School Messenger

August 26, 2016

Hello, this is Penny Rogers at Washington Center with your week’s summary, and I will start with a little Hollis news. There, students have been working on learning colors as a part of the “It’s a Colorful World” theme. To help them along, teachers this week wore a special “color of the day” each day. Also, beginning in September, Kim Skipper Poole’s class will be going to Furman weekly for water activities to be provided by Furman students. We are excited about this opportunity for our children.

On our main campus, Ms. Kemp’s class has begun their recycling project, and her group also distributes health supplies around the building. Much recent classroom instruction has focused on the Olympics, and students have watched video clips and talked about the participants and events associated with the games. Also, information has been shared regarding national parks and various geography related topics.

Teachers have been attending numerous trainings and workshops, and this weekend --- on Saturday --- a group will be going to “Camp Sparkle” at Converse College where they will have a day of seminars and activities related to instruction. 

We are beginning to hear from local high school cadet teacher groups, and already have Wade Hampton High students scheduled to come for a tour the first week in September. We love to have these folks meet our students and see the work they are doing, and we always hope to recruit a few future teachers.

We had our second fire drill this week, and have had some subsequent conversation about the fastest and safest way to have students in adaptive equipment exit the building. We hope we will never have a true emergency, but with some of the newer seating and/or reclining devices, we have to think creatively about keeping everyone safe. Additionally, as we do each year, we are reviewing all safety procedures for the school.

We have two companies who have responded to our request for qualifications regarding our nature trail, and we will be meeting with representatives from each of those. We hope to make a decision on the company we will use and to begin to get some input from them very soon. We know that the first step will be to make the slope of the site ADA compliant, but we do not yet have a timeline. As you know, Eastside High School students have chosen us to be the recipients of the funds they will raise during their Spirit Week, which will begin September 30. We all need to check out their website from time to time to see how we can support what they will be doing to raise money for our nature trail. I will get back to you with specific details when those are available to me. 

I am sad to report that Emily Benton, one of our young teachers, was called home to North Carolina this week because of the impending death of her grandfather. He passed away on Tuesday night, and our thoughts and prayers are with Emily and her family.

Linda Hill has asked that those of you who received medical forms in preparation for the Bob Jones Challenge Day to be held September 30 get those back to school. Also, if you have not completed paperwork for the Free and Reduced lunch application, please take care of that as soon as possible --- even folks whose children are homebound, tube-fed or who require special diets.

PTA will meet here on main campus on Thursday of next week at 1:00. If you have not already done so, I hope you will consider joining PTA this year. They are a hard working group and make a tremendous contribution to our school and our students. Your support will be greatly appreciated.

Remember, no school on September 5, pictures on September 20 (main campus) and 21 (Hollis), and Challenge Day at Bob Jones University on September 30. 

Have a great weekend.