Welcome to our weekly Gator Bites newsletter! Every Sunday evening our team at CGE will send out any important updates for the following week. Our goal is to be prepared, transparent and informative! We appreciate your time and urge you to read through carefully each week- especially during these unconventional virtual learning weeks.

Stay safe, stay informed and stay Gator Strong! 🐊

Thank you to all families who showed up and participated in our first CGE Community “Spruce Up” event. We were able to clean a good number of classrooms, bathrooms, and pick up trash outside. We will hold more events in the future. If you have ideas for additional service projects for our students, please reach out and let me know.

We have a private pay spot available in pre-k at the moment. If you would be interested in being considered for the slot, please send Ms. Cindy King an email. Her email address is: ceking@chatham.k12.nc.us.

PTA News & Updates

RSVP for CGE Movie Night!

CGE’s Family Movie Night is THIS FRIDAY -- OCTOBER 15th!

Hosted by the PTA this is a FREE event for CGE students, teachers, and their families.

Gates open at The Park at Briar Chapel at 6:30pm and our movie (Cool Runnings!) will begin at 7pm.

Donations for CGE's counseling department will also be collected on site (only new, packaged items in assorted sizes, please:

· Kindergarten – underwear

· 1st – socks

· 2nd & 3rd – t-shirts

· 4th & 5th – pants, shorts

Call for Volunteers!

CGE’s cafeteria staff is looking for parent volunteers to help with breakfast and lunch service!

Additional details and sign-up info can be found here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20f0c4fa5aa2da5ff2-cafeteria

During the week of October 11, your third grader will take the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT). The testing will span over three days. The CogAT assesses a student’s verbal, mathematical, and abstract reasoning abilities.

The test is given to all third graders in Chatham County Schools to provide information for academic planning.

You will receive your child’s score report from the CogAT in November.

To help students prepare for the CogAT testing, our AIG Specialists will be going into each 3rd grade classroom next week to provide a training session on taking the CogAT.

Beginning of year testing results were shared with families at the end of this week. STAR Parent Reports were shared in grades 1-5. The mClass Home Connect Letters were shared in grades K-3 for Reading. Please reach out to your student’s teacher if you did not receive your reports.

Returning Student Information Update

Returning student Information Update notifications are scheduled to be sent out to families on Monday. The email will provide you with a link to update information for PowerSchool. This is an opportunity to make changes to contacts, phone numbers as well as update signatures on the Media and Technology Use consent forms. Please be on the lookout for this email and take a minute to complete/update it.

Chatham Reads, a countywide collaborative dedicated to increasing third-grade reading proficiency, is gathering data from Chatham County Schools families. The individual data collected below will not be shared. We will use this data in aggregate to show trends.

Our goal is to see where our students attended preschool and how well these preschools prepared our students for kindergarten success. Thank you for your time.

For questions, please email Jaime Detzi (jaime@cefmail.org)

English Survey

Spanish Survey

October is National Bullying Prevention Month! Throughout October, students will participate in fun and educational lessons, discussions and group activities to promote kindness, acceptance and inclusion! Students will be able to show their Gator PRIDE by participating in CGE’s UNITY SPIRIT WEEK October 18th-22nd! Our goal is to ALL UNITE TOGETHER to put an end to bullying, promote KINDNESS and make CGE NO place for hate! During UNITY SPIRIT WEEK, have FUN, go all out & let's ALL show our UNITED GATOR PRIDE! *Please EMAIL your SPIRIT pictures to Mrs. Kennedy at akennedy@chatham.k12.nc.us!

Important Reminders for your students and families:

Covid 19 Symptom List:

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

Link to Strong Schools NC Public Health Toolkit

Fever or Chills

Cough

Shortness of Breath or difficulty breathing

Fatigue

Muscle or body aches

Headache

New loss of taste or smell

Sore throat

Congestion or a runny nose

Nausea or vomiting

Diarrhea

Chatham County Schools does not accept at-home tests. These tests can not be verified so all testing must be done by an approved testing site or local doctor's office.

If your student has any of the above symptoms please DO NOT send them to school. Reach out to the school nurse for guidance.

rpugh@chatham.k12.nc.us

mgladson@chatham.k12.nc.us

klambeth@chatham.k12.nc.us

If it is determined that your student needs to be tested for Covid here is a link to testing sites in the county. Please do not send your student back to school until the results are received and the school nurse has approved the return.

If your student has been exposed to a Covid positive individual or tests Covid positive then your student must do a 10-day quarantine. Your student's return to school date will be calculated by the school nurse.