Bear Essentials

I am excited to share that we met the new Principal for BLES this morning, Mrs. Ashley Coughlin. Ashley has been as Assistant Principal at BB Harris Elementary for the past nine years. Prior to that, she served as an LSTC and taught 2nd, 4th, and 5th grades.

The children had the opportunity to see Mrs. Coughlin this morning on the morning announcements and a few of them were able to meet her. I will be here through Tuesday morning and then Mrs. Coughlin will start at Berkeley Lake full-time on March 1st.

It was so much fun this morning to see so many of our students dressed up like "Dr. P" today! Thank you for helping me celebrate my time at BLES. It has been an honor to serve as your principal and partner for the past five and half years. Thank you for your support and for entrusting your children to us every day.

With much love,

Dr. Pendleton

Lesley.Pendleton@gcpsk12.org

Monday, February 27

• All week long - donation drive (see info. below)
• 3:00pm Chess Club
  
• 3:15pm Green Team meets
  

Tuesday, February 28

• All week long - donation drive (see info. below)
• 7:00am IT Girls
  
• 9:30am Play to Learn
  
• 5:30pm - 6:30pm Office of Family Engagement Parents/Families Virtual Focus Group
• PTO Spirit Night at Latin Fresh

Wednesday, March 1

• All week long - donation drive (see info. below)
• Parent/Teacher Conferences-Early Release-12:00
  
• First Day of Women's History Month
  

Thursday, March 2

• All week long - donation drive (see info. below)
• Parent/Teacher Conferences-Early Release-12:00
  
• 6:30pm Seussical the Musical by 2nd Grade
  

Friday, March 3

• All week long - donation drive (see info. below)
  
• Progress reports should be sent home in Fri folders or emailed if they were not shared during Parent-Teacher Conferences
  

Berkeley Lake Elementary is excited to once again have a Boosterthon in March and we are reaching out to invite you to participate in our Shirt Sponsorship program. This year, our Boosterthon will conclude with an outdoor fun run and we are hoping that our business partners and other local businesses will help sponsor the cost of t-shirts the students will wear for the event.

Your logo or name will be displayed on the back of the shirt and worn by every student in our school. Not only will your support be incredibly helpful to Berkeley Lake Elementary, but it will enable us to support you through advertisement! We have over 800 students at Berkeley Lake which means their families would see your sponsorship/partnership with our school. If you are interested in becoming a Berkeley Lake Elementary Shirt Sponsor, please see this attached Sponsorship Form for more information. We need a commitment from all Sponsors by February 24th in order to finalize the graphics in time to supply all our students with a shirt. Thank you in advance for supporting our school! If you have any questions, please contact Pam Frey via email at Pam.Frey@gcpsk12.org.

Call 770-274-5142 or email asmith644@gsu.edu to reserve a spot for your child.

Join us for a School Spirit Night at Latin Fresh, 4941 S. Old Peachtree Rd, on Tuesday, February 28, 2023 from 4:00 - 8:00pm. Choose from a selection of Latin options including bowls, wraps, empanadas, desserts and refreshing Latin American beverages, featuring the best and freshest ingredients. Kids meals are also available.

The Office of Family Engagement presents a Parents/Families Virtual Focus Group. The focus group is in collaboration with the Office of Research, Evaluation & Analytics, and will be held Tuesday, February 28th from 5:30 pm until 6:30 pm. During the session, parents will be introduced to the Key Performance Indicator Dashboard, and have the opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback.

English flyer

Spanish flyer

Chinese flyer

Vietnamese flyer

Click here to access the meeting via Zoom.

In order for classroom teachers to have time to conference with parents on Wednesday and Thursday of next week, students will be dismissed from school at noon. Please make sure your transportation has been arranged for the earlier dismissal times.

If you still need to arrange a conference time with your child's teacher, please reach out to her/him directly through email or Dojo, as the sign up is no longer available on the website.

Dr. Seuss' birthday is recognized annually on March 2nd, and Mr. Green and the 2nd Graders will have a performance to celebrate it. All 2nd graders are invited to sing in the concert. The concert will last about 20 minutes and will begin at 6:30 pm in the BLES school cafeteria. Students may arrive between 6:00 - 6:15 and may dress in a Seussical costume. If a costume is not selected, they may dress nicely. If you have any questions about this event, please email Mr. Green.

Lets use this season of love to spread some love and help others that are in need. Donations can be dropped off in marked donation bins that are located in the cafeteria. Note: This drive has been extended to March 10th, even though the flyer below shows March 3rd as the deadline.

Thank you to our parent volunteers who are helping with decorating our school PBIS Store. If you wish to support our school store for the upcoming spring season, please support with purchases from our wishlist. Thank you all in advance!

Our Robotics team, the BearBots, made it to the state tournament for the first time in school history. Previously, the team won two awards at the regional tournament in December for core values and winning their bracket of the robot game! At the state tournament, hosted at UGA, they had the opportunity to compete against other teams from around the state of Georgia, middle schools included! Advancing to this level of the tournament took a lot of hard work from the 10 robotics members in 4th and 5th grade. We are very proud of their accomplishments this season and making it to the state tournament for the first time in school history! Go BearBots!

Our Lost & Found is overflowing! We are marking items with green tags, and on March 10th anything that is still in the Lost & Found with a green tag will be donated. Please have your child look for lost items, and feel free to stop by school to look. If you come to the building next week for parent-teacher conferences, please look then too.

A key improvement strategy calls on organizations to study the user experience. Therefore, it makes sense to include our students and parents in the work we are doing to improve our schools. The Educational Effectiveness Survey (EES) measures what students in grades 4-12 and their parents/guardians think about their school experience. Our 4th and 5th grade students have already taken the survey during their tech special time, and we are now asking parents/legal guardians to take the survey. It will be available through March 10. The link to the survey will be sent out via email from the county.

Additional information about the surveys can be found here.

BINGO Night will be done in 2 sessions based on last name:

• Session 1- 5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. if your last name begins with A-L
• Session 2-6:30-7:30 p.m. if your last name begins with M-Z.

Food will be sold at this event.

Bingo is made possible with great prizes that are donated by businesses in our community! Please let us know if you are interested in donating a prize for this event. All prizes need to be sent in or picked up by Friday, March 3rd. Please feel free to contact Amy LiCausi-cell # 678-662-6786 or email-amylicausi@yahoo.com or Maricruz Sosa-cell#678-358-2156 or email-maricruz.sosa@gcpsk12.org

Thank you to the following sponsors:

• Original Pancake House
• Cue’ BBQ
• Crave Pie
• Bagel 101 Cafe
• Fabrik @ The Forum
• Dollywood (?)
• Vom Pass
• Spool School
• Uncle Jack’s Meat House
• First Watch
• Jason’s Deli
• Atlanta Eats
• Marlow’s Tavern
• Playa Bowl
• Buff City Soap
• Cinnaholic
• Knuckies
• Gas South District
• Silver Linings
• 7 Leaves Cafe
• First Nail Salon
• Santa Lucia Brazilian Steakhouse***
• Compu-Sports Inc.
• Discovery Point- Duluth

Last Digital Learning Day for this school year.

The UGA Extension office in Gwinnett is having a 4-H Family Science Night on March 23, 2023 from 6:30pm to 8:00pm at Rhodes Jordan Park Community Recreation Center in Lawrenceville for ages 5-12. Registration and payment per child is required for this event, adults are free.

Thank you for supporting 4-H and UGA Extension! Click here to see the flyer for this event.

If your child is currently in the 5th grade, you will not want to miss the upcoming meeting hosted by Duluth Middle School on Tuesday, March 28 at 6:00pm. The meeting will be held in the Duluth Middle School gym. Click here to see an English or Spanish flyer with more details.

Kindergarten registration for next school year will take place on April 12th. More details about Kindergarten registration will be forthcoming.

The end of year Georgia Milestones Assessment (GMAS) will take place the following dates and attendance on these dates will be important. Please do not schedule appointments or schedule out-of-town trips during this period if at all possible.

Click here for general information about the Georgia Milestones Assessment.

If your child is receiving special education services from GCPS, then the state is asking you to participate in a parent survey to measure parent/family perceptions of the success of parents engagement between home and local schools. The survey is now available and will run through May 31st. Click here to access the survey.

See the flyer here.

• English
• Spanish

We are looking for High School Leaders, Middle School leaders and Campers. Please check out this link for more information. Email Trina.Ashadele@gcpsk12.org if you have questions.

GCPS 2023-2024 School Year Calendar

GCPS is Hiring

Weekly eTips for Parents in English and Spanish

Reminder about sending in birthday treats for students

• Per the Student Handbook: Parents may provide snacks only, no drinks, favors, balloons, or flowers for the child’s birthday. Whole cakes that need to be sliced by staff are not permitted. All students should be included. Nutritious snacks are encouraged. Birthday treats should be handed out and eaten in the cafeteria during the last ten minutes of the lunch period. Please make sure that students mainstreamed in your classroom are included in the count for treats. Buying ice cream at school for each class member is encouraged. Students may not pass out invitations to parties at school unless all members of the class are invited.
  

If your family needs additional support, our counselors and Care team can help

• The Care Team at BLES has many ways to support our families. We have a food pantry at school that you can come shop at, and we can also assist with helping provide school supplies, deodorant, and feminine hygiene products for your child.
• If you find you need additional help with basic needs like food, we can help by providing a small amount of groceries for your family each week. They will be sent home in your child’s backpack on Fridays. The food is provided by donation. Your name and your child’s name will not be revealed to the donor. The Berkeley Lake Staff will get the food to your child in a discrete manner.
  
• If you would like to access these resources please contact:
  
• Lyndsay Murphy (K,2,4) Lyndsay.murphy@gcpsk12.org 770-582-7523
• Laura Marantz (1,3,5) Laura.marantz@gcpsk12.org 770-582-7522
• Sandra Orci (Spanish) Sandra.orci@gcpsk12.org 678-291-4232

Afternoon Transportation Changes

• Parents, please remember that afternoon transportation changes must be made by 1:30 and there are only two ways for you to make an change for your child: Use the PikMyKid app or send in a signed note. Dojos, emails, or phone calls to change afternoon transportation will not be accepted. Thank you for helping us enforce this rule and keep our kids safe!

No Student checkouts after 2:15 PM

If your child misses school

• Information needed on the excuse note includes: today’s date, the child’s full name, child’s teacher, child’s grade level, date(s) of absence, reason for absence, and parent signature (typed full name if sending via email or Class Dojo).
  

Berkeley Lake Elementary's Local School Plan for Improvement (LSPI)

Follow us on Social Media

• Facebook
• Instagram

MyPaymentsPlus

• Gwinnett Public Schools uses MyPaymentsPlus as a site for school-related payments and documentation sign off. If you do not yet have an account with this site, you will need to set one up. Click here to learn more.
  

We recycle

• Berkeley Lake recycles aluminum cans and old clothes and shoes (in any condition) in the two bins in the upper parking lot. The Green Team receives 10¢ per pound of donations, which helps pay the fee for the weekly paper and cardboard pick-up. The aluminum cans are recycled at Progressive Recycling on Simpson Circle. Please support our Green Team by recycling these items here at Berkeley Lake. Thank you!
  

We Collect Box Tops Online

• Here are instructions for how to continue to give to our school using the new Box Tops process.
  

Do You Have a Parent Portal Account?

• You may have heard about Gwinnett's Parent Portal. The Parent Portal is a website that will allow you to log in and see your child's information, such as attendance, grades, standardized test scores, etc.
• If you need to register with the portal, please print and complete this registration form and turn it in to the main office. Along with the completed form, you are required to show a photo I.D. for verification.

Georgia After School Program (GASP)

• Click here to get more information about the Georgia After School Program.
  

Our Parent Center

• The Berkeley Lake Parent Center is located across from the front office and it's providing services by appointment. For Parent Center support please call Ms. Sandra Orci, Parent Liaison, at 678-291-4232 or email her at Sandra.Orci@gcpsk12.org

We Thank our Business Partners - if you would like to learn more about a business partnership with our school, click here.

• The Tutoring Center, Duluth, Ga.
• Mathnasium
  
• Ultra Baby LLC (Ultrasound and Photography)
  
• Atlanta Urgent Care - 5246 Peachtree Pkwy

Berkeley Lake Elementary

4300 S. Berkeley Lake Rd.

Duluth, Georgia 30096

P: (770)446-0947

F: (770)582-7514