Welcome Back Letter

Dear Parents and Families,

Welcome back to another great year at Willow Springs!  We are excited as we continue to grow in our abilities to embrace the needs of every child.  This year, we are getting a new playground that is fully accessible to all and includes new and improved climbing structures.  While it is under construction, students will continue to have recess, but well removed from the building of the playground for safety.  We hope to unveil the new structures before the end of summer.

We are also excited about our partnership with Discovery Education, which helps us better integrate technology into our classrooms in meaningful ways.  We have a team of nine teachers that will serve as learning labs for our staff as we begin this journey, and with the support of our generous parents and PTA, we are on our way to a 3:1 device ratio.  Of course, this is a long-term goal, but one that we are very dedicated to.  We hope your child will enjoy these learning experiences and will talk about the technology experiences throughout the year.

We have added a few technology communication tools, as well.  For transportation information, we are going to add a twitter address for parents to follow.  We will post any late bus information as it happens, so parents can have better access to information regarding afternoon routes.  Keep in mind, we have to know about an issue before we can tweet about it, but we will tweet as soon as we are aware. For bus information, please follow us on twitter @WSESbus. 

Parent weekly messages will also now be posted on my blog at our new website, www.willowspringses.wcpss.net.   Each time I send out a phone message, I will copy that message onto my page, so you can keep up with all of our information.  I hope you will check out our new website – it looks great and is full of everything you ever wanted to know about WSES!

Thank you to our carpool parents for following our afternoon procedures for car-riders.  It will be very important to maintain the 3:35 line up time as we move into a new school year for safety on Dwight Rowland Road.  Please note that we will have new parents joining us, and I ask for everyone’s patience as they are learning the procedures.  We ask that you NOT arrive on campus for car-riders prior to 3:35.  For those of you who may arrive early, we do NOT line cars up until 3:35, so you must park in a parking space (not at the entrance.)  When the line begins at 3:35, we ask for your patience and civility for getting into line.  Your actions are representative of our school population and you are models for your children, so please be patient with one another.

Our first PTA meeting is scheduled for July 22, and it will be a great place for you to come to learn about how to get involved, the budget and expenditures and our fundraisers.  Please join us in the cafeteria at 7:00.

Remember to check your child’s folder regularly and ensure that your child reads every night!!!  We hope to have a great year!