Dear Parents,
What a month it’s been! Who would have imagined Atlanta would experience such winter weather over the course of less than three weeks. On top of that, our most recent water main break added to the drama. We are thankful to be back in school so quickly. This is a tribute to our amazing housekeeping and maintenance staff and Belfor Property Restoration. We appreciate all of their hard work. A decision has been made to revise LS conference schedules next week in order to recoup some of the teaching time that has been lost. This is a change from what was posted yesterday on the school website, Facebook, and Twitter. School will be in session during the morning of Thursday, February 27, with a K-5 dismissal at 11:30 am. We will have K-5 conferences Thursday afternoon as planned. ASAP will be available until 4:00 pm. One significant change is that the Lower School will be in session on Friday, February 28. Teachers will schedule the remaining conferences throughout the day on Thursday and Friday, or at a later date. ASAP will have regular hours on Friday. Conference schedules will be sent home shortly. The Lower School will celebrate International Day Thursday morning, February 27. We will have an “Olympic flag colors” NUD. Thank you to the LIA and our parent volunteers for organizing this wonderful event. Due to the flooding in the MSR, the Darkness to Night workshop is postponed. More information will be forthcoming. The Lower School Parent Forum on February 13 has been rescheduled. The new date is Thursday, March 6, from 8:30 to 9:30 am. Please let Darlene Walls know if you plan to attend. Edi, Yasmine, and I enjoyed having lunch with several parents last Tuesday. It is always lovely to have the opportunity to get to know you and answer any questions you may have. We have already rescheduled one of the luncheons, and at this time, we are not planning to reschedule it again. Thank you for your understanding. Of course, you are always welcome to meet with us at any time. The Student Service Council will be hosting a bake sale on Friday, February 28, from 7:30 to 8:00 am. SSC members will be selling homemade baked goods in the foyer of the Lower School. The items will cost $1.00 and be individually packed in plastic baggies. None of the baked goods will have nuts. Proceeds from the sale will go toward the purchase of a color printer for Johnson County Schools in Georgia and toward the purchase of supplies for the Lovett Spring Break Mission Trip to India. We have some great news about our After School Enrichment Program. Coach Perdomo of Chess Atlanta is proud to announce that seven Lovett students have qualified to compete in the 2014 K-8 Scholastic Team State Tournament. The afternoon enrichment chess students recently competed in the Metro Atlanta K-8 Team State Qualifier Tournament that was represented by over 54 different schools with over 1,000 students participating. Playing at the tournament level is relatively new for Lovett’s Lower School students, so special congratulations should be extended to the following participants: Brooks Bradbury, Hank Chopra, Ryan Coombs, Landon Kalish, Ollie LaScala, Kiran Menachery, and Oma Thompson. Best of luck as they move on to the state competition on March 23! Warm regards, Mary Baldwin Lower School Principal Dear Parents,
We had a busy 100th day of school after our unexpected five-day hiatus. The morning began with our annual Chinese New Year parade led by our first graders. It was lovely to see colorful dragons march to the beat of the drum (that Mrs. Spetnagel beat so adeptly). We are enjoying our 100-year-old visitors, a.k.a., our Kindergarten students. I reassured them that in case they are unable to manage the stairs, we do have an elevator. They seemed relieved and eager to access the second floor that way. Unfortunately, our Lower School parent luncheon scheduled on Friday, January 31, was cancelled due to the snow. Since we are making up one of the snow days on Presidents’ Day, we are rescheduling the parent luncheon on Monday, February 17, from noon until 1:00 pm. We hope all who planned to come on January 31 will be able to join us. If you did not sign up, but would like to attend, RSVP to Lower School Parent Luncheons. This is an informal way for us to get to know one another better, and we are looking forward to it. Since school will be in session on Presidents’ Day, I wanted to remind you that, throughout the year, if you are requesting an excused absence or early dismissal for your child, please direct all requests to Darlene Walls at [email protected]. She will make sure I review the request and will reply to your email or phone call. Thank you to our grade reps for sharing parent concerns and suggestions during our January meeting. Several parent questions involved our After School Enrichment Program, and Cynthia Coleman, Director of Summer Programs, After School Programs, and Adult Education, joined us for the beginning of the meeting to address the concerns. At the bottom of this email is a summary of her responses. The question about registration for the Middle School summer study buddies came up. If you are a parent of a rising sixth grader, we highly recommend that you enroll your child. Classes fill up quickly, especially after acceptance letters go out to children applying for sixth grade. Registration is open, so if interested, please register on-line. One other offering that may be of interest is a creative writing class offered by Middle School teacher Kelly Leccedone. Be sure to check out the Lovett webpage to learn more about our summer programs. Parents were interested in knowing some of the proactive measures we are taking to ensure the security of our children, teachers, faculty, and staff. We have had more emergency drills than ever before. This includes fire, severe weather, and lockdown drills. Substitute teachers receive training on how to respond during an emergency. Officer Chip Wood is armed and very visible during the school day. He is present during afternoon carpool, and Chip, along with the entire security staff, are working vigilantly to protect our campus. We have adjusted the timing on the Lower School front doors so they are only open for short periods during arrival and dismissal. At all other times of the day, visitors gain access to the building via our new secure entry system. There were several questions about recess guidelines. Teachers have been reminded that all children must participate in recess. Students may be given several minutes to complete their work; however, the expectation is that they will participate in at least half of the recess period. Recess is never taken away from the entire class. If a child does not come to school dressed for the cold, rather than staying in from recess, teachers are asked to send the child to the office to borrow a fleece or jacket. There was a suggestion to have children sit with their carpool during dismissal rather than with their class. The representatives thought that this would be problematic for a number of reasons, including the frequent changes that are made on a daily basis. Here are a few reminders:
Warm regards, Mary Baldwin Lower School Principal Download After School Enrichment Summary, January 2014 (1).pdf Lower School Events Mon, Feb 3rd D Day |