Thank you so much to our fabulous PTO and everyone else that helped make our appreciation week so special. It is always nice to feel loved and appreciated and you guys did just that. Also a special thank you to Deputy Harrell and Ms. Jackson for an amazing 5th grade DARE graduation ceremony. Congratulations to our Math Counts team for finishing 5th out of 21 teams. We are very proud of you!

This week students will begin their end of year diagnostic assessments. All students in grades k-5 take a math diagnostic through iReady. Our k-3 students will begin their Reading End of Year Dibels assessments and grades 4 & 5 will have end of year Check Ins. As you can see, May is full of assessments. While we do not want our students stressing out about end of year assessments, we do want them to take their time, use their strategies and put forth their best effort. This data is used for lots of things, but most importantly to improve instruction; therefore, we want the data to be an accurate reflection of their learning. The same is true for state EOG tests which are May 31, June 6, and June 8. I know how hard our students and staff have worked all year and I know that they are extremely smart kiddos, let's show everyone else just how smart we really are! Go gettem' Pirates!

Looking at the week ahead, on Monday our 5th grade parents are invited in attend the Rising 6th graders Parent Night at Swansboro Middle School at 6 pm in the auditorium. Tuesday students will receive interim reports. Parents please sign and return these. If grades are not where they should be, encourage students to speak with their teacher about how they can bring their grades up. Missing or late assignments can really impact a grades, so make sure that your child is staying up with their assignments. Wednesday in National School Nurse Day and we certainly have the best nurse around, so take a few minutes to send Nurse Mollie Sammons a little note or email letting her know just how grateful we are for her! We will also have our monthly Strategic Planning Meeting Wednesday at 4 pm in the media center. This weekend our Dreamer's Club will be performing Annie Jr. and you will not want to miss out on this! The show will be Friday, May 12th and Saturday, May 13th at 6:30 pm. Tickets are $5 for school aged children and older and may be purchased online through your child's school cash online account or at the door! Come on out this weekend and support our talented students!

School picture packets were sent home with students on Friday. If you do not want to purchase these pictures, please return them as soon as possible. Parents will be charged for any pictures that are not purchased or returned by May 19th.

It is also time for our yearly parent surveys. The survey itself looks a little different this year, but still only takes a few minutes to complete. Our Strategic Planning Team always reviews these survey results and uses the data to improve our school. We appreciate your feedback! Click here to take the SBES Parent Survey: https://eprovesurveys.advanc-ed.org/surveys/#/action/222843/10032.

Also, I have noticed that a lot of parents seem to have forgotten our car pool procedures. Please take a few minutes to review these in the newsletter below. While I know that everyone's time is valuable, I know that student safety is more valuable than those few minutes that you are trying to save. Cutting through restricted areas, back up instead of waiting patiently, letting students out instead of waiting on staff to open the doors, and dropping students off in undesignated areas are all violations of our procedures and put children at risk of serious injury or even death. Kids and cars don't mix, please be patient, follow the procedures and let our students know that you care about their safety.

At SBES, we do not assign much homework, however, all students should be completing at least 45 minutes per week on iReady (math) and at least 45 minutes per week on Amplify (reading). These programs are adaptive and are based on your child's individual needs according to their diagnostic assessments. Reading nightly and practicing math facts will also help our students reach their fullest potential. We appreciate parents support of our efforts.

Looking to pay school fees, pay for a field trip, sign a permission form or buy spirit wear? This is all done online through schoolcashonline.com. A few field trip reminders: 1. Everyone must have a signed permission slip to attend a trip (even those with fee waivers). 2. If forms are not returned by the due date, your child will not be able to attend. We have to secure food, transportation and purchase tickets ahead of time; therefore, we are unable to accommodate last minute additions. 3. Chaperones are not allowed on all trips, but for those in which chaperones are needed, the chaperones MUST be fingerprinted and approved through OCS. This is a lengthy process which is why we encouraged everyone to attend the volunteer training sessions at the beginning of the school year.

Check out Tutor.com, a free online tutoring services available to all military families. It is for all grades and all subjects and you can even schedule a live sessions.

Please keep in mind that meals are NOT free for students this year. If a child does not bring a lunch from home and does not have money, we will allow the student to charge a meal. Parents will be responsible for paying balances.

Breakfast $1.25

Lunch $2.50

To apply for free or reduced meals, click here: https://www.lunchapplication.com/

To add money to your child's meal account, click here: https://www.k12paymentcenter.com/

To access the school menus, click here: https://www.schoolnutritionandfitness.com/index.php?sid=1501179229405&page=menus

All parents are encouraged to sign up for Parent Portal. You can monitor attendance within the Portal and you can see your child's grades, assignments & due dates for students in grades 3-5. Click this link to sign up: https://onslow.powerschool.com/public/. You can contact the data manager Lori Jones at lori.jones@onslow.k12.nc.us to help with this process. She can look up your child's ID number when you email her the completed form and copy of your ID.

If you are interested in either of these positions, please visit the Onslow County Schools webpage for more information!

*Send in used sneakers, no matter the condition, and we will get paid to recycle them!

*Link your Lowes Foods Card to Swansboro Elementary and a portion of sales on Lowes products will go to our school.

*Sign up for Box Tops and link to our school. No more clipping, it's digital! Download the Box Tops for Education app here: https://btfe.smart.link/c2jjdifkw?referral_code=NQGY5JLL

*Participate in our SBES Spirit Nights:

Burrito Shak- 4th Tuesday of the month. In person and call in orders only. No online orders.

Sweeter Things- 3rd Friday of the month. You must tell them you are here to support SBES!

1. The teacher is always the first point of contact. If you cannot resolve an issue after meeting with the teacher, please schedule an appointment to meet with administration.

2. See our data manager (Lori Jones) to sign up for Parent Portal. This gives you up to date info on student attendance and assignments for (3rd-5th grade).

3. Pay attention to the weekly ALL CALL and EMAIL that is sent out every Sunday evening. If you don't want to listen to the message, no worries, the email contains the transcript as well as important links and cute pictures of our students:) If you are not receiving the call and email, please let Lori Jones (lori.jones@onslow.k12.nc.us) know so that we can make sure your info. is up to date. This is the method that we will use to communicate with parents in the event of an emergency, so you need to make sure that you are receiving these calls.

4. Check out our school website: https://www.onslow.k12.nc.us/swansboroes

5. Check out our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/swansboroelementaryschool/

6. Remember, for safety reasons, we do not give out student information over the phone and all changes in transportation must be done through School Dismissal Manager.

7. If there are custody issues, we must have a copy of the current custody paperwork on file with a judge's signature. If not, both parents have equal access to the student and their educational records.

8. If you have concerns regarding bus routes, stops, schedules and drivers, please direct those concerns to our transportation coordinator Barbie Massey at 326-1436. SBES does not have direct communication with the buses; therefore, this must go through the transportation dept. Please remember if you would like to stay up to date with bus changes and delays, please download the Edulog Parent Portal App. More info can be found here:https://www.onslow.k12.nc.us/Page/1266

May 8-26 EOY Math & Reading Diagnostics

Tue 5/9/2023 Interim Reports

Wed 5/10/2023 National School Nurse Day

Wed 5/10/2023 4:00 PM Strategic Planning Meeting

Fri 5/12/2023 Dreamer's Club production of Annie Jr. @ 6:30 pm

Sat 5/13/2023 Dreamer's Club production of Annie Jr. @ 6:30 pm

Fri 5/19/2023 NCDPI Home Base Maintenance

Tue 5/23/2023 Military Coffee Talk @ Nuova Luna Caffe

Tue 5/23/2023 5:00 PM Burrito Shack

Mon 5/29/2023 Holiday

Wed 5/31/2023 EOG Reading Grade 3 & Science Grade 5

Fri 6/2/2023 End of Grading Period

Tue 6/6/2023 EOY Reading Gr 4-5, RTA Gr 3 Select Students

Tue 6/6/2023 6:00 PM Board of Education Meeting

Thu 6/8/2023 EOG Math Gr 3-5

Fri 6/9/2023 Last Day for Students- K graduation at 9am, 5th graduation at 11am

Congratulations to Benjamin Sewell (Sparks), Logan McDowall (Fenner), Lavin Nelson (Byrd), Aryn Warmath (O'Brien) for being selected as our Attendance Heroes. These students all had perfect attendance. Way to go Pirates!