Welcome to Jamestown Elementary School! The Jamestown New Families Committee was formed to introduce new students and families to Jamestown. A Back to School Open House is scheduled at Jamestown on Thursday, August 28, 2008, from 9:00 – 10:30 a.m. This provides an opportunity for students and parents to visit their classrooms and meet their teachers and classmates. School maps, bus schedules, and information about drop-off and pick-up procedures will also be available at the Open House. New families are invited to arrive a bit early, at 8:45 a.m., and meet in the multi-purpose room. Our principal and assistant principal will be there to welcome you and answer your questions. The information contained in this packet should also answer many of your questions.

Volunteer buddy families have been assigned to families of new students in grades 1 – 5. A buddy family is a returning Jamestown family who has a child in the same grade as your child. A resource for kindergarten families are returning parents to Jamestown with rising kindergarten children. If you have a kindergartner and have questions, these volunteers can help you. Kindergarten parent volunteers are listed on the back page of this packet. If you are a new family and do not have a buddy, please contact Rhonda Snoeyenbos, 703-534-5918, rsnoeyenbos@msn.com, or Ellie Mack, 703-534-2928, khmack@aol.com, from the New Families Committee.

Laura Annan Glascoe, the Jamestown Principal, and Kenwyn Schaffner, the Assistant Principal, are available on a daily basis to answer questions or deal with needs as they arise. They are at school from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on weekdays. If you need to meet with them during school hours, please make an appointment so that the conference does not conflict with classroom commitments.

Two websites contain lots of helpful information. The Jamestown PTA website is www.jamestownpta.org. Some portions of the website are password protected. All parents are encouraged to sign up for the PTA e-mail distribution list which will help you stay connected to the school and provide current information throughout the year. Stay informed and sign up today at jamestownpta@comcast.net. If you have any questions about the PTA site, please contact Laura Cressey, 703-532-1938, cresseyle@yahoo.com. Another helpful website, which provides information about Jamestown and the rest of the Arlington School System, is www.arlington.k12.va.us/schools/jamestown.

Below is special information regarding the first day of school. Information that will take you beyond the first day is contained both in this letter (following “Facts about the First Day”) and in this packet.

Facts about the First Day
School starts at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 2nd. Students may arrive at 8:45 a.m. and go directly into their classrooms on the first day of school.

The Transportation Department can be reached at (703) 228-6640. Kindergarten bus riders will be met by their teachers at their buses, so please seat them in the front of the bus. There will be safety patrols and staff members available at school to direct other students to their classrooms if they need help.

If you drive your children to school and would like to escort them inside, be sure to allow extra time for street parking. Please pay careful attention to “no parking” signs, crossing guards and police officers. The area around the school will be very busy and congested on the first day. Driving visibility can be limited due to buses pulling in and out, so please drive slowly and carefully! For everyone’s safety, please cross Delaware Street at the crosswalks only.

If you drive your children to school and plan to drop them off, the following information will be helpful. Drop Off on Delaware Street - In the morning, during bus times when the front loop is closed, students may be dropped off along Delaware Street. Please approach the school from Albemarle Street and use the curb along the side field for student drop off. Do not park your car in this area during morning drop off time. We are requesting that you pull in and fill in the drop off area along Delaware Street. There are orange cones that clearly mark the drop off space. Some adults and patrols will be there to greet you. Please wait for the parents in the cars in front of you to pull out and follow their lead. Please do not pass cars that are unloading children as some vans open on the left. We want to be sure all our children are safely dropped off in the morning. Pick Up Procedures - In the afternoon, parents who are picking up students may park along both sides of Delaware Street and meet their children outside. All students in grades 1-5 who are being picked up will exit the side door in the third grade wing to meet their parents. Montessori students and Kindergarten students will be exiting from the Arts Wing lobby door. Bus riders will be exiting from the front doors.

If your children walk to school, be sure to use the crosswalks and pay careful attention to the crossing guards and police officers; remind your children of this if you will not be with them.

School ends at 3:41. Kindergartners are escorted to their buses by designated fifth graders. If you are walking or driving to school to pick up your children, please follow the pick up procedures.

Lunch, Students may bring their lunch from home. Monthly menus and other information related to the cafeteria are available at http://www.arlington.k12.va.us/finance/food_serv/. If at all possible, please send in a check to prepay for lunch even if your child only eats in the cafeteria occasionally. Available a la carte items include, hot soup & crackers, fruit juice, salad, yogurt, and fruit. Since the children are going to recess before lunch, handling cash can be a problem. When a child has prepaid for lunch, he/she just needs to swipe his cafeteria ID card or type in his/her School ID number after he/she has selected lunch and the items are automatically deducted from the lunch account. School lunches are $2.00 and include milk. If a child wants a bottle of water with lunch it is an additional $ .50. If a child wants a bottle of juice with lunch it is an additional $ .85. If your child forgets his/her lunch or lunch money, the PTA will provide a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a carton of milk.

A Welcome Back Coffee is hosted by the PTA on the first day of school from 9:00-10:30 a.m., in the multi-purpose room. Please join us; it is a nice opportunity to meet other parents.

Other Useful Things to Know about Jamestown
Arrival procedures: Kindergartners and fifth graders always go directly into their classrooms. After the first day of school, grades 1-4 sit in the hall outside of their classrooms and wait for the teacher to let them in. Staff monitors are provided in the hallways and Multi-Purpose Room.

Backpack mail: Your child’s backpack is an effective means of communication between the teacher/school and parents. You will receive school-wide and class specific information regularly. This is where you will send in notes to your child’s teacher. You can even send backpack mail (or e-mail to just about everyone at Jamestown. It’s the lifeline between you, your child and the school. The kindergartners have a special folder for backpack mail and it comes home every day!

Birthdays: Did you know that your child receives a birthday surprise from the Jamestown family? Every day birthdays are announced over the TV system. Weekend birthdays are announced on Friday or Monday. Please check with your teacher before bringing snacks to your child’s class.

Office hours: The school office is open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. In accordance with Arlington Public Schools policy, visitors must report to the office to obtain an identification tag. Your cooperation in this matter is needed to maintain security in the building.

Bus routes: Those eligible to ride the bus generally include students who live at least a certain distance from the school or who would have to cross a busy street to reach the school The information on bus routes shows the bus stops and the morning pickup times, only. In the afternoon, the driver generally, though not always, reverses the morning route. For more information call the Arlington County Transportation office at (703) 228-6640.

Chorus and instrumental (grades 4 and 5 only): Jamestown offers a fourth and fifth grade chorus as well as instrumental music classes for brass, strings or woodwinds during the school day. Some instruments may be rented from the county.

Clinic/school nurse: The clinic is open during school hours. A school nurse is assigned to Jamestown two days a week and a nurse’s assistant is on duty daily. The clinic phone number is (703) 228-8354. Check with the clinic on the school’s Medication Policy. Several days in the fall are set up as Health Screening Days. The nurse’s assistant and PTA volunteers do vision screening for all first, third and fifth graders. Parents are notified if their child’s results warrant a professional vision evaluation.

Computers and computer labs: Computers are available in classrooms for student learning and are integrated with the curriculum. Students also visit the computer lab for group activities under the direction of a teacher, the Instructional Technology Coordinator (ITC), or parent volunteer. Two wireless mobile computer labs are also available to teachers for instruction in the classroom. Training is provided for parents who wish to help in the lab or classroom.

Counselor: The school counselor, Dr. Karen Spees, works with students individually and in groups to assist them with academic, social, and behavioral concerns. She also makes presentations in the classrooms and coordinates the peer mediation program.

Drop off and pick up procedures: Details of pick up and drop off procedure have been mailed out and copies will be available at the Open House, August 31st. Parents are requested not to enter the building to pick up children, but instead to meet them at the designated locations. Kindergartners are escorted to the pick up location by their teacher.

Early release Wednesdays: There are five early release Wednesdays in 2008-2009. Those dates are: October 8, December 3, February 4, March 11, and April 29. School closes at 1:26 p.m. to allow teachers and staff time from training, preparation, etc.

Field trips: Each class generally takes a minimum of two field trips per year; kindergarten classes may take more. Permission slips signed by a parent/guardian are required for each participating child.

Lunch tickets/milk: Lunch ($2.00) and /or milk ($0.50) can be purchased on a daily basis. In addition, 5 day lunch tickets will be available for purchase shortly after the start of the year.

Physical education: All children are required to wear sneakers during their P.E. classes. Sneakers may be kept in the student lockers or cubbies. Students in kindergarten, first and second grades have thirty minutes of P.E. twice a week. Third, fourth and fifth grade students have forty-five minutes of P.E. twice a week. Third and fourth grade students have one week of daily swimming lessons at Yorktown Pool.

Release/pickup of children during the school day: A parent/guardian must go to the school office and sign the child out of school. Please do not go directly to the child’s classroom. The teacher should also be notified in writing that morning. If a student is going home with a friend, they must bring written permission.

Report Cards: Report cards are issued for grades 1-5 in November, February, May and June. Kindergarten students receive a written progress report in February and at the end of the year.

School supply lists: Supply lists for each grade other than kindergarten are posted on the Jamestown PTA website. Information about supplies for kindergartners will be provided separately.

Volunteering at Jamestown: The opportunities for volunteering at Jamestown are endless—both inside and outside the classroom. Each class needs room parents to assist the teacher with activities and organizing class parties and special class functions. One room parent volunteer is designated as the Contact Parent and serves the point of contact for the teacher and the PTA and as a liaison to the other room parents. All classes have three parties during the year: Halloween, Valentine’s Day, and the End of Year Party. Some class may have additional parties. Besides assisting with these events, many other classroom volunteer opportunities exist. Talk to your child’s teacher during the Open House or on Back-to-School Night about volunteering. Other areas for volunteering include fund- raising events, extracurricular/enrichment activities, and helping in the library and cafeteria.

Jamestown Directory and Reference Guide
Sometime in the fall you will receive the Jamestown Directory & Reference Guide. The “Directory” is best known as the phone book for the entire student body. Each child’s name, their teacher’s name and grade are listed along with the name(s), address, phone number and e-mail addresses of their parents or guardians. The Directory also contains the individual class rosters for the entire school.

The Directory also has a very helpful Reference Guide, put together by the PTA, which concisely discusses many of the school’s policies and describes some of its fun traditions and programs. Be sure to read about:

The Reflections Contest which is usually held during the first two weeks of December. The National PTA sponsors this contest to encourage creativity in school children in four categories: music, art, literature and photography.

Junior Great Books is open to kindergarten through fifth graders who would like to participate in weekly literature classes.

The Jamestown Yearbook. Prepaid orders for the year book are taken after the Winter Break
The Student Council Association provides students an opportunity to participate in representative government. Fifth graders serve as the officers and each class (1st – 5th) elects two representatives.

The Star Citizen Program recognizes students for displaying the three R’s: Rights, Respect and Responsibility.

The School Yard Habitat Program. Students help design, prepare, create and care for plant and animal habitats on the school grounds.

Things to Watch for this Fall
There are many exciting events as part of the school’s fall season. Mark your calendars now for:

Back-to-School Night is scheduled for grades 1-5 on Wednesday, September 17th, at 7:00 p.m. Back-to-school night for Kindergartners will be held on Tuesday, September 16th, at 7:00 p.m. Back to School Night is a must! This is an excellent opportunity to meet your child’s teacher, see the classroom and meet other classroom parents. On Back to School Night, your child’s teacher will outline the planned curriculum for the coming year, discuss homework expectations and class schedules, and describe classroom procedures and volunteer opportunities. If possible, this is an event for adults only. Mark your calendar now and start working on child care arrangements for Tuesday, September 16th, and Wednesday, September 17th.

Fall Conferences will be October 2nd in the afternoon and October 3rd all day.

The Fall Book Fair is a great chance to buy gifts and let the children pick out their own favorite things to read.

The Halloween Parade will be Friday, October 31st. Jamestown students (and most teachers) don their costumes and parade around the neighborhood accompanied by the Yorktown High School marching band. This is a sight to see and the kids love it! All are encouraged to attend. Classroom Halloween parties follow the parade.

Things to Watch for in the Spring
Look for notices about:

Conference Days on Thursday, March 5th in the afternoon and Friday, March 6th all day.

The School Fair is a must! The fair is usually held in March. This is Jamestown’s biggest fund-raiser and is organized and run by many parent volunteers. It is fun for the whole family and offers games, activities, food, and more.

Jamestown Variety Show--Students dance, sing and play instruments for the entertainment of their fellow students. Parents are welcome. This takes place in late spring.

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We hope this information will help you and your children have a pleasant first day and year at Jamestown! Please call your buddy family, contact parent, or one of us if you have any questions.

The Jamestown PTA New Families Committee
Rhonda Snoeyenbos, 703-534-5918
Ellie Mack, 703-534-2928