September 11, 2023

A message from Principal Vinten

Good Morning Manara STEM Families,

This Monday scholars will get school photos taken by LifeTouch photography. It will be a FREE non-uniform dress down day for their photo. Please make sure your scholar is on time to school, as grade level photos will begin at the start of the school day.

Please see in the newsletter a great competition that our STEM campus is having with the Irving Elementary & Manara Leadership Academy on a way that, if we win the competition, all scholars on our campus can earn 5 FREE dress down days!

The Scholastic Book Fair is this week, Monday through Friday, as well as our Curriculum Events on Wednesday & Thursday. Please see within the newsletter all the information about the book fair and curriculum event times.

This is the final week within our first six-week period! The first report card will go home the week of September 18. Enjoy the beautiful weekend! Thank you for taking the time to read all the information within the STEM Connect Family Newsletter! I look forward to seeing you all this week for our Curriculum Events and our Book Fair!

#MAWAY!

Principal Vinten

The mission of Manara Academy is to provide students with a creative, adaptive and ethical environment to become knowledgeable inquirers and future leaders in a diverse and evolving global society where we master languages, honor cultural heritages, and respect diversity.

Curriculum Event!

Our teachers will host a Curriculum Event for their grade levels this week.

When:

Wednesday, Sept 13 - for grades Pre-K through 3
Thursday, Sept 14 - for grades 4-8

Where:

Your scholar's homeroom classroom on the date above

Time:

4:15pm-5:30pm

Why:

To learn about what your scholar will be learning throughout the school year, curriculum we use for content areas, find out about how to make your scholar successful each day for school, and learn about how you can be a part of your scholar's academic year! Scholars are welcome to attend and must stay with you during the event, as teachers will be presenting information during this time.

The Scholastic Book Fair will be going on this week and will be open after the your scholar's teacher presents their curriculum night details. Please stop by room 117 before 5:30pm to shop for books for your scholar & for your scholar's classroom! The PTO will be helping with this event, so make sure and stop by and also sign up to be a part of our PTO team!

Please email your scholar's teacher to let them know if you are unable to attend on the designated day so they can get you syllabus information.

Scholastic Book Fair

FAIR DATES

Sep 11 - Sep 15

All purchases through the Book Fair benefit our school. Thanks for supporting our kids! Happy reading!

The Scholastic Book Fair will be on our campus the week of September 11. Scholars will have the opportunity on Monday, Sept. 11 to preview the book fair and make their "wish lists" to share with you at home. They can also begin purchasing books on this day! They can bring money to school or you can add money to the Scholastic E-Wallet to shop "cash-free" for your scholar to shop with beginning on Monday, Sept. 11 (click on the link to set up your e-wallet account for your scholar). The book fair will also be open during our Curriculum Event from 4:45-5:30 on Wednesday, Sept 13 and Thursday Sept 14 if you would like to come and shop with your scholar at that time. The last day for scholars to shop the book fair will be on Friday, Sept 15. Book fair shopping hours during the school day for scholars are from 11:00am until 4:00pm.

Chromebook Competition!

Chromebooks are ready to be distributed for scholars in grades 3-8! In order for your scholar in those grades to receive a chromebook, the chromebook distribution fee must be paid on our online website. All scholars in grades 3-8 must have a district chromebook for use within their classroom. You can scan the QR code below to make the payment or log onto our Manara Academy website (www.manaraacademy.org) and click on the "School Fees" tab to make a payment.

Where's the competition, you ask?? 😁

We are competing with Manara Leadership Academy and Manara Irving Elementary to see which campus has 100% participation with the purchase of their chromebooks. The first campus to get 100% participation (all scholars on our campus in grades 3-8 with their chromebook fees paid and chromebooks distributed) will get a full week's worth of dress down days!!! The STEM campus is known to be fierce competitors, so I know we will win this challenge! We already have a huge lead, so if you have not paid the chromebook fees yet, make sure to do it soon so we can win the challenge (and so your scholar can have what they need to be prepared for class each day)! 🎉

The campus to come in second place will win 2 days of free dress down days, and the campus in last place, if all devices paid for by October 1, will receive 1 free dress down day.

Chromebooks will only be distributed to scholars after the fee is paid, and each scholar in grades 3-8 must have a district chromebook for school. If you have any questions, please reach out to Mrs. Vinten at avinten@manaraacademy.org. We are so excited to be a one-to-one device district!

Uniforms - IMPORTANT!

All students should be in uniform. Uniforms can be purchased through the French Toast website (link is here and also on the HOME page of this newsletter). Please remember each note listed below:

All uniform tops must have a Manara school logo
All aspects of uniform must be in the blue and grey colors but can be mixed and matched in any way such as navy blue pants or skirt with grey shirt or grey pants or skirt with blue top
Any jackets, sweaters, sweatshirts worn throughout the school day must also be school uniform
Cultural Wear must also be in the navy blue or grey colors, including hijab (school colors-navy blue or grey)

Any scholars not in uniform will initially be given a warning and parents will be notified. After three uniform violations, a scholar will be given detention on a Friday from 1pm-4:00pm. After the first detention, if uniform violations continue to occur, an in-school suspension will be given.

If you have ordered uniforms for your scholar, not to worry! Please send them in a solid gray or solid navy polo shirt without the Manara logo (can be purchased at Walmart or Target) and the correct navy or gray uniform bottoms until their logo shirt arrives. Reach out to Ms. Smith if you have any questions! (asmith@manaraacademy.org)

Dress Down Days

This Friday, September 15, will be a dress down day for scholars. Scholars who would like to dress out of uniform can pay $1.00 to wear non-uniform clothing on this day. All non-uniform clothing must be school appropriate, and if not, scholars will call home for their uniform to be brought to school. If a scholar does not bring in money for the dress down day, he/she will call home for you to either bring them their dollar, or bring them their uniform clothing.

Reach out to your scholar's teacher if you have any questions regarding dress down days! Don't forget the $1.00!

Early Dismissal

Per the 2023-2024 Manara Student & Family Handbook:

If your child needs to be released from school prior to dismissal time, please send a note with your child or call the school office indicating what time they need to leave. You will need to fill out the early dismissal log in the school office. Your child will then be sent to meet you in the office. We are unable to dismiss early during the time we are preparing for our scheduled school dismissals. Therefore requests to pick up a child during the last 30 minutes of the school day will be denied. Parent requested early dismissal needs to occur prior to 3:00 pm on Monday-Thursday and/or by 12:30 pm on Friday.

An early dismissal counts as a tardy, and tardies can add up and count against your child's attendance record, so please be mindful of the number of times of early pick-up. Scholars are still in class and teachers are still teaching until the very end of the school day, so missing even 30 minutes can hinder learning progression within the content that is being missed.

Fall Photos!

Fall photographs of our staff & scholars will be taken on Monday, September 11. There is a change to the announcement made last week: scholars are allowed to be out of uniform for these photographs! Information was sent home last week regarding photo packages to purchase, and you will also receive information from LifeTouch once the photos are taken about purchasing a photo package on the proof sheet.