Summer Landing Page (25-26)
- sharilynstrain
- Jul 11
- 13 min read
Updated: Aug 15
Welcome
This is Telra's summer landing page for families who will be enrolled with us for the 25-26 school year. We will keep this page updated with essential information, dates, and links to help answer your questions and make sure your kids are ready to start the fall strong.
Alma is our main channel to send email communications to Telra families and this is how we update you to new posts on our website with critical information. (So please make sure "Alma" is on your email client's approved sender list.)
Questions about anything below? Reach out to frontdesk@telra.org
Remember - August 18 is the 1st day of school
Contents
Getting started
Logistics
School lunch - Place orders by noon on 8/11
Required Medication, Asthma and Allergy Forms - have these completed and turned in before school starts
Before and AfterSchool Enrichment - Wrap-around care is now available for purchase
Fun stuff
Extracurricular and Club Interest Form - tell us what activities you'd like to see this year
School norms
Communications
Alma - web portal and email announcements
8/24 Talk: Prof. Po-Shen Lo - Preparing Kids for College & Careers in AI Era
Papa Johns Spirit Night - on 8/14, 30% goes to Telra!
Coming Soon (stay tuned to this page for additional info)
Open house details
Preliminary class schedule
Upcoming Dates this summer
Aug 13 - Make sure all your school supplies have been purchased
Aug 13 - Make sure all medication, asthma and allergy forms are signed by a doctor and ready to be turned in on Alma
Aug 13 - Open House for K-8 with last names beginning with A-L (4:30pm - 6:30pm)
Aug 14 - Open House for K-8 with last names beginning with M-Z (4:30pm - 6:30pm)
Aug 14 - Papa John's Spirit Night - 30% goes to Telra!
Aug 15 - Orientation day for High School (Parents, please join us between 1:00-1:15pm)
Aug 15 - 9-10 School Pictures during Orientation
Aug 18 - First day of Classes for all grades
Aug 26 - Family Council Spirit Night at Kate's Skate
Open House (K-8)
Families, please mark your calendars for our K-8 Open House sessions to be held on August 13th and 14th. We have two sessions each day to accommodate various schedules. You may attend either the early or late session on the day corresponding to your family name. Whichever you choose, it's important you attend the entire session.
August 13 - Last names (family names) that begin with letters A-L
Session 1 - 4:30pm
Principals presentation begins at 4:30pm
Supply drop-off and mingle with teachers from 5:00 - 5:45pm
Session 2 - 5:15pm
Principals presentation begins at 5:15pm
Supply drop-off and mingle with teachers from 5:45 - 6:30pm
August 14 - Last names (family names) that begin with letters M-Z
Session 1 - 4:30pm
Principals presentation begins at 4:30pm
Supply drop-off and mingle with teachers from 5:00 - 5:45pm
Session 2 - 5:15pm
Principals presentation begins at 5:15pm
Supply drop-off and mingle with teachers from 5:45 - 6:30pm
Please support Telra by ordering from Papa Johns after Open House on August 14th! See details here!
Telra High School Orientation Day and School Pictures on Aug 15
We are excited to have our first orientation day for high school students only. We will meet at CPCC Levine at 2800 Campus Ridge Rd, Matthews, NC 28105. Click here for directions and other helpful information.
Buses will not be running this day. We want families to learn the location and vehicle logistics at CPCC
Our tentative schedule for the day:
8:15 AM – Students report to CPCC - drop off by the Welcome Center
8:30 AM – Introduction to High School
9:15 AM – Technology assignment & ID badges
10:00 AM – Campus tour
11:00 AM – How to be a student
11:45 AM – 12:30 PM – Lunch (bring your own from home)
12:30 – 1:15 PM – School Photos
1:00-1:15PM - Parent arrival
1:15 PM – Presentation for parents and students
2:30 PM - Finish, time for Q&A and Parents to tour
Students should wear their Telra uniform as school pictures for the yearbook will be taken onsite. Information on how to order pictures will be sent out shortly.
Please look for further updates coming soon!
Yearbooks
24-25 Yearbooks are in and they look fabulous! For our returning 25-26 students, please pick up your yearbook at the K-8 Open House or the 9-10 Orientation. If you are not able to pick them up at those events, please reach out to frontdesk@telra.org to make alternative arrangements.
School Supplies
Our team has drafted a list of the school supply needs for the students in K-3, 4-8, and High School. Please review what your students need on our School Supply List. Please purchase all items by August 10th in time to bring them to school during your child's open house.
Back to school sales have started. Shop in store or online early for the best deals and selection.
Office Depot - don't forget to claim credit for Telra in their Give Back program
Telra strives to keep our school supply lists short and simple to minimize the cost to families. In general, it is fine to substitute brands. However, in a few places we have named specific brands and request you provide those if you can.
School Lunch
Telra offers a hot school lunch daily, catered by our meal service vendor, Two Guys n A Kitchen. The food is prepared off-site and delivered to the school, so our vendor requires that (a) orders must be placed in whole week increments and cannot be purchased on a day-by-day basis and (b) orders must be placed 2 weeks in advance.
Lunches (vegetarian and regular) are available for ordering now (menus have been posted on our website) and are offered at both the McKee and High School locations. Please note that all lunch operations are cashless. Families must order school lunch two weeks in advance. (Note, for the first week of school it is one week in advance.)
Did you know that Telra participates in the National School Lunch Program and offers free lunch for families who qualify based on their income? Follow the link below to sign up for our free lunch.
School Bus Registration
As our school continues to grow, we are encouraging more students to take the bus to alleviate the car line traffic before and after school. McKee can get very congested, and we share our entry way with our St. Francis Church friends, so by utilizing our bus transportation we will have less traffic, less stress, and a more productive day!
School bus routes are being revised based on the applications received and confirmed. An email with confirmed stop times, safety reminders, and first-day guidance will be emailed out on August 15th.
New registrations will be placed on the waitlist. Sign up here.
Capacity is limited. The school bus is offered as a convenience & a privilege. Families should plan to have an alternative means of transport to the school in case they do not win a seat or if bus service is suspended for any reason.
For more information, please check out our School Bus page, or email us directly on Transportation@Telra.org.
Health forms
Check out the new Student Health page on the Telra website. There, you'll find information about our required health form submissions (for new students and 7th graders) as well as the need-based documents for medication, asthma, or allergies.
Required
Health Assessment form for students new to NC public schools
Immunization record for 7th graders
Optional (required only if relevant for your child)
Medication forms
Asthma Action Plan
Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Emergency Care Plan
Submission of all of these forms can be done on Alma.
Click on File Cabinet under your child's name from the Alma home page
You'll see a list of file cabinet submissions relevant to your child
Click each one to see more details and to upload the file
Please help us keep our records efficient and modern by using this electronic upload system rather than emailing the front desk or dealing with paper forms. However, if you have any troubles or need to hand us forms on squashed wood pulp as if we were in 1985, stop by our front desk or the health desk at the open house on 8/13 or 8/14. (For medication forms, we recommend both the electronic submission and a physical copy to keep in storage with your medication.)
Required Medication
If your child requires medication that they will need to take during the school day, or while attending after-school activities, they must have a signed Medication Administration Authorization Form. This form is required to be signed by a physician and students will not be able to take medication at school without it. Medication can only be turned in by a parent or legal guardian and may not be brought to school by the student.
Upload this form to your child's Alma File Cabinet and bring the paper form to the Open House on 8/13 or 8/14.
Asthma Action Plan
If your student has asthma, the following form is required so that they can be treated effectively if their asthma presents during the school day or while attending after school activities. This form is required to be signed by a physician.
Upload this form to your child's Alma File Cabinet
Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Emergency Care Plan
If your student has an allergy, the following form is required so that they can be treated effectively if their allergy presents during the school day or while attending after school activities. This form is required to be signed by a physician.
Upload this form to your child's Alma File Cabinet
Please take the time now to have the forms signed by your doctor so you can either upload them to Alma, or in the case of the medicine form, you can deliver them to the school either at Open House or the front desk before school starts. All medication forms, with accompanying medication, must be delivered by a parent or legal guardian in person, and not by the student.
Before and AfterSchool Enrichment (BASE)
Our relaunched Before and AfterSchool Enrichment program is ready to go! Offering convenient care for families that need early drop off (beginning at 6:45am) or late pickups (up to 6:00pm) on school days.
Learn more and sign up here.
Telra Club and Extracurricular Activity Interest Form
We are organizing great options for academic, special interest, and sports clubs and activities to offer our students for the 25-26 school year. In doing so, we'd like your input on what your students are interested in. Please fill out the below form so we understand the level of interest in each activity as well as any interest you may have in volunteering to help these activities become a success.
Events Calendar
There is a lot going on at Telra! Please check out our Public Events Calendar to see what is scheduled at Telra for our students and our community.
Uniforms
All grade levels at Telra (K-10) wear school uniforms every day to help create a distraction-free environment for learning. If you're new to Telra, please have a look at our school uniforms page where you can learn the rules and see where you can buy the pieces. It's also a good idea to join our Telra Families Facebook Group where you can connect with others to swap used clothing and get advice on brands, stores, sales, and fit. You'll also find a physical uniform swap shop that opens up on campus regularly throughout the year where staff and Family Council Volunteers organize donated uniforms for purchase.
Up for some fun? Whether you are a new or returning family, spare 14 minutes on a car ride with your kids to listen to our audio explainer go over some nuances of our dress code. Believe us, it's unlike any uniform explainer you'll find at a school not called "Telra."
Mobile Phone and Smart Watch Use
Telra tends to be a trendsetter, and 4 years after we adopted the policy, the State of North Carolina passed a law banning smartphones during instructional time in school.
Telra's school policies go further. Students (in all grades K-10) are not allowed to carry communication devices (neither smartphones nor smartwatches) on their person during school hours. We are strong believers in the benefits of a phone-free environment in helping students (a) focus on their classes and (b) learn to socialize with other people face-to-face.
Moreover, we strongly encourage parents to delay giving their children unfettered access to smartphones even at home. Researchers believe raising children on screens can contribute to social anxiety, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation, and addiction. It can be difficult to resist the peer pressure when your child's friends have smartphones, but Telra, likely more than any other school in the region, is a place where you will find many like-minded families to support you.
At Telra, all student communication or recording devices must be left at home or turned off and remain in a student's cubby, locker, or backpack all day (including on school buses). Violations of this policy can result in escalating consequences, up to and including confiscation of the device and donation of its component parts to our robotics club. (Speaking of which, who wants to form a robotics club?)
Alma - web portal and email announcements
Alma is Telra's portal where you can find student information such as:
Student and parent information (addresses, emergency contacts, etc.)
Attendance records
Report cards and transcripts
Class schedules (not yet posted)
Schoolwide and class bulletins
Access to forms
The 24-25 school year has been archived and the 25-26 school year is now active. Returning parents should already have Alma accounts and newly enrolled parents will receive Alma welcome emails early the week of July 21. If you are a new Telra family, please check your inbox for an email with subject line "Alma Account Setup" and follow the link to establish your account.
Alma is our platform for sending school newsletters and other important announcements to families. It's critical that you ensure that emails from domains below are in your email client's "safe senders" list (or equivalent)
getalma.com
telra.org
Email is our primary communication channel with parents, and we expect parents to read school communications to be aware of requirements and opportunities for your child's education. We try to provide as much notice with our communications as possible, but Telra is a dynamic school that is continually developing and launching new programs. Don't miss out on an important field trip, registration requirement, or club opportunity - please check your emails often!
Watch the videos to learn what you can do on Alma. The password is: Sparkpotential
New to Alma? Here's a checklist of what to do first:
Click/tap on the green circle with your initials to access "My info"
Doublecheck that your contact info is correct, and that your children are attached to your account. (Ask your spouse to check their account as well!) If you find something that needs updating, email frontdesk@telra.org
Do you want your information in the school directory? You can opt in or out under "My info"
Catch up on any school messages you missed. Check the Bulletin Board by clicking on the "bullhorn" icon.
"Alma" is distinct from "Alma Start" which is where you filled in your lottery application & registration. Once you have enrolled at Telra, you should no longer need to go back to Alma Start directly after your main Alma account is activated. However, if your "Alma" and your "Alma Start" accounts were set up with different email addresses, we may need to link the two. On your Alma home page, if you see your child's name and below that a link that says "Alma Start Forms and Tasks" then your link is active. If you don't see that, email us at ithelp@telra.org and provide (a) the email you used for your Alma account and (b) the email you used for your Alma Start account.
Facebook Channels
Emails from Alma and our blog here at Telra.org are used to communicate important information to enrolled families. In addition, we have some channels on Facebook that are used for external communications and for general discussion. Follow, join, and participate to learn more about our community and activities.
Official Facebook page - Telra Institute
This is where we make announcements for anyone interested in what is happening at Telra. The audience is current and interested Telra families, neighbors, and other community institutions.
Follow it if you want to see more photos, don't want to miss any announcements, or if you want extra reminders about key dates or events.
Telra Institute Families Facebook group
This is a discussion page intended for items of interest for the whole school.
Guidelines
Know of an event or activity that might be of interest to Telra families? Please share it in this group! However, if the event is only relevant to certain grade levels, post it only in one of the grade level groups (see below).
No overtly commercial posts for your business or fundraising efforts for your cause.
If you are a parent and receive specific links, dates, or information via email newsletter from the school, don't repost them on Facebook. (The group includes members who are not current families, and we try to keep some separation between internal and external postings.
This is a great forum if you have questions for fellow parents (e.g., where to find the best deal on orange polos). But traffic on the group isn't regularly monitored by staff, so if you have a question or request for the school (e.g., what is the policy on X), then please direct that to frontdesk@telra.org
It should go without saying: keep it clean, keep it respectful, and keep in mind there might be children reading these posts. Set a good example.
Grade Level Facebook groups
We have grade-level groups for enrolled families that are intended for questions and conversations specific to a particular grade. To avoid redundancy, don't repeat a school-wide post in the grade-level groups. Many families have children in multiple grades and this clutters the feed.
If you joined previously, the grade has automatically been updated for the 2025-26 school year, so no need to rejoin!
This is a great forum if you have questions for fellow grade level parents. But traffic on the group isn't regularly monitored by staff, so if you have a question or request for the school (e.g., what is the policy on X), then please direct that to frontdesk@telra.org
Newly enrolled families, click a link below to join the group for your child's grade level in 25-26:
Preparing Kids for College & Careers in AI Era
Professor Po-Shen Loh will be back at Telra on 8/24 at 2pm to discuss preparing kids for the future in the AI era.
As AI rapidly reshapes education and the workforce, traditional measures of success—like GPAs, test scores, and even technical skills—are no longer enough. So how can students succeed in college admissions and future careers when automation is rewriting the rules? The real answer begins far before high school—and it isn’t what you think.
In this talk, Prof. Loh challenges conventional wisdom and introduces a fresh approach to preparing students for the AI-driven world. He will reveal:
Why excelling in math and academics alone won’t secure college admission—and what those colleges really seek.
How to authentically develop human skills like creativity, adaptability, communication, and leadership—people who are indistinguishable from robots will be replaced by robots.
Simple, effective ways for students to start building these future-proof skills today, even in elementary and middle school.
The event will take place at Telra, on Sunday, 24 August from 2-3:30pm. Learn more about the event and get your (free) tickets here.
Papa Johns Spirit Night on 8/14
Enjoy your time at Open House and order pizza on your way home! All orders through the Rea Farms location at 9805 Sandy Rock Place using the promo code TELRA will earn Telra 30% of all sales.
