EC Principal Letter
Dear ANCS Elementary Families,
Last week I reminded our students that breakfast is served from 7:30am-7:50am, before morning meeting, each morning. We are seeing more and more students going to the cafeteria after morning meeting to grab a sack breakfast to take back to the classroom. This includes students who are here on time to eat in the cafeteria in the allotted window of time, but are choosing to wait until after morning meeting to go get their breakfast. Of course, we want all students to have a breakfast, and when they are waiting until after morning meeting, students are missing important class time. If your child needs school breakfast, please get them to school so they can eat it between 7:30am and 7:50am. Thank you for your support with this.
It has come to my attention that we continue to have people dropping students off on the school-side of Pavillion. For safety reasons, we ask that you do not do this. There have been many close calls with cars not seeing students crossing the street and none of us wants to experience an accident that could have been avoided. Please drop your student off in the car rider line between 7:30am and 7:59am.
We will be hosting a Conscious Discipline Parent Workshop on how to establish positive routines, set appropriate boundaries and avoid power struggles at the elementary campus in the auditorium on Thursday, October 2nd from 6:00pm to 7:30pm. Our Conscious Discipline consultant, Nicole Mercer, will be leading this workshop. We have been working with Nicole for the past 15 years and she is truly amazing. This workshop is appropriate for parents and guardians with children of all ages. A recent quote from the Conscious Discipline Facebook page was, “Conscious Discipline has been life-changing for my family. My son and I are both more relaxed and happy, and I no longer feel like I’m failing as a parent.” I will speak here from personal experience as both an educator and a parent. We have seen positive changes in student behavior in our school since implementing Conscious Discipline. Our students are better able to identify the source of a problem and help to find solutions that are helpful and respectful. In my own home, I marveled when I implemented Conscious Discipline strategies and experienced completely different (and much more pleasant) reactions from my children. It is not magic and it does take work, but it definitely works. Conscious Discipline is not just for children who are “naughty;” it is for all people.
We will have childcare for ANCS students and siblings ages 4 and older and pizza at the workshop for everyone. You can sign up for childcare here. Please sign up so we can ensure we have the appropriate number of staff to supervise the students and we want to make sure we order enough pizza for everyone. We hope you can make it!
As always, I am happy to answer any questions you may have.
Wishing you well,
Lara
Lara Zelski
Lara Zelski began working at ANCS in 2007. Previously, she worked at the Howard School and taught art, Spanish, reading and math. She taught 6th, 4th, and 2nd in DeKalb County. She taught 4th and 5th grade in Decatur and then moved to Title One reading and math instruction for 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders. She taught 5th grade at the ANCS elementary campus for two years.
