Hello Wilkesboro families! We are calling tonight with updates for the week of November 28 - December 2. You can learn more by clicking on your teacher's page below.

We hope that your family had a wonderful, safe Thanksgiving holiday. We are excited to welcome all students back to school tomorrow for three busy weeks leading up to the winter holiday. Car line will begin at 7:30, and buses will run their usual routes. We will be doing monthly reading and math assessments this week, and we will make the most of three uninterrupted instructional weeks.

We want to share a few seasonal reminders. After lots of illness in November, we want to remind you to send in written notes when students return. Also, please remember we follow strict protocols regarding pick ups from the school office, so please remind visitors to bring a car tag or ID when picking up students. Please note the weather has also turned colder, so make sure to write your child’s name in their jackets or hoodies.

Safety is always our top priority. We hope the next time you visit our campus, you will see the attractive, safety screens on our front entrance that were provided through PTO donations. This week, PTO will always reward the classes and students who brought in the most donations to the Capital Campaign. Please check ClassDojo for full details, and thank you to PTO and our families for supporting our school so generously.

During December, we are hoping to help give back to the community that has been so supportive of our school. Food insecurity in our community is a real concern. We will be participating for the fourth year in a row with the “Caring for our Community” food drive. This food drive, which is a partnership between the IGA Marketplace and Wilkes County Schools, combines our efforts to help feed families in the Wilkes community. We are collecting non-perishable food items like canned or boxed food through December 15, 2022. Please do not send glass items. You can also make monetary donations, where every dollar is used to buy 2 lb. of food. All donations will go to the Blue Ridge Opportunity Commission and will stay in our local community. Because our students love a good class competition, the top class that brings in the most food donations will win a special playground party at school.

We want to thank you for your ongoing support, encouragement and cooperation. We are grateful to our Wilkesboro Elementary family, and we look forward to another great week!

Field trips are a special part of school, and we are excited for students to enjoy these learning experiences again. Field trips allow students to experience new environments, learn in unique places, apply skills learned in the classroom, and connect with the real world around us. Our teachers have planned 4 to 5 field trips for each grade level.

All students are included in field trips. We calculate the cost of field trips to include gas and driver pay for bus transportation and admission tickets. Costs are calculated based on every student participating. All students will ride on our bus transportation to field trips, and we will also provide regular free lunch (or snack) for students through our cafeteria. We invite parent chaperones to attend many field trips (separate cost for parents) but not all. Some trips, like those to the JAWCC, are required by Wilkes County Schools. Click here for full details about field trips for the 2022-2023 school year!

You can pay online through the K-12 Payment Center. Click here for a link to our website about how to pay for field trips online. You can also donate to help a student here.

If you'd like to donate to help make field trips affordable for all, please contact our office at 336-838-4261.

We welcome volunteers to help with school events. WCS uses Volunteer Tracker to help organize this process, and we use Sign Up Genius (shared via email and ClassDojo) to make signing up easy and convenient. To get signed up, follow steps below.

1. Go to www.wilkescountyschools.org

2. Go to the PARENTS tab at the top (or VOLUNTEER at the bottom).

3. Click on VOLUNTEERS.

4. Click on VOLUNTEER TRACKER.

5. Go to the green NEW REGISTRATION and follow instructions from there.

Level 1 volunteers can help in many ways. Level 1 volunteers can sign up to help with book fairs, school events, class parties and projects, Field Day, Fall Festival, and proctoring for tests.

Level 2 volunteers can do all level 1 tasks but can also help chaperone field trips and work more closely with students in small groups. Level 2 volunteers can also sign up for classroom tutoring and assistance, reading buddy program, tutoring, leading after school activities, and chaperoning school events field trips.

We ask that all parents/guardians who plan to attend field trips sign up to be Level 2 volunteers at the start of the year. It takes a few weeks to verify volunteers, and signing up early will make sure that you are approved in time for this year’s events and field trips.

School counselor Rachel Minick (minickr@wilkes.k12.nc.us AND link to counseling newsletter), school social worker Brandy Walsh (walshb@wilkes.k12.nc.us AND link to SSW Page), and school nurse Kim Sluder (sluderk@wilkes.k12.nc.us) can help your family access information and resources for your child's health and overall well being.

You can contact them all on ClassDojo, by email, or by calling the office at 336-838-4261.

School starts at 7:50 each day. Students who are participating will be marked PRESENT or ABSENT. If your child is not in school, you will need to send in absence notes the next day and it will be coded as excused or unexcused. Written notes are required and can come directly from the parent/guardian or a medical office. Also note that ClassDojo messages are great for communicating an absence, but they do NOT serve as legal documentation of absences. Please send a written note. Thanks in advance for your help!