Dear Victory Parents,                                                                          August 29, 2008

Average daily attendance for the week of Aug. 25 - 29

Congratulations!!  8^th and 10^th Grades 100%!!!

 Grades making 96% or better: Kindergarten, 2^nd, 3^rd, 4^th, 5^th, 6^th, 7^th, 8^th, 9th, 10th, and 11^th  grades.

Please remember our State funding is dependent on attendance not enrollment.

v     REMEMBER NO SCHOOL ON MONDAY, September 1^st:  Labor Day

v     Students may not arrive at school more then 15 minutes prior to the start of school.  (Grades 1 – 6 not before7:55 a.m. and grades 7 – 11 not before 7:15 a.m.) Students must be picked up or on the bus no more than 15 minutes past school dismissal (Grades K-6 not after 2:55 p.m. and grades 7-11 not after 2:15 p.m.) Students on school property before or after that time must be under the direct supervision of a faculty or staff member.  Victory Charter does not provide supervision for your students outside of these parameters.  Please make other arrangements as needed.

v     Now that we are in our permanent facility, Victory Charter School is in need of items: Trees or shrubs, Computers (in good working order) and playground equipment (balls, jump ropes, Frisbees etc…)

v     1-8 grade students need to have a pair of clean old or new tennis shoes, to be kept at school for P.E. to insure proper footwear for P.E.  P.E. classes will be held outside on some days.

v     Weekly attendance letters and other school wide communications will be sent home with your youngest student attending Victory Charter School.  Send your return receipts to school with your youngest enrolled student to be collected.

v     OPEN HOUSE, Thursday, September 25^th   from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

v     Individual Parent/Teacher Conferences will be Sept. 29- Oct. 31.  Scheduling slips will go home September 11^th.

v     For your convenience we are also sending home the CDC’s Flu Guideline Bulletin.

v     Please read the Brown Bus Welcome letter on the back side.

 Victory Phone:  442-9400, Victory Fax:  442-4901,   E-Mail:office@victorycharterschool.com  -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Attendance letter from Friday, August 29, 2008

Parents: Please sign and return this portion of the weekly attendance letter with your youngest enrolled student to ensure receipt of communications from school.  Teachers will collect their receipts.

Parent Signature: _________________________Student: (print) ________________________Gr: ____

To All Parents:

Welcome to Brown Bus Company!

We want to take this opportunity to welcome you and your student(s) to the world of school bus transportation.  We are excited about working with your school and being able to provide your student(s) transportation to and from school.

The following are a few things that we want to share with you about the routes for your school:

First, general routing:  Route development will blend school ride time requirements and parent/student convenience.  It is our intent to create bus stops at locations that are safe for students to wait for the bus.  Each parent should recognize that they have the responsibility to instruct their student(s) regarding being safe going to and from the bus stop, as well as, being safe at the bus stop while waiting for the bus to arrive.  Second, centralized and/or group bus stops:  In order to manage the length of time that the routes run, centralized and/or group stops may be used.  It is our intent not to go into subdivisions unless absolutely necessary (i.e. for turn-arounds or for a “go through” to get to another stop) or if instructed to do so by the school Administrator.  Routes will not go down dead end streets, enter cul-de-sacs or into apartment complexes or private drives to pick up students.  Bus stops for subdivisions will mainly be established at the entrance to subdivisions.  If deemed necessary, for very large subdivisions that have an entrance and exit, one central stop may be established in the subdivision at a park, student’s home, etc.  As a general rule, though, students will need to walk out to the entrance of subdivisions to the established bus stop location.  Students who live towards the outer boundaries of the school attendance zone will be asked to come into a centralized and/or group bus stop.  Third, traffic conditions:  The speed and amount of traffic on a route will be considered when developing routes.  The intent is to keep the number of stops to a minimum.  In high speed and high traffic areas the intent is to establish bus stops at safe locations, as to minimize student exposure to these situations. Students will be expected to stay back from busy roads.  If this is not possible or there is only one student, the stop may be established at an alternate location.

During the first week or two of school the routes may have a tendency to run behind schedule.  Route times will begin to be met as the driver gets more familiar with the route and the students and as the students learn where they are to get off. 

All students are obviously important, especially kindergarten students.  Since school and school buses are new to kindergarten students, Brown Bus Company has established specific procedures to help keep the kindergarten students safe. Due to our kindergarten transportation procedure and in the interest of safety, when we transport a kindergarten student home, we ask that a parent/legal guardian or other authorized person be at the bus stop to receive the student as they get off the bus. An authorized person could be a parent/legal guardian, relative or older sibling, even if the older sibling is a student on the bus.  Our BASIC GUIDELINE for kindergarten students is we do not let kindergarten students off the bus unless there is an authorized person at the bus stop for the student to go home with.  If there is no one at the bus stop for your kindergarten student, we will not let your student off the bus and we will return them back to the school.  This policy applies only to kindergarten students and does not apply to other grade levels.

We recognize that changes can occur during the school year, we ask that if information you provided on the original Transportation Form changes (i.e. change of address, day care, etc.), please notify the school first and ask them to forward the changes on to Brown Bus Company, so we can make the necessary changes.

Please keep in mind that our goal is to provide safe transportation.  If you should have any questions or concerns, please call us at 466-4181.                          

THANK YOU.