Benefield Parent Newsletter
Titans United: Shining Through It All
July 13, 2021
Greetings Parents & Guardians:
I hope that you are enjoying your summer with some much-needed rest and relaxation after a very trying school year. You truly deserve it. In reflecting on this past year, we experienced some major hurdles due to the pandemic, but we made it through successfully. This was all due to your support and commitment to Benefield. There were times that we were uncertain about our next steps, but with your belief and dedication, we were able to remain focused on our most important objective, which was to provide a quality learning experience for Benefield students both virtually and in-person. As a community, you partnered with us to ensure that our students were safe and ready to achieve at high levels, and for that, we are immensely grateful.
Our students put forth their greatest efforts during such a difficult time, and this resulted in lots of progress in the classroom on their instructional activities and assessments. Of course, there are some learning gaps due to the pandemic, but we have already constructed some effective plans to support and improve their performance in every area. The Summer Enrichment Acceleration Program (SEA) that occurred this summer was one, and there will be several others implemented throughout the entire school year to support the students’ academic and social/emotional needs.
As we prepare for this year’s educational journey, I want to encourage you to continue partnering and supporting our efforts with the students. To begin this process, please join us in exercising our school-wide theme which is Titans United: Shining Through It All. This theme charges us to continue to go above and beyond together to impact students and ensure they shine as brightly as they possibly can.
The first step in executing the school-wide theme is participating in Open House/Meet Your Teacher Day which is scheduled to occur in-person at Benefield. We will also provide an alternative time for those parents that prefer a virtual meeting. In-person Open House/Meet Your Teacher Day sessions will be on July 29, 2021 from 8:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. It is structured so that you can visit with the teacher and gain some insight about what the instructional year will be like for your child/student. The session is for both new and returning students. Please know that we are extremely excited about this opportunity especially about seeing our students return to school. We hope you are as well.
For those of you anxiously awaiting class assignments, post cards will be mailed to students this week. Our grade level supply lists are on our webpage so you can shop whenever is most convenient for you. For your viewing and as a reminder, a copy of the GCPS school calendar can be accessed using the link below. Please know that the first day of school is August 4, 2021 for all students. However, the students will be staggered in terms of their physical arrival to the school building. In more specific terms, only kindergarten and 1st grade students will report to the physical building on August 4, 2021. The students in grades 2 & 3 will report to the physical building on August 5, 2021. The students in grades 4 & 5 will report to the physical building on August 9, 2021. Although the dates for physical attendance in the building are different, all students will begin their first day of school on August 4, 2021. For those students that are not reporting physically in the building on August 4, 2021 they will participate virtually with their teacher until they report physically to the school according to the scheduled date for physical attendance in the building. Chromebooks/laptops will be issued to students that need them for the start of school. The devices will be issued during the Open House Meet/Your Teacher Day and will need to be returned to Benefield on your child’s first day in the building.
If you haven’t done so already, please sign up for Remind text messages to receive the most updated information from Benefield. If you have more than one child at Benefield, you do not have to sign up more than one time. Please sign up using the grade level of your youngest child at Benefield. Remind codes are as follows:
PreK text @p-titans to 81010
Kindergarten text@ k-titans to 81010
1st grade text @1-titans to 81010
2nd grade text @2-titans to 81010
3rd grade text @3-titans to 81010
4th grade text @4-titans to 81010
5th grade text @5-titans to 81010
Please continue to view our website often, as this will be one of the best sources of information. You can access our Benefield Elementary School website from the school system’s homepage: https://www.gcpsk12.org/BenefieldES. Once again, thank you for your support. If you have any specific questions prior to Open House/Meet Your Teacher Day, please be sure to contact the school at 770-962-3771. We are looking forward to a great school year. Take care and see you soon! 😊
Honored to serve as your principal,
Mrs. Shonda Gipson Stevens
Principal
Calendar of Events
July 29-- Meet the Teacher Day,* 8:00-11:30 a.m.
In order to reduce the number of people in the building,
we will need to limit visitors to one adult per child.
August 4 (Wednesday) - First day of school for all GCPS students; (K and 1 will be in-person & 2-5 will be digital)
August 5 - (Thursday) First day of in-person learning for grades 2 and 3
August 9 (Monday)- First day of in-person learning for grades 4 and 5
Yearbook Distribution
Should you have any questions, please feel free to email mailto:xandria.mcbride@gcpsk12.org
Sign-Up for Remind!
Sign up for the grade level of your youngest child if you have more than one child at Benfield. To join a class on Remind, participants text the class code below to 81010.
- PreK text @p-titans
- Kindergarten text@ k-titans
- 1st grade text @1-titans
- 2nd grade text @2-titans
- 3rd grade text @3-titans
- 4th grade text @4-titans
- 5th grade text @5-titans
- Play2Learn text @gotitans-1
Do you need help with reading to your child?
Benefield teachers have created a collection of videos to help families get the most out of reading to their young children.
These videos are available on the Benefield eClass homepage.
Benefield Elementary School
Heather Tack, Assistant Principal
Kelli O'Loughlin, Assistant Principal
Michelle Vendryes, Assistant Principal
Website: https://www.gcpsk12.org/benefieldes