The Jaguar Journal
September 2021
James Sales Elementary
Email: jamessales@fpschools.org
Website: jamessales.fpschools.org
Location: 1301 113th St S, Tacoma, WA, USA
Phone: 253-298-4200
Brandy Nelson - Principal
Joy Sims - Assistant Principal
Office Hours - 8:15 to 3:30
253-298-4200 / FAX 253-298-4215
Website - jamessales.fpschools.org
Dates To Remember
August 31 ~ First day of School!!!
September 3 ~ NO SCHOOL
September 6 ~ NO SCHOOL - Labor Day
September 15 ~ EARLY RELEASE - 1:55
September 16 ~ Picture Day
September 22 ~ EARLY RELEASE - 1:55
September 29 ~ EARLY RELEASE - 1:55
October 4 ~ NO SCHOOL
October 5-8 ~ Student-led Conferences - EARLY RELEASE - 11:55
From the Principal's Office
Hello James Sales Families!
Welcome to the 2021-2022 school year! It was great to see so many of you at our Virtual Zoom Back-to-School Night last week. The positive energy from all the students and their eagerness to return back to school was great to see. Smiles, smiles and more smiles! What a great way to start our school year.
As the new school year begins, I want to remind all families of our safety procedures in place. All staff and students are expected to wear masks unless eating or drinking. This year students will be eating breakfast in class and lunch in the gym. Since masks will be off during eating, we are required to be at a level 0 (voices off) voice while eating. Once students are done eating and masks are back on, students may whisper to friends next to them. Frequent washing of hands and desks will continue multiple times throughout the day as well. Thank you for keeping your child home if they or someone in the home is ill.
Finally, our office doors will open each morning at 8:40am and close at 3:30pm. Students may enter the building at 8:40am. We really encourage students to ride the bus, but if you decide to drop them off and pick them up, please note our procedures. Parents must remain in their car and line up until we are ready for drop off/pick-up. A staff member will open your car door to let your child in/out. Thank you for driving slowly and safely in our pick up zone. In the morning, students will be dropped off in front of the main office area. In the afternoon, please pull around and look for your child’s grade level sign. First you will see 5th, then 4th, 3rd, 2nd, 1st and Kindergarten at the end. Thank you for your help, patience, cooperation and support as we work to ensure that our students are safe.
I truly look forward to partnering with you this year.
Respectfully,
Brandy Nelson
Principal
James Sales Elementary
Please Remember
Schedule Changes
Bus Procedures
Please be patient during the first days of school. The buses may be running late. We have a very helpful transportation department, so if you have any questions or issues about something that happened on the bus, at the bus stop, or regarding a late bus, please call the Transportation office directly at 253-298-3865.
Sign up for Bus Bulletin for timely bus notifications: www.busbulletin.com/parents
If you wish your child to ride a bus other than his or her normal bus or to get off at a different bus stop, you must send a note with the bus numbers and different stop listed. The same holds true if you want your child to walk rather than ride the bus. Sending a note with your request will cut down on the amount of phone calls our busy office receives each day. Without a note or phone call, we will not allow students to walk or change their regular bus or bus stop.
Please be aware that any bus-riding kindergarten student that is not met at the bus after school will be returned to James Sales for parent pick-up. It is very important to meet your students at the bus stop on time!
Student Drop-off and Pick-up
Drop off: We want all of our Jaguars to be safe! Beginning at 8:40, when our doors open, we have supervision to welcome students in front of the school. Parents and students are to stay in their car in line until the car reaches a staff member who will help the student out of the vehicle. Parents who walk their children to school will say good-bye to them outside of the school. If you arrive prior to 8:40 please stay with your child until the doors of the school open. Due to COVID restrictions, parents will not be able to enter the school with their child. Thank you for your help with this! The office will be open to parents in the mornings if assistance is needed.
Pick up: All parent-transported students are picked up in front of the school. Parents stay in their car and, in turn, drive to the appropriate grade level sign to find their child(ren). Staff members will help students into their vehicles.
If you need to pick up your child early from school, please come to the office to sign him or her out. One of the office staff will call your child from the classroom. As stated in the student handbook, we will not release students from 2:40 to 3:25 PM, or the last forty-five minutes of the day on early release days. Please schedule appointments and the corresponding pick-up times so students will not be picked up during the above-mentioned times. For security reasons, you will be asked for identification. Thank you for your help with this.
From the Health Room
Our goal is to keep healthy children learning in the classroom and to get ill children home. Our health-room is staffed daily by an LPN to provide first-aid to students who become ill or injured at school. It is the parent's responsibility to make sure their child does not have symptoms such as fever, stomachache, headache, diarrhea, vomiting, etc. before sending them to school. If your student has any symptoms of illness and is not feeling well, please keep them home. If a student becomes ill at school, they will be placed in the isolation room and the parent or another emergency contact will be called to pick them up.
We will give medications prescribed by state approved medical providers. We must have a new medication order signed by your provider each school year. The state allows for students to be administered only oral medications at school (including inhalers). The two exceptions in this law are for insulin and epi-pen use. The school is unable to give your student ear drops, eye drops, or apply lotions or ointments. All medications, even over-the-counter products such as pain relievers and cough drops, require an order from an approved medical provider.
Please do not send medication to school with your child, as it is illegal for them to carry it on school grounds. Parents must deliver medications to the school.
If you have any questions, please contact our nurse, Jessica Churchill, at 253-298-4223.
Welcome to James Sales
Picture Day!
Free Fair Tickets
Breakfast and Lunch Menus
Nutrition Services
We are pleased that James Sales will once again be participating in the federal Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) Program as part of the National School Lunch and Breakfast Program.
In a CEP school, ALL enrolled students receive a nutritious breakfast and lunch at no cost during the school year, regardless of family income.
If your child brings a lunch from home and wishes to have only milk, it will cost $.55. Milk by itself is not free in a CEP school. Student meal accounts are still available in CEP schools if parents wish to put money on accounts to purchase milk.
If you have any questions concerning school meals or CEP please contact the Nutrition Services Department at 253-298-4618.
Free Developmental Screening
Early Learning Center Registration
Reminders from the Office
- If you need to come into the building, please press the telephone button on your right as you look at the front door. This will enable the office to see you and to buzz you into the entry if needed.
- Please notify the office of any changes in the way your child will go home at the end of the day. We need this information before 2:45 so we have time to get a note to the teacher.
- Call the office if your child will be absent. If they have an appointment, please ask the doctor, dentist, counselor, etc. for a note for school. Offices that treat children are used to giving notes to students for excuses!
- If you need to take your child out of school before the end of the school day, please come before 2:45 so you won't be stuck in the end-of-the-day pick-up line! You will need to sign your child out and wait for them to come from their classroom, so allow plenty of time.
- If your phone number, email address, or home address changes, please let us know so we have the most up-to-date contact information for you. If they become ill, or otherwise need your help, we need a way to contact you! Thank you!
Attendance
Franklin Pierce Schools does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, age, honorably discharged veteran or military status, sexual orientation including gender expression or identity, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a person with a disability in its programs and activities and provides equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. Questions and complaints of alleged discrimination should be directed to James Hester, Compliance Coordinator for State and Civil Rights Laws; Wendy Malich, Title IX Officer; or John Sander, 504/ADA Coordinator at 315 129th ST S, Tacoma, WA 98444-5099 or at (253)298-3000.