The Westgate Wire

It has been a busy week at Westgate! Below are a few important pieces of information:

• School Pictures: We will take school pictures on February 2nd and 3rd. Additional options for Remote students will be provided. More information will be shared next week.
• Valentine's Day: We will celebrate Valentine's Day with virtual parties on Monday, February 15th. Classroom teachers will communicate specific details in their classroom newsletters and communications.
• Parent/Teacher Conferences: At Westgate School, we value a strong partnership between home and school. Spring conferences are scheduled in 20-minute increments. To be fair and equitable to all our Westgate families, each family may sign up for only one evening conference each year. Families can either sign up for an evening conference in the fall or the spring, not both. If changes need to be made, please reach out to your child's teacher. This spring, conferences will be held on Thursday, February 11 during the day and evening, and Friday, February 12, in the morning. Links to sign up will be emailed on Monday, February 1, at 7 pm. Sign-ups will close on Monday, February 8, at Noon.

We wish you a healthy and happy weekend!

~Ann and Scott

Congratulations to the teachers who were awarded two of the grants given by the ABC/25 Foundation this year! The 1st, 2nd, and 5th graders now have 2- ELMO portable visual presenters to their disposal. Thank you to ALL teachers who applied for the grants and please continue to submit your applications next year.

As always, please consider supporting the foundation by becoming a member for $40 or a staff rate for $25. You can join here ! We only need a few more families to join. Each year, the ABC/25 Foundation grants $2,500.00 to all District 25 schools when 25% of the school's families become members. The grant funds may be used at the school’s discretion. Any questions, please contact Mari @mariwin.torgerson@gmail.com.

As our teachers plan lessons for the upcoming week, we want to share that we will not be live-streaming any events on Wednesday, Jan. 20th, Inauguration Day. Our teachers may utilize clips in the days following given that they have been previewed, age-appropriate, and tie into our curriculum.

The district will begin providing a cold lunch option for students on Tuesday, January 19th. These lunches need to be ordered ahead of time and are free to all families. Teachers will be completing the lunch count each morning. Please be sure your child knows if they will be ordering a cold lunch from the district or bringing lunch from home. The lunch schedule is provided below.

The Kids Heart Challenge program with the American Heart Association has been such a big tradition at our school and something many of our students look forward to each year. We are not able to hold our traditional event this year due to the circumstances at hand. Since many of you have a connection to the mission of the American Heart Association, we wanted to share out a link if anyone is still interested in donating to the American Heart Association this year: http://www2.heart.org/goto/westgate25

The American Heart Association is so thankful for the support of the Westgate community each year. Last year Westgate families raised over $10,000 to the American Heart Association to aid in new research dollars, advocacy efforts, better quality healthcare and more. In addition to that, the American Heart Association was able to fund 2.5 million dollars in COVID-19 research and how it affects the heart this summer. That wouldn’t have happened without your support. Thank you so much.

We look forward to bringing the tradition of the Kids Heart Challenge to Westgate again next year, but in the meantime, if you would like to donate to the American Heart Association, we will leave the Westgate site open for the month of January. http://www2.heart.org/goto/westgate25

1/18-Martin Luther King, Jr. Day-No School

1/21-2/3- Virtual Book Fair

2/2-2/3- School Pictures

2/11-2/12- Parent/ Teachers Conferences

3/12-Report Cards

3/22-3/26- No School- Spring Break

4/2- No School

4/19-SIP Day- No School

5/28-SIP Day-No School

5/31-Memorial Day- No School