PPE PTO Newsletter – August 15th, 2025
Art by George Truex, 4th Grade
2025-2026 Navigator Day Shirt Design Winner
New Doors, Same Roars!
Wrapping up an excellent 2nd week of school.
Important Dates
Note: Dates are subject to change. The BEST way to stay updated is with our PTO Google Calendar – view and subscribe here!
- August 21st: Papa John’s Fundraiser Spirit Night – more info below.
- August 26th: Kindergarten Mom’s night out – more info below.
- August 29th: First day forms are due to your child’s teacher! You can find them in your child’s first day folder.
- September 1st: Labor Day/No School
- September 5th: Fall community event – PPE Block Party! More info below.
- September 8th: Registration is open for Tiger Cup, Moms, Mahjong, and Mimosas 2025!
TRANSPORTATION
Thank you to all of our families for modeling patience and adaptability as we learn our new arrival and dismissal procedures. Each method of transportation is getting more efficient each day! As a friendly reminder, please do not block driveways with your vehicle as you line up on the street and do not line up in the Hounds Run neighborhood entrance.
And remember, you can find additional details on transportation and so much more in the 2025-2026 handbook.
Spotlight on Specials Section
(say that 5 times fast)
This week it’s…..ART!
How do specials work?
All students participate in a 6-day rotating schedule (TIGERS) and attend one specials class per day in addition to their regular classroom academic schedule.
Specials include: Art, Library, Music, PE, Spanish
Sample Specials Schedule:
T – PE
I – Library
G – Spanish/PE (alternating)
E – Art
R – PE
S – Music
What’s new in Art?
What’s not new is more like the question! Read below to meet Dr. Tina Atkinson, or “Dr. A” as students so fondly call her, and see what she has to say about this year. Dr. A has also made this amazing video for you all to watch to see what your student will be doing in art this year.
“I am so excited to welcome our Tiger Artists in to the new, larger Art studio space! All these new blank walls make me want to start planning and painting student-designed collaborative murals…or collaborating with local artists to paint some amazing crosswalks for our car rider drop-off area! The possibilities are endless! I am excited to have the opportunity to pilot the first ever National Elementary Art Honors Society this year for third, fourth, and fifth grade artists! More information will be coming out about that soon!”
Kindergarten Mom’s Night Out
Let’s Get Together – Fall Community Event and Block Party!
September 8th at Old Natchez Country Club
Registration NOW OPEN! We’ve added lots more information on how the event will run, what you can sign up for, registration links, and more on the Tiger Cup page. New this year: Mamas, Mahjong, and Mimosas. Want to learn how to play mahjong? Come join us!
Community Event – Raising Capable Kids Conference
Songwriters Night – Save the Date 10/08/2026!
Stay tuned for more information about this popular event! While you wait, please sign up to help out the volunteer committee. We need:
Didn’t get the size or the item you wanted at sneak-a-peak? Fret not.
Volunteers Needed for 2025-2026 School Year
We are in most immediate need of volunteers for Fall Community Event, Tiger Cup, and Songwriters Night!! Our parent volunteers at Percy Priest are part of what make this community so very special. No matter how big or how small, any volunteering is greatly appreciated and never taken for granted. We know how busy your lives are and are so grateful for any of your time you can give to the school. Please use this form to sign up for the 25-26 school year. Let us know if you have any questions at comm@percypriest.org.
We need Photographers and Photos For the Yearbook
Not a photographer? No problem. We still need your photos for the yearbook! Please upload any photos you have of students at Percy Priest events to our Yearbook committee year round using this link! This helps make for a very amazing yearbook each year. If you have any questions, please contact Gillian Stewart, gstewart0707@gmail.com or Grace Bryan, gracebryan516@gmail.com
Have Lunch With Your Student!
Did you know that at PPE you can sign up to go eat lunch with your kids during their lunch time?
Here is a helpful page with each grade level’s lunch time and the official sign up to eat lunch with them. Reminder: same day lunch plans are permitted, but the calendar doesn’t let you sign up same day. Please email catherine.gerald@mnps.org for same day lunch plans to let school know you’re coming so that your badge is ready to go.
Ongoing Small Fundraisers
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), click here.
For Google Calendar, click here.