The Percy Priest Groundbreaking Ceremony was an event to remember.  It was a celebration of the new chapter of our sweet neighborhood school.  We will update our tiger community with our new section “Construction Corner” in the newsletter.  A big shout out to our 5th graders with their musical performance to kick off the event and 5th grader Nurah Zehr for her moving speech.

Let’s continue to fill up our INVEST Tiger Paw located next to the new playground.  We have had a tremendous response to our INVEST Campaign so far but let’s continue to push to reach our participation goals! If you haven’t had a chance to make a pledge, please be sure to visit: HERE.  All families that give or pledge through the site by October 6, 2023, will receive a coupon for a FREE FROZEN DRINK from Twice Daily’s Granny White Market. Each class that has 100% participation will have a popsicle party to celebrate!

A huge thank you to our volunteers and everyone who came and made Percy’s Vintage Closet a big success! The PVC donation bin will remain on the PPE front porch so as you clean out, please be sure to donate PPE-logoed clothing for our next sale.

Important Dates

• September 28 – Songs Under the Stars
• September 29 – College Shirt Day
• October 4– Walk to School Day & Navigator Day
• October 6 – No School-Teacher In Service
• October 9-13 – Fall Break
• October 17 – PTO General Meeting, 6:00 pm in PPE Library
• October 25 – Makeup and Classroom Picture Day
• October 27 – No School – Parent Conferences
• October 31 – Harvest Celebration-Classroom Parties
• November 3 – Open House for Prospective Families
• November 8-9 – GrandFriends Day
• November 10 – Veterans Day-No School

Farewell to Ms. Twitchell

It is with a heart of gratitude and sadness that we share with our community that Ms. Twitchel will be leaving Percy Priest at the end of this month.

For the past 20 years,  Mary Twitchel’s calm and compassionate presence has been a constant in our building. She’s helped families, students, and staff navigate life’s ups and downs, and she’s done it with her whole heart. Mary has the gift of helping people feel they have a place in this world, no matter the issue, how great or how small. She holds invaluable counseling and district expertise, as well as a love for our Percy Priest community. Our kids and our community are better because of Mary’s contributions.

We are excited for Ms. Twitchel as she begins this next chapter in her life, but we know as a community, we will miss her support and encouragement during difficult times, as well as her smile and contagious laughter in times of celebration. Thank you, Ms. Twitchel!

We invite families to share their thanks and appreciation for Ms. Twitchel by sending her an email (Mary.Twitchel@mnps.org) or your kids can send her a card and leave at her desk this week.

We have officially moved to the front playground.  Students will be utilizing the front playground and loop area for games and activities for recess.  We will also be looking to add additional equipment in the near future, including a pit for gaga ball.

With this move to the front, the front loop will be closed at the conclusion of arrival each day.  Visitors to the building will need to plan to park in the visitor lot.

The remainder of our rear playground equipment is being donated to the Nashville Fire Department.  The department has a program where they take old playground equipment and repurpose it to create a playground space in an area of need in the city.

Invest Update

It’s Time to INVEST!

Thank you to all who have supported PPE through the INVEST campaign so far! To date, 60% of our families have joined the effort and we hope to get to 100% by Fall Break! If you haven’t supported already, please Click GIVE NOW. If you can’t give at this time, please still sign on and click “I support PPE” so your child can be counted in class participation and school wide totals! Each class that gets to 100% participation will get a popsicle party. See below for the classes that are getting close!

DID YOU KNOW?

Your Invest contribution may be matched by your employer.  This matching feature enables your donation to go even further.  Please consider contacting your company to inquire.  You can provide them with the following information:

PPE PTO is a registered organization.

Search Name is: PERCY PRIEST PARENT TEACHER ORGANIZATION

Unique Identifier: 043588824

Upcoming Events

Songs Under the Stars-September 28th SOLD OUT

Songwriters’ Night is Sold Out! We are thrilled for the overwhelming support from our PPE family for this magical night featuring the incredibly talented Joy Williams, Ross Copperman, and JT Harding! 

Limited Sponsorships are still available with tickets, so take a look and sign up today!

Thank you to our committed sponsors: America’s Swimming Pool Co., Came Express Car Wash, W.R. Newman, Osborne State Farm, Curated Homes, Mom’s Thrive, Michael Bono, Leslie Hill Group, Ari Davidson Photography, Black Abbey Brewing, BarBCutie Smokehouse, Spirited Hive, and Dozen Bakery.

Save the Date for GrandFriends Day, November 8th and 9th 

Save the date for this year’s Grandfriends Day on November 8th (kindergarten, first, second grades) and November 9th (third, fourth and fifth grades)! More information to follow in the coming weeks.

We know there are many grandparents, family and special friends of PPE students who would like to be involved. You can keep up with the latest news by signing up for the PPE Grandparents, Family & Friends List here.

https://www.percypriest.org/connect/grandparents-family-friends/

Small Fundraisers

Pumpkin and Mums Fundraiser Sale – September 8-29th

Support Percy Priest Elementary PTO Budget while getting Fall Festive with mums and pumpkin stacks from Market Fresh Produce. These are the prettiest, most impressive mums and pumpkins around, and all proceeds go back to the PTO to provide additional staff and materials to the school which impacts every child.

Mums (variety of colors) $21 Order HERE

Pumpkin Stacks (three pumpkins) $25 Order HERE

Pick up is at the PPE Playground during dismissal until 4PM on 10/04. Ziomatto Gelato will be selling gelato the day of pickup and % going to PPE PTO.  If you are unable to pick up that day during that timeframe please email marcy.stringfield@gmail.com to make alternate arrangements.

Katelyn Brown Photography-Fall Family Session  *New Session ADDED

Book your Katelyn Brown Fall Family Photo Sessions Today and % of each session will go back to support our PTO.  Click HERE for available apts.  A new Family mini session has been added on October 27th. Black and white kid portraits available on November 19th.

General Announcements

Girls Running Club FUN RUN- September 27

Come cheer on the PPE Girls Running Club on September 27th at 3:20 pm.  The girls will run a 2 mile race around the PPE Neighborhoods and end back at the school.  Please come out and cheer on our girls.  They have all worked so hard these past few weeks.

School pictures are now available for parents to view and order online.

School Pictures are Ready!

View and order at https://shop.jostenspix.com/login

• PERCY PRIEST ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
• Event Code: FE87323
• Also Needed: Infinite Campus Unique Student ID

*Class Pictures and Makeups are scheduled for October 25th

PPE Cross Country Team

The Cross Country team had another great showing for their second meet of the season. Three of our girls took the top 3 spots in the girls division and one of our boys took 6th in their division. There were lots of personal records for our runners in both races.   Races are every Saturday in September in Hermitage (with the girls race at 8:30am and the boys race at 9am.

Race Location Address: 4373 Hermitage Road, Old Hickory, TN 37138

Races are every Saturday in September in Hermitage (with the girls race at 8:30am and the boys race at 9am.

Artsonia:

After School Clubs are BACK!

If your child is attending an after school club, Metro requires THIS FORM to be filled out.

• Podcast Club– 5th Grade only- Click HERE and listen about this new and exciting club!

PPE Parenting Series wants your input!

Our Counseling Team is already planning this year’s PPE Parenting Series!  Please take a moment to let us know your Parenting Series preferences here: https://forms.office.com/r/hXUpRHcsVj

Counselors Corner:

Throughout September & October, the Counseling Department will be leading required safety training in your child’s classroom. The curriculum can be previewed here: Home – Fight Child Abuse

Japanese Moon Viewing: September 24  |  4 – 10 PM

Come out to Cheekwood Gardens for the 9th Annual Japanese Moon Viewing festival, Otsukimi, will showcase tea ceremony demos, hands-on activities, and music and dance celebrating Japanese art and culture. The event is in partnership with the Consulate General of Japan and Japan American Society of Tennessee.

• Expand your knowledge with live demonstrations
• Experience traditional dance and historic fashion
• Satisfy your appetite with bites from local food trucks
• Browse goods offered by local vendors and stores
• Watch the moon rise over the Japanese Garden lit up with Bruce Munro’s Whizz Pops

Unicycle Donations

Families, we’re a UniCycle School! That means you can donate your students’ outgrown school clothing items in the collection basket on the PPE front porch, and we’ll fill our UniCycle Closet so that it’s ready to be used by any student here who’s had a summer growth spurt or could use an extra shirt or two. If we collect more than we need, we send it to @Unicycle.nashville and they get it to another school closet or direct to a student experiencing homelessness in the @mnps_hero program. Keep your closets cleaned out and we’ll make sure your items go on to live their next best life – it’s a win-win for all!

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!

How to Volunteer

We need your help to make next year the best year 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.

The funds raised from this event will be used to support the PTO budget which provides our school with additional staff, software and supplies to our school.

How to Stay Connected

Email Lists

New families – Be sure to sign up for our school newsletter, which includes grade-level information each week. Register today.

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