PPE PTO Newsletter – August 8th, 2025
Art by George Truex, 4th Grade
2025-2026 Navigator Day Shirt Design Winner
Welcome Back Tigers!
New Doors, Same Roars!
What a fantastic first week of school!
Celebrated Percy’s 68th birthday!
Welcomed 500+ new students into our brand new school building!
Learned new drop off/pick up procedures and shared so many smiles, hugs, and high fives!
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we all learn the ins and outs of our new building and procedures.
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 13th: Songwriter Night volunteer information session
- 8:30am in the Community Room
- August 14th: Open House and Invest Kick Off
- grades 3-5 @ 5:00pm
- Pre-K-2nd grade @ 6:00pm
- 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 details to come.
- September 8th: Registration is open for Tiger Cup, Moms, Mahjong, and Mimosas 2025!
Thank You To Our Back To School Sponsors!
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The 2025 – 2026 Handbook – TRANSPORTATION EDITION! Beep beep.
Who doesn’t love some transportation logistics shop talk? A few refreshers from our handbook:
Walkers
- Reminder that the preferred dismissal for non-bus riders is the car rider line for safety purposes, especially during construction.
- Walkers may enter through the front door on Priest Road only. Please advise your kids to watch carefully for bus and car traffic.
Pre-K Drop Off Protocol
- Continue entering the loop from Otter Creek road.
- Pre-K cars line up in the inside (right) lane and go as far as the Tiger Paws.
- Families with a Pre-K student and older siblings will drop off all students at the Pre-K drop off zone. Once your car is beyond the crosswalk, put your car in park and walk your Pre-K student to the door in the Pre-K drop off zone. K-5 students will walk along the sidewalk and enter at the K-5 drop off doors.
Car Riders
- Remember to have your car rider tag displayed and readable!
- Teachers, Staff, and 5th Grade Ambassadors will be available to help students find their classrooms.
- PTO volunteers are assigned to help parents navigate the traffic configuration.
- Please be patient and follow the safety rules – NO CELL PHONE USE during arrival or dismissal per Tennessee State Law and the safety of our children.
- All cars will enter the loop from Otter Creek. K-5 cars should stay in the left (outside) lane and drive up to the Tiger Paws at the fire hydrant by the retaining wall. The right (inside) lane is reserved for Pre-K drop off and bus traffic.
- Wait for a staff member to give you the ‘OK’ to have your kids exit the car on the PASSENGER side as our buses and pre-k families are unloading.
- After morning drop off, you must make a LEFT on Priest Road. NO right turns are permitted to keep traffic flowing.
- At afternoon pickup, The left lane MUST TURN LEFT onto Priest Road. The right lane MUST TURN RIGHT onto Priest Road.
Bus Riders
Got questions? Of course you do! That’s expected, so we put a ton of frequently asked questions about the first day and our school procedures in this handy dandy handbook. You’ll find everything from a glossary of PPE lingo to instructions for drop off and pick up. Still have questions? That’s ok! Your teacher can help answer any questions, as can a quick email to comm@percypriest.org.
Spotlight on Specials Section
(say that 5 times fast)
This week it’s…..P.E. Edition!
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 PE?
We are excited to provide more opportunities for movement and physical activity for our students!
Thanks to generous community support, the new school building includes a full-sized gym that is the heartbeat of the PE program! In addition to the gym, students will have PE classes in the zen den and have access to a state of the art LU board.
“I am so excited about the new PE spaces! The LU board is a great addition to our program allowing us to turn the gym wall into touch-sensitive, educational game spaces. The LU board encourages active participation promoting fitness, coordination, and teamwork!” -Mr Swift
Your PTO supports all specials which impact all students!
Meet your physical education teachers:
From left or top to bottom on mobile: Mr. Swift, Ms Davidson, and Ms Sakarapanee
Stay tuned next week to learn more about Art!
PPE Dad Bod Run Club
First, all PPE dads are invited to meet at the school on most Saturday mornings for a 6:45am run. All ability levels are welcome to run – or just show up for the coffee and fellowship afterwards.
Second, dads are invited to join us TONIGHT Friday, August 8th from 4-6pm for a happy hour at Clay Kaiser’s house at 4512 Everett Dr.
Third, dads are invited to join us for our 3rd annual ice bath after the run on Saturday, August 16th. Questions? Contact Clay Kaiser at claykaiser@gmail.com or 615-485-9013, or Lewis Agnew at lewis.agnew@gmail.com or 615-712-4318.
Unicycle and Percy’s Vintage Closet Call for Donations!
Stocked up at the Roar Store? Now it’s time to clean out those closets and donate all of your outgrown but not worn-out school clothes. Not sure how to donate? Please donate PPE branded clothing to Percy’s Vintage Closet and all other SSA clothing to Unicycle! Donation bins are located at both the Priest Road and car rider line entrances. Unicycle donations are on-going and support students in both our PPE and greater MNPS community!
Percy’s Vintage Closet 7:30am-8:30am 9/18 Donations accepted until 9/12!
Want to volunteer? Help is needed before the event to collect/sort, during the event to help with setup and sales, and after the event to collect/sort again. Please email Mary-Grace Robb at presidentsppe@gmail.com!
Didn’t get the size or the item you wanted at sneak-a-peak? Fret not.
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!
Thursday August 14
Songwriters Night
We Need Your Help – Join the Songwriters Night Planning Team!
We’re gearing up for one of the most special nights of the year — our Annual Songwriters Night Fundraiser — and we need creative volunteers like YOU to help make it a success!
Whether you have an eye for design, a flair for planning, a gift for gathering donations, or just love live music, we’d love to have you on the team. No experience necessary!
Informational coffee in the PPE community room: Wednesday, August 13th 8:30am. Questions or want to help? Email percypriestsongwriters@
BLOCK PARTY!
Friday, September 5th from 5-7pm at school. More details are on their way.
Volunteers Needed for 2025-2026 School Year
We are in most immediate need of volunteers for Room Parents, our 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.
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.
NEW BUILDING FUN FACTS!
Did you notice that some of our new spaces have cheeky names like “Chicken Nugget Dreamland”? Well, that’s because every year at our amazing spring auction, you have the opportunity to bid on the naming of these spaces. Please see below for all of our fun 2025-2026 auction winner named spaces.
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.