Wow! We are already in our 3rd quarter of the year and have accomplished so much. We just completed another successful Jumprope for Heart campaign, had some guest speakers join our 4th and 5th grade classes, welcomed the Chatham Arts Council Artists' in Residency program and completed mid-year benchmark assessments. Read on to find more details about what our Mariners have been up to.

February 17th: Required Teacher Workday-No school for students

February 23rd: Parent Safety Presentation via Zoom (a link will be shared with parents in the Wednesday night message on the 22nd)

March 6th: National School Breakfast week*

March 17th: No School

March 20th: No School

March 31st: School-wide dance from 5-7pm

April 21st: Spring Movie Night

To celebrate "Love the Bus" (February 13th thru February 17th) we want to highlight one of our 4 amazingly dedicated bus drivers.

I was born and raised in Pennsylvania but moved to North Carolina in 1998. I started working at PHE in 2000 and have been an Exceptional Children's Instructional Assistant for 20 years. I have 2 grown sons and am a caregiver for my mom. I love the outdoors, mountain lakes, traveling, history and reading.

Operation: Support Military Heroes!

Mariners Families, we are asking for your help with our 9th annual care package/donation drive for military units currently deployed overseas.

All of our students have been working hard to write thoughtful, kind and inspirational letters to include in these care packages!

Please be on the lookout for a flyer in your child’s folder and consider donating items or money towards shipping costs for our soldier care packages, we will collect the last week of February! And, if you have a family member that is deployed that we can support, please contact Ms. Munoz at lmunoz@chatham.k12.nc.us

Career Chats

At the end of January our 4th and 5th grade students had another Career Chat with Mrs. Brady Dao who lives in New York. She is an international lawyer specializing in "intellectual property." Our students had to problem solve some of the scenarios Mrs. Dao talked about that she deals with every day with her clients. She also speaks Chinese and taught our students some phrases.

Character Awards

Congratulations to all 24 students who were recognized by their teachers for the 2nd nine weeks of school. These students had a surprise celebration with their parents in attendance and received a gift card for McDonalds. We can't wait to recognize another group of students who are demonstrating positive character at school!

An outstanding group of 4th grade students in Ms. Lloyd's class represented our school in the Regional Science Fair in Greensboro this year- Jack Walker, Summer Fitzgerald, and Sophia Wight for their project entitled: ""Power of Pollination"

While they didn't take home 1st place, we are so proud of their creativity and hard work.

Every year the State recognizes teachers who have exceeded the growth standards based on student outcomes in 3rd - 5th grade Reading, 4th - 8th grade Math, Advanced Placement exams, and CTE credentials. This past school year, we had four teachers who exceeded growth: Laura Lloyd, Heather Bearman (math & reading), Stephanie Davies (math) and Wyatt Floyd (reading). We are so proud to be able to call these teachers Mariners! To celebrate this accomplishment, they are invited to a reception with the Board of Education at the regularly scheduled Monday, March 13 meeting.

As a school we also exceeded growth for the 2021-2022 school year. I am immensely proud of this accomplishment and the hard work of all of our staff and students toward this common goal.

To help us celebrate, on Wednesday, March 8th, we would like all of you construction workers and gardeners to join us by dressing up in the theme: Diggin' in to Breakfast. Be creative! Dig up plants, potatoes, eggs from nests, whatever you can think of! Just put your garden hat, or your hard hat on, and join the fun...start diggin up anything breakfast!!!!

The second Chatham County Schools Parent Advisory (PAC) Committee meeting was held in early February at which district leadership shared a recent presentation on vaping and related resources, information on cybersecurity within our schools, updates on progress within the One Chatham Strategic Plan, and details about the district's plan for growth in our county. Follow the embedded links to learn more about these areas and review information from the Fall meeting here if you missed seeing those details. Please share your input both on what the district is doing well and your suggestions for improvement by completing this survey. Feedback will be compiled and shared at future meetings by our PHS PAC representative, Julie Ricker.

The PTA Staff Appreciation Committee has compiled lists of the many ways you can support our staff, students, and school community, and you can access this information here. Every little contribution matters, so look for a way your family can donate an item or volunteer a shift to make a big difference!

Mark Your Calendars:

Dining for Dollars/ GIveback Night at Carolina Brewery- March 7 (ALL DAY!)

April PTA Meeting- Friday, April 21, before the movie night

Family Movie Night- Friday, April 21

For the most up to date information on our PTA and events, please follow us on Social Media across all of your favorite platforms (Instagram, Facebook & Twitter): @Marinerspta

PHS Families, WE DID IT!! With just 2 days to go, we surpassed our school goal of raising $10,000 for The American Heart Association and children with special hearts!! I’m so proud of each student and family that has reached out to help us accomplish this lofty goal! Every single dollar you raised will help kids and families build healthier lives!

As promised, Ms. Bowling will now be turned into a Human Ice Cream Sundae by our students! We’ll be sending out the date soon!

Thank you for staying active, eating healthy and choosing kindness! I’m so proud of our school community for making such a big difference! Thank you for being a Heart Hero!

One of the goals of our School Improvement Plan is to increase our use of Academic Vocabulary in our daily instruction in order to improve our proficiency rates on our End of Grade Tests in reading. Research shows that there is a strong correlation between reading comprehension and word level reading.

Our first step in accomplishing this goal was to provide our teachers with some professional development in this area. Ms. Emily Pruckno, one of our 2nd grade teachers, provided this PD for our teachers on January 13th (early release).

The next step is to work with teachers in their Professional Development Communities (PLCs) to analyze and improve upon their vocabulary lessons.

Finally, teachers will either video their lessons or invite an observer to watch a vocabulary lesson to receive feedback on their progress.

How can you help at home? Read, read, read! Reading aloud to children (even in 4th & 5th grades) exposes them to a variety of words that they might not be able to read yet themselves. If you need ideas for books, contact Ms. Spell.