Bendi Newsletter Dear Ben D. Quinn Families: We are proud of the open communication between school, home and the overall involvement of our families with school activities. Consistent communication is important for the success of your child. Please encourage your child to work hard and be kind to others. Also, remember the following expectations and new procedures: Upcoming Events: th February 10 PTO Family Skate Night 6:00 PM Free Admission at Rollerland February 13th Early Release Day – 12:00 Noon Dismissal February 16th Teacher Workday – No school for students February 24th Black History Celebration March 12th Report Card Day March 13th Early Release Day March 24th PTO Family Reading Night 5:30 -6:00 PM – Dinner 6:00 PM – Meeting Begins March 31th Parent Bendi Dash Meeting 1:00 – 3:00 PM – Planning Stuffing Envelopes You may now access PEACHJAR, the new Craven County Schools eFlier site through our school’s website. Just click on the Peachjar button to view school flyers. In the past, our school sent home loads of flyers in students’ backpacks. As part of our efforts to be more environmentally friendly and to embrace innovative technology, we are moving from paper to a digital flyer delivery program called Peachjar. With our Peachjar e-flyer program, the e-flyers are sent directly to parents’ email inboxes as well as posted on the BDQ website for easy access. All flyers may be accessed by clicking on the Peachjar icon. Each year, our school will save tons of paper and reduce copy costs by thousands of dollars. In addition, paperless delivery of school flyers removes a significant administrative burden from teachers, office staff, and volunteers. School and district-approved e-flyers keep you informed about upcoming activities, programs, and events. Get Ready! More information to come from www.peachjar.com! Communication is a vital factor between parents and Ben Quinn Elementary. It is important to us that you are informed of events that are taking place at school. Anytime you receive a call from the school but are unable to answer the telephone, you should receive a message, either voice or automated. By listening to your message prior to calling the school, we can direct your call to the proper staff member. This will prevent unnecessary interruptions to classroom instructional time. Your child’s education is of utmost importance, therefore, less interruptions means more time for your child to learn. To prevent a breakdown in communication, it is important to make us aware anytime there is a change to the contact numbers that we have on file. Ben D. Quinn is an amazing community and we continue to need you and your involvement. Thank you for all you do! Curtis Gatlin Support Relay for Life! Students and staff are encouraged to wear hats on Friday, February 6 and Friday, March 6 to support Relay for Life. The cost is $1 per day to wear their hats. Next week, please have the students write this on their agenda for parents to see. It will also be on MMN, Facebook, and an instant alert. They should turn in the money to their teacher that morning when they arrive. I will come around that day to collect it. Thank you again for your support! Safety First Please use caution when arriving and departing from BDQ. We have recently received word that some parents are driving too fast around the outer driveway for carpool. Also, when a student has been absent for an illness and they have visited the doctor, please have the doctor write a note so that the absences may be excused. A doctor’s note is required for 3 or more consecutive absences due to illness/injury. School Wide Announcements Yearbooks for Sale Our yearbook team is creating a fantastic book for you that we are confident you will enjoy! We are excited to offer you an Craven County Schools has optional feature to personalize decided to align the grading your child’s book. You can periods in Kindergarten create your own back cover through Fifth Grade. and up to 4 personalization Therefore, there will only pages for FREE. be three report cards issued in these grade levels starting Order your book now, and if you’d like, visit the website at this coming school year. The dates of these report cards http://quinn.picaboo.com/ and add a personalization to will be December 2nd, March your book any time before 17th and June 10th. If you May 1, 2015. should have any questions, please feel free to contact your Prices: child's teacher. Hardcover - $26.00 Softcover -$17 Valentine Goodies For the safety of all and to keep your child’s gift out of harm’s way, please save your valentine goodies for your child at home. Balloons or oversized items will NOT be allowed on the bus or vans. Thank you! Mark your Calendars! Emergency Card Contact Keep correct and updated contact information on file. In order to ensure that you can be contacted if necessary, you should update your child’s emergency card, i.e. address, working phone/cell numbers for all parents. Family Reading Night Tuesday, March 24th 5:30 – 6:00 – Dinner 6:00 – 8:00 – Reading Fair Sarah Ingram Yearbook Advisor Have you linked your Harris Teeter VIC Card to Ben D. Quinn? Together in Education code, #2056 Harris Teeter contributes a percentage of all Harris Teeter brand purchases to Ben D. Quinn account when your VIC card is linked to our school. Here are two easy ways to link your VIC card: − visit your Harris Teeter store and ask your cashier to link your card to #2056 -Visit www.HarrisTeeter.com, Community, Together in Education and link your card online. Once you are signed up, we start raising funds. This year our goal is $1,500 and the Together in Education funds can help us get there. Please register today! Help our school raise funds by linking your store cards to our school code- It’s so EASY! *Target Red Card School Code: 80600 *Harris Teeter VIC Code: 2056 *Lion Shop & Share Code: 212427 Classroom Visits – Uninterrupted Learning We encourage parents to be involved in their children's education. With this in mind, we ask that if you would like to visit a classroom to observe or help out that you contact the teacher in advance to set up the day and time for that visit. This will help both the parents and the teachers plan a smooth transition and uninterrupted learning environment. You may set up the visit by contacting teachers by email: (firstname.lastname @craven.k12.nc.us) or by PTO Family Fun Come join us at Rollerland of New Bern! Tuesday, February 10th at 6:00 PM Free Admission! calling the school office (514-6420). When entering the building, we ask that any visitor to the building sign in at the office and wear a “Visitor” badge while in the building. If you do not have on a Visitor badge, a staff member will ask you to please check in at the office. We thank you in advance for your understanding and cooperation. This is for the safety of our children. -----Tardies-----We appreciate that families are working hard to get their children to school on time. However, some of you will be receiving a letter of notification for extensive tardies and/or unexcused absences. can to leave a few minutes earlier to ensure a timely arrival. Please know, it is very disruptive to our classes when tardy students arrive. We average 9 tardies a day. Please do everything you Thank you for working with us to be sure class begins at 8:00 AM with very few interruptions. Carpool students that would like to eat breakfast must be in the cafeteria before 7:50 AM.