Principal's Message
Dear Brown School Family,
Illness is going around pretty hard right now. We have had a lot of students out over the past couple of weeks and many of our staff members have been sick. Flu, Covid, and other viruses are hitting us. I am currently writing this from home as I have been out sick all this week and won't return until next Monday. Thankfully I don't have Flu or Covid, just some virus. I have no worries because our very capable Assistant Principal Dr. Brian is holding down the fort at Brown this week.
If your student is exhibiting any signs of illness, please keep them home. If your student has been out, please make sure you send in either a parent or physician's note so that we can excuse the absence. You can have your student drop it in the Attendance Notes box attached to the wall outside the Welcome Center. You can also take a photo of the physician's note and email it to our amazing Attendance Clerk Christopher.Wise@jefferson.kyschools.us. If you email it, please send it as a "medium" size file so it doesn't get stuck in your outbox.
It was heartwarming to see our families here last week for our Thanksgiving lunch. We had 211 adults go through the lunch line and our office team signed in almost 300 visitors. Thank you to our PTSA volunteers and our Brown School team for their hard work!
There will not be a Bear Essentials next week due to the short week. I wish everyone a peaceful and abundant Thanksgiving with friends and family.
Love,
Dr. Angela
This Week's Essentials
Dress As Your Favorite Thanksgiving Dish on Tuesday, Nov. 22nd
We need your help filling up the FRYSC!
Check the flyer below for what items are needed and where to drop off your donations.
JR / SR College Prep Visits
To stay in the loop of all of the upcoming Junior and Senior College Rep Visits, please visit the calendar linked HERE.
UofL Visit 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Block - Tuesday, November 22nd
UofL Tarc Field Trip - November 30th / 31st
Technology Spotlight
Kindergarten and 1st Grade
We are excited to announce that all of our Kindergarten and 1st Grade students now have touch screen enabled Chromebooks! Our School Technology Coordinator, Drew Paige, and our Technology Clerk, Anitra Wilson, worked diligently to switch out all Kindergarten and 1st Grade devices with touch-enabled ones this past week. Drew negotiated with JCPS IT3 to receive 124 TouchScreen Chromebooks as our allotment did not include them for our elementary students for the past two years. By having touch enabled Chromebooks, our students are going to use technology much easier moving forward!
Check out their excitement in the pictures!
Inclement Weather & NTI
We are approaching the time of year when ice and snow may visit us. Please watch local media or monitor social media for announcements by JCPS regarding school delays, cancelations, or the use of Non-Traditional Instruction (NTI).
JCPS has limited NTI days and may utilize NTI during inclement weather. The switch to NTI could come at a moments notice. Remind your student to bring their device and charger home each day.
We recommend that parents and guardians familiarize themselves with their student's Google Classrooms. Questions about a teacher's Google Classroom or their NTI lessons and activities should be directed to the specific teacher.
If you do not have internet access at home, please reach out to Mr. Drew (andrew.paige@jefferson.kyschools.us) for an LTE-enabled device. These devices have built-in internet access.
Stay warm and safe this winter!
School Safety Reminder
During the school day
When entering the building, even if you visit often, you are required to give your name, reason for visiting, present photo identification, and get a visitor's badge.
When leaving the building sign out and return your visitor badge where you signed in. This allows us to keep accountability of all visitors in the building.
Weekly Columns
PTSA
PTSA Myth
I do not need to join PTSA now that my child in in high school.
PTSA Truth
Students who attend a high school with a PTA or PTSA are more likely to graduate. And the more members in the PTA/PTSA, the higher the overall graduation rates. In addition. by joining the PTSA you are also helping the programs that our PTSA supports. Won't you join us and be a member.
Thanksgiving Lunch - Thank you
Thank you to all the families that attending the Thanksgiving Lunch. We loved seeing all the smiles on our kids as they ate with their families.
PTSA Bear Buck Exchange or Purchase
If you still have regular tickets from the Fall Festival - there is still time to change them into PTSA Bear Bucks. We will exchange them until December 16th. You can exchange them at any of the games at the concession stand or they can be put into an envelope and put into the PTSA Mailbox with the student name and teacher and we will switch them and return them. Bear Bucks can still be purchased at our store.
PTSA Meeting
Join us on Wednesday, November 16 from 4:00 - 5:00 pm in the library for our General PTSA Meeting. The Board meeting will be a half hour before. You may also join us online on zoom.
Concession Stand
Basketball Season has started and we are excited to make sure that we help feed the families who come to the game. We are only able to open if we have volunteers. We will have to close the concession stand on nights that we don't have enough volunteers. So please take a shift to help us out.
Step up For Students
15th District PTA Clothing Assistance Program (CAP) along with JCPS Diversity, Equity, and Poverty program works to help provides students and families with new and gently used clothing. We are asking for new and gently used boys and girls pants this November and December. We are in greatest needs of sizes 4-16. We will have a box that items may be placed in next to the PTSA office under our mailbox. Please help us fill this need in our community.
Sign up for Kroger Community Rewards - Its Easy click on the icon below for more info.
Athletics
Elementary Athletics
Basketball is going well and everyone seems to be learning a lot and getting better. We have 3 teams this season, so we are very happy with our number of players.
Cheer team will have its tryout on Wednesday 11/16 from 7:00pm-8:15pm, and Friday from 3:15-4:30. On Friday, students will stay in the gym for carpool and coach will pick them up at 3:15. If your student cannot make it to both tryouts or you have any questions, please reach out to justin.leonard@jefferson.kyschools.us or tara.davis@jefferson.kyschools.us.
Middle School Athletics
Student Season Tickets are on sale now for $20 to all middle and high school athletic events. All students over 6 years old will need a ticket for games this year. There is no more free admission. Single game student tickets for middle school are $5 and high school are $7. The season ticket package includes $10 in Bear Bucks for anything in the concession stand PLUS an exclusive Brown Bears t-shirt. Tickets can be purchased online here. The shirt and Bear Bucks offer ends on December 1st.
Basketball season is underway. The middle school varsity boys and girls teams are back in action on Thursday at home vs. Meyzeek. Tickets can be purchased here or at the gate.
Swimming had their second middle school meet of the year last weekend. Ellie Leonard and Isabella Freeland led the way with top 5 finishes in the 50 yard breast stroke and 100 yard IM. We have a stong group of 6th graders who are going to be fun to watch improve throughout the season.
Tennis is continuing to do fast-feed lessons through the winter months at Advantage Tennis and Fitness on Mondays at 5:30. For more information, email matthew.davis@jefferson.kyschools.us. All students are welcome to attend.
Archery started practice and our team is excited to start competitions. If you are interested in joining, please email coach Jennifer at jennbeanfest@aol.com.
High School Athletics
Student Season Tickets are on sale now for $20 to all middle and high school athletic events. All students over 6 years old will need a ticket for games this year. There is no more free admission. Single game student tickets for middle school are $5 and high school are $7. The season ticket package includes $10 in Bear Bucks for anything in the concession stand PLUS an exclusive Brown Bears t-shirt. Tickets can be purchased online here. The shirt and Bear Bucks offer ends on December 1st.
Archery started practice and our team is excited to start competitions. If you are interested in joining, please email coach Jennifer at jennbeanfest@aol.com.
Bowling had a great preseason event this past Saturday. We are proud of all of our bowlers. They would still like to add some bowlers if anyone is interested. Any student in grades 7-12th that are interested, should reach out to coach Justin at justin.young2@jefferson.kyschools.us
Basketball- Our teams had great scrimmages last Saturday at St. Francis and we are excited for a great season.
Swimming and Diving has started the season and it looks to be a great year. At our meet this Saturday, Daphne Powell finished 2nd and Maisie Smith 6th in diving. They will be back in action Friday at the Fern Creek meet at UL and Saturdays Brown Bear sprint meet at Shawnee at 9:00am.
Elementary Counselor
Many of our middle and elementary students took the NNAT3 test. The Gifted and Talented Committee will be meeting in the next week to finalize and interprest test results and determine students eligibility. Except to receive more information about your child's placement during the first week of December. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.
Middle School Counselor
It's the most wonderful time of the year:). There is a lot happening in the middle school world, with field trips for our 7th graders, tests and due dates and just the overall glory of being a middle school kid! Dont hesitate to reach out through the Student Support Request Form if you need anything.
Many of our middle and elementary students took the NNAT3 test. The Gifted and Talented Committee will be meeting in the next week to finalize and interprest test results and determine students eligibility. Except to receive more information about your child's placement during the first week of December. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out.
High School Counselor
Applications to college and other selective programs are soon due and so much information has been distributed in Google Classroom Class of 20## that sometimes it's easy to overlook things. Students in grades 9-12 should double check Google Classroom notifications to see if there is anything that interests them! Below are a few of the programs we want to make sure get special attention:
Grades 9, 10, and 11: The Governor's School for Entrepreneurs is now accepting individual applications for students interested in the world of entrepreneurship! Due: January 23
Grades 10 & 11: The Governor's School for the Arts is accepting applications for students interested in visual and performing arts. Last year, we had 12 students attend for disciplines such as Musical Theater, Drama, and Creative Writing. Due: January 8
Grade 10: Gatton Academy and Craft Academy are both residential STEM focused programs where students maintain enrollment at Brown while living on a college campus. Please click on the links above for more info! Due: February 1
Grade 11: All juniors are given many opportunities in Norah's Junior Seminar class. Students should now be drafting applications to the Governor's Scholars Program, GSA (linked above), or GSE (linked above)! Please contact Norah for our internal GSP deadlines, there is a separate screening process for GSP for Jefferson County and our deadlines are earlier than those posted on the site.
Grade 12: Many seniors are applying to colleges and programs near and far. Please get applications submitted locally ASAP for access to university specific scholarship portals!
Mental Health Practitioner
Thanksgiving is almost here, and we are feeling the holiday energy here at Brown! A question that has come up a few times recently here at school is if students can have a therapy session while they are at school. While this is an understandable desire, there are some limitations for what we can provide due to JCPS guidelines. In order for a student to be able to meet with their therapist at school their therapist needs to have a MOA contract with JCPS. What this means is that the therapist (or the agency they work for) have made a contract with JCPS to provide mental health services to our students. If your therapist does not have a contract with JCPS unfortunately we are not allowed to have them meet with your student in the building or during school hours (even using telehealth). Please feel free to reach out to me or one of our counselors if you have questions on how this process works, or if you would like a list of providers who can meet with students at school.
Connections
Family Matters
Winter Break Activity
The Diversity, Equity, and Poverty Department is offering 3rd , 4th , and 5th grade students Lit & Karate this winter break. Located at our satellite office at the California Community Center, students will engage the world of martial arts through literacy. Students will also experience Karate lessons with their very own martial arts instructor. This program begins on December 19th and ends December 30th. Lunch will be provided and spaces are limited, so be sure to sign up today.
To register, please visit https://bit.ly/3FezGxm or contact Bryan.Smith@jefferson.kyschools.us.
Cultural Connections
November is Native American Heritage Month! Check out this Website with your family to learn more about Native American Culture.
