Oak Grove News

It is with a heavy, fulfilled heart that I retire from Oak Grove this year. For many, many years, every student, parent/guardian, visitor and staff member has made me feel like a better person and nurse with each encounter. For this, I am grateful. There are so many Oak Grove events and daily encounters that have made an indelible mark on my heart. Should we meet again in the future, I am confident we will be able to pick up where we left off, because we will always be part of the Oak Grove family. Remember to accept every challenge that lies ahead with the confidence that we will be together in spirit because Oak Grove Eagles always soar!

Curriculum Nights

In order to provide our staff and families with time to adjust to our health and safety modifications at school, we will be moving curriculum nights back to the week of September 7th. These events will take place virtually this year due to the guidelines that we must follow to ensure the health and safety of all staff, students, and families. Please be on the lookout for further information from your child’s teacher.

K-2 - September 8th

3-5 - September 9th

6-8 - September 10th

Extended Care

Unfortunately, due to low enrollment this year, we will not be providing Extended Care for the 20/21 school year. Families that had already registered should have received an email last Friday informing them of this cancellation for this year.

Marla’s Lunch

Hot lunch ordering will go live once students receive their teacher assignments.

Families received an email from the PTO on Sunday letting them know that the website would open today Monday, 8/17. Families will have until Tuesday, 8/18 @ 12 pm to place order for 1st week of school. Ordering Instructions & 2020-21 Lunch-at-a-Glance are available at www.ogschool.org/pto

Lunches will be delivered to students' classrooms, prepackaged, including all condiments and silverware. If you have any questions, please contact the PTO (pto@ogschool.org)

Dismissal Procedures

Dismissal will look different this year due to the health and safety measures that we have put in place to protect the staff and students while they are in school. We are asking that parents who are picking their child(ren) up from school wait until 2:15 before coming to the school. We need to ensure that all of the buses can enter the lot first so that we can start the dismissal procedures on time. We will start by dismissing bus students by bus number and dismissing them as soon as they are loaded. We will then dismiss the walkers to the Junior High playground. While the walkers are being dismissed, we will start the parent pick up process. Each family who has a student attending Eagles@School will receive two placards in the mail this week. These placards MUST be placed in the passenger side window in order for us to release your child(ren). If you do not have a placard, you will be asked to park and a staff member will assist you there. Staff members will release students based on the number in your window. If you are picking up children from another family, you must have that placard as well or we will be unable to release those students to you. We know that this process will take longer than normal for the first week or so. We truly appreciate your patience and understand as we work to ensure the safety of everyone.

In response to COVID, and our commitment to continuing to provide Oak Grove students with a quality chess enrichment program during this uncertain time, Chess-Ed is pleased to offer VIRTUAL chess lessons to your students this Fall!

The 10-week Fall session is offered Monday through Friday at a variety of times (4, 5, and 6 pm) with Beginner, Novice, Continuing, and Advanced program levels. While students are welcome to register for class on any weekday, Chess-Ed will strive to keep together those Oak Grove students who register for class on Wednesdays (Oak Grove chess day last year).

The chess program runs from Monday, 9/14/20 to Friday, 11/20/20 and is taught by Chess-Ed instructors using Zoom, lichess.org, and other chess software. Please refer to the Eventbee registration site for chess level guidelines. To register, students must have a FREE username at lichess.org so they can be paired by the chess instructor during the game playing portion of the lesson.

Be sure to register early to take advantage of EARLY FEE pricing. For more information about the program, please refer to the program flyer and Eventbee website. Chess-Ed is looking forward to seeing your CHESS ENTHUSIAST this Fall!

We are excited to get started again, whether in person or virtually, and enthusiastic about the learning opportunities this year brings. We have been working closely with the administration and teachers and have been incredibly impressed with the approach they have taken to the 2020-2021 school year. As John F. Kennedy once said, "Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try." The current pandemic has caused businesses, families, and schools to reconsider how they deliver their core values and purpose. Oak Grove has worked tirelessly to open our school which has led us to a huge accomplishment - Eagles@School and Eagles@Home - offering differentiated curriculum for our students while not compromising on the safety of our students and our teachers.

The Foundation has always focused on incubating new ideas to differentiate the curriculum at Oak Grove. We think it is fair to say the 2020-2021 school year is an incubation period in itself. The administration and teachers have been developing new ideas to deliver curriculum in today's environment, but not just as a temporary stop-gap until things get back to "normal" and we go back to old ways. With every new idea, we found them asking themselves "How might we leverage this method and apply it when the pandemic is over?" We cannot think of an approach that fulfills the Foundation's mission more clearly. We are proud to grant just over $30,000 to Oak Grove School to enable differentiated curriculum not only for the 2020-2021 school year, but beyond 2021 based on what we learn this year. Welcome back Eagles!

The Oak Grove School District will conduct a social-emotional survey to all Eagles @School and Eagles @Home students in the fall of the 2020-2021 school year. The survey is voluntary, anonymous, confidential, and will not ask questions about the students’ families. The goal of this survey is to provide our students with a voice, gain a better understanding of our current SEL needs, and use the information to make informed decisions around our future SEL practices. Also, if your child(ren) are attending Eagles @Home then school will refer to their virtual classroom.

Below are some sample survey items. The students will rate each statement as to how it best applies to them. For example, students in grade K-2 will select between a smiley face, neutral face, or frowny face. Students in grades 3-8 will choose from strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, or strongly agree.

Sample items for grades K-2:

I feel safe at school.

I have friends at school.

I feel great at school.

Sample items for grades 3-8:

I like coming to school every day.

I can understand how other people feel.

People care about each other in my class.

The survey for grades 3-8 will tentatively take place the week of August 31st - September 4th

AND

The survey for grades K-2 will tentatively take place the week of September 7th - 11th

If you do not wish your child to take the SEL survey or have any questions, please contact Ryan Murray at murray@ogschool.org or 847-367-4120 ext. 2708. If we do not hear from you, we will assume your child has permission to participate in this survey. Thank you for your support and we are looking forward to the start of the school year.

Last week, the Illinois Department of Public Health released updated guidance for schools stating theirs and CDC's stance on the use of neck warmers or "gaiters" as a face covering. Unfortunately, these are no longer viable options to use. We recognize many students have been comfortably using this covering. However, our district needs to adhere to any new and updated guidance as it is released. We appreciate your understanding.

PTO UPDATE
As we all know, the year ahead will look very different. Many large group activities such as Family Fest will need be cancelled or rescheduled. However, the PTO is already discussing creative alternatives. The PTO is committed to supporting our students and teachers both academically and socially. We welcome your input and suggestions.

The PTO & OGSEF have also been working closely with OGS Administration to ensure our teachers and students have the resources they need to start this unique school year. Please see our 8/7/2020 PTO Meeting Minutes: (https://campussuite-storage.s3.amazonaws.com/prod/803180/eeb75da6-ddad-11e6-8383-22000bd8490f/2145849/d3535eae-dfc3-11ea-a83e-0aa5e184e9d3/file/PTO%20minutes%2008-07-2020.pdf)

Thank you for your continued patience and support!

Julie Kovach and Laura Reutzel
PTO Co-Presidents

MARLA’S LUNCH

Ordering for Marla’s Lunch will open today, Monday, August 17th at noon. You must have your student’s teacher assignment to begin ordering; this ensures that all lunches are delivered to the proper homeroom. Ordering lunches for the 1st week of school will close on Wednesday, August 19th at noon. You can find instructions for ordering and the order link at www.ogschool.org/pto.

OGS SPIRITWEAR
Stay tuned for more details! Lots of great OGS items from clothing to masks from Sports 11!

The Village of Green Oaks is constructing a sidewalk between Oak Grove School and Cranbrook Road, with the ultimate goal of connecting to the sidewalk at Rt. 137. Due to delays in the permit process, the contractor started late on this work. They plan on installing the concrete sidewalk and curbing by August 21. Following the sidewalk placement, O’Plaine Road south of Cranbrook Road will be re-paved. The contractor, Peter Baker and Sons, as well as the Village are aware of Oak Grove’s schedule and will work to minimize disruption, but there may be periods of traffic delays.

We appreciate the communication from the Village and appreciate the sidewalk construction on O’Plaine Road to help keep our students safe as they walk to and from school.

Please keep in mind that construction can run late and may impact your plans to drop off and pick up students during the first few days of school.

This year, we will be administering a different assessment system to monitor our student progress in the areas of reading and mathematics. Instead of administering STAR360 the assessment system created by Renaissance Learning, we will be having our students take the iReady assessment, created by Curriculum Associates, in reading and mathematics. There are several differences between iReady and STAR but the three main differences include:

• The assessment can be administered at home

• The assessment is not a timed assessment and students can work at their own pace

• Even our earliest learners take the same assessment so the data can be analysed from kindergarten through grade 8

On Tuesday, September 2nd, Oak Grove teachers will be actively engaged in planning for student learning. While they are involved in these activities, all Oak Grove students will remain at home and will have the full instructional day to complete their reading and math assessments on their school issued device. Each assessment will take approximately 45 minutes to complete but could take longer based on the individual student.

Directions will be sent to the parents to help support their child in getting set up for the assessments. We do ask that parents or older siblings not assist in the actual administration of the testing. These results will serve as crucial pieces of information for the teachers to know where to focus our instruction with our students. If someone were to answer the diagnostic questions for the student, it would be difficult to know where they need support and developed.

Thank you for your continued partnership with Oak Grove and we are all looking forward to a safe school year.

Please click HERE to view the flyers in our virtual backpack. Flyers are updated weekly, so please check back often so you won't miss any of the events going on in our community.

Click HERE to view Board Agenda and Minutes

Email: boe@ogschool.org
Website: www.ogschool.org
Location: 1700 S. O'Plaine Rd. Green Oaks, IL 60048
Phone: 847.367.4120