Welcome (very soon) to a new school year
at J. Allen Axson Montessori!
This newsletter is rather lengthy so I am not sending it as an attachment for those of you who read email on your phone. I don’t know about you but most attachments take forever on my phone. Even if you are not new to Axson, please read this newsletter in its entirety so you can feel confident getting through the first week of school, (and you can help me welcome new families :) ).
Dates to Remember:
- Friday, August 19
Student Orientation, 9:30-11:30 am
- Monday, August 22
First Day of School
Boo-Hoo Breakfast, Music Suite, 8:30-9:30 am
- Tuesday, August 30
Girl Scout Round-Up, 7 pm
- Monday, September 5
Labor Day – No School
School Hours Pre-kindergarten, 8:30 am-1:30 pm; for the rest of us: 8:30-3:00 pm Extended Day Hours: 7:00 am-6:00 pm. Office Hours: 8:00 am-4:00 pm
We hope you are able to make it to Student Orientation It all begins in the cafeteria at exactly 9:30 am. I promise to be quick so your child can go to his/her classroom and meet or visit with the teacher, paraprofessional, and friends. Orientation is a casual meet and greet time. Classrooms are still a work in progress but we want everyone to feel comfortable locating classrooms and meeting friends before Monday. When we gather in the cafeteria, you will find information about the following
- PTA (we are looking for more people to be on our board :) )
- T-Shirts for T-Shirt Tuesdays
- FAME
- Dads on Hand
- Transportation
- Extended Day
- Volunteer Opportunities
- Usernames/passwords to access your child’s grades (not for PK)
- Sign up for a carpool list
- If you are interested in using www.mylunchmoney.com to manage your child’s cafeteria lunches, your teacher will have your child’s student number
- Axson vendor fair
Registration All registration forms are online at www.jaapta.org > Forms (actually they will soon be online - Stuart (Webmaster)). We have an auto-fill option so this should be much quicker than completing them by hand. Please print the forms and bring them with you to Student Orientation or no later than the first day of school. There are also computers available in the media center if you would like to complete the registration forms at school. These must be completed each year.
Dress Code Children are to wear closed toe shoes and cannot wear flip flops. They can wear sandals but I do worry about their toes. There is a lot of sand and black dirt on the preprimary and lower elementary playgrounds. Upper elementary students are not to wear spaghetti straps 9but can wear them with a layer) or short shorts. Honestly, we have never had a problem with dress code but many people do ask about shoes.
School Bus Transportation I have not received a list of routes as of today but they will soon be posted on the district’s website, http://www.duvalschools.org by clicking on the Transportation link. I expect to have route information available to you on the morning of Orientation as well. All kindergarten children must complete the Dismissal Procedures form prior to the first day of school. If your child was in PK4 at Axson last year, you received this form. These can also be accessed in the Forms tab on this website. Your child must ride the bus some time during the first ten (10) days of school in order to keep the stop. Please tag all children through lower elementary grades. Upper elementary students can place a COMPLETE information card in his/her backpack. This part is crucial. Use a piece of masking tape or a tag that announces the bus number and bus stop. We ask that you do this for the first 10 days of school. Also, please place a card that remains in the backpack and includes the child’s name, bus number, bus stop, emergency names and contact numbers. Please be at the bus stop 10 minutes early. Do not be surprised if the bus arrives to your stop late during the first 10 days of school. Parents wish to be introduced to the bus driver at each stop and the driver likes to develop a relationship with the person taking or picking up the child from the stop.
Car Riders Adult supervision begins each morning at 8:10 am. Children are not to be in the hallways unsupervised for their own safety. The car drop-off zone is directly in front of the Administration building. A safety patrol will walk our little ones into either Building 3 or 4. If you wish to get out of your car, please park. Note of advice: with cars leaving and coming on campus, it can, most times, be difficult making the left turn to drop off your child at say, 8:25 am. Try to gauge your drop off so you are arriving to school no later than 8:20 am. All teachers greet students, individually, at 8:25 am. A child is tardy if he/she arrives after 8:30 am. If this is the case, please proceed to the main office for a tardy pass. The tardy policy will take place the second week of school.
Afternoon Car Pick-Up All classes will be in the car loading zone (located in front of the main office) at exactly 3:00 pm. This part is pretty easy. All you have to do is take a white paper plate, use a broad tip marker and write your child’s name and teacher’s name. If you have more than one child and are NOT new to Axson, please note your youngest child’s name. If you ARE new to Axson, please list all children’s names with their corresponding teachers. Kathy Bear and I stand away from the car loading zone and call for your child ahead of time so you do not have to wait long. If you need to speak to the teacher or get out of your car, please park. We have many students to dismiss and only 10 minutes to do so.
If your child is in pre-kindergarten, dismissal is at 1:30 pm You will use a paper plate to identify your child and his/her teacher. Kathy Bear leads this dismissal and you will have the same safety patrol escort your child to your vehicle throughout the school year. Please have your driver’s license handy until the safety patrol is familiar with you. Our safety patrols, as all our children, are delightful and adore the “little ones” by taking their role seriously.
If Your Pick-Up Plans Change We must have it in writing. If you know in advance, simply send a note through your child or send an email to your child’s teacher. If your plans change during the school day, simply call the main office, 904-992-3600, and a staff member will give you an email address to send your note or our fax number. We understand emergencies happen. In the event of an emergency, please call the office and we will help you to alleviate any additional stress you are experiencing.
Extended Day Any pick-ups take place in the office first. The person, over the age of 18, responsible for picking up each student is required to sign the child out.
Breakfast A choice of a hot or cold breakfast is served in the cafeteria between 8:00-8:20 am. The cost is $1.00. I must add, though, that the cereal served does contain a high sugar content with the exception of one off brand.
Lunch Once school begins, you will find a monthly breakfast/lunch menu on both our website, www.jaapta.org and the district’s website, www.duvalschools.org. The cost is $1.60. This is a slight increase of ten cents as compared to last school year. If your child elects to purchase a lunch, you can send money through your child, you can stop by the cafeteria and give our cafeteria manager, Paula Adams, a check/cash to place on your child’s account, or you can set up an account with a credit card through www.mylunchmoney.com. The only information required is your child’s student number and there is a transaction fee of $1.95 each time you place money on an account. Your child’s teacher can give student numbers during Orientation. The office will be happy to provide this anytime after Orientation as well.
Note: We are a no sugar school As a Montessori community, the foods we eat fuel both our bodies and mind. We do not serve candy, cookies, cake, fruit punches, sodas and the such. Like I tell the kids, “Those foods are treats and if we served them all the time, they would be considered a food group and that would be silly because we all know they are not.” We respect your desire to control the types of foods your children eat. When packing a lunch, a very popular choice at Axson, please pack healthy options daily. (I am updating our nutrition policy with new food ideas and will place it on our website next week). Please also pack a cloth napkin or small placemat for children to place their food. Personally, when I pack a drink other than water in my girls lunchbox, I used to have a hard time finding drinks that didn’t have a sugar content under 13 grams. I might as well have packed a bag of sugar! Anyway, I found some lower sugar content options:
- Minute Maid Fruit Falls flavored water pouches (berry or tropical fruit) - less than 1 gram of sugar (I can only find these at Publix but they taste great)
- Caprisun Roaring Waters flavored water pouches (variety of flavors) – 7 grams of sugar (equally as tasty as Fruit Falls but more sugar)
- Honest Kids Organic Thirst Quenchers – 10 grams of sugar (They are too expensive at grocery stores but cheap at BJs)
A special note for parents of preprimary children (PK-K) I am about to tell you something that might be hard to handle but trust me and it will all be good. Before school begins, express your confidence that your child will have a great day and that you will see him/her at the end of their day (whether it be after school or Extended Day). It is important that they hear you are coming back. If your child is crying when the teacher greets him/her, we will care for your child. Please do not continue to stand at the door looking through the window. By doing so, you are telling your child that you do not have confidence in him/her. I say this, as a parent of two – this is hard! Both you and your child’s teacher, and para will work closely together. If your child does not cry, (and honestly, many do not), there MIGHT be a delayed response. After the second or third day your child might be looking at you like, “Okay, I was fine with this for a couple of days but I have to do this EVERY day?” This too will work out.
Boo-Hoo (or Woo-Hoo!) Breakfast We hope you will stop by the music suite to have a cup of coffee or juice and meet other parents after the bell rings on the first day of school. PTA board members will be on hand to greet you and help with questions you might have. Veteran parents, please stop by for some “catch up” time and meet new families. We are a close-knit community at Axson.
Calling all Axson small business owners! Many of us like to support businesses owned or managed by Axson families. FAME (Friends of Axson Montessori Elementary) will host a vendor fair on the morning of orientation. If you would like to participate, the fee is $25 and a donation of 20% of profits earned. Simply contact Tara Budd at hbudd@bellsouth.net.
Need a little help in the gardens The arbor in our butterfly garden has fallen over and I need help securing it (and weeds have called all their friends and relatives to visit). I also need help clearing and installing a concrete border around Vivian Kowkabany’s memorial. If anyone has the time to help me I will greatly appreciate it.
I look forward to seeing many of you on the 19th.
Kind regards,
Paula Renfro |
