North Forest Pines - School News

The North Forest Pines community will focus on student learning by collaboratively meeting students' individual needs to ensure successful and responsible citizens.

Welcome to North Forest Pines Elementary, the school where learning takes flight and children soar to success.

North Forest Pines raises almost $2,000 for Cystic Fibrosis
Falcon families have done it again! In a friendly fundraising competition for Cystic Fibrosis, NFP raised more money than Forest Pines Elementary! Cystic fibrosis is an inherited chronic disease that affects the lungs and digestive system of about 30,000 children and adults in the United States. To celebrate the victory and raising so much money, Mr. McCabe painted the school colors on his head.

Mr. McCabe, showing off his Falcon pride, painted his head red and blue.

Magnet/Calendar Application Results Notification Delayed
All families who submitted an application during the 2010-11 magnet/application period will receive the results of their application on April 8, 2010. The deadline to decline the offered seats has been moved to April 28.

The application results notification and decision dates were changed to ensure equitable application opportunities for families affected by the calendar changes approved by the Board of Education on March 2.

On April 8, all families who submitted an application will be able to access their application results online using the application confirmation number received upon submission. Families will now have until April 28 to decline their offer.

Individuals, who have misplaced their confirmation number, may call Growth and Planning at 919-850-1921 or the Magnet Resource Center at 919-501-7900 for assistance.

Families wishing to request other changes will have the opportunity to do so during the transfer process period scheduled for May 14 - June 1.

Falcon Fest Volunteers Needed
Volunteers are desperately needed to serve on 8 planning committees for the upcoming Falcon Fest. The committees have flexibility and most of them are not very time consuming. If you can help or if you need more information, please contact Karen Baker at kbake@nc.rr.com.

Regional Saturday Academy Has Successful Start
Five Wakefield area schools (including North Forest Pines Elementary) have begun a Regional Saturday Academy which provides free tutoring services to approximately 70 students from the five schools. Click here to see the details of the proposed Saturday Academy plan. Thanks to the community's support of these efforts, the program began on Saturday, March 13, 2010 and will meet again on April 10 and May 15. To read more about the Educational Summit, go to this website. Hear the podcast about the Regional Summit. (14 minutes | .mp3)

The vision for the program is to continue into the 2010-2011 school year and expand the number of students served. We need the support of the business community to make this happen. We are currently looking for business partnerships that can help fund the approximate $22,000 cost to run the program for the 2010-2011 school year. Please contact one of the program's co-directors if you are interested in becoming a business partner to support this community sponsored Saturday Academy. The co-directors are Tony Calabria (acalabria@wcpss.net) and LaShara Gilkes (lgilkes@wcpss.net). Thanks for your consideration.

Dr. Burns' Journal

H1N1 Virus
Wake County Public School System works closely with Wake County Human Services on any cases of communicable diseases or viruses. WCPSS and Wake County Human Services are carefully monitoring the flu situation and will keep parents and the public updated.

Reminder About NFP's 2009 -2010 Day
In order to find time during the school day for teachers to engage in professional learning communities, the WCPSS Board of Education has made a few important changes to the schedule. The instructional day for the 2009-2010 school year will be 8:20-3:00 pm (including 10 additional minutes). We will begin AM carpool and bus drop off at 8:00 am.

We began our Wednesday early dismissals on July 8. Every Wednesday we begin dismissal at 2:00 pm (1 hour early) to allow the staff time to engage in Professional Learning Community activities. On 8 Wednesdays we will dismiss at 12:30 pm to allow the staff time for professional development; the 3 remaining Wednesdays are February 17, March 10, and April 21.

At North Forest Pines, we are committed to doing everything we can to make sure we meet every child's unique needs. That is why Professional Learning Communities (PLC's) are the backbone of how we operate. We are looking forward to the time the WCPSS Board of Education has provided for us to engage in PLC's on Wednesday afternoons during the 2009-2010 school year. To learn more about PLC's please watch the video podcast, visit the WCPSS website, or visit Mr. McCabe's website.