Bear Cub Digest #4

Posted Date: 9/01/25 (9:33 AM)

Bear Cub Digest

Parent & Community newsletter

September 1, 2025

Happy Labor Day!

We hope you will take time to enjoy this day off. Last week was a great week full of testing and learning. Students are focused and moving through this first quarter. We also completed much of our school wide progress monitoring testing last week. We have more to go this week, including math testing and testing for our kindergarten, first graders. Let's have an incredible week!

Upcoming Events

Please send in those boxes of cereal and dog food to help support two of our grade level service projects. Please be on the lookout for more specific information on these projects soon. Please see the other upcoming events below:

9/2/25 Cereal Box Collections Begin
9/8-9/12 College and Career Week
9/9/25 NCES Picture Day
9/12/25 Progress Reports
9/15-9/19- Celebrate Freedom Week
9/16- SAC & PTO meetings @ 7:00am & 7:30am
9/26/25 SDOC PD Day/No School

Important Reminders

Please remember that school safety is a priority at NCES. It is very important that all members adhere to the procedures and policies that we have established. This includes walker gate, car-rider, and school office entry. You MUST have your walker tag to pick up primary students, your car tags to pick up a car rider, and you must present your ID when coming into the office to pick up any student. We will release students only to persons noted in the system as permitted to pick up the child.

School Safety

We have received some concerns from parents regarding student safety, given the recent instances of school violence in the nation. At NCES, a standard response protocol is initiated when there is a safety emergency. Although we will not go through the minute details of our protocols, we will note that all staff and students have certain processes and procedures followed for safety. We continue to work on those processes throughout the year, so no matter where students and staff are on campus, they are able to follow the procedures and processes practiced while remaining safe. These areas include the portables, recess areas, PE, etc. For general information on the safety protocols followed, please go to:

https://iluveuguys.org

School Improvement Plan

Areas of Focus

A Florida School Improvement Plan (SIP) is a formal, data driven document created with input by the school stakeholders (parents, staff, community) to outline strategies for improving student achievement and school performance. The proposed areas of focus for the 2025-26 school year are as follows:

Area of Focus #1- Instructional Practice specifically relating to Math

Narcoossee Elementary students per 2024-25 FAST results showed a decrease in overall math proficiency (67% to 66%), decreased in overall math learning gains (62% to 50%), and lowest quartile math learning gains (53% to 33%).

Area of Focus #2- ESSA Subgroups specifically relating to Students With Disabilities (SWD)

At Narcoossee Elementary School, our students in the ESE subgroup have been underperforming as compared to their peers, and as result, only 34% of students in this subgroup have met the ESE Federal Index (41%) per the FAST state assessment PM-3 for ELA, Math, and science.

Area of Focus #3- Positive Learning Environment (Multiple Early Warning Signs)

We will continue to improve our positive culture and environment for learning through the systematic implementation of the Leader in Me process.

Please let us know if you have any questions, additions, or deletions you would like to discuss at our next SAC meeting on September 16th. You may send your items via this parent square app, email, or any other school communication application.

Academic Corner: Learning Targets

All NCES students are taught Florida's Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (BEST) Standards, the state's official academic standards for English Language Arts (ELA), Mathematics and middle school Civics. These benchmarks are standards designed to ensure students are prepared for college and careers. The BEST Standards emphasize building foundational skills and knowledge across grade levels, with assessments like the Florida Assessment of Student Thinking (FAST) aligned to these standards. It is important for students to know what they are learning, so at NCES, teachers present these benchmarks to students in kid friendly language to clarify for students and help them to understand what they are learning. These "Learning Targets" are posted on the board or around to room for student reference. They are also placed in their interactive notebooks. Be sure to ask your child what they learned in the day and have them go over some of the information in their notebooks with you.

Staff Highlight!

Ms. Jennifer Hickey

Did you know we have a famous person in our midst? Ms. Jennifer Hickey has been at Narcoossee Elementary School for many years. She is our amazing front desk receptionist, but she is also the extremely talented artist responsible for the breathtaking artwork seen in and around the school. Ms. Hickey is responsible for all of the beautiful bear artwork and handwriting that you see at the front of our school, outside of the school, as well as all around the inside of the school. Ms. Hickey transformed the school culture by embedding the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People in all of the artwork around the school. Her work is absolutely incredible! Did I mention that she has created our yearbook covers over the years? Next time you are visiting Narcoossee Elementary, please take a look at the artwork around the building and thank Ms. Hickey for the amazing work she has done over the years!