Wasco Weekly

Attention Parents!

Please be mindful of communications coming from “donotreply@d303.org”. This is the email address for our school newsletters and our all school emails. If you reply to this email address it will not be forwarded to office staff.

Office Contact Emails:

candace.thoke@d303.org

heather.kudabeck@d303.org

stephanie.brennan@d303.org

During our school day students are scheduled for a classroom recess, lunch recess, and possibly outdoor P.E., as a result, our students dutifully bring their outside gear in extra bags so they can enjoy these outdoor activities. (Probably they have help from their families, getting these bags prepared- Thank you!)

Our Elementary School Handbook shares the guidelines for Outdoor Physical Activity. If temperatures are at or below zero degrees (with wind chill), we do not go outside. The specifics can be found on page 8 in the Section Dress Code: Outdoor Physical Activity. This section of the Handbook also lists our policies for other types of weather. See button below.

As the weather gets colder, Gr. 2-5 PE classes will try to go outside as much as possible so students can get fresh air. Please make sure your student is dressed appropriately for outdoor temperatures including coat, hats, and gloves. Once it snows, snow gear will be needed and we will try to get outside for snow games. K-1 is using the gym learning how to move safely, practicing basic skills, activities and games, including taking turns and sharing equipment.

Hello Wasco Families!

In art class, our students upload a photo of their work onto Artsonia, the world’s largest online student art museum. It's a free, safe, educational program designed to connect parents and families with their child's creative activities at school. Many of you are familiar with Artsonia because we have used it in the past.

Founded over 15 years ago, Artsonia has been recognized with the national distinguished service award for outstanding contribution to the arts by the National Art Education Association, as well as the distinguished service award by the state art associations in New Jersey, Illinois, Michigan and Colorado.

Families in K-1 or those new to Wasco School, if you would like to grant permission for your child to join our exciting school art gallery or click on the link and enter your child's name and grade, along with an email

https://www.artsonia.com/connect/XP526348

We participate only for the digital gallery and it is not necessary to purchase anything that Artsonia offers. Thank you for your support! If you have further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at Joellen.Anderson@d303.org.

Sincerely,

Jody Anderson, Art Teacher

Fall is a beautiful time of year. But along with Fall comes runny noses and scratchy throats☹

Please be advised that cough drops are not allowed unless you have a doctor’s order and your

student has to come to the health office for administration of said cough drop.

All medication requires a Medical Authorization order from your student’s physician to be

administered her in D303. You can find the form on the district website.

For sniffles and runny noses without a fever I encourage the student to drink water and rest in

the health office for 5-10 minutes. They usually feel better in that amount of time. If they do

not I will call home.

For Head Injuries, I will immediately call if your student complains of a headache, dizziness,

drowsiness, disorientation, vomits, feels faint or has a fever. If your student bumps his/her

head and does not describe any of these symptoms, I will send them back to class and reassess

in about an hour and follow up with an email to you. Please continue to assess for these

symptoms at home. If these symptoms develop please refer to an Urgent Care facility or an ER.

For Conjunctivitis (Pink Eye), I will call if I suspect your student has symptoms: red, itchy, and

watery eyes with notable goop/discharge from the corners of the eye. I will suggest you take

them to their physician to rule out Conjunctivitis. This is a precautionary measure to protect

the other students and staff since it is contagious.

Covid Mitigation Plan D303 is following a Covid Mitigation Plan. Please refer to the district

website for information.

Nurse Tina

Take-home COVID test kits are now available upon request at Wasco while supplies last. These are rapid test kits that include two per box. Students can request take-home kits from the school nurse, or families can make a request by contacting the school.

All parents, guardians, and other visitors to District 303 buildings are required to report to the main office upon entering the building to sign in. Visitors must provide photo identification when signing in and must wear a visitor identification tag at all times while in the building. Visitors may be escorted by a building staff member while visiting the building. School-age visitors are generally prohibited during the school day unless accompanied by a parent or guardian and approved by school staff. In the event that permission is not obtained or is denied, visitors will be directed to leave the premises.

(Violators will be subject to legal action.)

Technology can be a wonderful way to keep in touch with family members. However, smartwatches and phones can become quite disruptive to the learning environment when parents are contacting their children throughout the day (and vice versa). The Elementary School Handbook contains the following language:

Students are extended the privilege of possessing phones/smartwatches on school grounds;

however, their use is limited to after-school dismissal and non-school days. These devices must be in the off position, or not used once the student arrives on campus until the end of the school day.

Teachers will be requesting that students leave their watches and phones in backpacks or another class designated place each day when they enter the classroom so that learning can continue uninterrupted.

If possible, please make sure to notify the teacher and the office if your student is leaving early.

Absences should be called in by 7:45 AM if your child will be absent for any portion of the day. The number is 331-228-2900 and has voicemail. You can call during the evening or overnight and leave a message. Please leave your child’s name and the reason why your child is out. If they are ill, please indicate their symptoms. Even if you notify your child's teacher of an absence via email, we ask that you please still notify the office.

Also, if your child attends Baker Station, please remember to notify them if your child will not be attending.

When using the drop off lane, please drive all the way forward so that we can load/unload as many cars as possible. Please stay in your car. If you wish to get out and load your child, you are welcome to park in the lot. By following this procedure, we can expedite everyone’s waiting times in the car lane.

Students are able to bring their lunch each day to school or they can get lunch at school through our food service provider, Organic Life. We do not accept fast food for students at Wasco. Please do not drop off or have food sent to Wasco for your child. If you would like to have lunch with your child, you can come to the main office and sign them out during their lunch period. Thank you for your cooperation. We love to celebrate birthdays at Wasco. Your child’s birthday will be announced on our morning announcements and your child will be able to choose a book from our birthday book cart. We do not allow in food for celebrations so please do not send them to school or drop them off, they will not be accepted. If you would like to send in items or a treat bag (such as a pencil or non food item) we can send that home with classmates to enjoy at home.

At school, students use a portal called Class Link to access the Applications they use as learning practice. Your child should only be using the learning apps that are accessible through ClassLink. If your child is accessing YouTube, he/she is most likely accessing it through the internet. As a disclaimer, if your child presses on Google Chrome, he/she has access to the world wide web. Therefore, it is very important that an adult is monitoring your child when he/she is using their Chromebook. Please keep in mind that Chromebooks are school district issued devices and should be used appropriately. Our students learn digital citizenship and Chromebook expectations with their classroom teacher, Empower, and LRC instructors. We repeat our lessons often and monitor for student demonstration of choices reflecting our school expectations of Be Safe, Be Kind, Work Hard and Do the Right Thing. It applies to all our school activities.

Families, it is helpful to know that your child’s bus route is displayed in the window to the left of the bus door. The Route number IS NOT painted on the bus. At Wasco, students line up by their bus number and are escorted to the bus by a staff member. As part of our orientation process, all students reviewed bus procedures with a staff member connecting bus behavior to our Wasco Way: Be Safe, Be Kind, Work Hard, and Do the Right Thing.

Has your child come home from school talking about our Wasco Expectations of: Be Safe. Be Kind. Work Hard. Do the Right Thing? Have they been excitedly talking about receiving paw prints in the hallway or Specials?

Last year we introduced the “Paws”itive Behavior Incentive Program to encourage students to work together as a classroom to be the best learners that they can be. Classes are able to earn paws as an incentive for following the Wasco Expectations in various ways throughout the building such as the hallway, lunch, lunch recess and in Specials. Following are the benefits of a “Paws”itive Behavior system:

• It provides students with positive feedback

• It reinforces positive behaviors and expectations

• It produces a challenge with a reward

• It provides incentive for doing the right thing

• It increases motivation, buy-in and effort

• It increases on-task and attending behavior

• It provides a visual, concrete reason for students to work together toward behavioral and academic goals

• It provides excitement and pride in their group effort

Each week, students work to earn as many pawprints as they can (as a class). The paws are collected at the end of the week and placed in a bucket for a drawing. The winning class is drawn from the bucket and announced at the end of the day on Friday. The winning class then gets to select a reward from a menu of choices to celebrate their achievements.

As we move through the year, we are also working toward earning school-wide incentives at different benchmark levels. Be sure to stop by the display case in our lobby to see how many pawprints we have earned so far this year! If you have any questions about this program, please contact Amy Corda at (331)228-2188 or Amy.Corda@gmail.com.

We are fortunate to have areas at our school designated for different types of arrival and this is an important safety feature. Please honor the plan of keeping the car arrival entrance at LaFox Road so that we have proper supervision of moving vehicles and care of students.

Wasco Elementary Website has links for valuable parent information. Image below shows website address (wasco.d303.org). Click the “Parents” tab for Wasco Parent Guide (lunch ordering, volunteering, pick up and drop off procedures), and other quick links.

Did you know, ALL D303 students may receive a student loan card to checkout and access books from the St. Charles Public Library?

Click on the button below for more details on how to get one for your student!

School Safety Plans

Schools have many plans to coordinate all the activities, and we plan for more than just academic learning. For example, to ensure that we are inclusive of all students, we employ a universal character expectation (Be Safe, Be Kind, Work Hard and Do the Right Thing), but we also operationalize a system that ensures our social environment is meeting standards.

Wasco Safety and Security Plan: Last year, Wasco’s Safety and Security plan was not unified in one document, so I consolidated the information. As part of this work, I met with district and area safety officials to understand various perspectives and learn the newest, most effective ways to ensure our building is safe. If you would like to talk more about safety and security, please contact me. Safety is a priority for me and over the years I have learned that reflection and connection sharing experiences is a valuable tool for improvements.

A HUGE part of our safety is our daily repetitive actions such as adhering to policies, modeling for kids, and addressing our concerns to decision makers. An example is watching someone prop a door. If you see something, you have to say something to make the action change. Talking with a person unrelated to the situation will not change the situation. I hope we all can commit to communicating in positive, supportive ways, because then we can count on each other to… Do the Right Thing. In our Safety and Security plan, you will see it starts with our daily character expectations, and the plan is linked below for your review.

Bullying Prevention Plan: Our Bullying Prevention Plan lists and describes processes and actions we take to prevent and respond to potential bullying activities. I have provided a link to the plan below, and you can always access it on our Wasco School Website under the Parents tab.

Email: heather.kudabeck@d303.org
Website: https://district.d303.org/
Location: 4N782 School Street, Wasco, IL, USA
Phone: 331-228-2900