Greetings Stough Families,

It has been a great first week of school!  Here are the weekly updates:

1.  Next week is a four-day week for students.  We look forward to seeing all our Stallions on Tuesday morning, September 6 (Monday is the Labor Day holiday).

2.  It's that time of year to discuss everyone's favorite topic - arrival and dismissal traffic!  Here are a few reminders and updates:

• Please help us by displaying your carpool tags clearly in the afternoon and respect the work of our staff as we try to organize a safe and efficient carpool process.  Stay in the lane you're assigned and follow the merge process each day.  The first two weeks will be slower as we acclimate all our kindergartners and new students (and new parents!) to the procedures.  We anticipate 180 vehicles each afternoon.  Thanks in advance for your patience.
• While sitting in carpool, please do not block the construction entrances on Glenlake and Lake Rim Avenue in the afternoons.  The contractors are doing their best to limit their construction traffic during the dismissal hour each afternoon, but we are hopeful that we can continue to be good neighbors during the duration of their project.  We also are appreciative of their commitment to clean the streets each week.  I will continue to update you in these messages when we learn of lane closures or other events that may impact our school.
• We also appreciate the presence of the Raleigh PD during arrival and dismissal hours the first week of school.  Please remind friends and families to adhere to the school zone speed limit on Edwards Mill Road during those key times.  
• For buses, remember to utilize the Here Comes the Bus App and follow us at @Stoughbuses on Twitter for dismissal updates.

Thanks for supporting our processes and guidelines to keep our students safe every day.  If you have questions, please reach out to us in the front office.

3.  If your student is planning to use the cafeteria line for breakfasts and lunches, please be sure you have either applied for meal benefits or added funds to your child's account.  You may also want to bookmark the calendars for breakfast and lunch menus.

4.  Hopefully, you are already aware that our school is committed to a character education program called The Positivity Project.  This will be our fifth year focusing on 24 character traits that we hope to nurture in all of our students on a daily basis.  Each Friday, we will include information and links to parent resources in the weekly message about the trait that our students are currently studying.  Teamwork will be the first trait, and I'll give you some resources on that next week.  We hope you will partner with us in this valuable work to support our students!

5.  Our Open House for all Stough parents/guardians will be the evening of Thursday, September 15.  A brief program with school administration and our PTA will begin at 6:30pm in the gym.  There will be two twenty-minute classroom sessions to support families that have more than one student at Stough.  There will also be an AIG/SSA interest meeting.  Here's the breakdown:

• General Welcome and PTA Meeting, 6:30-7pm in the gym
• Classroom Session 1, 7:10-7:30
• Classroom Session 2, 7:40-8:00 
• AIG Interest Session, 7:40-8:00 in the Media Center

Please note that we are not able to provide childcare at this event. There will be future family nights where this will be a possibility.  If kids do attend, they must stay with their parents/guardians for the duration of the evening. 

6.  PTA Updates:

PTA Membership

Have a great three-day weekend,
Chris Cox, Principal