Hello Wildcat Families!

I hope this newsletter finds you all enjoying the fall weather and for all you Philly fans...continuing to enjoy the ride that is Red Octoberr!! Per Dr. Sokolowski, “It’s World Series time! Wear your Phillies gear on game days!!” Staff and students are encouraged to keep the Philly pride going by wearing red and/or Phillies gear on game days. With game 3 taking place on Halloween, students can wear costumes or Phillies gear! Phillies hats are ok to be worn in the building on these days as well. Game 1 is Friday, October 28th so let's kick it off then!!

Thank you in advance for taking time to read through this newsletter with important information regarding the upcoming book fair, PTO information, our "Wildcats Give Back" Two-Week Extravaganza, and much more.

Important Dates Coming Up:

10/31 - Halloween parade at 9:30 a.m. (wear costumes or Phillies gear)

11/3 - End of 1st Marking Period

11/8 - No School for Students

11/21 - Half-Day for Students/Parent Conferences in the afternoon

11/22 - Half-Day for Students/Parent Conferences in the afternoon and evening

11/23 - No School for Students/Parent Conferences in the morning

11/24-11/25 - No School for Students & Staff - Happy Thanksgiving!!

Kind regards,

Dr. Cruice

The WTE Halloween Parade will be held on Monday, October 31st at 9:30 a.m. The parade will take place on the back soccer field. If it has to be moved indoors due to weather, we will make the call at 7:00 a.m. and send out an email the morning of since we would not be able to have parents attend indoors. Fingers crossed for good weather!! The guidelines for the parade are below:

• Students should come to school dressed in costume.
• A change of clothes and bag should be sent to school if the costume will be hard to wear all day. Students cannot bring real or fake props (i.e., lasers, pitchforks, weapons, sticks, etc.) or fake blood. Students can wear a mask in the parade only.
• Face painting is permitted as long as the student is identifiable. The mask should not be worn on the bus or in the school.
• Avoid costumes and clothing that depict excessive violence, gore, or could cause disruption to the school environment.
• The dress code (i.e., footwear, length of clothes, etc.) is in effect. If a costume is deemed inappropriate, the student will be asked to change.

If your child does not celebrate Halloween, please contact either myself or your child's teacher by October 27th so that an alternate activity can be provided during the parade.

Drop off and parking information for the day of the parade will be sent out closer to the event.

Thank you!

In keeping with one of our great traditions at WTE, we are in the midst of planning a Veterans Day event for students on Friday, November 11th. We would like to invite all veterans that are family members of WTE students or staff to join us for our assembly so that we can honor the men & women who have served our country in the armed forces. We feel that helping our students understand the significant impact military service has had and continues to have on our country is important. In order to plan for the event, we need all interested veterans to fill out the form through the link below by Friday, November 4th. Due to limited space in the gym, we must limit guests to Veterans plus one only. Thank you for your understanding!

WTE Veterans Day Form 2022

Additionally, as we’ve done in the past, attached is the My American Hero worksheet. If you would like to recognize the veteran in your family, add a picture, fill in the details, and send back to school by Friday, November 4th. Please let the office know if you need a hard copy of the attachment. We would be happy to send one (or more) home with your student. We already have a stack from years past which is a great start!

My American Hero.pdf

Thank you for taking the time to consider this request and participate if you have a veteran to honor.

As we approach Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and the holiday season, we are coordinating efforts to help those in need. We will have two separate collections during the month of November. The first collection will take place during the week of Veterans Day (Nov 7 - 11) when we'll be collecting personal hygiene items and Halloween candy to donate to the Coatesville Veterans Affairs Office. The second collection will take place the following week during the week of our choral concert. Each grade has been assigned a different food item to collect for the St. Agnes Day Room. Students are asked to bring these items to school during the week of Nov 14th. Attendees at the choral concert are asked to bring an item in from the list as their "ticket" into the concert. Thank you in advance for making our collections a success!!

Dear 4th and 5th grade families,

Thank you to all students who have shown interest in Student Council! We had nearly 50 students fill out the interest form! We are asking all students who filled out the interest form to submit a video answering a few questions about themselves. Students can submit their videos in their Student Council Schoology course. Videos are due by next Friday, October 28. Please feel free to reach out to Mrs. Lepka at rlepka@wcasd.net with any questions.

Thank you!

The Scholastic Book Fair will be returning to WTE November 14th - 22nd. Students will have the opportunity to shop during their regularly scheduled library class the week of November 14th. Parents can shop either online or during Parent-Teacher Conferences. Please see the attached letter from Mrs. Worrilow for payment information and additional details.

First, I want to thank you for all your continued efforts to make this school year a great one! I would also like to take a moment to share a brief reminder regarding attendance and absences as we head into the fall and winter months.

Students are required to attend school during the days and hours that we are in session. If your student is unable to attend school, a note must be provided for a reasonable absence. Notes in Pick-Up Patrol are encouraged and appropriate for this purpose. If the absence is necessary for medical reasons and you would like to provide a doctor’s note, the note must include the following:

1. Medical reason for absence
2. Dates excused from school

If the note only includes that a parent/guardian spoke to the physician’s office and guidance was given, the note will be converted to a parent note. If you have any questions, please reach out to me or to our nurse, Kellie Wallace, at kwallace@wcasd.net.

Thank you!

Congratulations to all of our power paw winners pictured below from the last two weeks. These students were selected by their teachers for best representing what it means to be a wildcat by going above and beyond to be safe, respectful, responsible and kind. Great job students!

Below are the remaining dates for our fall season in A.S. Sports. The Boys will continue to meet on Wednesdays and the Girls will meet on Thursdays. 4th & 5th grade will alternate the weeks that they attend. If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Davis at jdavis@wcasd.net.

• 10/26 4th grade Boys
• 10/27 4th grade Girls

The Special Education and Pupil Services department will be holding four evening sessions this year for parents. Please see the attached flyers for details. One flyer lists all four sessions and the other is for our first session on October 20th.

Per the WCASD policy on the use of smart watches, cell phones and other personal technology devices, these devices must be turned off and put away in their backpacks upon arrival to school. Students are not permitted to use these devices during the school day to text, call, record, take pictures, etc as to minimize disruptions to the learning environment. Students found to be in possession of these devices will be asked to turn them in to their teacher and returned to the student at the end of the day. Thank you for your support with this at home! The link to school board policy 237 for additional information can be found below.

The next WTE PTO meeting will be held on Thursday, October 27th at 7:00 pm in the WTE library. We will once again have a virtual option to the meeting as well if you would prefer to join the meeting virtually. You can join the meeting virtually via the zoom link below. For your planning purposes, the dates for the PTO meetings for the year can be found below, along with a request for pictures and volunteers.

If you plan to drop your child off at school, drop off begins at 8:30 AM at the back hall entrance by the soccer field on the lower lot. Drop-off ends sharply at 9:00. After 9:00, students will need to enter at the main entrance. Please help us by dropping off your child prior to 9:00 at the drop off location. More detailed instructions for drop of logistics to follow.

Dismissal is at 3:40 so the busses will not depart WTE prior to that. In order to get the buses into the school lot, we begin parent pick up at 3:30. Parent pick-up occurs at the same location as morning drop-off on the lower lot by the back soccer field. For a variety of safety reasons, please do not come to school prior to 3:00. The pick-up line begins at the flag pole. Please do not pull all the way up to the gate as there may be students outside. Staff will be there to help direct traffic once we open the gate.

Grade levels will eat together in the lunchroom. Students may bring or buy lunch. Please note that breakfast (served 8:30 to 9:00 each day) and lunch are no longer free to all students. Students wishing to purchase food will do so from their account. Parents may load money to their child’s account through PayPal in Parent Portal Instructions for funding child's lunch acct. When making purchases, students will enter their student ID number, which can be found in Parent Portal. It might be a good idea to practice that with your child prior to school starting. 2022/23 menus will be updated prior to the start of school at this site: WCASD Meal Menus. Visual of our keypad: Lunchroom Keypad for practice

The National School Lunch Program application for the 2022-23 school year is now available online. For information regarding the program, visit the WCASD website at https://www.wcasd.net/Page/6842. Contact our school caseworker with any questions or for assistance with the application.

WTE Caseworker: Mrs. Beata Starr - bstarr@wcasd.net

• Apply for the NSLP online at https://www.schoolcafe.com
  

  Aplicar en linea en https://www.schoolcafe.com

  
  

  
  

The West Chester Area School District has a tradition of offering high-quality extra-curricular programs for students. To support the costs of these programs, an Activity Fee is applied to extra-curricular programs supervised by a contracted coach, advisor, or director. This yearly fee allows a student to participate in one or multiple funded activities, and the maximum amount a family may pay per year is $250. At the elementary level, the activities that require payment of an activity fee for the year are intramurals, chorus, orchestra, and band. Please see the attached letter for additional details and payment information. Payment should not be made until your son or daughter is rostered for the given activity during the school year.

Over the course of the school year, we hope to have many opportunities for parents to volunteer in our school. In order to do so, volunteers must have current clearances on file in the WTE office. Clearances can take some time to get back so please take the time now to get your clearances and submit them to Kelly Patterson (kpatterson1@wcasd.net) in the front office. Information on how to obtain clearances can be found on the district website.

PA State school health mandated immunization, physical and dental requirements for 22-23 school year:

1. All students are required to be up to date with PA state mandated immunizations within the first 5 days of school in order to avoid being excluded from school.
2. All kindergarten students and any student registering for the first time to WTE must submit updated physical and dental examination report to the school nurse within the first 60 days of school in order to avoid being excluded from school. Reports can be dated in/after September 2021.

**Kindergarten through 5th grade students must receive:

• 4 dtap (diphtheria/tetanus/pertussis) with the last dose given after the child’s 4th birthday
• 4 IPV (polio) with the last dose given after the child’s 4th birthday
• 3 Hepatitis B
• 2 Varicella (chicken pox)
• 2 MMR (measles/mumps/rubella)

If you have questions about these requirements, please contact Mrs. Wallace at kwallace@wcasd.net.

If you registered your child(ren) through WCASD portal and did not upload all or part of the above PA state school health mandates, please send the information to our school nurse, Mrs. Kellie Wallace at the above email address as soon as possible.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this very important notice.