By Shirley Wright
Primary principal
Educational adventures are waiting for Nashville Primary students to explore during the 2017-2018 school year! Our theme for this year is camping. We want our students fired up for learning!
Enrollment for Primary is approximately 600 students.
Registration papers have been mailed to parents of first-third grade students to allow parents time to complete the forms and return them to their child’s assigned teacher during registration day, open house, and meet the teacher on Thursday, August 10, anytime between 1 – 7 PM. A teacher letter and a meal application have been mailed to pre-enrolled kindergarten and newly registered students.
Only one meal application form per family will need to be completely filled out for verification to be processed, if interested in applying for free or reduced school meals. It doesn’t matter which Nashville school the form is turned in to as long as all members of the household are listed including all children and their grade level, if applicable and necessary information is provided.
School supplies are being furnished by our school district again this year for kindergarten-sixth grade students. Primary students are encouraged to furnish their own backpack.
A student handbook will be given to students/parents at registration. It contains Primary’s policies and guidelines. It is hoped that it will be helpful so students/parents understand Primary’s rules, procedures, and practices. The district’s student handbook policies can be found on our school district’s website at: www.nashvillesd.com Handbooks have been school board approved.
A school calendar is enclosed in the student handbook to help parents plan special out of town events, vacations, and doctor/dentist appointments so their child will not miss school. Also listed in the school calendar will be the dates for all of our students to receive their progress reports and report cards. Parents are urged to take notice of their child’s reading level in comparison of the expected reading level on each of the reporting forms.
Attendance is very important. We need students here every day and on time, 7:50 am, and to remain at school until dismissal, unless they are sick. Coming in tardy and getting checked out early interrupts learning.
Communication is a vital tool necessary for each students’ educational achievements. Each teacher has a 40 minute daily conference time set aside for parent conferences, planning, and preparation.Â
A nine week syllabus per grade level will be sent home with students at the beginning of each nine week period to list the standards and objectives taught during that grading period. Parents are encouraged to keep it to refer to as reinforcement of skills that their child should know and have mastered.
A monthly principal’s newsletter, on Scrapper orange paper, will be sent home with all students with important dates and events to help parents and students keep up with the Primary happenings.
Primary welcomes one new staff member this year, Cynthia Bailey. She will be teaching kindergarten. Vicki Cook transferred from first grade to second grade and Katelyn Teague transferred from third grade to second grade. We currently have nine teachers in kindergarten, seven teachers each in grades one, two, and three, two self-contained special education teachers, and an ALE (2nd/3rd grade alternative learning environment) teacher. Primary has specialty teachers in the areas of: PE, Library, Speech, TAG, Art, Dyslexia, Guidance Counselors, Music, and Literacy Coach. We also have several classified staff, making a total of 63 staff members.
We have two newly constructed classrooms that we will be able to use this year. One is a new computer lab for all of our K-3 students to incorporate technology into their subject areas. The other one will be for our ALE classroom.
Please be patient with school traffic. Allow extra time in the mornings due to traffic and safety for our students. If you bring your child to school in the mornings, please drive through in one of the two lines in the car area (not the bus area). Do NOT drop them off at the road for them to cross traffic. Students eating breakfast need to go straight into the cafeteria before going to the hallway of their classroom. If students eat breakfast at home, they are to go straight to the hallway area of their classroom when arriving at school. The bell rings at 7:50 AM to enter their classroom.
After the first day of school, parents need to let their children enter and exit the building without them. Duty personnel and staff members will assist all children to their proper place.
For safety of our students and staff, all doors will be locked during school hours, except to the main office entrance. Everyone is to stop and check in the office before entering any classroom or school areas.
Transportation plans for every child are very important. Parents are urged to discuss and confirm with their child’s classroom teacher how their child is to go home every afternoon. Those plans will be strictly enforced, unless a note is sent with the change to the teacher or a telephone call is made to the school before 2 PM that day.
I am looking forward to an adventurous year with academic achievements.
