SPRINGWOODS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

SCHOOL OF EXCELLENCE 3815 Marquis Place Woodbridge, Virginia 22192 | (703) 590-9874

Newsletter October 2017 Reaching for the Stars

Visit our website at: www.pwcs.edu/springwoodses

Look for the Thursday Folders

Each student at Springwoods Elementary School was

issued a Thursday folder at the beginning of this school year. This folder will come home with your child each

Thursday with school communications, PTO newsletters, class letters, permission forms, completed school work,

etc. Please remove all papers from the folder and return

it to school on Friday. Thank you in advance for your

partnership.

Dates to Remember:

October 5 PTO meeting 6:30pm

October 5 Parent Advisory Meeting 7:30pm

October 9 NO SCHOOL for students

October 11 Interims go home

October 11 Parent Internet Safety Night 6:30pm

October 18 PTO Spirit Night

October 20 Patriots Run

October 23-25 Scholastic BookFair

Parent Portal

Parent Portal, the school Web site interface which allows parents to view student grades, attendance, and edit

contact information, is currently available. Please use

the Parent Portal button on our school Web site for

instructions on how to register for your login account.

PWCS Mobile App

Don’t have the My PWCS mobile app? Get it, and check out its latest upgrades! The free

download is available in the iTunes App Store and Google Play store. It’s a great way to stay

connected to your schools. Links to contact directories, lunch menus, and other important resources remain available, and also urgent

information when rough weather hits.

Dear Springwoods Families,

Thank you to all you who made it out for Back to School

Night! What a huge turnout we had and we truly enjoyed meeting and mingling with our Springwoods families.

Pizza Under the Stars was a blast! Thanks to you, our PTO, for another night of fun and fellowship.

At the mid-way mark of the grading period, teachers will be reaching out to you about your child’s progress so far.

Interim reports will go home October 11. At the end of the quarter, you’ll be invited to attend conferences with

your child’s teacher on November 7.

Our goal with Interims is to provide strong

communication keeping parents in-tune with their child’s learning at school. So, please review the report and ask

any questions that you may have about your child’s learning progress.

Many of you have found your way to the parent portal to access your child’s progress and your teacher’s classroom

pages. If you have not and need support with this, please call our office for a helping hand.

Thank you for being an invested partner in your child’s education.

Mrs. Mainor Principal “Springwoods- A bright shining legacy, a sky’s the limit future.”

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PTO

If you missed the last one, you missed it! Don’t miss the next! Join us.

PTO meetings 6:30pm in the library, first Thursday of each month.

PAC

Interested in the School Education Plan, the school budget or other topics relevant to

your child’s education? Join us. PAC meetings 7:30pm in the library.

We meet on the following Thursdays. October 5 February 1

November 2 April 5 January 4 May 3

Changes to Transportation Home by 12:00 Noon

If you need to change your child’s normal routine at the end of the day, i.e., riding

the bus instead of AlphaBest, car rider instead of bus, etc., this must be communicated in writing by a parent to the teacher and office by 12:00 pm. This will ensure

safety of your child and eliminate confusion and anxiety for your child at the end of the school day.

Kiss-n-Ride is for families who cannot access bus service.

Morning Kiss and Riders

• Cue in the Parking Lot • Arrive no earlier than 8:30am. • Pull up close to the car ahead. • NEVER pull ahead of another car.

• After 8:45am, please park, walk students inside and sign them in.

Afternoon Kiss and Riders

• Cue on Marquis Place • Register and receive a number. • Use the service at least 3 days every

week. • Place car number in windshield. • At 3:25pm, arrive in cue on Marquis to

make right into the driveway/bus loop. Do this no sooner than 3:25pm, please.

• Kiss-n-Ride begins at 3:35pm after busses have exited the lane.

• NEVER pull ahead of another car in the bus lane.

ATTENDANCE: Students must seated by 8:45am. Springwoods absentee policy states that when your child is going to be absent, a parent should call the attendance line at 571.298.0357 before school or as early as possible. In order for the absence to be excused, a note from the doctor, for medical appointments, or a note from the parent explaining the absence is required within two days of your child returning to school. Absences may be excused for the following reasons only:

• Personal illness of the student or Medical/dental appointments

• Death in the family

• Religious observance

• Court appearance

• Emergency situations related to weather conditions

Excessive absences or tardiness will not be tolerated. Please note that children will be marked tardy after 8:45am, when the tardy bell rings.

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PWCS Food Services

School Food and Nutrition Services

Celebrates Virginia Farm to School Week

PWCS School Food and Nutrition Services

celebrates Virginia Farm to School Week,

October 2-6, 2017! Did you know your

school cafeteria serves seasonal Virginia

produce all year long? Several of this

week’s school lunch items are coming

straight from a Virginia Farm, including:

apples, cucumbers, broccoli, yellow squash,

lettuce, milk, peppers, sweet potatoes and

tomatoes. Wow! To celebrate Virginia Farm

to School Week at elementary schools,

School Food and Nutrition Services is

giving away the book “Tops and Bottoms”

to one lucky student at each school.

School Food and Nutrition Services works

with Loving’s Produce, Inc. to source local,

Virginia grown products for school menus.

Some of our farmers are listed below:

• Crown Orchard (Batesville, VA)

• Kirby Farms (Mechanicsville, VA)

• Smith Farms (Hanover, VA)

• Turkey Knob Growers (Timberville,

VA)

Incorporating local products into our menus

gives students the opportunity to enjoy

nutritious, fresh fruits and vegetables, while

learning about the seasonality of foods and how

foods are grown. These products support local

farms and are a tasty way to improve the health

of our children!

School Food and Nutrition Services

Celebrates National School Lunch Week

National School Lunch Week (NSLW) is

October 9-13, 2017. This week gives School

Food and Nutrition Services an opportunity

to showcase the quality of our nutritious

meals.

This year’s NSLW theme is “School Lunch:

Recipes for Success,” and we are celebrating

with a selfie contest! Many of our school

lunch items are made using our own tried

and true recipes. Tweet a photo of yourself

with your favorite scratch-made, school

lunch item for a chance to win a prize!

Here are the rules:

1. Picture must include at least one of

our scratch-made menu items.

The following are served on October

10-12:

a. Elementary: Zesty Meatloaf,

Stir Fried Cabbage, Vegetable

Baked Ziti, Super Food Salad,

Sloppy Joe Sliders, Strawberry

Shortcake, Dinner Rolls,

Tossed Salad, BLT Salad,

Creamy Cucumber Moons

b. Middle: Lasagna, Kickin’

Roasted Veggies, Garlic Bread,

BBQ Pulled Pork, Baked

Beans, Fruit Crisp, Greek

Salad, BLT Salad, Philly

Cheesesteak, Tossed Salad

c. High: Cilantro Lime Rice,

Spicy Beef, Black Beans,

Mango Pineapple Salsa, BLT

Salad, Greek Salad, Grilled

Cheese Sandwich, Strawberry

Shortcake, Garlic Bread, Baked

Ziti, Pepperoni Stromboli,

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Steak and Cheese Stromboli,

Tossed Salad, Ham and Cheese

Croissant, Stuffed Shells

2. Tag @PWCSNutrition in your tweet.

3. Use the hashtag #PWCSLunch.

4. Contest begins October 10th. Entries

must be received by 5:00 pm on

October 12th.

5. No twitter? No problem! You can still

enter the contest by emailing your

selfie to RONKSG@pwcs.edu by

5:00 pm on October 12th.

6. Photos will be judged on the

following criteria: adherence to

theme, clarity of picture, overall

impression. A photo will only be

considered once, so multiple posts of

the same photo will not increase

chances of winning.

Up to 4 winners will be chosen from each

school level (elementary, middle and high).

Winners will be announced via twitter on

the last day of National School Lunch Week,

Friday, October 13th. Elementary and middle

school winners will receive a Kindle Fire.

High school winners will receive a pair of

Beats headphones.

What else is happening during National

School Lunch Week, you ask? Locally

grown foods will be served, and we

encourage parents or other family members

to come join us for lunch. Stop by the

cafeteria and see for yourself what delicious,

healthy choices are available to students

every day!

MySchoolBucks.Com is an online service that enables prepayments into student cafeteria accounts and is now available for the 2017-18 school year. Cash and checks will continue to be accepted as prepayments in the cafeteria.

Information about student accounts, menus and nutritional information is available on the food services Web site www.pwcs.edu/menus/. Also available online is a Virtual Cafeteria; this interactive tool helps students make wise food choices at home and at school.

We conduct several emergency drills throughout the school year to ensure student and staff safety. In September we conducted weekly fire drills and two scheduled lock down drills per Virginia code and PWCS guidelines. At the start of the drills, a friendly voice announcement informed faculty, staff and students that we were conducting a drill and that there was no real emergency. Our younger students were prepared through teacher instruction prior to the drills as were our intermediate students. Our staff and students were exemplary in their participation. For additional information, please refer to the brochure that was sent home at the beginning of the year, Emergencies: PWCS is Prepared. Also, please check out this 10 minute PWCS video on Crisis Management for more information.

Springwoods Mascot

Come place your vote for our mascot when you come for the parent teacher conference on

November 7.

"Mascots embody that desire to support your school and

(they) are a visual representation of what we believe to be

the best parts of our school.” Jackie Esposito

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Nurse’s Corner Beth Williams –School Nurse

We make every effort ensure student safety and health are not jeopardized, but we need your help. There may be students in your child's classroom who have severe, life threatening allergies to nuts or other foods. These may include peanuts, peanut butter, tree nuts (pecans, walnuts, almonds, other nuts), nut oils (peanut) and nut flavorings (extracts). Allergic reactions are triggered not only by ingesting these products but through touch and inhalation as well. Even small amounts of residue can cause an allergic reaction. Other food allergies are milk, eggs, soy or wheat. Artificial food dyes are also an allergen. If you are considering celebrating your child's birthday at school, please consider bringing pencils, stickers, erasers or other non-edible treats. A non-edible treat would be something ALL students could enjoy. These simple measures will greatly reduce the possibility of exposure and potential severe reaction while attending school. Thank you in advance for your consideration in making school a safer environment for these children. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Right to Special

Programs/Services This notice is intended to inform the community of a student’s right to a free, appropriate public education and the availability of programs and services, including a special education. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504) are federal laws that give the School Division certain responsibilities with respect to providing such educational programs to

students with disabilities. Under the IDEA and Section 504, the School Division has the responsibility to actively and continuously identify, locate, and evaluate those children, infant to age 21, living in Prince William County who may be in need of special education and/or related services, or adaptations or accommodations to regular education services. These laws also require the School Division to: • Refer for possible evaluation any student of school age living in the School Division who a school staff member suspects may be disabled.

• Provide appropriate educational and school‐related opportunities to students with disabilities in an inclusive setting to the maximum extent appropriate.

• Provide notice of the availability of services and types and location of services to nearby private schools, pediatricians, and the Health Department.

• Provide parents/guardians of students with disabilities with notice of their rights annually, and prior to their student’s evaluation and placement, or any significant change in their student’s placement.

• Develop and implement procedural safeguards with respect to actions regarding the identification, evaluation, and placement of students with disabilities.

• Provide procedures for the reporting, investigation, and resolution of student complaints of discrimination or harassment based upon disability, which were revised by the School Division in April of 2016 and are contained in Regulation 738-1, “Complaint Procedures for Student Claims of Discrimination or Harassment.”

• Provide written notice of the School Division’s procedural safeguards to parents or guardians.

If you suspect that your student may have a disability affecting your student’s development or academic

performance, or may have a mental or physical impairment that substantially limits a major life activity,

please contact the Director of Special Education at 703.791.7287 for further information.

The Prince William County Public School Division does not

discriminate in employment or in its educational programs

and activities against qualified individuals on the basis of

race, color, national origin, religion, sex, pregnancy, age,

veteran status, disability.