WPES Family Newsletter
August 2022
August News and Notes
Our Mission
Welcome
Summer Building Tours
Those who are able to attend the Wednesday, August 17th session are welcome to stop by the WPES Cafeteria for Rita's Water Ice presented by the West Pottsgrove Elementary School PTA!
Please note that these open house sessions are not a back-to-school night and teachers may not be present during those time frames. The West Pottsgrove Elementary School Back to School Night is scheduled for Wednesday, September 14th at 6:30 pm.
Kindergarten Orientation
Kindergarten orientation will be held in two sessions. Mrs. Flora and Ms. Frey's classes will be held from 9:30 am to 11:00 am. Mrs. Reisner and Mrs. Yacovelli's classes will be held from 1:00 pm to 2:30 pm.
Kindergarten Picnic
Students are invited to wear the following color t-shirts to match and easily identify their new classmates: Ms. Frey's class - red, Mrs. Reisner's class - blue, Mrs. Flora's class - white, and Mrs. Yacovelli's class - yellow.
Bus Tags
Pre-K Counts
Class Dojo
WPES Arrival and Dismissal
Arrival Procedures
Bus cards are in the process of being mailed home. Please review bus numbers and times with your child upon their arrival. Please verify bus stop locations on your mailings. If there are any errors or questions, please contact our transportation provider, CMD at (610) 323-5020.
During the first few days of school, please expect delays in pick-up and drop-off. Please have your student to the bus stop at least 5 minutes before arrival time in the morning and expect some delays at dismissal.
Buses begin arriving at the school by 8:30 AM and will unload at the doors by the gymnasium in the parking lot facing Grosstown Road. Cars should not use this parking lot during arrival or dismissal at any time. Students will exit the bus and enter directly into the school building.
Walkers and Parent Drop-Off
Students may arrive at school beginning at 8:30 AM. Students should not come earlier as they will not be permitted into the building and there will not be staff available to supervise them. Please enter the parking lot slowly and proceed with extreme caution. All car riders and walkers should enter the building through the main lobby by the office, door #1. Students arriving after 9:00 AM are considered tardy and must check in at the office prior to going to their classroom. Please be mindful of the flow of traffic while dropping off. If you plan to walk your child to the door, please park your vehicle in the lot. Please do not block traffic in our car lane. Parents/guardians are not permitted to walk their children to their classrooms.
Cars will form a single line in the morning with the first car pulling up to the main entrance area. If possible, children should exit the car on the passenger side onto the sidewalk. Once your child is safely on the sidewalk, you may cautiously pull around other cars and exit via Jay Street. Your assistance is appreciated in keeping the line moving in a safe, orderly, and timely fashion.
Dismissal Procedures
Students are dismissed in the afternoon through three different methods - buses/vans, walkers, and car riders. Please review the bus card distributed from CMD for bus stop and time information. Please be sure to notify the West Pottsgrove Elementary School main office if your child will be a car rider or walker to ensure students are dismissed to the correct locations.
Buses/Vans
Bus dismissal begins at West Pottsgrove Elementary at approximately 3:45 PM. Elementary buses pick up at Lower Pottsgrove Elementary School first and then report to West. Please expect delays during the first few days of school. If there are any errors in bus assignments or if you have any bus-specific questions, please contact our transportation provider, CMD at (610) 323-5020.
Walkers
Walkers will be dismissed from the gymnasium, and from door #1, beginning at 3:25 PM. Parents/guardians picking up will wait outside of the main office entrance and are not permitted to enter the building during dismissal. Students will be dismissed to parent/guardians by designated staff at the main office door. Please be sure whoever is picking up a student at walker dismissal has identification with them.
Car Riders
Car Riders will be dismissed from the cafeteria entrance, Door 2, beginning at 3:30 PM. A staff member will dismiss students and those picking up for car dismissal are asked to remain in their vehicle. As in the AM, if you are getting out of the car to pick up a student in the building, you must park and access the main office area. Do not park along the curb as this holds up the line.
Following these procedures will assist us in maintaining a safe and orderly environment for children and adults of the West Pottsgrove Family.
Breakfast and Lunch
The Pottsgrove School District is welcoming a new food services provider for the 2022-23, The Nutrition Group and director Erica Hurtt. Ms. Hurtt can be reached via email at ehurtt@pgsd.org.
Breakfast will be served beginning the second day of school, Thursday, August 25th. Breakfast will not be served on the first day of school, Wednesday, August 24th. Over the course of the past two years, we have been able to offer breakfast and lunch to all students at no cost to families. The program that allowed that to occur is no longer in place. Therefore, students wishing to get lunch and/or breakfast at school will be required to pay for the meals. Lunch will be $2.70 per day and breakfast will be $1.70 per day. If you wish to apply for free/reduced lunch status, you must complete a new application. The application can be found below.
Student lunch accounts can be set up on My School Bucks. Balances are carried over from one year to the next. Please refer to the information letter below for details on how to set up an account.
Lunch service includes a daily lunch selection of either a hot lunch option, cold lunch option, or peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It is preferred that students utilize the MySchoolBucks option to add funds to their lunch accounts.
Click here to access the Food Services Department for details and more information.
PTA
Please join us for our September PTA Meeting on September 14 at 6:00 PM. PTA Membership is now open for the 2022-23 school year. Please see the attached form to join and membership is $8 per person. Join the West Pottsgrove Elementary School PTA Facebook Group for highlights and important information. The PTA can be reached via email at wpgpta@pgsd.org
Attendance - Electronic Excuse Notes
Monthly Character Trait
Each month throughout the school year, we will be highlighting a character trait for focused conversation and celebration.
YMCA
At this time, we have been told that the Pottstown YMCA will not be running before and after care programs in Pottsgrove Schools. There are many other local daycare centers that offer before and after-school care and are transported via Pottsgrove buses.
If this is something you are interested in or want to know more about, please contact the YMCA directly. See below for the contact information.
Patty Perri
BASE Team Leader| Boyertown and Pottstown
Greater Philadelphia YMCA
144 Holly Road, Gilbertsville, PA. 19525
(p) 610.369.9622 ext. 3308 (w) www.philaymca.org
First Day Packet and PowerSchool Parent Portal
First Day Packet:
The online First Day Packet for the upcoming school year will be available via the Powerschool Parent Portal at noon on Monday, August 15th. The system is a secure and green process that allows the district to verify all demographic, emergency, and medical information for your child for the start of the new school year. The system will also allow you to electronically sign most annual permission forms and indicate that you received and reviewed other informational materials.
The electronic First Day Packet must be accessed through the Powerschool Parent Portal. If you have previously created your single sign-on parent portal account, simply log in and click on the First Day Packet 22-23 icon in the left-hand navigation bar. (Please note that parents will not be able to access the First Day Packet if logging in using the “student” username and password.) You will need to add new school age children to your existing account by going to Account preferences and selecting the “Students” tab. If you do not remember your self-selected ID and password, please email pgsdparentportal@pgsd.org for further assistance.
The parent portal can be accessed directly from our district website or by accessing the following web address: https://powerschool.pgsd.org/public.
If you are NEW to the Parent Portal, please select the Create Account button on the portal login screen to begin to set up your New Single Sign-On account. This will allow you to access the information for every Pottsgrove student in your household with a single ID and password of your choice. You will need the temporary confidential ID and password coming to you in postal mail in order to create your new account. If you already have an account, you may disregard the temporary ID that will be included in that mailing.
The Parent Portal will open and the electronic First Day Packet will go live on Monday, August 15 at noon. We would appreciate all families taking action and completing these forms online as soon as possible after that date but prior to the start of the school year. Your student’s First Day Packet will not be complete until the forms have been submitted. For those families who used the system last year, for your convenience, we have pre-populated most of the forms including the most recent medical and emergency contact information we have
on record.
Please take the time to carefully review and update this section, as needed, for each child. It is critically important that this information is accurate. Any changes to phone numbers, texts, and emails will be automatically updated in our Blackboard Communication system so that you will continue to receive school/district communications without interruption.
Upcoming Events
August
16 - Summer Building Tour #1, 1pm - 4pm
17 - Summer Building Tour #2 (featuring Rita’s Water Ice from PTA) - 4pm - 7pm
18 - Kindergarten Orientation, Mrs. Flora & Ms. Frey: 9:30 am - 11:00 am, Mrs. Reisner and Mrs. Yacovelli: 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm
20 - Kindergarten Picnic, 12 pm - 1 pm
23 - School Board Meeting, HS LGI Room - 7:00 pm
24 - First Day for Students
September
2 - No School
5 - Labor Day (No School)
13 - School Board Meeting, HS LGI Room - 7:00 pm
14 - Act 80 Day (Early Dismissal, 12:45 pm)
14 - PTA Meeting, 6:00 pm - 6:30 pm
14 - Back to School Night, 6:30 pm
20-22 - PTA Book Fair, 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
20 - Family Night, 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
27 - School Board Meeting, HS LGI Room - 7:00 pm
30 - PTA Glow Dance, 6:30 pm - 8:00 pm
West Pottsgrove Elementary School
Email: ssieller@pgsd.org
Website: https://www.pgsd.org/westpottsgrove
Location: 25 Grosstown Road, Stowe, PA, USA
Phone: (610) 323-6510