No School on Monday, January 20th

Dear Westwood Families,

We hope all of our families are doing well. There have been some wildfires, snow, a Wolf Moon and now arctic winds all happening at the same time! We hope this newsletter brings a few moments of calm and joy as you read about our ESL Celebration.

On Wednesday, we celebrated students who were able to exit the ESL program. Students who have a language other than English in the home participate in English Development classes during the school day until they are able to meet the exit criteria. The students that were celebrated on Wednesday have met that criteria and are considered fluent in English. We are very proud of them as they’ve reached this milestone.

Mrs. Kimberly Crumby, Principal

Mrs. Martha Tompkins, Assistant Principal/Parent Facilitator

Upcoming Dates:

Jan. 16-Skate Night

Jan. 24-Report Cards go home in Tuesday Folder

Jan. 20-MLK Day~NO SCHOOL

January 27-31-Great Kindness Challenge

February 3-17-Read A-Thon

February 4-2nd Grade Musical

February 14-Westwood Dance

February 17-Teacher PD-NO School

February 20-Skate Night

Our building is planning to apply for the 21st Century Community Learning Center Grant for the 2025 - 2026 school year. This grant will support after school enrichment and academic learning for our Wolves. As part of this application process we are asking for you to participate in a short survey by clicking on the link below. As always, we appreciate your support!

Read-A-Thons actually get your reader excited about reading and it gives friends and family the opportunity to encourage your child to read even more.

Our Read-A-Thon starts Monday February 3, 2025!

About one week before our Read-A-Thon starts we will send home instructions on how to activate your reader's personal page. This is where you will be able to view and record their progress.

We encourage you to activate your reader’s account today by clicking on https://www.read-a-thon.com/readers/r/323738383532/1 and following the simple instructions.

We've chosen Read-A-Thon because it will not take much of your time, gives your child a reason to read and helps in the development of stronger reading skills.

We hope EVERYONE participates.

TEXTS: Click here to fill out a very short form that will add you to our text list. We use text messages to send out these weekly parent updates and reminders. We know texts are a convenient way to communicate for many of you, so please add yourself to the list by filling out this form. Multiple members of the same family can use it and each receive texts. If your phone number changes, you'll need to complete the form for your new number.

PHONE CALLS: We also send out phone calls through an automated system; you will receive these calls if your phone number is correct in Registration Gateway. If your number changes, you can update the information in Registration Gateway, or call the office to update.

SOCIAL MEDIA/WEBSITE: The weekly parent update and other announcements/stories are also posted on our school's Facebook page and website. We are working on activating our school's Instagram account also- we'll let you know when that's up and running.

PAPER NOTES: We also send out paper notes at times; most of these will be sent in folders that come home every Tuesday. Every now and then, we need to send information on other days, so it's a great practice to check the backpacks each afternoon/evening.

We don't want you to miss any information, so we put things out in lots of ways!

This year's school day schedule is the same as last year. As a reminder, our office is open from 7:20 am to 4:30 pm. We open the doors to our building at 7:20 am and school starts right at 7:45 am. Dismissal is at 3:10 pm every day except Wednesday when we have early dismissal at 1:50 pm.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Car Riders:

• If you have students in grades Kindergarten through 2nd grade, your students will need to be dropped off and picked up in the front of the building.
• If you have students in grades 3rd-5th your students will need to be dropped off and picked up on the east side of the building.
• If you have children in K-2 and 3-5, they will use the front car rider line.
  
• For the safety of all students, please have their car tag hanging on the rear view mirror as we are continuing to use the same dismissal procedures as the last couple of years.
• Teachers and support staff will be available to help students find their way to their classroom the first few days of school.

Walkers:

• Once again this year, students who are walkers or bike riders will be dismissed on the far side of the fence on McRay Ave.
• We ask that parents do not congregate inside the fence for our students' safety.
• We will continue to have a cross guard at the corner of McRay Ave. and Carlton St.
• We ask that students and their families refrain from crossing in front of the building on McRay Ave.

We appreciate your patience as we work through all of these items on the first days of school. Our students' safety is our number one priority. We cannot do it without your help!

Westwood Elementary empowers all learners to grow in a safe and positive environment to launch a lifetime of learning.

Mrs. Kimberly Crumby, Principal, kcrumby@sdale.org

Mrs. Martha Tompkins, Assistant Principal/Parent Facilitator, mtompkins@sdale.org

Email: westwoodinfo@sdale.org
Website: https://westwood.sdale.org/
Location: 1850 McRay Avenue, Springdale, AR, USA
Phone: 479-750-8871
Facebook: Westwood Elementary