First Borlaug Bulletin, August 27th

Hello Borlaug Families,

This is Principal Shoppa with a Borlaug update.  Attached to an email you will find our first Borlaug Bulletin with information from Borlaug, the Iowa City Community School District, and our Borlaug PTO.  If you need to have the Borlaug Bulletin send home in hard copy, please contact our office at 688-1155.

I wanted to share a few reminders as well.  I am excited to report that Girl Scouts will be visiting Borlaug tonight, Monday, August 27, 7:00pm, in the multi-purpose room. Students received colorful stickers promoting tonight’s meeting.

Our PTO Innisbrook Fundraiser continues through September 4^th.  We greatly appreciate your support as we work to raise money for PTO start-up needs to support our students and staff.

With the fog this morning, it was brought to my attention that our students on bikes were difficult to be seen.  Please review with your bike rider safety precautions in such weather conditions as well as bike safety rules.  Our Borlaug Bulldog bikers have been so responsible with walking their bikes while on campus. Thank you!

I hope you have a wonderful week.

Sincerely,

Celeste Shoppa

PTO Fundraiser with Innisbrook

Hello Borlaug Families and Staff,

The Borlaug PTO is excited to announce that on Monday, August 20^th,  our students will be coming home with an outstanding fundraising opportunity.  Each student will have a packet from Innisbrook and in this packet there will be a catalog offering premium gift wrap, chocolates, and other wonderful gift items.  The packet will also include easy instructions on how to place your orders as well as a toll free customer service number to help with any questions you may have.  Our sale will run from Monday, August 20th through Tuesday, September 4th.  We appreciate your support as we try and reach our fundraising goal of $3,000.

We have noticed that some Borlaug students are arriving before 8:10 in the morning.  We want our children safe and since we do not have supervision until 8:10, please arrive no earlier than 8:10.  Thank you also to the families who have created last name signs for their cars during carline at dismissal time.  It is a great help to those staff members on carline duty.

We are looking forward to another wonderful week of learning at Borlaug!

Principal Shoppa

Borlaug Elementary's First Day!

What fabulous first day at Borlaug Elementary!   We had so many excited and smiling faces both from the children and the staff.  We ended our day with our whole school photo, wearing our Borlaug t-shirts.  We hope you enjoyed seeing your child come home proudly wearing Norm, our bulldog mascot.

When looking at our end of the day dismissal procedures we want to share a few reminders with our families.  Tomorrow is again a 1:55 dismissal day for all Iowa City schools – just like today.  Be sure to review with your child daily how he/she will get home.  If there is a change in the regular routine, please send a note to school for your child’s teacher.  This keeps us all well-informed so we know how to help your child at the end of the school day. All of our students will be escorted to their dismissal destinations each day, so older students will need to meet up with younger siblings at these locations, not at classrooms.  We have staff members for every grade level who will walk our bus students, carline students, walking students, and BASP students to their dismissal destinations. 

We want to remind our car line families to be sure to have a sign in your front window showing the last name of your children for pick-up.  Be sure it is large enough for the carline staff to see easily.  This will help us speed up the carline process.

For our students who are walking home, we will have them meet parents at the east playground gate.  This will elevate the congestion by the front entry, as we have students being escorted to their dismissal destinations by staff. 

Thank you so much for your support, as we are off to a great start!

Celeste Shoppa, Principal

Ice Cream Social and the 1st Day of School!

Borlaug’s Ice Cream Social is Tuesday, August 14th.  It will begin at 6:15 pm with families gathering outside on the eastside playground, before entering the building.  We will gather to begin our evening together and to dedicate our new playground.  Teachers will then enter the building to be to their classrooms in time to greet their students and families.  Class lists will be displayed in the front hallway and in the library on the second floor.

We still need many Borlaug families to update their E-Registration accounts.  Please call us at 688-1155 if you need any assistance.  We are currently at about 70% of our families updated.  We want to have 100% updated, so we are sure we have the most current information for contact purposes.

We will have early release on both the first and second day of school.  This means we will dismiss at 1:55 on Thursday, August 16^th and at 1:55 on Friday, August 17^th.  We want to remind our preschool families that preschool begins on Monday, August 20^th.

On the first day of school, we will have a school-wide photo taken with our Borlaug students and staff in their new Borlaug t-shirts.  These are t-shirts that were purchased for us by Hills Bank, as a welcome to the Coralville Community. Your child will bring home his/her shirt on the first day of school so you have it for future sprit days at Borlaug.  We thank Hills Bank for their generosity!

We look forward to seeing you on the 14^th!

The Borlaug Family Handbook

Hello Borlaug Families,

The Borlaug Family Handbook is now on the front page of our Borlaug website.  You will also find it under Parent Resources.  It has a great deal of information that you will find helpful in preparing for the fast approaching school year. 

The first school day bell rings at 8:25 with an 8:35 tardy bell.  Students may start lining up at their designated playground areas as early as 8:10, which is when teacher supervision begins.  The 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th graders will line up at the colored circles on the west playground and the kindergarteners, 5^th and 6^th graders will line up at the colored circles on the east playgrounds. Classroom teachers will be out the first day to let students know which color dot is theirs.

The Family Handbook outlines procedures for pick-up and drop-off as well as dismissal procedures.  The east parking lot is for car parking and for the car line after school, while the west parking lot is our bus loop.  Please remember patience as we work through perfecting such procedures.  Safety is our number one goal for all of our students and their families.

The Family Handbook contains the school supply list, but if you need a hard copy you will find them in the local stores or you can stop by the Borlaug office.  If you need a hard copy of the Family Handbook please let us know as well.

Our next PTO meeting is Tuesday, August 7^th at 6:30 at Borlaug in our library on the second floor.  We hope you can join us as we continue planning for the coming year.

We want to remind you of our Ice Cream Social on Tuesday, August 14^th starting at 6:15 to 7:30.  Class lists will be posted that evening. We will gather on the east playground to start the event with our playground dedication.  Teachers will then enter the building first so they are in their classrooms ready to greet their students and families.  While visiting your child’s classroom, you will receive a packet of information including envelops for paying the text book fee and the assignment notebook fee – which is only for our 3^rd through 6^th graders.  It is sure to be a wonderful night for all!

Sincerely,

Celeste Shoppa, Principal