Oak Grove News

Dear Parents,

First and foremost, thank you for your cooperation and active participation in protecting our students, staff, and community! I am writing to share a few recent updates from the Lake County Health Department (LCHD) that are important for you to understand.

Positive Cases and Close Contacts Who Need to Quarantine

Once we are informed of a positive case or that a parent or guardian is a close contact, we will report the student’s case information to the LCHD. They will reach out to you promptly to start contact tracing and symptom tracking. It is important to communicate and cooperate with the health department in order to receive guidance on when and how to return to school. A release of isolation or quarantine letter will be required to return to school and this letter will automatically populate to the identified family contact given to the LCHD. It is the responsibility of the family to ensure we receive the release letter prior to sending the child(ren) back to school. Please note, school nurses cannot request these letters from the health department. You will want to call the health department a few days ahead of the anticipated release to be sure the student remains on track to return.

When we are notified of a positive case, the school nurse and administration will determine if there are any close contacts to that individual in the school. Any student who is deemed a close contact to a positive case will be notified within 48 hours by the health department (may be 72 hours if the LCHD is backlogged).

The following are further updates from the Lake County Health Department:

• Only negative RT-PCR tests will be accepted for return to school for students that were excluded due to symptoms.

• For symptomatic individuals who test negative for COVID-19 via a rapid test, Lake County Health Department will be recommending a second test with a RT-PCR.

• If you need guidance on where to test, and when to test, please reach out to Nurse Callie or Nurse Jen.

Please feel free to reach out to Principal Nick Heckel ( ext. 2005), Nurse Callie Johnson (ext. 2051), or Nurse Jen Liu (ext. 2050) with any questions or concerns.

This Friday will be an early release day for all students. Our @school students will all eat lunch before they leave for the day and dismissal will begin at 12:30 PM. We are asking that parents who are picking their children up at the end of the day wait until 12:15 PM to arrive in the parking lot to allow all of the buses to get into the lot for dismissal.

Conferences will be held virtually on Monday, November 23rd from 1:00 - 8:00 pm and Tuesday, November 24th from 8:00 am - 12:00 pm. We will be using a new web-based platform for our conference scheduling and videoconferencing this year called Meet the Teacher. You will receive an email with a link to sign-up on Thursday, November 12th at 4 pm. At that time, we will also be sending you directions on how to login and navigate the platform. Sign-up will close the following Thursday, November 19th at 4 pm. Please contact Lilli Melamed with any questions.

After a unique start to the school year and even more unique 2020 all together, I was curious to know what is being shared regarding skills needed in today’s workforce. According to LinkedIn, 1.13.2020 with some cross over on Indeed, 10.19.20, there are 4 specific skills that can push someone’s career forward. At Oak Grove, we are developing those skills daily in our lessons. While the future is unknown, our students will be well prepared for any challenge that comes their way using these top 5 skills:

1. Creativity (LinkedIn & Indeed)

2. Persuasion (LinkedIn & Indeed)

3. Collaboration (LinkedIn & Indeed)

4. Adaptability (LinkedIn & Indeed)

5. Emotional intelligence (LinkedIn)

MARLA'S LUNCH UPDATE

Thank you for supporting the Marla’s lunch program! A portion of all purchases goes to the PTO to support our students and teachers. We know the current situation brings some uncertainties. Please note, if the ENTIRE SCHOOL were to go to remote learning for a period of time, lunches will get cancelled and families will get the credits back to their accounts.

As a reminder, it is recommended to order 1-2 weeks at a time. The deadline for lunch orders is noon every Wednesday. If a student is quarantined due to COVID-19, lunches ordered beyond the current week within the quarantine period will be credited back to the family’s Marla account. Any lunches ordered during the first week of quarantine will be donated to the school. Please contact the pto@ogschool.org with any questions.

K-8 VIRTUAL SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR (November 9th - November 22nd)

The K-8 Virtual Scholastic Book Fair begins TODAY!! For the next two weeks, please consider supporting our amazing school and help your children discover new books by placing an order! Oak Grove will earn 25% back which will be used to purchase books for our own library. Free shipping, straight to your home, on all book-only purchases over $25. All purchases will arrive before the holidays!

**In order for Oak Grove to receive full credit for all purchases, please shop through this link to our own Oak Grove fair website.

Watch for an email this week with a teacher wish list and opportunity to enter a raffle with purchase!

Please contact Jen Tippett with any questions (email: tippettjennifer1@gmail.com, cell/text: 262.994.9986)

SEASON OF SHARING WITH THE PTO

This November through December, the PTO is kicking off a season of sharing! Our focus this school year has been on bringing together our OGS commUNITY. During these unique times, and with the season of giving upon us, the PTO wanted to find ways to not only bring together our Oak Grove Community, but to consider our broader community that has always supported us. Check out these exciting opportunities!

Clear the List!

The season of giving has begun, consider donating items to your student's classroom! Follow this LINK to see what items your teacher would like for his/her classroom! You can also find this link on the PTO page of the school's website (ogschool.org/pto). If you have any questions, please contact Laura Reutzel at sandersL7@hotmail.com.

20 Days of Giving

The Oak Grove PTO along with several amazing 8th grade volunteers are excited to kick off the 20 Days of Giving, an event in coordination with the Libertyville Food Pantry. The event will go on from November 15 to December 11. A calendar will be shared with 20 days of different food items to donate and our K-8 students can go on a scavenger hunt in their homes for these items to donate.

Families will drop off the items at predetermined homes of OGS families between December 12-14. We will need additional volunteers to set up collection stations in the Reigate Woods subdivision and the River Road area. Please contact Julie Kovach at julieCkovach@gmail.com if interested in helping. The collected items will be delivered to the food pantry on December 16 and 17.

Guess what we’ll collect for a chance to win?

SUBMIT ENTRY

Please watch for an email with more details later this week. Let's get together and support our community with the 20 Days of Giving!

OGS Family Favorites Recipe Book

Tired of cooking the same old thing every week, every month? Let's share our most favorite recipes! Look for an email with more details coming soon!

Happy Monday! Here is this week's installment of the SEL short series!

SEL Short: Perspective

Perspective is the way an individual sees a situation or event and uses their life experience, knowledge, and opinions to construct their own point of view. Everyone has a unique perspective that shapes the way in which we see the world. However, it is important to understand that not everyone sees the world in the same way and this is where perspective taking comes in. Perspective taking is the ability to look beyond your own point of view, and consider how someone else may think or feel. In order to build our capacity for perspective taking, we must listen to others’ points of view, continue to seek out knowledge, and engage in new experiences. Furthermore, we must put ourselves in situations to communicate with a diverse group of people, collaborate on a wide range of topics, and share our “story” with others.

Throughout the month of October, our K-8 SEL lessons have focused around the following key concepts:

• Recognize the feelings and perspectives of others
• Recognize individual and group similarities and differences
• Develop positive relationships with peers and adults

Students have talked to their classmates, viewed images, watched videos, listened to music, and explored a variety of holidays. Throughout each of these lessons, students had the opportunity to identify similarities and differences to add breadth in their perspectives. For example, a primary lesson looked at the word “Family” and students collaborated to identify and understand how the word family can mean different things for people. A junior high lesson had the students watch a video revolving around one situation. The students were to reflect and analyze the multiple perspectives that were present within that situation.

When we are able to identify, understand, and analyze the perspectives of others we provide ourselves the chance to make connections, develop meaningful relationships, and work towards building a compassionate community. Moreover, this opportunity provides our students and all of us a voice as we navigate the world together.

Veterans Day is just around the corner. It takes place on November 11. We celebrate this day to show our gratitude for the sacrifices our veterans and active duty members make on behalf of all Americans across our country. For those who may not know, veterans are former members of the United States armed forces; in other words, they are people who have served and protected our beautiful country. Originally, November 11 was called Armistice Day. Armistice Day was a national holiday to commemorate the signing of the treaty between Germany and the Allies after World War I in 1918, but also to acknowledge and show appreciation for the end of the long war. Later, President Eisenhower changed the name to Veterans Day. Every year, November 11 is a day for us to come together as a country and recognize all the people who have sacrificed so much for our country's protection, whether they are alive, or have passed away.

It has been a long standing tradition for the eighth grade students to host a ceremony at our school to celebrate the veterans and active duty service members in our community. This year, due to the pandemic, we are not able to host a ceremony at Oak Grove. While this is very disappointing, we want to give all of our fellow students, families, and staff a chance to honor the heroes in their lives. Traditionally, the eighth graders would make posters to honor a veteran. Instead, we would like to offer everyone the opportunity to make a virtual poster by creating a slide for their veteran or active duty service member. The slides will be due by Friday, November 16th, and the slideshow will be created the following week. This will be our way to safely thank all of the heroes in our lives.

The eighth grade students will also be writing letters for the veterans and active members to show our thanks. This year the Oak Grove community is showing our thanks differently due to Covid-19, but the virus does not diminish the importance of acknowledging the sacrifice our armed forces have made. We are so grateful for all our veterans and their service and sacrifices to our country. Even though there have been some major setbacks due to Covid-19, the Oak Grove community wishes to show our sincere gratitude towards our veterans and active duty service members. Thank you for serving America!Written By: Molly Lyon and Natalie Schlitt, on behalf of the Eighth Grade Class of 2021

Here are the links for the Virtual Poster:

OGS Veterans Day Virtual Poster Instructions/Template

Upload Your Virtual Poster Here

Written By: Molly L and Natalie S, on behalf of the Eighth Grade Class of 2021

Are you concerned with your preschool child's development?

Preschool screenings will be held for children who are three or four years of age. The screening will examine a child’s proficiency in speech/language and motor development as well as assess pre-academic skills. Because of COVID-19, we are not having screening dates. Parents with questions or concerns about their child's development should call Julie Waehner to schedule an appointment

for a screening.

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