEP. This is a great way for families new to this process to learn about the IEP or for families who may need more clarity.

Our special education staff members look forward to connecting with you and guiding parents through the document.

Date: February 24, 2021
Time: 6-7 PM

RSVP to Cheryl Grant cgrant@csdecatur.net

Registration for “New Families” to College Heights began on February 1, 2021. The child must be four (4) years of age on September 1, 2021, to be eligible. Parents/Guardian must complete an online application prior to submitting supporting documents to College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center located at 917 S. McDonough. If you are in need of assistance to complete the enrollment form online, parents may email Patrice Moore at pmoore@csdecatur.net

Step One: Parents/Guardians need to complete this online registration form.

Step Two: Parents/guardians need to bring the following documents to College Heights Early Childhood Learning Center on Monday, Wednesday, or Thursday during the month of February between the hours of 11:00-1:00 pm. Documents must be submitted by February 25th no later than 1:00 pm in order to be considered for the Pre-K lottery.

• Proof of Residency (lease, deed, payment/coupon book, property tax or settlement statement, and a current utility bill). If providing a lease the student’s name must be listed as an occupant.
• Birth Certificate (certified original)
• Immunization (Form 3231)
• Vision, Hearing, Dental, and Nutrition (Form 3300)
• Student’s Social Security Card
• Picture ID of a guardian

Note: Tables will be set up on the front porch. Staff will meet individually with parents to review and copy their documents. No visitors will be allowed into the building. Please come prepared with all documents. All individuals must wear a mask. Individuals will be socially distanced while waiting to meet with staff for their document review.

Timeline for Pre-K registration and lottery process…

Registration: February 1 – 25

Days: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays

Time: 11:00-1:00 pm for the month of February

Lottery: Electronic lottery will be conducted on March 5th, 2021

Notification: Parent/Guardian of students on the waitlist will be notified via a phone call no later than March 8th.

Menu Service Update

Exciting news, CSD’s Nutrition Department will allow siblings that are attending in-person school to take home extra meals for their siblings under the age of 18 beginning on February 22, 2021. The form for requesting this service can be found here https://forms.gle/iUCUfC2KyrSpjdkY7. This service is only available for siblings.

Quick Reminders:

• If your child receives a meal from a school site, they may not pick-up meals at Decatur High School.

• Also, we ask that parents requesting this service consider their student’s ability to transport the extra meals because our in-person students are our youngest learners.

• Meal pick-up will continue for virtual students at our TakeOutSpot at Decatur High School on MWF between 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM.

Required Forms for Special Dietary Needs:

If your child is eating with us and requires vegetarian meals OR has a special dietary need, please fill out

this google form: https://forms.gle/eyo5veaaAN8iBczp6. In addition, parents of students with special dietary needs are required to return the completed form “Medical Statement for Accommodating Disabilities” to our Food and Nutrition Supervisor at sblack@csdecatur.net. Please note that a healthcare provider must fill out and sign this form.

If your student is requesting lactose- free milk, we must have the “CSD Milk Substitution Form”; completed by either a parent/guardian OR a healthcare provider. Once parents of students with special dietary needs have completed the required online forms, please see the process for picking up their meals on this webpage.

Thank you for your patience as we work through new processes this school year.

February is Love your Bus Month!
February is Love your Bus Month! You can celebrate by creating cards or telling your bus drivers how much you appreciate them! Look for more details coming soon on how to celebrate our bus drivers- including a fun video from Westchester's Bike Dudes and Media Specialist Brooke Nation!

Load Up with New Books for Winter Break!
DEF is hosting a Covid-safe book sale at Legacy Park’s Cochran Building (the gym) just in time for Winter Break. There’s a large selection of gently used children’s books from toddler to high school at bargain prices! You can sign up for 20-minute shopping slots here.

The Tour Must Go On!
Due to Covid-19, DEF can’t host its annual Tour deCatur 5K and Fun Run in its usual in-person form. This year, we are offering a “Run Where You Are” 5K and Fun Run on the weekend of March 27th. 5K participants can register at www.tourdecatur.com where you can also order an event shirt. We hope this event will encourage the community to go outside to celebrate our health and the onset of spring. For some participants, this year’s Tour could be a goal to achieve or a fun family activity, and for others, it might just be exciting to have something to put on the calendar! 5K participants can submit a photo of their tracked time, and race results will be posted on the race website and on the DEF Facebook page in the week following the race.

The Joe’s Fund Challenge
Decatur Education Foundation and Decatur City Church are excited to announce they have joined forces to launch the Joe’s Fund Challenge! Decatur City Church’s Be Rich Campaign recently donated $25,000 to DEF’s Joe’s Fund which supports our kids’ behavioral health. Joe’s Fund, initiated by the family of Joe Bodine after his death in 2016, has been instrumental in the creation of the Decatur Student Center at Decatur High, as well as the recent expansion of services to Renfroe Middle School.
Together, DEF and Decatur City Church is challenging our community to help us raise an additional $25,000 to double the impact we can make collectively. Your contribution to Joe’s Fund today will help expand the behavioral health programming at the high school and middle school and will allow us to offer behavioral health grants to every K-5 school. Early intervention can help arm our students with the coping skills they need to face future challenges. Help us help our kids. Gifts to Joe’s Fund will ensure that we can continue to react to address the wide and varied needs of all of our kids. To take part in the challenge, please visit www.decatureducationfoundation.org/joesfund. Together, we make a difference!

Each year the gifted review team looks at existing student data to discuss students’ needs and determine if further evaluation for gifted identification is needed. If you are interested in having your child reviewed and possibly evaluated for gifted services eligibility, you may complete a Recommendation for Review Form (found at the website below) and turn it into the Gifted & Talented Specialist at your child’s school before March 8th. No additional information is needed. The Gifted & Talented Specialists for Talley are: Nicole Fiber, Stephanie Trauner, and Kate Woodbridge. For more detailed information about the evaluation process and to obtain a copy of the Recommendation for Review Form, please contact the Gifted & Talented Specialists for your school or visit the following website: https://www.csdecatur.net/Page/581.

COACHES NEEDED! We are in need of TWO virtual coaches to complete our coaching team. We have girls signed up for one virtual Monday/Wednesday team and one virtual Tuesday/Thursday team. We need coaches to be able to host ANY teams at Talley. PLEASE reach out to Natalie Bundschu at nbundschu@csdecatur.net if you or anyone you know is interested in coaching this season. The season begins the first week of March!

Coaches are also needed for community in-person teams around Decatur! Decatur will have community teams at Legacy Park, McKoy Park, and Oakhurst Park. These teams are not affiliated with CSD, but are available to girls in the Decatur community. Please reach out to info@girlsontherunatlanta.org if you or anyone you know is interested in becoming an in-person coach.

Championship Chess teaches chess as an enrichment program at Talley Street Upper Elementary and we are excited you let you know that we will be offering a virtual spring session to start the week of March 1st. This session all the classes are for children with some chess experience. Once a week, the children get a live lesson, and after each class they get to play one another virtually. They can also practice during the week using our online curriculum, World of Chess (24/7). It has been expanded and improved over the last year as we received positive feedback from our students and parents.

Recent films like In Search of Bobby Fischer and The Queen’s Gambit attest to the power that the game can have to promote critical thinking in young learners while they have a great time playing a classic game. Here is our Spring Chess Club Flyer with all the information about our Spring classes for you to review. We hope that your child will join us for our virtual Spring session of chess club at Talley Street Upper Elementary. Questions? Email us at info@championshipchess.net.

Please join the Talley PTO Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Fundraising Committees for the Black History Month Math-a-thon fundraiser! We will encourage students to practice math in order to enhance their skills and study habits, while giving them a chance to raise funds for our school. With February as Black History Month, the theme is Celebrate Black Excellence in STEAM. This will be an interactive math-a-thon with many ways for students to learn. Here’s how it will work:

• Students are encouraged to sign in to their iReady Math accounts and work in their “My Path”. Students will log their minutes in their Math-a-thon campaign each day on the PTO website.

• Teachers will feature different Black leaders in STEAM fields each day during CREW.

• Students will be able to participate in a scavenger hunt to find household items invented by Black mathematicians, engineers or scientists.

• Students will learn how math skills are vital to the work of Black local business owners and participate in virtual events.

With any good math-a-thon, there will be PRIZES! The top math minute earner in each grade will receive a prize. The teachers whose classes log the most minutes by grade will also win a prize (winners will be selected from our in person and virtual cohorts)! We will build a sense of community in this socially distanced time by encouraging students to share pictures on a Padlet located in the Media Center folder in your child’s Google classroom. Participation prizes will be randomly awarded to several students each day who post their activities (e.g. working on their math, posing with items from the scavenger hunt, participating in the virtual events, etc).

We thank our sponsors for their support! Mathnasium, Brave and Kind Books, Cooking and Canvas Creations, Diamond Dust Cupcakes and Chick-fil-A have helped make this event possible!

Join the Talley DEI Committee to transform Zoom into KaZoom Tuesday, March 23, at 7 p.m. for this fun 45-minute virtual event. Students will trace the history of Southern music, tying together Country, Trap, Hip Hop, and R&B to antebellum music, ragtime, and jazz. This event includes the opportunity to make music with our professional singer/songwriter and playing kazoos in our group “jam band.”

The history of Southern music includes the telling of Black history in a fun and unexpected way -- including understanding cultural appropriation in music.

This virtual field trip is FREE and open to the first 250 families who register (a waitlist is also available). A kazoo will be provided to each family. The link will be provided prior to the event.

OPTIONAL, MUST REGISTER AND ORDER BY MARCH 4: The $30 Music Evolution Field Trip in a Box includes chocolate and music-themed treats you can't find anywhere else:

• Symphony Chips

• 4 of The Teabook's Artisteas

• Indulge's gourmet popcorn

• Moonshine Bars' gourmet chocolates' truffles (no alcohol)

A limited number of boxes will be available free to families who qualify. Please contact becky.slemons@gmail.com or text 770.855.2085.

REGISTER HERE!

Please join us in January for the next The Myths of Racism and Beyond: Personal and Community Reflections, sponsored by the DEI Committee.

Whether you are a social justice champion or wrestling with these topics for the first time, this workshop will help all of us deepen our understanding of racism and strengthen our commitment to action.

Through independent individual reflections in a personal journal and group sessions reflecting as a community once a month, our Talley Street Upper Elementary community will examine the power of race and discuss its impact across racial lines. Everyone is invited to provide their voice, perspective, and experiences with the power of race.

The series will cover the article “The 10 Myths White People Believe About Racism,” with a paired bite-sized reading and short racial equity video assigned each month. It will include time for independent individual reflections through a personal journal and time for community reflections during group discussions once a month.

The remaining Community Reflections will be Thursdays from8-9 PM on Zoom on the following dates:

Feb 25

Mar 18

Apr 22

May 13

If you are unable to attend all sessions, you can work through the personal reflections asynchronously and join the community reflections as you can.

To participate, please fill out this google form. Email Charlie Copp with any questions. Charlie is a CSD parent and will help facilitate the series along with fellow Talley parent Elliott Robinson.

2020 Strategic Planning Input Nears Completion
From the hundreds of residents who participated in our in-person and then virtual Citizen Roundtables over the course of 2020, to the Virtual Forums collecting opinions and ideas of all types, to the more recent, topic-specific Decatur 202 sessions that drilled down on issues of mobility, housing, racial equity, and climate action, Decatur residents have been hard at work voicing their vision for the city’s next decade.

These front-end input opportunities for the 2020 Strategic Plan will be wrapping up soon, but it’s not too late to get your ideas on the table. Share any remaining thoughts online in our Virtual Forums which can be accessed at http://bit.ly/300tKT6.

Calling All Decatur Youth. We want to hear from YOU!
The Strategic Plan will help guide the City in deciding what’s most important to Decatur residents like YOU in the next 10 years.

Visit https://decatur2030.com/resources/ and look for the Youth Input section to share your ideas by March 15, 2021. Choose your response type and email your ideas to childfriendlydecatur@gmail.com. If you drew a picture, please take a photo and email it to us.

Once input has completed, recommendations will begin to emerge for public review and comment so stay tuned for that as we move further into 2021.

Amazon Smile

We're now on Amazon Smile! Log into www.smile.amazon.com and log into your Amazon

account, then select Talley Street Upper Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization, then save and the PTO will start getting quarterly deposits!

One important tip - you MUST be logged in via smile.amazon.com while shopping for us to

receive any funds.

Kroger Community Rewards

We are set up to receive funds from Kroger. From your account screens, select Community

Rewards and search for “Talley Street Upper Elementary School PTO." Select it and then you

should be all set. Every time you use your Kroger card, the PTO will benefit!

Box Tops

Box Tops have gone digital! Download the app, Box Tops for Education. Enter your

information, select Talley St., scan receipts and done! We will no longer be collecting paper box

tops. If you have any issues using the app, you can submit (via the app) the item not being

recognized on your receipt for credit.

Publix Partners

Looking for an easy way to support Talley Street PTO?

Who knew Passive Fundraising could be SO easy!! You don' need the key chain card anymore.

Follow the easy instructions on the link:

http://www.corporate.publix.com/community/corporate-campaigns/publix-partners

We’re set up as: Talley Street Upper Elementary School – Decatur, GA

www.csdecatur.net/opening - a repository for all documents, announcements, and communications about how CSD is handling the 2020-2021 school year.

www.csdecatur.net/nutrition - How to order meals

www.csdecatur.net/transportation
www.csdecatur.net/bustracker - How to sign up for the new Predictable Ryde Bus tracking app used for meal delivery, soon for the Fly-brary, mobile book delivery and when in-person learning resumes to track students on their buses
https://virtual.csdecatur.net/tech-help (how parents and staff can put in a tech support request)

https://virtual.csdecatur.net/students - classroom login information

https://virtual.csdecatur.net/parents - Virtual Learning Handbooks

You can find more information on the following Facebook pages:

Talley Street Principal

Talley Street Upper Elementary School PTO

Talley Street Upper Elementary School Parents

Talley Street Artists

For news in the Media Center and from our school counselors, check out their websites:

Media Center Website

Counseling Website

For more about the Talley Street PTO, visit their website here: https://talleypto.org/