Waubesa Weekly

WIS Principal: Corey Shefchik

K-5 Associate Principal: Brooke Hauser

Building Administrative Assistant: Angie TeBeest

Website and McFarland Facebook Page

Phone: 608-838-7667

October 15- 5th Grade- Children's Theater-- Diary of a Wimpy Kid (9:00-12:00)

October 16- PTO All Parent Meeting at Waubesa-- MPR (topic: referendum) 6:30-8:30

October 17- 3rd Grade Showcase, 6-7pm

October 23- WIS Family Fun Night 4:30-6:30

October 24- No School PD day

October 25- No School- Conference Release Day

October 27- Referendum Information Session - 6 p.m. MHS Performing Arts Center

October 30- HGD Family Night in the MPR- 6 pm

November 1st- 4th Grade-- Taste of Wisconsin

November 15th- Fall Activity Fees Due

Hello Waubesa Families,

Wow! We had such a wonderful turnout for the ribbon cutting ceremony of the new inclusive park. For clarification sake, the inclusive park is accessible to Waubesa students during the school day for morning recess and lunch recess only.

Because the new park is so fun and engaging, we have had several students attempt to change their plans at the last minute, wanting to stay and play after school. This has caused confusion and hard feelings at the end of the school day. Please note that without advanced notice from the family, we will not allow students to change their plans (bus, pick up or otherwise) at dismissal time. For the safety of our students, we will need to send them home following their routine plan they have in place. If you do need an alternative plan, please notify the office the day before. Unless there is an emergency, we will have to insist the student follow their daily dismissal plan.

Conferences are coming soon, scheduled for the week of November 4-8. Please read this letter for what you can expect for the fall conference experience.

If you have any questions or suggestions throughout the school year, we encourage you to use this form. We appreciate hearing directly from families when they have questions or concerns; thank you.

Thank you for your continued support. Soaring Higher Together!

Corey Shefchik: Principal

Brooke Hauser: K-5 Associate Principal

Hello Families,

We invite you to join us for the All Parent PTO Meeting on Wednesday, October 16th at 6:30 PM in the Waubesa Intermediate School Multi-Purpose Room.

During the meeting, the PTO President will share updates on current and future PTO activities, and the building principals will provide important updates from their schools. The main topic of discussion will be the upcoming school referendum. The district superintendent, school board members, and representatives from the McFarland Federation of Teachers will be present to give a presentation and participate in a Q&A session.

Free childcare will be available during the meeting. For those unable to attend in person, the meeting will be live-streamed on the McFarland EC-8 PTO Facebook page.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Sincerely,

The McFarland EC-8 PTO

McFarland Families,

McFarland students in grades 4K-8 have recently completed assessments via FastBridge and students in grades 4K-3 have completed literacy assessments via AimswebPlus. Those results are available for families to view in Infinite Campus. Directions on how to access that information are provided below.

FastBridge and AimswebPlus assessments provide a snapshot about what our students know and are able to do in the core academic areas of English Language Arts and Math. While these scores are only a single indicator at a single point in time, the scores do provide district and school staff with an opportunity for reflection about the quality of our educational programming as well as for conversation about how well we are preparing students to meet the requirements of the State standards across content areas.

For more information about AimswebPlus, please see this Act 20 information that was shared with 4K-3 families earlier this year.

If you have questions about these results, please reach out to your child’s principal for more information.

Sincerely,

Melissa Pfohl

Director of Teaching and Learning

To access Aimsweb Plus and FastBridge information via Infinite Campus:

• Login to the parent portal.

• In the menu on the left side, click “More” and then “Assessments.”

• All of your child’s historical FastBridge scores will be displayed. The number under “Score” is a raw score and the number under “Result” is the national percentile rank of that score for your child’s grade level. A percentile shows the percentage of students nationally who scored at or below your child’s score. The lowest value is 1 and the highest is 99.

• If you have more than one child in the District, you can click in the upper right to change which child’s scores you are viewing.

If you would like additional information about your child’s AimswebPlus or FastBridge scores, you can reach out to your child’s principal and request a FastBridge Family Report that includes more detailed information.

School Avoidance: If your student is having a hard with the transition back to school, please do not hesitate to reach out to Student Services. We are here to help support both you and your student! You can reach out to Emily Gierl at gierle@mcfsd.org for this as well.

Waubesa Student Services Team (website)

Casey Popowski: School Counselor, 3rd and 4th grade Lifeskills Teacher

Casey Ruhland: School Counselor, 5th grade Lifeskills Teacher

Kayla Gauwitz: School Psychologist

Emily Gierl: School Social Worker

WIS is currently asking for the following donations:

• Clothing items: Girls shirts size M-XL. Boys shirts size L-XL or gender neutral shirts size M-XL. Youth pants L-XL.
• Gently Used Board Games: Cleaning out a closet? We would love to have your gently used board games that are appropriate for child/family use! We offer board games during indoor recess due to inclement weather, and we are also planning to have a board game station at this year's family night.
• Hair Ties: bulk pack of any type of hair ties for long hair.
• Snacks: Goldfish, pretzels, chocolate chip granola bars and/or golden grams. We will package snacks in portion sizes.
  

Please drop any donations in the front office labeled with "WIS Student Services."

3rd, 4th and 5th Grade Families:

Your student (s) has been assigned an Activity Fee in Infinite Campus. We would appreciate it if you would take a few minutes to log into your Parent Portal and pay the fee. For more details pertaining to the each grade level activity fee please reference your student's SeeSaw message sent by their homeroom teacher.

Directions on how to pay:

• Click on fees

• student drop down menu

• pick your student (if you have more than one student in the district)

• pick (3rd, 4th, or 5th) Fall Activity Fee

• Go to Cart

• Pay fee

*We have added a optional donation. If you would like to help sponsor a student's activity fee please chose the optional donation payment.

*If you are unable to pay for the field trip please reach out to your student's teacher. Contact the office if you are having trouble accessing the fees section.

Hello 5th Grade Parents/Guardians -

We have started our Recorder Unit in the music room! As you probably know, learning the recorder is a rite of passage for every 5th Grade student. I'm sure you will enjoy every step of their journey, from *squeaks* to Beethoven. Here at Waubesa we use a program called "Recorder Karate" which celebrates each song the students master with the earning of a belt (aka piece of colored string) that they can tie to the end of their instrument.

We have added the recorder fee to the fees section in Infinite Campus that will allow you to pay for the book and recorder (~$10). If your child will be using a recorder and/or book from home (from an older brother or sister perhaps) please let me know and we will remove the fee from your account. I surveyed the kids for their color choice, and the recorders came fast so we were able to get them started right away! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

I look forward to watching this wonderful group of musicians move up the ranks and earn Black Belt!

Musically,

Paul Otteson

General Music Teacher

Bridging Brighter Smiles Dental Clinic will be back at WIS on Tuesday, October 22nd and Tuesday, October 29th for their fall visits! It's not too late to enroll! See flier information for more details and how to enroll; as well as the MSD Health Service website for additional Dental Resources.

With the cold and flu season in full swing, please review our Guidelines for sending your child to school. Remember, if your child is sick please keep them home and seek medical evaluation as needed. Students will be sent home with the following symptoms:

• Temperature above 100.4°F

• Vomiting or diarrhea

• Frequent uncontrollable cough

Your child should remain at home until fever, vomiting/diarrhea has stopped for 24 hours without the use of medication. If they have been prescribed antibiotics, please see the MSD Health Services Handbook and DHS Wisconsin Childhood Communicable Disease guidelines for when they may return to school. As well, please notify the School/Health Office if your student has tested positive for a communicable disease such as: Influenza/Flu, Covid 19, Pneumonia, Strep Throat, RSV, Hand Foot & Mouth, Pertussis, etc.

Thank you for your partnership as we work to keep our students and staff healthy and safe each day!

Public Health Madison & Dane County is partnering with surrounding school districts and SSM Health in a few weeks to offer more school vaccine clinics to get students up to date on their school vaccines in time for the 2024-25 school year. These clinics will take place at multiple locations and dates. Find more information and to schedule an appointment see the attached flyer (English, Spanish), or via publichealthmdc.com/schoolclinics.

Give a “Shout out” to a staff member! Our staff members work so hard and don’t realize the positive impact they are making. Take a moment to let them know about the difference they are making through the “Staff Shout Outs” page on our website.

You can send them a Spartan Shout Out and see the shout outs from others by going to this page: https://www.mcfarland.k12.wi.us/contactus/spartan-shout-outs.cfm

October is...

• Bullying Prevention Month
• LGBTAIQ+ History Month
• National Physical Therapy Month

October 14th - Christopher Columbus Day

October 14th - Indigenous Peoples' Day

October 15th - White Cane Awareness Day

October 16th - Unity day