Hello Parkwood Families,

It was so wonderful to see all of you during Open House this past Thursday!  The amount of smiles and hugs I received truly filled my heart and has me even more excited for the first day of school.  I want to thank all of my Parkwood families for showing up and making all of us feel so lucky and thankful to have the best students and families in DPS! 

Monday, August 29^th is the BIG day and all of our Panthers will arrive to the building ready to learn and grow!  Please remember that arrival at Parkwood begins at 7:15am.  We will have staff available to show or escort students to their various locations to ensure they arrive to their destination safely.  The instructional day begins at 7:45am and all of our teachers have worked very hard to begin building amazing communities within their classrooms.

Reminders – Kindergarteners will be on a staggered schedule this week, so please make sure to adhere to the following schedule for your students based on their last name.

• Tuesday, August 30th: Last name starting with A-H
• Wednesday, August 31st: Last name starting with I-P
• Thursday, September 1st: Last name starting with Q-Z

You can also refer to the Kindergarten Staggered Entry Letter to confirm when your student should attend school this week.  No Kindergarten students will attend school on Monday, August 29th or Friday, September 2nd of this week.  All Kindergarten students will return for their full schedule on Tuesday, September 6^th.

Our newest Pre-K Panthers to Parkwood will have staggered entry on Monday, August 29^th and Tuesday, August 30^th.  All Pre-K students will return for their full schedule on Wednesday, August 31^st.  Please see the following schedule below for your students based on their last name.

• Students with the last name A-L will attend on Monday and M-Z will attend on Tuesday. 

Car Pool Drop-off – When you arrive to Parkwood on the morning of August 29, please be patient and flexible with the car line.  The first two weeks are hectic for all families and Parkwood staff.  We want to get all of our students out of their cars safely and into the building as efficiently as possible, so please extend grace as we make the process efficient for everyone.  There will be staff in both the upper lot off Revere Road and lower lot of Clermont Road (front entrance of Parkwood) to direct and guide you in the morning.  There will be orange cones in the lower lot set up to guide where cars move from two lanes to one lane.  Please do not remove these cones – a staff member will remove them at 7:15am to begin drop-off.  All cars will stay to the right closest to the school building and pull up to the designated staff member to drop of students.  Once your student is out of the car, please be patient as the cars move out into the left side to leave the car pool lane. 

Pre-K families – will have a different drop-off system because they are new to the school building.  This process is directed by our Pre-K staff and administration to ensure our newest Panthers are escorted into the building by their parent for the first week.  Pre-K families will move to the very front of the lower lot and park alongside the curved sidewalk or available parking space, to escort their students into the building.  A staff member will direct you to where you need to park that will be out of the traffic lane.

Kindergarten families – will be allowed to walk their students into the building the first week of school during staggered entry.  You will have a designated area to park and walk your student into the building that will not interfere with the traffic lane.  All Kindergarten students are dropped-off in the upper lot located off Revere Road.

Dismissal:

This year, we will be using a new system for dismissal for our car riders. Kindergarten and 5^thgrade students will continue to be dropped off/ picked up in the Upper Lot off Revere Road. Students in Pre-K, 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th grades will use the Lower Lot off Clermont Road. If you have more than one student at Parkwood and any of them are in Kindergarten or 5^th grade, your family will use the Upper Lot off Revere Road.

At Open House, you received a car dismissal template to put on the dashboard of your car. If you did not attend Open House, your child will bring home the template the first day of school. Please begin using this template as soon as you receive it so that we can move the car line as quickly as possible. Your child has a specific dismissal number assigned to them on that dismissal template. Prior to your arrival at school, you will scan the QR code on your dismissal template, enter your child’s name, and type their dismissal number under their correct grade level. Please pay special attention to your child’s grade level on the form. If you do not put your child’s dismissal number in the correct grade level, their teacher will not see it and your child will therefore not be ready for pickup. If you have more than one child, you can list each of their names on the first line, and then you will type their corresponding dismissal numbers under the correct grade level and submit. This will notify your child’s teacher of your pending arrival so that your child is at the car line waiting when you arrive. Feel free to complete this form in advance of your arrival so we can keep the car line moving. At any time that you need an additional car dismissal template for other cars in your household, please let your teacher know, or you can find the template here.

Visitor Guidelines:  We are extremely happy to welcome our families back into the building.  However, there are still guidelines we are expected to follow to ensure the safety and health of our staff, students and families.  Parents and guardians of students in first grade and above will not be permitted to walk students to class or visit classrooms.  This does not include parent/teacher conferences, parent meetings, or in-person school hosted events.  This is to reduce traffic within the school building at a very busy time in the morning and limit interactions and exposures for all of our school community.  All visitors must adhere to current masking policies, at this time mask are recommended not required.

There are many ways to stay connected to our community.  Please follow Parkwood Elementary on our Facebook page and website.

Please reach out to me if you have any questions or need assistance!  We are super excited to see all of our Panthers in the building on Monday!  Enjoy your weekend and as always Parkwood Panthers…Show PRIDE!