WMS Friday Forecast

One of my favorite jobs is walking around the building, both formally and informally. I get to see our students and teachers in a wide variety of settings doing a whole bunch of interesting tasks. The level of engagement I see with our students is impressive. They dive deep into peer conversations, Socratic Seminars, art work, read alouds, Maker Space work, volleyball and so much more!

Wredling is an active and vibrant center of learning. Our families are highly supportive of their children and of our staff. And our staff work hard to engage our students in challenging and interesting ways.

As we end 2021 and begin 2022, I want to thank all of you for your support, generosity, and kindness during some challenging times. Your kids are amazing and we are grateful to be part of their lives.

Happy Holidays!

Tim

Each year at the semester, the start of quarter 3, we sometimes have to make a few small schedule changes to balance classes. We attempt to keep these schedule changes minimal, but sometimes one class shift can have a greater impact.

If your child's schedule changes, we will do our best to inform you before or during winter break. But we still encourage you to look on Home Access Center before your child returns to school in January

When it comes to issues that concern students and/or school safety: “If you see something, say something - immediately”. On a school day during staffed hours (7:30-4:00), the student, parent, or community member should call the school and/or seek an administrator ASAP for prompt action. If this information emerges outside of the school day, please call 911 immediately. The safety and wellbeing of our Wredling family are always our top priority!

For each of our 7th and 8th grade AVID classes, College and Careers plays an integral role in the classroom experience. On Friday's, we are looking for volunteers to share their career and experiences via zoom (or in person) during either 2nd, 7th or 8th period each week. Please fill out the form below if you are interested in sharing your career with our students. We will be sending a confirmation email to you once we have solidified your date and time. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise and time with our students and staff.

***Visitors choosing to come into the building must adhere to current D303 visitor protocols. As of 10/1/21 - all visitors must:
- Show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test received within 72 hours of arriving to volunteer at your building.

- Bring documentation to the front office of your building upon arrival. If you would like to present to our students, please complete this Google form.

Our front office is generally staffed by 3 people. There are several reasons we may be unable to answer the phone when you call. We may be:

• on another line

• supporting a student or staff member

• getting a pass for a student

• checking a visitor’s credentials

• assisting with a passing period or hallway supervision

• covering Building Supervised Study between certified staff coverage

• assisting an urgent situation

• short-staffed (someone absent without a sub, someone at lunch)
  
  

Please leave us a voicemail message and we will get back to you as soon as possible. If this is an attendance issue, be assured that we do update attendance throughout the day. As we update attendance, please know that we absolutely will contact you if there is a problem.

You may occasionally get a call/email for an unverified class period. DON’T PANIC! Common reasons - late to class with a pass, staff checked the wrong box, had a sub, etc. NOTE: we reconcile all absences on a period-by-period basis. They are generally cleared by the end of the day and HAC is updated! Check HAC later and then call if you still have questions.

If your student will be absent, You must CALL the Wredling attendance line (avail. 24 hrs) and leave a message stating the REASON (Click to view the chart!) for their absence

Dear Parents of 8th Graders Attending East,

Peer Leadership is an extracurricular program that matches selected incoming freshmen with juniors and seniors who make the transition into high school fun and easy and mentor them throughout the year. Because this program meets during the school day, it has to be put into a student’s schedule when registering for next year’s classes. Although we would like to be able to offer this to all interested incoming freshmen, our numbers are limited by available classroom space and our budget. Therefore, in order to start the selection process, interested students should apply using the application found HERE.

If your child is interested in the program, please fill out the application and e-mail it to Jim Reed, the Peer Leadership Coordinator (James.Reed@d303.org). Completed applications must be received no later than Tuesday, January 11th, 2022. For more information about Peer Leadership, please attend Future Saints Night in January.

We hope to hear from you!

We want to thank our St. Charles Education Foundation for making a difference in the lives of our RedHawks. You may not know about the many amazing things that our Foundation does, so I would encourage you to look here to see what they do. I want to give you a Wredling example of what the St. Charles Education Foundation has done to support our students and teachers, in this case, 8th grade teacher Stephanie Bennett. What they do makes a difference in the lives of our students and teachers!

I would encourage you to learn about the Foundation and support them in any way you can!

The School Board has approved an E-Learning plan that gives the district the option to offer remote learning in place of emergency days. Currently, our last day of school is Tuesday, May 24, which is the week before Memorial Day. As we move into the winter months, we want to update you on the plan for how the district will manage emergency days and e-learning days.

• If we experience inclement weather, the first three days will be “snow days” that will be made up at the end of the school year on May 25, 26, and 27 as needed.

• Subsequent emergency days will be remote days so the last attendance day will still be before Memorial Day.

• If there is a long stretch of inclement weather (blizzard, polar vortex, etc.), we may split the days into “snow days” and e-learning days so as to not have too many non-attendance days in a row.

If your child is quarantined due to Covid, our teachers will send work to your child and work with you and your child as we always have when a child is out of school. We want to recognize that quarantine offers some unique challenges for our students.

We will be offering instructional support through a certified teacher during quarantine. Ann Rose, a recently retired D303 teacher, will be available to support our quarantine students through Zoom. When a child begins quarantine, we will email both the child and the parent with information on how to access Mrs. Rose's Zoom for support. We encourage our quarantined students to access this instructional support!

The AAUW is sponsoring its Creative Writing Contest for the 43rd consecutive year. All interested 7th and 8th grade students in the tri-cities may enter. Entries may be submitted in any one of 3 categories: fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Medals and certificates of achievement will be awarded in each category for the 3 entries that are judged best by the AAUW Creative Writing Contest Committee. 7th and 8th grade entries will be judged separately. There also will be 3 Honorable Mention awards in each category for both grades.

Entry forms are enclosed. There is no required topic for the compositions, although students are encouraged to submit their best work of the year. The Rules and Guidelines which appear on the Entry Form should be reviewed and applied by student writers in order to maximize the success of their work in this competition. All entries should be submitted no later than 5PM, Wednesday, February 16, 2022. Please arrange for the entries to be returned to your school’s main office prior to that time. Entries will be collected by AAUW members on the morning of Thursday, February 17. No late entries will be accepted under any circumstances.

Entries will not be returned.

Winners will be notified by March 25th and will be invited to attend a special ceremony in their honor on Thursday, April 7, 2022. We will let you know the location of the ceremony when the winners are announced. Their teachers are also encouraged to attend this recognition and celebration of their students’ talent. We appreciate your time and cooperation in bringing this opportunity to your students. We look forward to reading their submitted works.

INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS NEWSLETTER IS CURRENT AS OF PUBLICATION DATE.

Contact us on Twitter @WredlingD303

#WredlingLearns

Website: wredling.d303.org
Location: 1200 Dunham Road, St. Charles, IL, USA
Phone: 331-228-3700
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WredlingMiddleSchoolD303
Twitter: @WredlingD303