Wingate Elementary News

Saturday, February 3rd - D51 Foundation White Iced Fundraiser

Monday, February 5th - National School Counselor Week

Wednesday, February 14th - Celebrations of Friendship and Kindness

Thursday, February 15th - PTO Meeting - 4:05pm

Monday, February 19th - No School - Presidents' Day

Tuesday, February 27th - Wingate Night at Mod Pizza

February Staff Birthdays

February 1st - Audrey Harwig (Health Assistant)

February 18th - Ruth Ann Hough (Kindergarten paraprofessional)

February 26th - Sandi Abele (Occupational Therapist)

Classrooms will be celebrating friendship and kindness on Tuesday, February 14th. Teachers will communicate specific information about the celebrations that will take place in their classrooms, so please be on the lookout for details. Please do not bring large individual gifts (i.e. flowers, balloons, chocolates) to exchange at school. Students may bring a small treat or gift if it is given to all students in the class.

As you are starting to make your plans for spring break, you may have noticed that the week prior to spring break is a short week for students. Students will attend school from Monday, March 11th-Wednesday, March 13th. March 14th and 15th are designated as Teacher Workdays, which are meant to be used for planning, grading and completing report cards. Even though the week before spring break is only three days, it is essential that students are at school those days. Students will be completing important assessments and projects during that time. Due to the workdays that are used for grading and report cards, most of the work missed during the week prior to spring break will not be able to be made up, unless it is an extenuating circumstance. Please keep this in mind while planning vacations during that time.

School Counselor Appreciation week is February 6th-10th. Thank you to our school counselor, Melissa Delong, for teaching our learners so many skills that are needed for success! We appreciate you, Mrs. Delong!

We are happy to announce that Wingate is the recipient of a $6,000 grant from the GJ Lions' Club to help fund our new playground! Grants are made possible through carnival ticket sales. Not only do the ticket books contain valuable coupons to local businesses, ticket purchasers are also entered into a drawing to win some amazing prizes. Ticket books are for sale at the Wingate front office.

Wingate Elementary will also be participating in this year's Lions' Club Parade! Be on the lookout for information from Mr. Hoskin about how you and your child can get involved.

The following policy is found in the Wingate student handbook regarding absences and requesting work due to vacations. Please refer to this policy if you are planning an extended vacation that requires your child to miss school.

The following will be considered excused absences:

· Temporary illness or injury

· Pre-arranged absence approved by the principal or designee

· Extended period of absence due to documented physical, mental or emotional disability

· Absence due to a work study program under the supervision of the school

· Absence due to school sponsored activity

· Absence caused by detention from a court or law enforcement authority

Families are discouraged from taking extended vacations during the school year. Vacations and extended absences must be pre-approved by the principal or it will be documented as an “unexcused absence”.

In the case of an excused absence, make-up work will be provided. Due to the nature of teacher planning and responsive instruction, large amounts of work will not be provided prior to the content being taught. In the case of a prolonged absence due to vacation, make-up work will be collected as students complete it in class and the absent student will be required to complete the work upon his/her return to school. According to District 51 board policy JH: Student Absences and Excuses, there shall be two days allowed for make-up work for each day of absence. Exceptions will be considered for family emergencies, illness, etc.

During the pandemic, we were required to follow many guidelines with regards to illness and school attendance. Due to those guidelines, we certainly saw a dip in attendance rates, which is understandable. Now that we are back to operating under pre-pandemic illness guidelines, we are closely monitoring attendance for improvements. As I have already shared, there is a direct correlation with student achievement at school attendance. So far this year, there have been 2,409.5 student absences (this includes illness related as well as excused and unexcused absences). This is a decrease from the previous year at this time, which was 2,662.5 days of student absences. We very much appreciate that you keep your child home when he/she is ill, but please make your best effort to get your child to school when he/she is well. If you have any questions about illness protocols related to school attendance or if you need support with getting your child to school.

Email: amie.schraeder@d51schools.org
Website: https://wingate.d51schools.org/
Location: 351 South Camp Road, Grand Junction, CO, USA
Phone: (970) 254-4960
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/explorerlearning/