September 18, 2023

A message from Principal Vinten

Good Evening Manara STEM Families,

Thank you to all who attended our curriculum events this week! The teachers continue to work hard for your scholar and want to make sure and share with you all the great learning that is occuring during this school year! If you were unable to attend the event, your scholar's teacher will send home their syllabus/brochure from that event for you to view.

The book fair was a huge success! A big thank you to our PTO for hosting it each day this week! Over $3,500 of books were sold during the book fair, in which we will be given Scholastic points to use to purchase classroom books and STEM items for our teachers & scholars. Thank you!!

North Texas Giving Day is coming up! Please read within the newsletter how you can help our Manara district and community.

As always, please reach out with any questions or concerns you may have, as we are here to serve. Thank you for reading the newsletter, and thank you for being such great families within our Manara community! You all are greatly appreciated!

#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.

North Texas Giving Day - September 21!

Manara Academy is supported by your kindness, generosity and support. Please consider supporting our next initiatives by participating in an opportunity to give back to the community that serves your children. North Texas Giving Day is on September 21. Manara has one week to reach our fundraising goal of $50,000. Thank you in advance for your support!

We are Strong Together!

في الاتحاد قوة

https://www.northtexasgivingday.org/organization/Manara-Academy

Chromebook Competition!

Chromebook distribution this week has been a HUGE success! We are getting very close to all scholars having their chromebook deposit paid for and chromebooks distributed! 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. Please stop by the front office if you need any help with filling out the online form.

Don't forget...😁

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!!! We're so close to winning the dress down days! I know we can complete the challenge this week!

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 22, 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.