As we move further into October, our staff is beginning to plan for our annual BPES Halloween Parade! Mr. West and I look forward to experiencing this beloved Bushy Park tradition for the first time. As your family prepares, we want to ensure that you have the following information:

• The BPES Halloween Parade will be from 2:30-3:00pm on Thursday, October 31. Classroom parties will immediately follow the parade. Due to time and space limitations, only room parents are able to join for our class parties. If you would like to contribute something for your child's party, please go through your room parent. He or she is working closely with the teacher to identify the needs for the party and adhere to the HCPSS Wellness Policy and respect all allergies within the classroom. Please do not send in extra candy, treats, or goody bags.
• Students should not come to school on October 31 dressed in costume. Please send costumes that can be quickly and easily changed into prior to the start of the parade. No toy weapons of any kind are permitted. When helping your child select a Halloween costume, please consider that we have students at BPES ranging in age from 3-10 years old. Overly scary, gory, or bloody costumes can be quite disturbing to our younger students.
• Parents and community members who are attending our Halloween Parade are asked to also consider any costumes they may be planning based on their appropriateness for the ages of our young students. In particular, we must ask that visitors to our school for the parade refrain from wearing any masks for safety purposes.
• On the day of the parade, please respect any directions and requests from BPES staff members. We are looking forward to having a safe Halloween Parade with our 750+ students and staff members and all of our visitors!
• For students in our RECC programs, the Halloween celebrations will be as follows: AM Pre-school and MINC-PK will parade throughout our front office, then have classroom parties at 11am, and PM Pre-K will participate in the school wide parade at 2:30 and then have classroom parties.

We will be offering an alternative fall-themed activity for any students who will not be participating in our Halloween Parade and Parties in our Media Center from 2:00-3:45pm. If you would like your child to participate in the alternative activity, please email Mrs. Bialeski directly at julia_bialeski@hcpss.org.