July updates

I can't wait for you all to meet our newest tribe member, Mrs. Kylie Collins.  She'll be joining our third grade team.

Marlene, Cissie, Terra and Kylie will all be at the 

brunch on July 31st!  I hope to see you too!

9:30 -11:00 ~ 8016 Ballard Place

Our First Days will look something like this........

Thursday, August 8
- Breakfast by PTO and general meeting until around 10:45

- Lunch on your own
- Institute at 1:00 - HTHS
- Live sign up for Recess and Duty times will happen after Institute and will be announced Thursday morning

Friday, August 9
- Various District Meetings and time to work in your rooms

Monday, August 12
- Staff Meeting during the morning  - not to exceed 2 hours
- Lunch on your own
- Time to work in your room, meet w/ leadership team(s) and/or Collaborate w/ your team.

Tuesday, August 13
- Staff Meeting during the morning  - not to exceed 2 hours
- Lunch on your own
- Time to work in your room, meet w/ leadership team(s) and/or Collaborate w/ your team.




Be on the look out for emails from the PTO and me detailing Special Projects and a new fund raising plan.  Please do not delete your distribution list from the 18/19 school year.  We'll be asking you to send out information for the PTO through those list.  THANK YOU!

Lot of News!

 Please email your t-shirt size to Barbara ASAP!  













YOU are INVITED to a BRUNCH at my house!  8016 Ballard Place - Wednesday, July 31st - 9:30 - 11:00    Due to space this is an "adults only" event!  




Sign up for Recess times will be pushed out August 8th or 9th (we will tell you an exact time a little later)  Please be prepared by giving these guidelines some thought.
- Recess cannot occur immediately before or after PE.
- Recess cannot occur immediately before a Specials Class.
- Recess times cannot be included in your Thursday schedule.  Thursday is our early dismissal day.
- Our Parents worked hard for our 2-5 playground and we are only $6000 short of an expansion for the K-1 playground.  We plan to start in November.  All scheduled recess will take place on the playground.  
- The K-1 playground can accommodate 2 classes at a time.
-  The 2-5 playground can accommodation 3 classes at a time.

The arrival/dismissal team has been working hard and putting their minds together for our arrival/dismissal schedule this year is: Jones, Latham, Odom, Patterson, Philpot, Wilson, Smith, and Young.  They have given valuable input and have worked closely with me on revamping our previous process.   I can’t thank them enough.  They’ve given a lot of their time to this over the summer to help improve the process. If you have any questions about duty this year, please direct them to a member of the team, and they will get it to the entire team for discussion.

Our team has decided to use a similar, but new format for scheduling this first trimester.  It will be a little different in that you should be able to see who is writing in the box at the same time you are.  This should help prevent any overlap from happening.  You can NOT sign up for duty yet.  We will tell you the day and the time the sign up will be pushed out.  It will probably be on August 8 or 9.

  Each box will represent one sign up, and there will be credits assigned in each box.  You will be required to have 8 credits for the first trimester.  There are a total of 264 credits for the trimester, and 33 staff members, so that equals 8 credits per teacher.  

You can view it here if you want a glimpse at the new format: duty schedule format

We will also be doing the sign-up in waves, so you may already see names in place for some of the non-negotiables we have encountered due to changes this year (i.e. car line, cafeteria, and those that are approved for afternoon only duty).  These spots will not be allowed to  change once the sign-up goes live. 

The following people are approved for early sign up due to approved circumstances: 

• Cafeteria Sign Up Only (3 times each, then choose other 3 credits anywhere):
• Pennington, Young, Fortenberry, and Scott – cafeteria time slot is until 8:00AM, so they are among the only ones able to work this duty spot
• The following are allowed to sign up for PM duty only, (morning duty is impossible for them) but must sign up for at least 6 credits of car line duty:
• Osburn – child care does not open for drop off until 7:30AM
• F Smith – 1^st Trimester duty to help with transportation of daughter who was in a car accident
• Wessel – morning math tutoring
• The following are allowed to sign up for AM duty only
• Crocker – afternoon math tutoring/math team

From Felicia

Beth Allen will have outpatient surgery tomorrow (Wed) to remove the external fixator and then she will go into a non weight bearing boot for 6 more weeks. She will begin physical therapy soon.

My MIL is in inpatient rehab and will most likely come home at the end of the week. She will continue with outpatient rehab.

My FIL continues to fight at home. Since my MIL is not at home, there is a sitter with him around the clock now.

Thank you Cahaba friends for your thoughts and prayers. They can certainly be felt.

From Angela

I wanted you to know daddy is home.  He’s a bit weak and moving slowly, but doing much better than he was when I found him on Tuesday last week.  He’s still on an antibiotic for the pneumonia, but the doctors were pleased with his response to them.  His foot is in the healing stages.  A nurse will be coming out 3 days a week for a while to dress it. 

Thank you for alerting our prayer warriors.  I love, love being a part of such a strong group of believers.

Marlene Griggs - Self Contained Special Education

Terra Cravens - Speech Language Pathologist

Cissie Harrington - Instructional Aid/PE Aid

Jana Feild - joining Crocker/Mills in Fifth grade

Heather Cates - moving to Kindergarten

Taylor Harrison - moving to First Grade

Tomorrow, we will be interviewing for a new 3rd grade teacher.  This hire will add a section to 3rd grade!  Stay tuned for introductions!  This new teacher will be moving into Meredith's current room.  Meredith will be moving to Cate's old room!

July Updates!

Mark your calendar!  You are invited to a brunch at Tyner's house, July 31st,  9:30 to 11:00. The address is 8016 Ballard Place.  Due to space, the guest list is limited to adults only.







Please welcome Marlene Griggs, our new teacher serving our students in the self contained classroom.  Cissie Harrington will be clocking in when she comes to Cahaba!  She will be taking Karen Gudgen's place in the gym and serving as our morning crossing guard.  In addition to these changes, I will be recommending a new SLP teacher for CES at the next Board meeting.  Mrs. Williams has chosen to work in a District closer to her home.  Earlier this summer, Melissa Herring resigned her position as crossing guard.  She wants to substitute more frequently than she could while holding this position. 








Our floors are waxed and they look better than ever!  A big shout out to Mr. Tony for monitoring these process and advocating for exceptional work.  You are free to come and work in your rooms.  However, Tony is on vacation this week and he is begging you NOT to drag or push furniture across the floors.





I spend an enormous amount of time assigning students to classes.  I've received around 100 "personality letters" from parents, a placement card for each child filled out by their previous teacher, exceptional education lists, 504 lists, PST list, GATe lists, Wall of Fame lists etc......................   All of these are taken into consideration when placing students, as well as, attempting to balance gender.  In addition, many of you have sent me the names of students that you would like to have in your class. PLEASE understand that I cannot honor these request.  It's just too complex.  I do not honor parent request for ONE teacher either, unless you work at CES.  Even then, several of you have declined that privilege.  Teacher letters will be mailed August 1.  Your class list will be sent to you August 1.  

2019-2020 Grade Level Schedules

Here are your current schedules!  Keep in mind, changes can always happen.  Collaboration day will still be on Tuesdays, early release will now be on Thursday.