Quick Updates

• 25-26 Parental Opt Out Booklet

• 2025-2026 Student Rights and Responsibilities

• Parent Volunteer Sign Up Link

• September School Counseling Parent Newsletter.

• Solving Problems Together: Who to Contact?

• Updated PCPS Cell Phone Policy

• Welcome Back Newsletter from Resource Teachers

• The clinic will be conducting state mandated vision screening for all Kindergarten students not tested by their physician, all 3rd graders, and students new to the county from out of state, private school or home school. The clinic will be assessing vision using a PlusOptix vision screener during the week of Sept 29 - Oct 3. Please reach out to our school nurse, Arla Thompson arla.thompson@powhatan.k12.va.us with questions.

• Parent Pick-Up Tips

  • For parent pick up, it is helpful to take a picture of your child’s pick up QR code in case the paper is lost. The pick up pass is on pink paper this year. Throughout the year, for any transportation changes, please email pocespass@powhatan.k12.va.us and your child’s teacher. Please be patient as arrival and dismissal takes a little longer the first few days. 

• Here are a few schedule reminders. Arrival each day starts at 8:25 with the school day starting at 8:40. Please update any older documents with a different start time. Each teacher will be sending your child’s specific classroom schedule. We are closely monitoring bus arrival times as transportation settles in to make sure all students are arriving on time. For parent pick up, it is helpful to take a picture of your child’s pick up QR code in case the paper is lost. The pick up pass is on pink paper this year. Throughout the year, for any transportation changes, please email pocespass@powhatan.k12.va.us and your child’s teacher. 

Back-to-School Night - Tuesday, September 16th!

• Back-to-School Night is this Tuesday, September 16th. To better meet the needs of families, we have two sessions, one starting at 5:30 and one starting at 6:30. You can choose which you would like to attend or attend both for more than one child. Your child should attend with you and you will report directly to your child’s classroom. At the beginning of each session, parents will get to experience our “morning announcements”. They will start promptly at 5:35 for session 1 and 6:35 for session 2. You can expect the sessions to last between 30 and 45 minutes. Your children and their teachers are excited to welcome you into their classrooms and show you their learning routines. The resource team has a passport for families to complete between or after sessions to visit the resource classes and meet the resource teachers. We hope you are able to join us on Tuesday night. 

Run club

• Run club is back and kicking off on September 18th. The permission form came home with students and is linked here also: Run Club Permission Form. Please return by September 15th. Thank you to Mrs. Britz for organizing this opportunity for students to get additional movement in their week. 

5th Grade Chorus Tryouts

• 5th Grade Chorus Tryouts are this Thursday September 18th after school! (pickup at 5pm). If your 5th grade student is interested, they must turn in the Choir Contract section of the Chorus Packet. Chorus is a fun time to learn to sing and share the joy of music with the Powhatan Community! Please reach out to Ms.Nuckols with any questions or concerns.

Backpacks of Love, Inc

• Our school counselors support families in connecting with Backpacks of Love. Backpacks of Love, Inc. is a local nonprofit organization that has been providing weekend food bags to school children who may not have enough to eat at home since 2011. These food bags are distributed discreetly by school staff on the last school day of each week. 

• If your child could benefit from this program, we invite you to participate by completing this online form. 

  https://forms.gle/M4kfDzoAcMZCkXwf7

Stuff’d Pals Reading Buddy Fundraiser

• Our Stuff’d Pals Reading Buddy Fundraiser is going strong. This is a whole school fundraiser to encourage reading and benefit large school projects for cafeteria and gym improvements, classroom projects, and student and staff celebrations. If your student raises at least $50 from supporters, they will earn a 16” department-store quality Stuff’d Pals Reading Buddy that they choose and stuff at a celebration party (date TBD). We will have special days during the year when Reading Buddies can come to school. Please reach out to let us know if your child would like to participate and your family needs financial support.

Powhatan Strong Family Connection Series

• Powhatan County Public Schools Student Services Department welcomes you to our monthly Virtual Coffee Chats titled Powhatan Strong Family Connection Series. Each month, Student Services will present a different topic with strategies to support your students from home, policies and procedures at the division and school levels, and opportunities to ask questions of our Student Services Department members and guest panelists. If you missed last month's Attendance chat, you can click the link here to watch the video. Our next session will be held on Thursday, September 18, 2025 at 10 AM. During this session, we will explore the topic of school safety. We will host our school safety administrators from each school and our School Resource Officer Supervisor, Sgt. Corbin Kelley, as guest panelists to answer your questions. To log in, visit bit.ly/PowhatanStrong25-26. We look forward to seeing you on the 18th!

Pocahontas PTO

• Class shirt order forms came home this week, be on the lookout! All forms and payments (checks made payable to Pocahontas PTO ) are due September 10! If you participated in the shirt swap, or are handing shirts down your family, please remember to check the line "Shirt not needed". Every child will receive a shirt, regardless of ability to pay. Therefore every child will need to fill out a form.

  Don't forget to stop by the PTO table on Back to school night to grab a membership form if you haven't joined us yet! 

Announcements and Additional Information

• Parents may join their children at lunch starting on September 15th. Sign up is required, please pay attention to the information at the top of the sign up. Parent Lunch Sign Up 

• Join our dynamic team of substitute teachers and help shape the future of Pocahontas Elementary School. Enjoy a flexible schedule, weekly pay, and free training. Visit www.ESS.com to join our team today!

• The Lunch Buddies Mentoring Program has been in place in Powhatan County Public Schools for over 10 years. The goal of the program is to help foster strong relationships among our students and the positive adult role models in the community. Whether at any of our 3 elementary schools or our middle school, you would meet with a student once a week and ultimately act as another advocate for them. It can be anything from academic support to conversation, playing games, making crafts, and so much more. The program is planned to begin the first week of October and will last until mid-May, when SOL testing begins in our upper grade levels. If you are interested in participating as a mentor for the Lunch Buddies Program, we would be happy to have you!

  Please reach out to lunchbuddies@powhatan.k12.va.us for any questions.If you are interested in applying, please visit this page to apply.  Feel free to share the flyer with others.  We appreciate your support with our schools. 

• Are you interested in participating in the Pocahontas ES WatchDOGS (Dads Of Great Students) program this year? WatchDOGS are fathers, grandfathers, uncles, and other father-figures who volunteer for at least one day each year at an official WATCH D.O.G.S.® school. During the day, WatchDOGS may read and work on flash cards with students, play at recess, eat lunch with students, watch the school entrances and hallways, assist with traffic flow and any other assigned activities where they actively engage with not only their own students, but other students as well. Many school principals have reported that the mere presence of a WatchDOG dramatically reduces reports of bullying. On the day of their participation, WatchDOGS are given a brief review of their involvement and they wear a disposable ‘Dog Tag’ identifying them as WatchDOGS. For more information visit: https://dadsofgreatstudents.com/about/

  To sign up look for the WatchDOGS Information table at Back to School Night!