Week of January 14 - 20, 2024

Attention all Fifth Grade Parents! The Yearbook Committee needs your help to ensure your fifth-grade student is recognized in the DES Yearbook. For each fifth-grade student, please submit a baby picture and a 20-word sentiment of praise or encouragement to be published in the yearbook. Please keep your sentiment to 20 words so your message will fit in the available space. You may upload the baby picture and sentiment at the link below. When you upload your picture, please follow these instructions:

• Click here to upload your baby picture and select that you are uploading a candid photo.
• Upload your chosen photo, and when asked if you wish to upload more photos, select no.
• Enter your student's first and last name as the photo's Caption.
• Enter your sentiment of no more than 20 words in the Notes section of the photo.

The picture and sentiment are due no later than March 1, 2024. If you have questions or difficulty uploading your photos, please email desgatorsyearbook@gmail.com.

Our third Skate Night of the year is February 2!

We can't wait to see our gators having a rolling good time!

Get your tickets here and skip the line!

To get involved, please check out the General SignUp Genius for the current volunteering opportunities. Be sure to navigate through the tabs to see all the current options!

To maximize the impact of instruction, we will have two chess club sessions this spring. One group will meet on Tuesdays and one on Wednesdays. Please check out the flyer for registration information. There are 30 spots in each session, so register as soon as possible to secure your spot! Registration will close on Sunday, January 28th, 2024.

This spring, we will offer Lego Club (Kindergarten-2nd Grade), Spanish Club, Outdoors Club,  and Martial Arts Club! More information will be shared soon!

We have a lot of students interested in participating in the Run Club this spring, but we need two parent volunteers to lead the club! If you are interested in co-chairing the Run Club, please reach out to Brooke Zingler at vpvolunteers.pto.des@gmail.com 

Hi, my name is Caroline Walters, and I am a student in the AP Capstone program at South River High School. For my year-long research project, I have decided to study the correlation between screen time and the academic success of students at the South River feeder elementary schools. For the purposes of this survey, screen time can be defined as the amount of time children spend online. In order to effectively collect data, I have created a survey to be filled out by parents of the children at the SRHS feeder schools. The survey is completely anonymous and voluntary, and data will only be used for the purposes of my research. Additionally, it has been approved by the administration at South River. I would like to have the survey completed by January 18^th, 2024. Thank you so much for your help.

Click here for the survey Google Form.

What are you waiting for?! 🤔

Thank you to all the families that have already paid their dues! In addition to supporting our students and staff, these families have access to our Family Directory and voting rights at our PTO General Membership meetings.

Click here to join the PTO and help support our mission.

Family membership forms can be accessed by going to 

"My Account">"My Forms/Paperwork">"PTO Membership 2023-24"

For any questions about updating your information, completing the membership form, or signing up for the blast, please email Sam Rhinehardt at vpcomms.pto.des@gmail.com.