Principal’s Otter Splash 5/13/2022 Versión en español aquí

Hello, Oak Grove family! We hope you had a wonderful weekend! Our staff wanted to thank all the families that made us feel appreciated the past two weeks. Your kindness and generosity mean more than you know. We also want to thank the PTA for the treats this week: Ice Cream Monday and Luncheon Tuesday. We have the most supportive PTA, and we could not do all we do without you.

 

If you’re looking for an idea for dinner this week, the PTA is sponsoring another “Eating Out” night on May 18 at the Burrito Shak from 4-9 PM.

 

Tuesday, May 17, is Election Day, and Oak Grove Elementary serves as a polling place. We will not be able to have outdoor lunches on Tuesday to try to help keep our Otters separated from the voters.

 

PTA Otter Auction and Raffle:

The PTA is thrilled to report that the Otter Auction and Raffle were a HUGE success! We doubled our goal, raising more than $6,000!! Thank you to parents for donating to the baskets; teachers for donating their time; and all supporters who bid on items and purchased raffle tickets. We're excited to put these funds to good use next year!

The Otter Auction and Raffle closed on Friday, May 13. If your family received either an Auction or Raffle prize, someone will be in touch with you soon. The staff has the list of raffle winners, and they will be scheduling lunch with your Otter in the coming weeks before the end of the school year.

 

Kindergarten Update:

Welcome New Otters! Thank you to those families that were able to attend Kindergarten Orientation. If you missed it, Ms. Dahlhoff sent out Track assignments and the Orientation slide presentation on Friday, May 13. Please reach out to Ms. Dahlhoff by email with any questions. She will get back with you soon.

 

Upcoming Family Engagement Opportunities:

Wake County Family Academy offers learning opportunities for families via their Facebook page. Our Family Engagement SIP Committee found some upcoming courses that may benefit your family. They are:

 

How to Support Academic Growth over School Breaks 

Day/Time: Tuesday, May 24, 2022, 5:30pm-6:30pm 

Platform: Facebook Live 

Language: English 

Link: https://www.facebook.com/WCPSS-Family-Academy-277563949100964

 

End of Grade Testing (3^rd-5^th Grade Students)

We have finalized the dates for the End of Grade Testing for our 3^rd-5^th grade students. Please see this flyer for the dates of each test by track and grade level:

End of Grade Testing Schedule

In preparation for End of Grade testing, teachers are requesting that all 3rd-5^th grade students leave their school issued chrome book and charger at school the nights before a scheduled test to ensure that all devices are fully charged for testing the next day. Please be sure to send your child's chrome book and charger to school each day within the testing window for your corresponding track. All items will be returned to students when testing in complete.

 

Fifth Grade Families, Save the Date for Moving Up Ceremonies:

We will be celebrating our 5^th graders during Moving Up Ceremonies again this year. Please save the following dates by track:

Track 1 Moving Up Ceremony: June 2, 10:00 AM

Track 2, 3, 4 Moving Up Ceremony: June 27, 10:00 AM

More information can be found here: Moving Up Flyer.

 

PTA Partners with Local Artist (Update): 

The PTA has an exciting opportunity for you to remember your child’s time at Oak Grove. The local artist, Lew Wilson, has created a print of our beautiful school. You can even order an ornament!  

All items purchased on the site using our code, OGES, counts towards our 20%.

https://bit.ly/3KMKxhY

 

 

Previous Splash Announcements

 

Important Information about Remediation and Re-administration of EOG:

This school year, WCPSS is conducting district wide End of Grade (EOG) retesting for students in grades 3-5.  What was formerly the last two days of school will now be used for remediation and retesting for students that qualify in grades 3-5.  These remediation days will no longer be regular school days for the 21-22 school year.

 

Therefore, the following dates are the NEW dates for the last day of school for ALL students:

 

⭐Track 1 Last Day of School for Regular Instruction for PreK-5: Thursday, June 2nd, 2022

⭐Tracks 2, 3, 4 Last Day of School for Regular Instruction for PreK-5: Monday, June 27th, 2022

 

Only students in grades 3-5 who qualify for retesting AND choose to participate will be attending school on June 3rd and 6th for Track 1 and June 28th and 29th for Tracks 2, 3, & 4. You will be contacted by the school directly if you are eligible for retesting AND if you have opted in to test. If you have NOT been contacted about your child being eligible for a retest, your child should not be on campus on the re-administration days. If your family has a unique situation on these newly repurposed school days, such that this adjustment creates a situation where you need support, please contact our school counselors, Ms. Michot or Ms. Schira. The Opt-in form is no longer active. If you missed completing the form, please reach out to the school.  

 

Voluntary MAKO COVID testing begins April 8:

Voluntary MAKO COVID testing will begin April 8 at Oak Grove. Participation in the program is voluntary. A parent or guardian must register any student under 18 years old in order to participate. To learn more about COVID-19 testing, visit www.MAKOstrongschoolsNC.com. 

If you are interested in having your child participate in the pool testing, please find the registration link below. The weekly testing day for Oak Grove is Fridays at 2:45. Results from the pooled testing return 24-48 hours. If your child’s pool is positive, you will be contacted and scheduled to take an individual test.

Registration for students: Oak Grove Elem COVID-19 Testing Registration

 

The PTA DEI Committee Wants YOU!

This year (2021-2022) the Oak Grove PTA created a committee focused on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) that began meeting in the fall. Comprised of parents, PTA leaders, and teachers, the committee began its work by adopting the following statement:

At Oak Grove, we will advocate for our school family by creating systems that promote an inclusive community, embrace diversity, and prioritize equitable access to opportunity. We will intentionally work to counteract racial and socioeconomic inequities, and do so in a way that maintains the dignity of all.

In the fall, the committee hosted a parent workshop on the topic of talking to kids about race, presented by Dr. MariaRosa Rangel, Director of Family and Community Engagement, and Stephanie Mitchell, Wake PTA DEI Co-Chair. We also talked about ways we can be more mindful of inclusion when planning programming and engaging in communications. 

 

As we launch into Spring, we are excited to reconvene and continue our work! And we would love for more parents to get involved! 

Meetings are held virtually at varying times, to help make attendance easy. We hope you will join us in our effort to make our school a place where everyone feels welcomed and loved. To get involved, you can contact the committee chair, Sarah Stoeckel, at sarah.e.stoeckel@gmail.com.

 

Outdoor Lunch Update:

Due to an insufficient number of volunteers, we've had to cancel our outdoor lunch schedule for the past 2 weeks. It's very important to us to provide this opportunity to our students, so we've come up with another plan. Classroom teachers have been informed that if they would like to have their class eat outside, they may do so, if they are scheduled to eat outside for that week and they have a parent volunteer that is willing to come in and monitor their class for outdoor eating.  Parent volunteers would only be responsible for watching their child's class. If you would like to monitor your own child's class for outdoor lunch, please reach out to your child's teacher for more information.  We hope this provides more opportunities for our students to enjoy the nice weather while eating their lunch. If you have additional questions, please reach out to Ms. Tysor at jtysor@wcpss.net.

 

Updates to the When to Return Page:

WCPSS health guidance follows requirements from the NC Department of Health and Human Services and recommendations from Wake County Public Health. This week, there were updates made to the When to Return page. Please continue to monitor your child’s health closely. You can see the updates here: www.wcpss.net/whentoreturn

 

PTA Partners to Provide Track-out Opportunity (Spring Addition):

Over The Moon Play Space is offering play-based STEM and Art track out and summer camps, with fun themes each week. They are going to donate 10% of all camp revenue booked with code OGES between now and the end of Spring to the Oak Grove PTA!  Go to https://www.overthemoonplay.com/camps to learn about the camps and book a spot before they fill up!

 

Chromebook UPDATE from Technology Services:

Technology Services has seen an increase in security issues due to WCPSS devices not being restarted regularly. Restarting a device allows updates for new security and productivity features. Students and staff should restart their WCPSS devices once per week. Consider setting a specific day for this, such as a Restart Wednesday or Restart Friday. (Important: Closing the lid only locks the device and does not shut it down.) Restarting also can resolve many other common issues impacting student devices. Always restart a WCPSS device before contacting the Help Desk.

 

 

As always, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Ms. Tysor or me with any questions you may have. We are happy to help.

 

All my best,

 

Stephanie Bias, Principal

 

Reminders:

• Join the PTA: https://oakgrove.memberhub.store/

• May 14: PTA School Beautification Saturday (10:00 AM)
• May 18: Burrito Shak Eating Out Night (4-9 PM) Flyer Link: https://bit.ly/3K5aJ6v
• May 20: Q4 Interim Reports go home (Tracks 3 & 4)
• May 23: Track 1, 5^th Grade Science EOG
• May 24: Track 1, 3^rd Grade Reading EOG, 4^th Grade Reading EOG, 5^th Grade Math EOG
• May 25: Track 1, 3^rd Grade Math EOG, 4^th Grade Math EOG
• May 26: Track 1, 5^th Grade Reading EOG
• May 30: No School, Memorial Day Holiday