It was wonderful to see so many of you at our Black History Museum last Thursday. Thank you for attending and participating in this fun community event.

Staff and students have finished Trimester 2 strong! Positive referrals, Bone store shopping, and Paw parties are all in the works as we enter our final trimester of the school year. Encourage your student to set those Trimester 3 goals and to shine bright as we aim for the stars.

Trimester 2 report cards are viewable on Infinite Campus Parent Portal. Continue to log-in and check your child's progress throughout this next trimester.

If you have noticed a new friendly face in our main office, that is Mrs. Mercedes Zavala. We are so excited to have her join our team as our new 12-month secretary!

Finally, do not forget we spring forward this weekend! Don't forget to change those clocks!

Please join us at our Library Book Covering Volunteer Day on Saturday, March 16, 2024 from 8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. at Churchill School. We recently received many wonderful new books for our library, either donated by our generous parents and community members or purchased with funds from Foundation 153 and the Homewood PTA. Now, we need to cover these books with protective plastic to make sure that they will last in our library for many years to come! We will be teaching volunteers how to cover the books, so you do not need to have any prior experience. However, due to the potential damage to the books if the covers are not carefully applied, we are only interested in adult volunteers at this event. Please sign up to volunteer at this link: https://forms.gle/2q1XqyXdKFTmHr1h6. Our librarian, Ms. Kirk, will contact those volunteers who sign up with more information. If you have questions about the event or are not able to make the event but would be interested in volunteering in the library or helping to cover books at a later date, please contact Ms. Kirk at laura.kirk@hsd153.org.

Be on the lookout for our Session 3 Club sign-up being sent out on Saturday, March 9th at 11am. Sign-ups will close on Wednesday, March 13th. Review the club information carefully and follow the communicated guidelines for participation. Club sponsors will reach out later next week to share more details with participants about their selected club.

If you have a 5th grade student, please take a moment to review the letter below. We can not wait to celebrate and have some fun with our 5th graders at the end of the school year. Check out how students can earn their ticket to the dance!

Please take a few moments to review this family resource for creating healthy and safe habits on phones and social media. When children engage on phones or social media without direction/guidance, poor choices can cause a lot of harm. We would encourage all of our families to have conversations with their children about safe and responsible use of their phone as well as appropriate interactions with others using technology.

All of our students participate in a yearly Erin's Law presentation in their classroom that aims to prevent childhood sexual abuse. Erin’s Law is named after childhood sexual assault survivor, author, speaker, and activist Erin Merryn.

Below are a few videos for reference.

https://www.erinslaw.org/for-parents/

https://youtu.be/0I2gVdBmA-s

Presentations in classrooms will be happening throughout the month of March. If you have any questions or concerns about this presentation, please reach out to our social worker Aveece Wesley @ aveece.wesley@hsd153.org

Make sure you mark Tuesday, March 19th on your calendar. The board recently approved an e-learning day due to both Churchill and Hart being used as a polling center on this day. All students will be e-learning from home according to our e-learning schedule.

Need a reminder about e-learning expectations and schedule. Click here!

• Arrival and Dismissal Procedures: It takes everyone to ensure a safe and happy before and after school. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
• Lost and Found: This time of year our lost and found begins to overflow. Please mark your child's belongings and make plans for either you or your child to stop by and look through the lost and found for missing items.

• IAR testing will begin on Monday, 4/8.
• ISA for only 5th grade will be the week of 4/22.
• STAR testing (spring) will be Tuesday, 4/30 and Wednesday, 5/1.

Please mark your calendars and make plans to prepare your child to do thier best on these important assessments. If you have questions about any of these assessments, do no hesitate to reach out to the main office to connect with our testing coordinators.

Arbor Day is right around the corner. The Village of Homewood is providing students once again the opportunity to decorate bags that will be used in Walt's Grocery around a special theme: Tree Houses Rock. Staff will provide any student that would like to participate with a bag before spring break. Decorated Arbor Day bags will be due by Friday, April 5th.