12 to-dos for incoming 26/27 kindergarten families
Welcome to TPES, newbies!
Here’s a quick list of things you can do to get ready for next school year today.
*Might not be available yet. Keep an eye out for future announcements about these!
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1. Register your kindergartener for the 26/27 school year
The sooner the school gets registration numbers, the earlier they can hire the appropriate number of teachers and other staff to support the class.
https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/info/enroll/
2. Review MCPS resources
3. Sign up for MCPS emergency alerts
The Alert Montgomery System provides accurate and immediate emergency notifications from Montgomery County to your cell, work, or home phones via text, email, or voice message. Receive notifications about emergencies that may affect your home, workplace, child’s school, or any other locations within Montgomery County, Maryland.
4. Get signed up to ParentSquare*
Everything schools need to reach every family. One unified platform for communication, websites, attendance, and payments—built to reach every family, without barriers.
5. Join the PTA’s TPES WhatsApp Community
We’ve created a chat group there just for you to plan meetups, share upcoming events and just get to know each other before school starts. We haven’t made the invitation link public to avoid spam but ask around and it shouldn’t be hard to find.
We also have all-Spanish and all-Amharic chat groups available as well. Please email Ms. Paz for details: johanna_a_paz@mcpsmd.org
6. Join the PTA’s email list
We send out the Dolphin Digest newsletter every week and there’s a lot of other great school information shared there as well.
7. Subscribe to the TPES calendar
We maintain a full schedule in pursuit of helping to develop learning environments that support the social, emotional and academic growth of every child at TPES.
8. Prepare child’s cafeteria account and review free and -reduced priced meal options*
- https://www.myschoolbucks.com/
- https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/food-and-nutrition/free-reduced-meals/
9. Join an upcoming PTA meeting.
They’re all scheduled on the school calendar mentioned above. Come see what it’s all about!
10. Block your calendar for late-summer school events
See details in Kindergarten Orientation slides here (and screenshot below).
https://tpespta.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/KindergartenOrientation2026-2027.pdf
11. Become a PTA member
Anyone can be a member of the PTA! You can be a grandparent, a concerned neighbor or citizen, a student, a parent, etc.
The Takoma Park Elementary PTA is the nonprofit that will directly benefit the students that you care about the most!
Your purchase of a membership helps us deliver these services to the school: teacher training, online resources (such as BrainPop), after-school programs, classroom supplies, library books, cultural arts assemblies, field trips, sports equipment, instruments, special events, teacher and staff appreciation, and much more!
12. Consider joining the PTA Executive Team or as a Committee Chair
There’s no better way to support your new kindergarteners education and the public school system than to be an active participant in making your local school better.
We have a few open positions for this upcoming year so please take a look and think about putting your hat in the ring.
Most positions require only minimal volunteer hours and make a world of difference for our students, teachers, families and entire school communities.
Teamwork makes the dream work!