PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE___________________________________

3/8/21

Destin Elementary Family,

#MARCH MATTERS!!! Good day DESTIN DOLPHINS!! We hope that everyone continues to be healthy and safe. We are going to be adopting a theme within DEEPDIVE for the month of March. The theme and message for our students and teachers is #MARCHMATTERS! The theme is the reminder for students that we have a very important month we are within. In some cases FSA starts in less than a month for our 3rd and 4th grade students and only days left to make a lasting difference before the assessments, Weeks left to instill a focus level each student is capable of increasing as the work gets longer and harder, weeks to ensure that academics is our focus over all other school events and activities, weeks to ensure we have the right mindset in developing healthy habits... #MARCHMATTERS! Students and staff are putting in the work daily to persevere in all areas. Students are taking purposeful steps to take ownership of their learning. Providing students with deliberate opportunities to show grit with a focus on the choices they are making to help them understand the impacts that their decisions have, is part of our whole child growth approach. We will continue to celebrate students that excel on the smallest tasks to the most challenging and time consuming endeavors. I am thankful for the opportunity to work and grow with the best students, parents, and staff in the world and enjoy watching everyone grow!

Thank you for your continued support in completing a quick health screening of your student prior to bringing them to campus. We are working through potentially the most uncharted school year on record and keeping kids and staff healthy and safe will always be our top priority! Students and staff have done a tremendous job in developing healthy habits on campus with wearing masks when appropriate, washing hands, and social distancing where possible! Keep up the great work Destin Family!!

Please check out the Chronicles In COVID-19 published by the district. It provides highlights and updates on the district pertaining to COVID-19. Also, please CLICK HERE to stay current on the COVID-19 District Guidelines.

DES KINDERGARTEN REGISTRATION-

Kindergarten Registration is now open. The process is outlined on our webpage HERE. Please click this link to access all Kindergarten and New Student Registration Materials. Current DES students do not need to fill out a registration form for next year. All current students will be recieving parent input and feedback forms later in the year to complete and new students will have input forms in the registration packet! Welcome in advance to our new Dolphins!

Calendar Update:

Please check out the school calendar HERE to stay up to date with student holidays and important events at Destin ES!

March 9th- SPRING PICTURE DAY

Extra and Co-Curricular Programs:

Information about our extracurricular programs has started to be sent home. Our STEM team which includes robotics teams, a drone teams, and a coding club will begin as soon as selections and applications are processed. These programs currently are geared towards 3rd and 4th graders only but our hope is to expand this in the coming months and year. Additionally, we will be starting an in school track curriculum through our PE department that will culminate in a track meet during the second semester. We look forward to seeing any student interested in grades K-4 to participate.

Student Lunches:

An update provided by the district prior to the break shared that student's across the entire country regardless of Free and Reduced Lunch status will be receiving free Breakfast and Lunch through the end of the school year. This is very impactful for many families and we are glad to be able to accommodate every student, regardless of whether they are our student or not, with a set of meals daily. Pickup of breakfast and lunch for those that are not in the building or not our student is located in the front office between the hours of 9:15 and 10:00 AM on Mondays and Wednesdays. Each pickup day will provide the meals for the days following through the end of the week.

Transportation:

Please help students, particularly our younger students, recognize and listen for their car tag number in the afternoon. Often times we must call the letter and number multiple times prior to a student recognizing that they have been called.

We have multiple pickup locations on campus for walkers. One option that those looking to not wait as long in the carline may opt for is to pick their student up at the Yellow Gate closest to the Church next door on Beach Dr. Parents may walk up or wait for their student in the Church Parking lot. there is a large walkway in place just for this purpose. The less cars that come through the carline the more smoothly and quickly it will flow.

Community Reminders:

THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HELPED MAKE OUR BOOSTERTHON FUNDRAISER A SUCCESS! WE RAISED OVER $60,000 FOR STUDENT ENRICHMENT AND CLASSROOM SUPPORTS! Thank you to the Boosterthon and PTO staff that helped make the event successful and to all of our donors for helping us make this the most successful single fundraiser DES has ever seen!

Thank you to all of our community members for being gracious neighbors and supporters. We want to send a big THANK YOU to the City of Destin for their role in helping maintain our facilities that truly enables us to be a community school. Please help us to continue to improve our facilities through proper usage and following all signage that is posted. Also, please remember to not park in our neighboring houses or on the side streets. We and they appreciate all of our families being good neighbors.

We hope that you and your family are doing well, staying safe, and healthy. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to support your family!

Joe Jannazo