Neil Cummins Weekly, Week of January 14, 2024

January 16 Variety Show Parent Info Session on Zoom 6:30pm
January 17 LCMSD Board Meeting 6:00pm in the Hall Library
January 18 Variety Show Sign Ups Open 
January 24 In-School Readathon 

Dear Parents, 

We have had a very successful first week back from winter break introducing our new SOAR expectations to promote positive behavior and create a safe and supportive school community here at Neil Cummins.  All Student K-5 have learned new SOAR expectations in 6 specific areas of campus this week in their classrooms and we reviewed them at our assembly Friday morning.

All Classrooms used this slideshow to discuss the specific expectations for each are on campus

• NC PBIS Behavior Expectations & Commitment to SOAR

• S.O.A.R.

  • Stay Safe, Own Your Actions, Always Care, Respect Everyone and Everything.

• Students now understand how these expectations contribute to the overarching school-wide expectations: 

  • Take Care of Yourself, Take Care of Others, and Take Care of This Place.

In conjunction with this rollout we are piloting our new LCM Elementary Discipline Guide 23-24-Pilot to support the SOAR expectations. The creation of this guide and sharing between staff and parents is to create accountability loops for staff, students and parents about communicating and correcting unexpected behaviors. School and home communication is crucial to support and address the behavior and move forward. 

Our focus will remain on the positive expectations and recognizing students in different spaces. However this focus and the partnering of these two revamped systems will increase teacher and parent communication regarding behavior along with office and parent communication regarding behavior. Our goal in increasing communication and transparency is to partner together as a team. This is all in an effort  to support positive student behavior across the board. We appreciate all of your additional follow up and conversations that you have at home with your students and families. 

Sincerely,

Kyle Shaw

Neil Cummins Elementary Principal

Reminder from the District Nurse 

All positive covid cases should be reported to covidreporting@lcmschools.org on the day the test is taken so that we can notify those who might have been exposed as soon as possible.  Your child's name and date the test was taken must be written directly on the test.  Please also indicate when your child had covid symptoms if different from the test date.

Board Updates The Board met on January 12, 2024 for their annual self-reflection/governance team workshop. The next Board meeting will be on January 17, 2024 at 6:00 in the Hall Library. The Board will vote on the School Accountability Report Cards and the budget development calendar. Trustees will determine their committee assignments for 2024. Additionally, Trustees will be presented with an update from the Curriculum Council regarding assessments and curriculum adoptions. The meeting will be live streamed via Zoom (link; passcode - lcmsd). Please know, public comments will only be taken by in person attendees; public comments via Zoom will not be available. We hope to see you there.

It’s Readathon Time! Last week, you should have received a link to your child’s personalized fundraising page through 99Pledges.com. To find it, click here and search for your child’s first name & last initial. We encourage you to help your child by sending their personal fundraising link to family and friends. All funds raised go directly to support our teachers and students at Neil Cummins. Donations can be collected entirely online, making it safe and easy to help raise money for our school. 

Want some concrete examples of what Readathon dollars fund? Look no further than Joni DeGabriele’s Musical Moments and Social Emotional Learning Program. Led by educator and performing artist Joni DeGabriele, Musical Moments combines more than 30 years of teaching experience with a new social-emotional music curriculum. Musical Moments is unique in the way music, puppets, movement and instruments are used to teach the lessons. Additionally, Readathon dollars also fund a variety of critical classroom and instructional materials including 5th grade binders to better prepare our Hawks for middle school!

A full day of reading and reading-related activities will take place on Readathon Day–Wednesday, January 24. To learn more, please visit neilcumminsreadathon.com and to donate, please visit 99Pledges.

Variety Show Parent Info Session January 16 at 6:30pm via Zoom link here

Meeting ID: 731 2389 0107

Passcode: qF4r5f

Join us to hear how the process works and ask any questions you have. Show sign ups will open via ParentSquare communication on January 18 and close on January 26

Shop with Good Eggs to give back to Neil Cummins!. Good Eggs is a game-changing online market that delivers local produce, organic groceries, chef-prepared meals, and easy meal kits straight to your door. It’s all the quality and transparency of a farmer’s market, with the speed and convenience of online ordering. Shop here and enter GoodEggsForNeilCummins at checkout for  5% of your order's total value to  go back to NC. 

Safe Routes Next Walk and Roll to School Day is February 7! Mark your calendar! 

Please take a moment to fill out this quick survey for Safe Routes. The purpose is to see if people who live far from Neil Cummins Elementary, or on a hill would be interested in establishing meet up locations so they can Walk and Roll to school safely, and in a group on Walk and Roll to School Days. Much appreciated! 

Parent Education Workshops 
See here for the full calendar of wonderful events that are hosted throughout the year in-person and online.  

Hawks’ Garden
Going to Sloat? The next Growing up Green week is scheduled for January 5 -14. Mention Neil Cummins at the checkout and we’ll get 10% back to spend in the garden.

You can always check out our beautiful school garden on our Hawks' Garden Club website.