We have had an exciting and fun Spirit Week, thanks to Samantha Stansell and her committee, contributions from everyone, and support from the staff. We are pleased to be able to donate more than 1100 food items to the Harvest Hope Food Bank, and we congratulate Mary Grace Orr’s class for bringing in the largest number of items. Students had fun all week, but especially during their walk around the gym today. I saw lots of smiles as students kept time with the music and a big thank you goes to Cindy Brown for keeping everyone moving to the music. Also, we enjoyed having 16 students from St Joseph’s Catholic High School here today to help us get ready for Craft Day and to assist students with their Spirit Week walks around the gym. The girls did a great job and were a tremendous help on an extraordinarily busy day, and while all that was going on, Jennifer Lancaster, assisted by Gloria Stamps, got set up for the spring book fair. She has lots of items for sale, so I hope folks will stop by and make a few purchases. 

I am also pleased to let you know that two of our students, Lavonna Tolbert and Kobey Grant, recently had artwork submitted to the District Elementary Art Show at the Children’s Museum, and both of them received a participation award. Additionally, Lavonna’s artwork received Honorable Mention recognition. Congratulations to both Lavonna and Kobey. 

Since Thursday, we have been honored to have Ms. Barbara Bostic as our guest here at school. Ms. Bostic is mother of Jen Bostic, a professional singer some of you may recall having heard perform for us here at school a couple of years ago. Ms. Bostic, who lives in Florida, became interested in the work being done here and wanted to help out for a couple of days, so she has. We appreciate her interest in Washington Center, and students and staff have enjoyed the time she has spent with us.  

Tomorrow we will all be at Furman for the annual “Run, Walk and Roll”, and we hope many of you will be joining us there. The race starts at 9 am at Timmons Arena. Our PTA folks have collected lots of prizes, and we think everyone will have a great time.

During instructional time this week we had classes hearing about street pianos, studying phenomena such as night and day and sun and moon; talking about animal teeth and  leaves on trees, recycling and becoming acquainted with the elements of art. Groups went to Michael’s Craft Store, out to eat, bowling and shopping. Also this week on Wednesday our SIC met, and on Thursday we sent out our annual Report to the Parents. That report will be posted on our website, and hard copies are available on request. Next week there are groups going to Conestee Park as well as to various restaurants, and of course, we are all looking forward to Craft/Alumni/Volunteer Appreciation Day on Friday. Throughout next week we will be celebrating Teacher, and in our case, Paraprofessional, Appreciation Week with special recognition each day. During the week we will recognize bus drivers, nurses, orderlies and cafeteria staff and PTA has something special planned each day as well. In fact, they are asking that parents send in desserts for staff members on Thursday, and those of you who wish to do this, may drop off your dessert at the front office Thursday morning.   

I hope everyone received a copy of the Washington Center Spring newsletter which went home this week. We sent it out electronically, but will be glad to provide hard copies upon request. The newsletter will also be available this week in Spanish, thanks to Gloria Munoz, our wonderful staff member who helps us out with all kinds of translating responsibilities. Thank you also to Linda Thigpen and Barbara Bingham for all the work they did to get the newsletter out.

Have a great weekend and hopefully we will see many of you at Furman tomorrow.