It's tick season! Be sure to check your children over carefully each day after Forest School. If you aren't familiar with ticks we have handy ID cards at the Visitor Center front desk.

KFVS school photos will be offered this year by Drew Shonka Photography. Drew does great work with children and makes amazing portraits in the outdoors. You can check out his work here: drewshonkaphotography.com

Watch your child's purple take-home folder for the order form. Please bring this completed form with cash or check made out to Drew Shonka on picture day — October 5 (rain date October 19th). Photos will be taken in the afternoon, if you have a particular shirt you would like your child to change into for photos, please be sure to let us know and send it along.

School lunch forms will now be sent home as a paper copy with your student in their student folders.

Families will now fill out a lunch form that covers two weeks at a time.

If you have not been ordering school lunches and would like to start, paper lunch order forms can be picked up in KVFS Main Office.

Or you can send an email request to Summer at williss@lafarge.k12.wi.us

Lunches are provided through the Nutrition Services department at La Farge Schools.

For the 2021-2022 school year, lunches are provided at no cost to students, though families should still fill out the free and reduced lunch form.

Milk ordered as a supplement to lunches sent from home will be free of charge due to an internal fund at LFSD. If you have questions about lunch or milk, please contact Summer at the address above.

If you have questions about transportation, please contact Meaghan Gustafson at : gustafsonm@lafarge.k12.wi.us or (608) 625-0107. Please don't call the bus garage.

Reminder: KVFS has an indoor mask policy. We are watching local case counts carefully and hoping numbers in our community come down soon, in the meantime we ask that you are sure to send a mask with your child each day.

Are you interested in learning more about the KVFS Governance Council? We invite you to attend the monthly meetings. Governance Council meets the second Thursday of the month from 7-8:30pm via Zoom.

Within the Governance Council are 6 committees. Seats on these committees are open so if you have interest please contact the committee chair.

Development Committee (Creates policy and procedure documents): Barb Sarnowski

Programs and Services (helps with supplies and resources): Julie Hoel

Public Relations (school-community outreach) : Jackie Yocum

Finance (budget and fundraising): Shawna Nelson

Food Security (AmeriCorps and snack connections): Megan Hoffman

Equity (to make sure our school community feels seen and connected): Megan Hoffman

You can learn more about the KVFS Leadership structure and find committee chair email addresses here: https://www.kickapoovalleyforestschool.org/o/kvfs/page/leadership

Agendas and meeting times for Governance Council and committee meetings can be found here:

https://www.kickapoovalleyforestschool.org/o/kvfs/events

Last week's local food highlight was the Apple Sauce Social on Thursday afterschool. We spent the week preparing the apples (kindly donated by the Bergquist family). Children were given the opportunity to take turns cutting apples with safety knives throughout the week. On Thursday during nap time the rooms were filled with the smell of cooking apples. The children were so excited to share this sweet treat with their families.

Fall is full of the tastes of local harvest. Children have been sampling melons from the La Farge School gardens, pears from my grandmother's tree, peppers and cucumbers from the farmer's market and fresh eggs from our Amish neighbors.

We are collecting paper milk/dairy carton containers of all sizes. Please wash and save your containers and bring in a bag full. Thanks!

Many thanks to Mr. Ben (Johnston of the KVR) for letting us help plant baby oak trees (acorns!)

Much gratitude to KVFS parents Jake Robertson for many hours of insulation work and to AJ Morgan, Noah Engel, Jason Carrimon and the KVR crew for moving sheetrock in the Prairie Springs classroom. And to Jen Oium, Meaghan Gustafson and Alyssa Szepi for doing KVFS laundry!

Thank you to Julie Hoel, Janet Kruk, Mark Katz, Robin and Aiden Hosemann, Jackie Yocum, Kolin Muehlenkamp and Summer Willis who helped with the Vernon County Fair Booth. We won Best of Class!

And a whole bunch of gratitude to Barb Sarnowski for all the Leadership work for KVFS development. We'll miss you at our weekly meetings but so glad to still have your on board our Governance Council.

Some KVFS parents have started a Facebook group to connect for chatting, logistics, rideshare, etc. and invite everyone to join. Search for the private group, KV Forest School Parents and click "join."

And be sure to follow (and share!) KVFS posts on Instagram and Facebook @kickapoovalleyforestschool to stay up to date on all our happenings!

Mailing Address: 301 W. Adams St. La Farge, WI 54639

Physical Address: S3661 State Hwy. 131 La Farge, WI 54639

email: kvfs@lafarge.k12.wi.us

website: https://www.kickapoovalleyforestschool.org/o/kvfs

KVFS Main Office: 608) 639-0565

instagram: @kickapoovalleyforestschool

facebook: @kickapoovalleyforestschool