TO REGISTER:

1. Click this link to access MVP Shopper Registration
2. Enter your MVP card number and click “SUBMIT”
3. You will then be asked to enter some basic information and then click “SUBMIT” again.
4. You will then be asked to enter the school code (218798) and click “FIND.”
5. At this point, WCDS should come up. Click “ADD” and you’re done. Thank you!

Welcome back to a new year and the second semester of the school year.  I trust all have had a happy Christmas season and that all are well rested and ready to dig in to new challenges and successes!

As we have always maintained, please know during this very active winter season YOU are the ultimate decision-maker for your child when inclement weather descends on us.  We will always make every effort to hold school, but know that safety is always priority one.  If you are not comfortable taking your student or having your student come to school, just call us and let us know.  All announcements regarding possible school closure or delay will be posted on our website by 6.45AM.

As another winter announcement, PLEASE keep your child home when she or he is sick.  Please make sure that at least 24 hours pass with no fever or symptoms of illness before returning your child to school.

Monday, 17 January, we will observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and there will be no classes.

Tuesday, 18 January, we will host a Red Cross Blood Drive from 8.30AM until 1.00PM.  Please consider donating the gift of life.  Call Mrs. Joyner in the office to schedule an appointment time; walk-ins are also allowed.  Please let any friends or family know of our blood drive.  Thanks once again to Coach J. Jones for coordinating this community service.

We will begin our magazine sales this Friday, and we’ll sell magazines for two weeks.  This activity is completely voluntary, and we appreciate your consideration in renewing current subscriptions through the school.  Just go to our website and follow the link “What’s Happening” under “Fundraising.”  Prizes will be awarded for our top salespeople.

Thank you to the nearly 25% of our parents who have now contributed to the 2010-11 Annual Appeal.  Please consider making a generous gift to our Annual Appeal fund.  Remember that tuition covers only 80% of the actual costs, and your gift to the Annual Appeal is fully tax deductible!

Congratulations to our Wayne County DAR essay contest winners.  We swept the grades in which we participated with first place honors for the district:  Zander Pittman, Fifth grade; Aimée Barnes, Sixth grade (who also won fifth grade last year!); Connor Shaw, Seventh grade; and Mason Bland, Eighth grade.

Stay hot this January!

Welcome back to a new year and the second semester of the school year.  I trust all have had a happy Christmas season and that all are well rested and ready to dig in to new challenges and successes!

As we have always maintained, please know during this very active winter season YOU are the ultimate decision-maker for your child when inclement weather descends on us.  We will always make every effort to hold school, but know that safety is always priority one.  If you are not comfortable taking your student or having your student come to school, just call us and let us know.  All announcements regarding possible school closure or delay will be posted on our website by 6.45AM.

As another winter announcement, PLEASE keep your child home when she or he is sick.  Please make sure that at least 24 hours pass with no fever or symptoms of illness before returning your child to school.

Monday, 17 January, we will observe Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and there will be no classes.

Tuesday, 18 January, we will host a Red Cross Blood Drive from 8.30AM until 1.00PM.  Please consider donating the gift of life.  Call Mrs. Joyner in the office to schedule an appointment time; walk-ins are also allowed.  Please let any friends or family know of our blood drive.  Thanks once again to Coach J. Jones for coordinating this community service.

We will begin our magazine sales this Friday, and we’ll sell magazines for two weeks.  This activity is completely voluntary, and we appreciate your consideration in renewing current subscriptions through the school.  Just go to our website and follow the link “What’s Happening” under “Fundraising.”  Prizes will be awarded for our top salespeople.

Thank you to the nearly 25% of our parents who have now contributed to the 2010-11 Annual Appeal.  Please consider making a generous gift to our Annual Appeal fund.  Remember that tuition covers only 80% of the actual costs, and your gift to the Annual Appeal is fully tax deductible!

Congratulations to our Wayne County DAR essay contest winners.  We swept the grades in which we participated with first place honors for the district:  Zander Pittman, Fifth grade; Aimée Barnes, Sixth grade (who also won fifth grade last year!); Connor Shaw, Seventh grade; and Mason Bland, Eighth grade.

Stay hot this January!

Autumn is finally here, and our Annual Halloween Carnival is just around the corner. Even though I know you’ve received the email from our co-chairs for this year’s event, I want to encourage you to come to school next Saturday, 30 October from 5:00-8:00 PM.

Thank you for your work in Sally Foster this year! An especially big thank you to Ms. Eagles and Ms. McDonald for coordinating an interesting transitional year. Please be reminded that for all who sold cookie dough, those tubs of dough will arrive at school THIS MONDAY. Please make sure to pick up those tubs of cookie dough right after school.

You should have your ticket for our big (and last, compulsory) fundraising event for the year. As contractually agreed, each family is responsible for selling or buying one ticket. You will notice that for just this year, we have dropped the ticket price, and at the same time, we have eliminated the drawing for the four big prizes that we have had in the past. For those of you who would like to sell additional tickets to help us reach our goal, you should have received a green sheet for additional information and opportunities.

And of course, that event is “Southern Comfort” to be held on Friday, 12 November beginning at 7:00 PM at the Goldsboro Country Club. Join us for a very casual evening of comfort food and a relaxed environment as we enjoy helping our school. We will have both a silent auction and a live auction with more than one hundred items to consider satisfying those needs on your Christmas shopping list. Check the school website for daily updates until the event to see a fabulous collection of items. We have everything from modestly priced treasures to WOW! Please turn in the $150 no later than Friday, 5 November to Mrs. Malpass.

Next week is Red Ribbon Week at our school. Again this year, Ms. Williams has planned a week-long event for all of our students to educate themselves in making good choices about their well-being and those who they choose to surround them.

Unbelievably, by the time you read this letter, Thanksgiving Break will be less than a month away. Our Eighth Grade Annual Pie Palooza will be held on Tuesday morning, 23 November, our last day before our five-day Thanksgiving vacation. Come get a delicious dessert for your feast!

And speaking of Thanksgiving Feast, our annual collection of Early Years Pilgrims and Native Americans will take place on Tuesday, 23 November, in our Music Room. Look for more information in your child’s classroom newsletter. And best wishes to all for a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

Even though we are now in our sixth week of this school year, autumn seems a long way off.  The autumnal equinox was yesterday, but with temperatures expected in the 90’s for at least another week, and with the return of drought conditions, I wonder what the trees must be feeling.

The three-year drought in Wayne County for a National Merit Scholar is over.  We are pleased that Ama Zbarcea has received notice that she is a National Merit Semi-Finalist, an honor for which she will compete for national status.  We are sure that once the National Merit organization reviews her credentials, she will gain the ultimate honor.

The qualifying exam for National Merit status, the PSAT, will be given immediately after our return from the Fall Family Weekend holiday, Wednesday, 13 October, to ninth through eleventh graders.  Each of these students needs to pay Ms. Malpass a $20 fee for the test.  Seniors will begin school late that day, at 10.30AM.  Early Years and Lower School will begin at the normal time.

This past week’s Grandparents Day was a great success.  Not only did we have more than 250 grandparents who attended a wonderful program from Ms. Fordham’s and Ms. Finan’s creative minds, but in the classrooms our honored guests were shown the latest technological innovation, the ActivExpression.  The response to our request to help purchase them is simply awe-inspiring!  In just over one short week, we have raised sufficient funds to purchase an ActivExpression (aka “clicker”) for each student in our Lower School, with more than a dozen for use in the Upper School to boot!  Thank you to our parents, and especially our grandparents, who answered our plea to ensure that our school leads in educational technology.

Our Annual Book Fair will begin this Monday, 27 September and last until 5 October.  Look for “heroes and heroines” to pop up everywhere during this year’s fair.

We have a number of students who will compete in the Talent Show at the Wayne County Fair on 6-7 October.  If you get a chance, stop in the show and cheer them on.
The Fall Family Weekend begins after classes on Friday, 8 October.  We will have afterschool care that day until the regular time.  Classes will resume on Wednesday, 13 October.  Let’s hope that we have a cool turn, or for you who love the beach, a continuance of this warm weather.

Mrs. Smith and our eighth grade will sponsor a craft fair in the gym on Saturday, 16 October from 10.00AM until 2.00PM.  Our “Fall into Christmas” craft fair already has more than twenty vendors ready to wow you with their handiwork.  Admission is free, so stop by and take a look.

Our Early Years and Lower School fathers are invited to “Doughnuts with Dad” on Wednesday, 20 October beginning at 7.45 in the main concourse.  Our youngsters love to share a part of their money as they fill their dads with the yummy stuff from Krispy Kreme!

Despite some really hot days with elevated humidity, we are amazed at just how smoothly this school year has started!  It seems that especially this year, our students and teachers were very ready to begin work.  I am so pleased with the positive attitudes and smiling faces.

New parents, please remember to come to the dessert this Monday at 5.30PM in the Library.  Although just an informal and casual gathering, it gives us a chance to see how you’re doing and to see if you have any questions or suggestions.  I promise that it will not last more than an hour, and you will have a chance to chat with other new parents and administrators.

Please check your email account on Wednesday, 25 August for our test email.  If you do not receive an email from us, please contact us.  We will make any necessary adjustments to ensure that you receive all communications from the school.

Individual students portraits will be taken on Thursday and Friday of next week.  The schedule for the various grades and divisions will be given in Friday Folders for our younger students, or is contained in this mailing for our older students.  You are not required to purchase any of these photographs, although it is important that we photograph your student for the yearbook, for our records, and for an ID card for the students themselves.

For Upper Schoolers and families, the deadline for deposits and affidavits for the Southern Colleges Trip in October is this Friday, 27 August.  Any spaces available after that date will be available with a cost increase of 15% for the trip and on a first-come, first served basis.

All families, please turn in your Charger Card money of $100 per family by the end of next week.  Not having to generate a bill helps us save money and time, and we appreciate lightening the work load for Mrs. Malpass whenever we can.

Labor Day is a long weekend holiday, and we will have no classes on Monday, 6 September.  Let’s hope the dog days of summer have passed by that point, and that this last official weekend of summer is a glorious one.  Classes will resume at the normal time on Tuesday.

Please make sure that all of our Grandparents know that our annual day to honor them will be coming soon.  Monday, 13 September will begin for our grandparents at 8.30AM in the gymnasium.  Ms. Fordham has prepared another delightful program to entertain  our honored guests.  Classroom visits will follow the program, and we will resume the normal schedule after our Grandparents depart at 10.30AM.

Lastly, and this is SINGULARLY, the most important act I will ask you to do for me, your children, and our school this entire year: vote in Kohls Cares.  To celebrate their 10th Anniversary, Kohls is sponsoring a contest through Facebook.  To the top 20 vote-getting schools in the United States, 10 million dollars will be equally shared.  I know, I know, the dreaded Facebook.  But like all tools, even Facebook has an upside, and a victory in this contest will jump-start our Capital Campaign for a renovated and updated school/ new high school wing to the tune of $500,000!  To those who say we’re too small, or this is too complicated, I say NUTS!  We won the US Cellular contest last year, and together, we conquer this contest as well.  Please see the enclosed sheet with directions for the contest.  Our school’s website also has a link that you can use.  My challenge is this: if each of our current WCDS families will ensure that 30 people will vote for our school the maximum of five times, then we will have 25,200 votes; if every Upper School student will ensure that 30 people will vote for our school, then we will have 19,050; each of our faculty have committed to ensure that our school will receive 155 votes from each of them, for a total of 4,340.  This will put us near the 50,000 votes we will need to finish in the top 20.  PLEASE, take some time and get involved with this project.

Believe it or not, we are just two weeks away from the New Year 2010-11 Open House!  On Thursday, 12 August at 5.30PM we’ll gather in the gymnasium to welcome everyone to the new school year.  After that initial meeting, we’ll break off into divisions and at 6.30PM you’ll have a chance to hear about your particular division of the school.  For those of you who will have an Upper School student participating in an interscholastic sport this autumn, that compulsory meeting will take place at 7.30PM in the Charger Café.

At the meeting, we will have all of the necessary forms for you to complete registration.  You can have your student return all the completed forms on the first day of classes.  For Upper School students, we will pass out your preliminary schedule for review, but there is no opportunity to change or adjust the schedule until the first day of classes.

We will also have each family’s Charger Cards ready for sale.  As a reminder of everyone’s contractual fundraiser obligation, each family is responsible for selling or buying 10 Charger Cards at $10 per card.  I ask that you turn in the $100 per family by Friday, 27 August so that we do not have to bill you.

On Friday, 13 August, for those who would like to speak briefly with one or more of the teachers, we will have a “Meet the Teacher Day” from 10.30AM-1PM.

The first day of classes will be Monday, 16 August.  It will be a half-day of classes, and pick-up for Early Years will be at 11.50.  Lower School pick-up will be at 12.00 noon, and Upper School pick up will be at 12.15PM.  No luncheon will be served that day.

All new parents are invited to a New Parent gathering on Monday, 23 August at 5.30PM in the Library.  If you have any unanswered questions or concerns, make sure to attend!

Enclosed is the 2010-11 calendar.  (For new parents, know that we publish and post on our school’s website the ensuing year’s calendar in mid February of every year.)  Please note one change on this year’s calendar.  Our Winter Break will begin AFTER classes on Friday, 25 February.  That is, we WILL have classes that Friday.  We will return from the break on TUESDAY, 8 MARCH 2011, instead of Monday.