Dear Simpson Superstars,

The school year is off to a wonderful start! I am very excited to be starting another school year with you as the very proud principal of Simpson Elementary School! The students, teachers, and support staff here work very hard to make every minute of the school day count! Parents, thank you for all you do to support our work. It is truly a team effort!

It was great to see so many of you during our Curriculum Night. I look forward to seeing you at our PTA Spirit Night “Picnic in the Park” at the Town Center on Thursday, September 21st (5 pm-7 pm). Thank you to our PTA for sponsoring this event. We appreciate the support our wonderful PTA provides. It makes a difference! If you have not already done so, I strongly encourage you to join our PTA. They do so much to support our sweet school. Have a great September, and as always, don’t hesitate to let me know if I can be of assistance.

Proud to be your principal,

September 4th- Labor Day/School Closed

September 7th- PTA 4th/5th Bike Safety Training at 4:30 PM

September 11th - PTA Charleston Wrap Fundraiser Deadline

September 12th - All Pro Dads in the café

September 15th- Digital Learning Day for students

September 21st- PTA Picnic in the Park from 5-7 PM

September 23rd- Simpson Singers Performance at PTC Festival

September 25th-Childhood Cancer Awareness Week

September 28th-Bring $1.00 for PJ Day to support Childhood Cancer Research

September 29th- Fall Picture Day

September 29th-School Council from 7:30-8:45 AM

Please save-the-date for our 1st of 2, Lock Down Drills, which will be held on Thursday, September 21st. School resource officers will be a part of this exercise drill to ensure that all safety measures are followed. Therefore, parents please feel free to discuss this drill ahead of time with your child(ren). Let them know that safety drills like fire, tornado, and intruder alert drills are needed to ensure that we keep all of our school stakeholders safe.

I thank you in advance for your support, flexibility, and cooperation in keeping our school stakeholders safe.

Greetings Parents,

Beginning this school year in 2023, we will engage in Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) at Simpson Elementary to have a positive behavioral expectation schoolwide. PBIS is an approach schools use to promote school safety and good behavior. With PBIS, schools teach kids about behavior expectations, strategies, and with a primary focus on having a positive prevention, not consequences.

What is PBIS at our school?

A unified set of school wide expectations for behavior in our school. We are Simpson Superstars, so to ensure that students can easily comprehend our expectations, we have established a 5-star approach for appropriate behaviors posted throughout the school. Your child has been learning these expectations since the first few of school.

What are the 5-Star Expectations at Simpson Elementary?

1. Be Respectful
2. Be Responsible
3. Be Ready to Learn
4. Be Safe
5. Be Kind
   

As part of our PBIS process, teachers and other staff members use evidence-based practices to increase student learning and decrease classroom disruptions. To keep students on the rules in a positive manner, we do the following when teaching academics and behavior:

Þ Constantly teach and refer to our school-wide expectations.

Þ Provide students with more praise than correction.

Þ Talk to students with respect using a positive voice tone.

Þ Actively engage everyone in the class during instruction.

Þ Use pre-correcting, prompting, and redirecting as we teach.

Þ Look for the positive first and provide positive, immediate, frequent, and explicit feedback.

Please look forward to additional details as we unveil our STARBUCK incentives for recognition of positive student behavior. We are excited to begin having students spend their Starbucks in our new PBIS Store at our Grand Opening beginning September 11th.

Buying Days

Monday-5th grade

Tuesday-4th grade

Wednesday-2nd and 3rd grade

Thursday-1st grade

Friday-PreK and Kindergarten

GCPS students will have access to a meal (breakfast and lunch) throughout the year for each child. Student meal costs are listed below and an adult bar is available for both adult visitors and staff throughout the school year.

Meal prices for elementary students are below:

Student breakfast -$1.50

Student lunch -$2.25

Adult Breakfast -$2.50

Adult Lunch -$4.00

* Please see our new Al-a-carte options for student purchases below. This is a new feature sponsored by GCPS which is being offered, in addition to their regular meal.* As a disclaimer, assortments may change daily based on availability.

GCPS will continue to follow strict guidelines as it relates to safety & security by visitors producing identification when inside the vestibule to check out students (as well as during visiting lunch hours). Also, lunch visitation will begin immediately after Labor Day. Teachers will utilize this time to put PBIS expectations in place for cafeteria-positive behavior.

In addition, we will continue to follow safety guidelines to minimize the risk of infection and/or spread of COVID-19. Therefore, if anyone in your household becomes sick and has tested positive for COVID-19, please contact our school nurse, Amy Norris, and/or your grade level administrator, immediately.

The PTA's mission is to make every child's potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children.

Become a partner and donate today!

When you join the Parent Teacher Association at Simpson Elementary by giving your time, talent and resources, you join our collective efforts in promoting quality education, arts, and community involvement to build a healthy environment and safe neighborhood for all of our families. Because of the generous support from our parents, grandparents, teachers, staff and business partners we are able to offer many academic and social opportunities that may not otherwise be able to take place.

Did you know the Simpson PTA sponsors and coordinates over 30 programs each school year through the generous support of our Simpson families and business partners?

Every dollar raised goes directly to programs and events that benefit our Simpson Superstar students, staff, and facilities.

Visit our website today to :

• Become a PTA member
• Donate to our PTA programs
• Stay connected to upcoming events
• Contact us with your questions or volunteer interest

Join our PTA Facebook page as another way to stay connected.

Looking forward to making this a great school year with you!

Our fundraising deadline is quickly approaching, and we still need your help! Have you placed your Charleston Wrap fundraising order yet? Need gift wrap? Gift ideas for the holidays? Want to treat yourself? Place your order by September 11th and help us achieve our goal! Don’t forget to share our link with your friends & family! TEXT, email and share on social media now!