We are so happy to celebrate Mrs. Lester, who is this year’s Percy Priest Teacher of the Year! Please join us in congratulating her on a job really well done. She is loved, adored, and appreciated by so many families for her excellence in the classroom and the love she shows each and every child day in and day out. She absolutely lives up to her first name, Lovie. Congratulations on this recognition, Mrs. Lester!

Upcoming School Events

• April 6 & 7 – Spring Holiday – No School
• April 18-28 – 3rd and 4th Grade TNReady Testing
• April 20 – Author Visit (2nd, 3rd & 4th)
• April 21 – Tiger Tennis Social
• May 1-5 – Teacher Appreciation Week
• May 1 – NPL Puppet Truck- Puss in Boots (2nd & 3rd)
• May 2 – NPL Puppet Truck – Tomas (K & 1st)
• May 5 – Cinco de Mayo & Field Day (*May 9 Rain Date*)
• May 7 – Incoming Kindergartener Popsicle Party
• May 12 – Spring Picnic
• May 19 – Spring Sing @ 9:00

Spring Field Trips

• April 12 – 1st Grade (Acker / Wall) @ Warner Park
• April 14 – 1st Grade (Brumleve / Faison / Hartsock) @ Warner Park
• April 26 – Kindergarten @ Zoo
• May 11 – 2nd Grade @ Nashville Children’s Theater

Parenting Series:  Thursday, April 13th 7:30pm -8:30pm.

Kelly Flanagan (LPC-MHSP) from the Nashville OCD & Anxiety Treatment Center will be speaking to Percy Priest parents on: “Childhood Mental Health 101- What to Look For, and How You Can Help at Home.” This will be a virtual event via Teams, so please watch for the link to be sent out through room parents next week.

Author Visit: Dion Leonard – April 20th

We are thrilled to announce that bestselling author Dion Leonard and his cute dog Gobi will be visiting PPE on April 20th! Dion will present three times, to 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders. PPE families will have the opportunity to purchase autographed copies of his book, Finding Gobi: Young Reader’s Edition: The True Story of One Little Dog’s Big Journey. Look for order forms in next week’s Friday folders.

Tiger Tennis Social – April 21- Tickets available for purchase!

On Friday, April 21st (Rain Date April 28), we’ll gather at Seven Hills Swim & Tennis for tennis, fun, a tasty lunch and light cocktails. All skill levels will have a great time – just bring a racquet!

Pick a time for tennis drills and play —  9:00 -11:00 or 12:00 – 2:00. Lunch will be served from 11-12.  There will also be a raffle during lunch to win some amazing prizes from K. McCarthy, Poncho and Lefty’s, Edleys and Elle Gray, just to name a few!

Don’t play tennis but want in on the fun? Purchase a spectator/lunch option and come to socialize, grab a cocktail and lunch, and watch some tennis!

Purchase your tickets at https://fly.causepilot.com/percypriest/tigertennis2023

We are also excited to announce that The Spark Collection will be at the Tennis Social to adorn you with a new bracelet! This option is available to those who are playing tennis and to those who are simply coming for social fun. Sign up here for your timeslot!

3rd & 4th Grade TNReady Testing Schedule: April 18-28th

Testing will begin promptly after morning announcements, so please ensure that your student arrives on time during our testing dates. Tardy students will be held in the front office as to not disrupt the testing environment and will have to take their test at a later time.

Electronic Devices:

As TNReady testing approaches, a reminder that electronic devices including smart watches and cell phones are not permitted in the testing area. Our preference is for students to leave their electronic devices at home during testing. If students bring these devices to school, they will be required to turn them off and store them in their backpack. We ask that you please help us with this, so we can avoid any test irregularities.

TNReady Optional Time Legislation:

According to the Public Chapter 978 passed by the Tennessee 112 th General Assembly, a test

administrator may allow a student an additional optional time of 20% of testing time per subpart, to ensure students are able to finish the TNReady assessment completely. Our district has made the decision to provide optional additional time for all students tested on TNReady. Parents and students do not have to request this in advance. Test administrators will offer the optional additional time to students automatically at the end of every test session in compliance with the new legislation.

Thank you for supporting us in helping us create an optimal test environment for students.

School Fundraisers

April 1st – 30th

Throughout the month of April stop into Elan Skin for products, treatments or a gift card and support Percy Priest! Elan Skin will donate 10% of all sales made with the mention of Percy Priest Elementary back to the PTO. All purchases must be made in person but this does include gift cards and Mother’s day is right around the corner! Elan is located at 3750 Hillsboro Pike.

Market Fresh Ferns – April 14 deadline to order

If you want the biggest, healthiest Fern on the block and you love Percy Priest, be sure to buy your ferns now through April 14!

Visit our fern webpage to purchase yours today!

Pick-up will be April 19th at the Percy Priest Playground (corner of Wilshire & Priest) from dismissal until 4PM. If you are unable to pick up in that timeframe, please ask a friend for help or email MeganLCallender@gmail.com.

The funds raised from this event will be used to support the PTO budget, which provides our school with additional staff, software and supplies. Thank you so much for your support!

We have two types of ferns available:

Boston Fern (10” and thrives in shady environment) $32

Kimberly Queen (10” and thrives in a sunny environment) $24

General Announcements

A few weeks ago we told you about Dr. Young’s Boston Marathon run on April 17 and we’ve received many questions since about how to support him. He’s a little bashful about this, but if you’re interested in making a donation to the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge, you can do that on his fundraising page. His father, David Young, was diagnosed with a rare type of cancer, peritoneal mesothelioma, in August 2021 and less than a month later he passed away. Funds raised will benefit the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Basic Cancer Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute so that more can be known about peritoneal mesothelioma cancer, more treatment options can be developed, more resources can be available to support the medical professionals, and ultimately more people will be successfully treated for this cancer.

Words of encouragement mean the most to him so please feel welcome to drop him an email or send him a card between now and the race. Cards from kids are particularly meaningful. Go, Dr. Young, go!

Spring for Moore – Saturday April 22nd from 6-10 pm

Please join JT Moore for the annual JTM Spring for Moore Fundraiser and Silent Auction. This is an adults only event, so line up your babysitters! Tickets are Now on Sale!  The theme is Hollywood, and suggested attire (but not required) is anything Hollywood (Think old Hollywood, famous movie stars, etc).  There will be heavy hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar, a photo booth with props and a costume contest with a grand prize!  All of this in addition to our silent auction where we will be auctioning off wonderful items! Tickets are available here until April 8.

Kindergarten Registration for the 2023-24 school year will kick off on Monday, January 30th.  If you or someone you know has an incoming kindergartner, please encourage them to complete registration as early as possible.  For information regarding enrollment requirements, please visit https://earlylearning.mnps.org/kindergarten.

Kindergarten Readiness Camp: July 18-19

Calling all Rising Kindergarten girls and boys for 2023-2024 school year.  Save the Date for July 18-19 for our Kindergarten Readiness Camp.  Join Miss Murray Benson & Mrs. Bitsi Condra to get a “Sneak Peek” at a day in the life of a kindergartner!  Your child will have the opportunity to meet new friends, engage in hands-on learning experiences, Tour the school, playground, visit ‘kinder’ classrooms, and so much more!  Registration HERE!

Unicycle Needs Your SSA and Non-SSA Donations (including baseball gear)!

It’s spring cleaning time and Unicycle is looking for SSA donations as well as non-SSA, including baseball gear and sneakers. Please drop those items on the Percy Priest front porch in the designated Unicyle bins. Thank you!

Message from the PPE Green Team

Did you know that 40 percent of food in the U.S. goes to waste? Keeping food out of the landfill presents an opportunity for us to reduce environmental impacts from landfilling while helping to address food insecurity. Help us celebrate Food Waste Awareness Week April 10-14 by bringing in canned food items for donation to Second Harvest Food Bank. Donation boxes will be placed on the porch.

Come Have Lunch!

Parents, grandparents and special friends are welcome to eat lunch with students! To help us with space and accommodating guests, we ask that visitors sign-up to come eat lunch using the bookings link below. Please be sure to select the correct grade level and teacher. When signing-up, we also ask that you only sign-up for one day at this time. Thank you for your help and we hope to see you for lunch soon. Sign up to come eat lunch with your student! Menus can be viewed on the Meal View App or here.

We need your help to make this spring the best yet at Percy Priest! Dedicated and engaged parents are a key ingredient to making our school the great school that it is. There are big and small volunteer opportunities throughout the year. Please check out our volunteer form and let us know what things interest you. We’ll be in touch with more information.

If you have questions of any kind, please contact us at presidentsppe@gmail.com. Thank you!

Small Fundraisers Spotlight

For a list of all of our ongoing small fundraisers, please visit our Small Fundraisers webpage.

Kroger will donate 4% of the total dollars spent in their stores to PPE. To participate, click on this link, create or login to your account and select Percy Priest Elementary PTO as your Community Rewards Organization.

How to Stay Connected

Add PPE happenings to your calendar automatically!

You can subscribe to our PTO calendar and have all of our events show up on your calendar, so you never lose track of important dates! Following the links below will prompt you to subscribe to the calendar via your preferred calendar app. Any time the PTO updates an event through the website, it will update on the calendar of all subscribers (how often your calendar pulls updated info will be based on your individual personal settings – every 5 minutes, 1 hour, 1 week, etc).

For Calendar Apps (apple calendar etc), go to: webcal://www.percypriest.org/?post_type=tribe_events&ical=1&eventDisplay=list

For Google Calendar, go to: https://www.google.com/calendar/render?cid=webcal%3A%2F%2Fwww.percypriest.org%2F%3Fpost_type%3Dtribe_events%26tribe-bar-date%3D2022-08-31%26ical%3D1%26eventDisplay%3Dlist