From the Managing Director's Desk, August 12, 2018

Dear Viking Families,
Welcome back to School and to our weekly newsletter! Thank you all for your patience and your support opening this year with adjusted times and traffic patterns to ensure the safety of our students!  We hope all your children had a great first week and are ready for another wonderful year of learning and growing! We already have a ton of activities coming up in our different buildings and hope that you will take a few minutes to read each section of this newsletter, so you don’t miss any.  
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OPERATING HOURS:
ES: 7:45-2:45 arrival begins at 7:15 dismissal begins at 2:45 (Mondays 12:45)
MS: 8:30-3:15 arrival begins at 7:45 dismissal begins at 3:15 (Mondays 1:15)
HS: 9:00-4:00 arrival begins at 8:30 dismissal begins at 4:00  (Mondays 2:00)
In order to help us direct traffic quickly and safely as ES/MS families will share entrances, we have designated MANDATORY windshield CAR tags. These are solid colored tags for your windshield to help us quickly identify which building you need access to. Elementary tags are RED and Middle School tags are BLUE. If you have siblings, you need BOTH.  As you can see, we have buffered arrival and dismissal for the MS by an extra 15 minutes to help offset traffic build up.
If for any reason you haven’t already returned your GOLD paper family data form, please make sure you do so today. We must collect these forms for each family, even if you do not choose lunch benefits.  If you do qualify for free or reduced lunch, we will send you a separate letter telling you how to enroll.

HOT LUNCH ORDERING PROCESS:
ALL FAMILIES WILL BE REQUIRED TO COMPLETE THE 2018-2019 ECONOMIC SURVEY FORM. This form is used for Voyager to qualify for discounts in technology and communications, so it is IMPERATIVE that everyone completes one form per family only!  This is also the form that allows us to send you additional information regarding free and reduced lunch prices. You will ALL receive a GOLD form to complete and send back to school during the first couple days of school. PLEASE MAKE SURE TOT SEND IT AS QUICKLY AS POSIBLE. Once we have received it we will inform qualifying families of their lunch benefits.  Even if you were qualified last year, you must complete this form again and register for a new lunch account.

Welcome back to school from the PTO! 
We are excited about the year and events that have been planned. We wanted to take a minute and introduce the board to you: Kelli Anderson, President; Ashleigh Eisch, Vice President (Communications); Emily Wilder, Vice President (Viking Tradition); Shelly Alim, Vice President (School Spirit); Tonja Farrow-Nickerson, Secretary; LaDonna Westbrook, Treasurer. Please like our Facebook Page Voyager Academy PTO and join the groups that your children are in (Voyager Academy Elementary Parents, Voyager Academy Middle Parents, Voyager Academy High Parents).
Mark your calendar for the events that have been planned for the year! Be on the lookout for more information about each event as it gets closer.
Thursday, August 16th 4:30 – 6:30 – Back to School Bash – Come meet organizations within Voyager Academy (organizations TBD) and support our women’s volley ball team. Voyager apparel will be on sale and if you join PTO that night you will receive 20% off of your merchandised purchased that night. PTO memberships are $10 individual/$15 family.****
- Friday, October 26th – Fall Festival
- Saturday, February 9th – Family Dance
- Week of February 11th – Teacher Appreciation Week
- Book Fair – TBD
- Tuesday, March 26 – Science Night
- Friday, May 3rd – Spring Fling
- Friday, May 24th – End of Year Event
We are hoping to have fundraiser nights on the first Tuesday of the month at various locations throughout Durham to support our Library, Boosters, Arts, PTO etc. Be on the lookout for more information about these nights!
Go Vikings Go


EXPO Update:
Please Join Us for the First EXPO Meeting of 2018:
Guest Speaker: Melinda Chambers will present information about the Exceptional Children’s (EC) Program and the Academically & Intellectually Gifted (AIG) Program at Voyager Academy Tuesday, August 21, 2018 6 p.m. VAES Art Room.


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