DOUGLAS DRAGONEER

Upcoming Events

Sept 22 School picture day

Sept 23 Early Release Day 1:30 pm

Sept 24 Open House/Parent Information

Night, 6:30 pm

Sept 28 Teacher Workday NO SCHOOL

Sept 30 McTeacher Night, 5-8 pm at

7301 Six Forks Rd

Oct. 12-16 Book Fair

Dear Douglas Community,

Welcome back to a new school year! We welcome the new school year, along with new students and families, new schedules (9:05am start time, Early Dismissal on Wednesday at 2:45 pm), and changes in some of our procedures. With our growing enrollment, and in order to arrive and depart on-time safely and efficiently, we have had to adjust!

Additional buses, contract transportation and daycare vehicles have been added to transport many of our students. Our carpool has grown by choice and in support of making our traffic and walkers safer. All these changes have required additional staff and safety patrol to ensure all students are safely in attendance and ready to begin instruction on-time. Early Dismissal (2:45pm) on Wednesdays has called for our whole school community to make adjustments to be sure this hour of Professional Learning Team (PLT) time results in enhanced student learning.

Your support and patience these first few weeks have made for a safe and successful opening. Traffic routes and patterns for vehicles and walkers are much safer. Bus routes and schedules are becoming more consistent and dependable. Carpool is getting more efficient. Most importantly, students are arriving and departing safely and receiving quality instruction everyday.

The Douglas staff and administration thank you for all you have done in implementing the many changes successfully and in contributing to a wonderful beginning of our 2009-2010 school year. I am grateful to serve our school community and looking forward to 2009-2010,

Dr. Susan Spivey

PTA Sponsored Cultural Arts Event

On September 14th, Douglas Elementary enjoyed the first cultural arts event for this school year - a concert by Billy Jonas. A Billy Jonas performance is an explosion of energy. His primary instrument is the audience, where everyone becomes part of the performance. His CD’s, DVD’s and videos have garnered critical acclaim, including Parents Choice Awards; "Bangin' and Sangin'" received a New York Times "Best" listing. The Douglas PTA is very excited to share this experience with our students and we know they all had a good time!

Open House ~ September 24 at 6:30pm

All parents are welcome to the Open House beginning at 6:30pm on Thursday, September 24. We will introduce the PTA Executive Committee, the Douglas staff, approve the PTA budget for 2009-2010, and kick-off our Dragon Fire Campaign. You will also have an opportunity to visit your child’s classroom and talk with teachers. The PTA will be selling t-shirts, magnets and cookbooks before the open house starting at 6pm. The t-shirts (more sizes will be available) are $10, magnets for $5 and the cookbooks for $10.

School Pictures – Please help!

Pictures will be taken on Tuesday,

September 22^nd. If you can volunteer

that day with the fall pictures please

contact Alesia Core at arf@nc.rr.com or

call her at 919-571-5954.

School Spirit Day
Show your school pride and wear your school colors every Friday. Wear green and yellow – the school colors - or your Douglas t-shirt. Let's go Dragons and show your spirit!

McTeacher’s Night @ McDonalds

Come show your Douglas pride and see who might be behind the counter! Join us September 30, from 5-8 pm at the Mcdonald’s located 7301 Six Forks Road. You never know…a visit from Ronald McDonald himself may happen!

Dragon Fire Campaign – on Fire!

It might get a little HOT in here…….The Dragon Fire Flames will be lit at the Open House on September 24^th!

It’s time for our Annual Dragon Fire Campaign…an effort to raise money to support school programs and activities at Douglas without asking our children to sell products. 100% of the donations are tax-deductible and provide direct resources to the students and staff at Douglas. Be on the lookout for more information in your child’s Monday folder and help us “fan the flames” of support for Douglas!!

Volunteer Information

If you haven’t already registered with Wake County in order to volunteer at Douglas, please stop by the Media Center and take just a few minutes to complete the form on-line. If you have already registered, but are not sure if you have been cleared, please contact Ms. Greene or Ms. Bussell.

SNEAKER NEWS!!

PLEASE have your children wear tennis shoes EVERYDAY - for safety reasons. Our students have recess everyday and run laps. Rocks, sticks, and having exposed feet on the equipment is asking for an accident to happen when Crocs and sandals are worn. Thank you for all your support and in helping keep our children active and safe.

Kim Hamilton, PE Specialist

Recycle those Pop Tabs and Bottle Tops!

Last year Douglas students collected thousands of soda can tabs to donate to Ronald McDonald House. This is an easy and excellent way to help support this worthy cause that helps hundreds of families each year have a place to stay when their child is in need of medical help and they are too far away from home. As your PTA president, I can tell you that I have experienced this first hand when my youngest was hospitalized at Duke a few years ago. Although I didn’t need a place to stay, the Ronald McDonald Room at Duke Hospital provided our family with a place away from the small hospital room, with a hot shower, snacks, drinks, and place for family to gather.

Over 25,000 plastic bottle tops were collected last year and donated to Aveda Salons. Aveda is dedicated to recycling bottle tops to be used on their own products. Yet another way that our community has found a way to go “green”.

Please bring your soda-can tabs to your classroom and find the bins in the hallway for your plastic bottle tops. Thank you!

BoxTops for Education

It's time to turn in the BoxTops you've been collecting all summer. Last year we earned $903.50 from the BoxTops collection. Our goal this year is $1,000. Please neatly trim the General Mills BoxTops from participating products, put them in a plastic baggie with your child's and teacher's name on a piece of paper. Send them in to your teacher or drop them in the collection container outside the Parent Resource Center by OCT. 20.Please make sure the expiration dates are clear on each trimmed BoxTop. For a complete list of participating products, please visit BoxTops4Education.com. If you have any questions, contact Laurie Lin at changlin@bellsouth.net. Thank you!

Week of September 14 – September 25