September 4, 2023

A message from Principal Vinten

Good morning Manara STEM Families,

The month of September is upon us and is jam packed full of events! Please read in the newsletter this week information about our upcoming Curriculum Events on Sept 13 for grades Pre-K - 3 and on Sept 14 for grades 4 - 8. Our fall pictures (in uniform!) will be Monday, Sept 11 (information will be sent home this week on how to order photos), and our Scholastic Book Fair will take place the entire week of Sept 11.

We hope you enjoy the LONG weekend, as scholars do not have school on Monday, Sept 4 or Tuesday, Sept 5. We look forward to seeing everyone at 8:00am on Wednesday, Sept 6!

Reach out if you have any questions, as we are here to serve! Happy September!

#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 the week of Sept. 11.

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 the gym 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

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 bring money to school or you can add money to the Scholastic E-Wallet for your scholar to shop with beginning on Tuesday, Sept. 12. 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.

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 8, 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!

Dismissal - Important!!!

Dismissal begins promptly at 12:00pm for scholars in Pre-K 3. Please pull around to the front of the building by door #3 where staff members will be there to help bring your scholar to you. DO NOT park in the parking lot and walk your scholar to the door. If you do this, you will be asked to get back in the car and proceed to carline to drop off your scholar. This is for the safety and flow of the carline.

Please DO NOT get out of your car at any time to assist with your scholar, as this could back up carline. Staff members will be there to help load them in. If you need to help buckle your child in your car before leaving campus, please pull around to the side of the building by Sublett Rd. and buckle them in at that time.

For scholars in grades Pre-K 4 through 8th grade, dismissal will begin promptly at 3:30pm. The barcodes for the new scanner system (School Pass) will begin in the next few weeks. For now, if you still have your yellow tag from last year, please provide that for car line. If not, no worries! When you arrive around the car line, at the front of the building by the front door your will see a staff member. Roll down your window, tell her the scholar(s) you are here to pick up, and she will call for their dismissal. You can also write their names down on a sheet of paper with the grade level(s) they are in and put it on your dashboard to help our staff with calling as well. We will make sure to get your scholar out to you safely!

Please be patient, as we want all scholars to get into their cars and all exited off the property (onto Sublett Rd.) SAFELY! It might take a few minutes longer this week, but with patience and practice, the line will continue to be more and more smooth!

**The flow of carline is as follows:

Enter onto campus from Collins St. ONLY
Follow the arrows around to the first stop sign on campus (two lines can form here in the afternoon as the carline begins to form).
Merge safely (take turns) into one lane and follow the arrows around the parking spaces to the front of the building (PLEASE DO NOT CUT THROUGH THE PARKING SPACES).
If you are one of the first cars, please pull down to the last cone by the handicapped parking spot where scholars will begin to load.
The carline merges to one lane at the front of the building.
DO NOT PARK in a parking space to come get your scholar. You will be asked to get back in carline in order to pick up your scholar.

Thank you for helping to keep our scholars safe by following our traffic procedures! Kindness and patience is KEY! 😀

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.

Forget-Me-Not Table

If your child has forgotten an item from home (backpack, lunch, homework, jacket, etc.), please leave it on the "Forget-Me-Not" table labeled with his/her name and grade level. Ms. Smith will check the "Forget-Me-Not" table throughout the day, but if you would also like to call our front office to let us know you dropped something off or will be dropping something off that is great as well. Having this available means families do not have to come inside of the building to drop something off and will hopefully save families some time getting back to work or home!

Delivered Lunches from outside venues

If you are having a lunch delivered by an outside venue (ex - Uber Eats), please make sure to include the name of the scholar within the delivery so it can be given to the correct scholar. Thank you for the assistance.

Fall Photos!

Fall photographs of our staff & scholars will be taken on Monday, September 11. These will be IN UNIFORM photographs. Information will be sent home this week regarding photo packages to purchase.