Save the dates for these great events!

We are blazing the trails here at BRES and want to share with you upcoming events that you won't want to miss out on. First, just a reminder about Picture Day for Tracks 3 & 4 on August 21st. An order form for pictures should have come home in Friday folders last week.

Need a cool treat and don't know where to get one? Join us for our first Spirit Night of the school year at Pelican's on Rt. 401 this Thursday, August 23rd for a sno cone or ice cream. Stop by anytime between 3-10 p.m. and purchase a cool treat. A portion of the sales from Thursday night will go directly to our PTA.

Labor Day is Monday, September 3rd. There will be no school in honor of the holiday.

Spirit Week is coming! This is bound to be a student favorite for the school year. Spirit Week begins on Friday, September 7 with "Wear School Colors" of blue and green or your official BRES t-shirt. Monday, the 10th brings out the hats. Wear your favorite hat to school! On Tuesday, get ready for "Backwards Day!" How many things can you do or wear backwards on Tuesday? Get your red, white and blue out for Wednesday the 12th. We will celebrate the Olympics by wearing red, white and blue! Wake up early on Thursday to prepare for "Wacky Hair" day. We will also have our second school Spirit Night from 5-8 p.m. at McDonald's in Fuquay Varina. Join us for supper or get dinner to go to support the BRES PTA. We will end the week by once again showing our school spirit by wearing our school colors or our official BRES t-shirt.

2nd Grade Community Service Project
Students in second grade are collecting supplies for the Wake County SPCA. The following items will be collected from Friday, September 7th for tracks 1 & 4 and Friday, October 5th for tracks 2 & 3. Items being collected are: dry dog and cat food, wet kitten food, scoopable cat litter, paper towels and spray cleaner. The second grade team is also asking for any 2nd grade parents who would be willing to transport items to the WC SPCA on the collection dates. Please contact your child's teacher if you can help transport these much needed items.

Final Reminders

Open House is tomorrow, August 16th from 5-6 p.m. for Tracks 1 & 3 and 6-7 p.m. for Tracks 2 & 4. Don't forget Early Release on Friday, August 17th at 1:15 p.m. We will begin dismissal promptly at 1:15 p.m. Please call the school if you have any questions. Thank you!

Open House is this Thursday!

Great things are happening at BRES and we can't wait to share it all with you! Please join us for Open House on Thursday, August 16th. Tracks 1 & 3 should attend from 5-6 p.m. and Tracks 2 & 4 should attend from 6-7 p.m. Teachers will share a brief classroom presentation on Common Core and Grade Level Expectations. Additionally, you will have an opportunity to meet the Specialists and Support Teachers, join the BRES PTA, purchase Spirit Wear and products. Please call the school with any questions at 919-890-7333.

Excellence in Education: Christie Bethel

Congratulations to Ms. Christie Bethel who will receive top honors from the Fuquay Varina Chamber of Commerce and the Education Council Committee tonight. Ms. Bethel will be honored at the Royal Oaks Building on Monterey Pine Drive beginning at 5:30 p.m.

Read below to learn more about our wonderful teacher Ms. Bethel.

Christie Bethel is an experienced teacher, this being her 6th year. She started off teaching 2nd grade and has taught 1st grade her last 5 years.

She has spent most of her life in Fuquay Varina, attending Fuquay Elementary, Middle, and High. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Elementary Education, Christie moved back to Fuquay to be close to my family and now calls Apex home. Outside of school Christie loves to read, go to the beach and the mountains, travel all over the world, and spend time with my family, and her cat, Bootsie.

Christie has served as K-2 Literacy Teacher leader, SST case manager, and helped develop a school goal for School Wide Title 1 transition. Three out of four of Christie's grandparents were teachers and she has always wanted to be a teacher since she was in 2nd grade. Being able to transform children's lives into a love of learning is what Christie enjoys most about the teaching profession!

Reminders

This is a reminder that Ident-a-kid Day is Thursday, August 16th. If you have not returned the application form to the school, it's not too late to participate in the program. Simply complete the form that was sent home in student folders and submit to the school.

Great things are happening at BRES and we can't wait to share it all with you! Please join us for Open House on Thursday, August 16th. Tracks 1 & 3 should attend from 5-6 p.m. and Tracks 2 & 4 should attend from 6-7 p.m. Teachers will share a brief classroom presentation on Common Core and Grade Level Expectations. Additionally, you will have an opportunity to meet the Specialists and Support Teachers, join the BRES PTA, purchase Spirit Wear and products. Please call the school with any questions at 919-890-7333.

Additionally on Thursday Tracks 3 & 4 will have Picture Day. Wear your favorite school appropriate outfit and bring your best smile for Fall Pictures. Order forms were sent home in folders and extra forms are available in the front office.

Friday, August 17th brings our second Early Releases of the school year. Dismissal will begin promptly at 1:15 for all bus and carpool carpool students. If your child will have a change in transportation on Early Release day please send in a note or call the school by 12:00 at 919-890-7333.

Track 4 is here and that means more students on campus and in carpool. We have a streamlined carpool dismissal process and you can help us maintain a safe and orderly dismissal by please adhering to the following guidelines:

-Only utilize the designated carpool lane in our side parking lot
-Carpool tags must be hung in the rear view mirror
-No Cell Phones once the line is moving
-Pull forward to the first available cone for loading and unloading children
-Only load and unload children in the designated loading zone--if you need to help your child buckle their seat belt please pull to an empty parking space to the left so the line can keep moving
-If there is a delay in getting your child out to your car we will ask you to pull up past Cone 1

Please be patient with us as our goal is to ensure each student is delivered to you safely.

Bus - Garner Transportation
The Transportation Department is responsible for the planning and scheduling of bus routes. Questions and/or concerns may be addressed directly to their office at (919) 662-2408.

Student Achievement Results

We worked extremely hard in 2011-12 and our data shows student academic success and good progress in our efforts to close the achievement gap. I will post a more detailed information on our academic gains in the near future. Until then, you can browse the following websites to access achievement data and our school's current and past outcome data:

ABCs
http://abcs.ncpublicschools.org/abcs/

AMOs
http://accrpt.ncpublicschools.org/app/2012/amo/

Graduation Rates
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/reporting/cohortgradrate

Disaggregated Achievement Results
http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/reporting/leaperformancearchive/


We have also updated our own website with this year's school and student achievement results at
http://www.wcpss.net/test-scores/

School Spirit Prevails in Mrs. Yanez's 5th Grade Track 1 Class!

Ms. Goodson and I visited classrooms on Friday and listened as students and teachers gave count of how many students participated in School Spirit Fridays by wearing our school colors of blue and green or their official BRES t-shirts. The tallies were counted and Mrs. Yanez's class came out in full force with school colors to win the special cool treat with the Principals. Look at the sea of blue and green in the picture below!

Congratulations students in Mrs. Yanez's class! I can't wait until next Friday to see our students demonstrating school pride and to see whose class will show the most school spirit! Will it be your class? ~ Mrs. Graf