We are monitoring the potential for winter weather this evening and tomorrow morning. As usual, we will send a text message and email to parents if school is closed. Please stay alert to an announcement.

Meanwhile, please make sure your child has appropriate outerwear for cold temperatures. A coat, hat and gloves are a must for cold days on the playground or Mondo.

Also, please be vigilant for signs of illness in your child. Do not send your child to school if he or she is sick. Students must be fever-free without medication for 24 hours before returning to school.

Thanks to our awesome Bright families, we collected 704 canisters of oats last Friday to be donated to the Chattanooga Area Food Bank. That number of canisters equates to some 20,000 meals!

The top oats donors for each grade were announced during the fifth grade vs. faculty basketball game on Friday. These students got a chance to shoot a basket during halftime. The overall oat donor for the school was third grader Charlotte Hoss, and third grade teacher Kendra Reasor was awarded for having the most oats collected by classroom.

All Bright ladies (mothers, grandmothers, caregivers) are invited to the Parents' Association's Galentine's Day Tea on Thursday, February 7, from 10 a.m. to noon.

Please download this form and return it with $10 payment by next Monday, February 4, to reserve your spot.

Come enjoy wonderful food and drink and delightful company at the home of Lauren Boehm in Riverview.

Make your child's summer a Bright summer! Registration for Bright Days, our summer program for early learners, is opening soon. Look for an email later this week with a link to registration. Early bird registration lasts until March 1. Bright Days is open to girls and boys age 3 (by August 1) and rising third graders.

Re-enrollment for the 2019-2020 school year has begun. Families with children in grades JPK and PK were mailed enrollment contracts earlier this month. Those contracts are due back to school by Thursday. Families with children in grades kindergarten through fourth do not need to take any action unless they are not returning next year. Visit our financial aid page if you need information about applying for financial aid for next year.

School is dismissed at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, and there is no school on Friday because of conferences.

We offer childcare during parent-teacher conference days. If you would like your child to stay after dismissal at 11:30 a.m. on January 31 and/or stay all day on February 1, please fill out and return this form to the office by Wednesday.

If your child is coming to school with you during your conference time, you may drop off your child at the Early Childhood Center desk and return for pick up after the conference. There is no charge for staying 30 minutes during the conference.

Every other year, alternating with Bright Fit, we celebrate the various cultures present at our school through Bright World, a week-long event in April that culminates in Bright World Night on April 12.

At Bright World Night, we get to sample foods and learn about cultures representing our Bright families. If you would like to volunteer to be a Bright World Ambassador for your homeland or favorite country, please fill out this form and return it to the office by this afternoon.

The Bright School has posted the position for a PE teacher to replace Coach Jan Connell, who is retiring after this school year. We are accepting applications now through February 1. Send cover letters and resumes to Assistant Head of School Renee' Kropff at [email protected]. Please share this information with interested individuals. Visit our employment webpage to read the job description.

Parents, alumni, friends and teachers may nominate young Bright alumni for the Citizen of the World award, which is chosen by the fifth grade class and presented in the spring.

To be eligible for the award, alumni must be current students in high school (grades 9-12), college. or graduate school. The winning alumni demonstrate leadership in service to others in the broader community. Nominations are due Friday.

Dr. Darria Long Gillespie is speaking at GPS Thursday and Friday, and we're pleased to have her visit Bright on March 5 at 8:15 a.m. to speak to parents. She is a 1990 graduate of Bright. Dr. Darria, as she is known, is an ER doctor, author, mother and appears frequently on national news shows. We will have extra copies of her book Mom Hacks available for purchase on March 5.