Carleton Washburne

Take Care and Be Well,

Andrew Fenton & Ben Horwitz

Carleton Washburne Principal & Assistant Principal

8th grade families have the opportunity to schedule a 15 minute conference with staff from New Trier to discuss your child’s schedule for 9th grade. Conferences will be offered between 1:00-6:00pm on Monday, February 10th. We will share a sign up link in the upcoming weeks.

Our KW teachers are partnering with our Social Workers to teach curriculum from Erika’s Lighthouse titled: “Teen Depression: Stories of Hope and Health,” that addresses mental health, depression, stigma, treatment and suicide prevention.

Please click here to see more information about the curriculum.

We will be holding a parent program on Tuesday, February 11th at 6:30pm in the Skokie Auditorium on the topic of online safety and digital citizenship. During the school day, students at both Skokie and Washburne will have an assembly focusing on these issues, and there will be a program in the evening available for all parents in the district. Parents can learn more about our guest speaker, Ben Tracy, by clicking HERE. Please be on the lookout for more information in the coming weeks.

Intramural Basketball registration is now live. This is Washburne's House League for basketball, and is open to any 7th or 8th grader who enjoys playing the sport. We will start with team formations days on Saturday, December 7 and December 14 from 12:00-1:30. We will begin the season after winter break. Games will be on Saturdays for an hour between 12pm-3pm.

Please contact Andy Becker at AndyBecker@winnetka36.org for more information.

Unleash your creativity and get ready to design and build like never before! The Washburne Robotics Club is back, and we’re kicking things off on Wednesday, January 29th for an 16-week journey, culminating in our final meeting on May 21st.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Time: Tuesdays, 3:30 PM - 4:40 PM – the perfect after-school adventure!

• Dates: Trimester 2 & 3 – let’s conquer those winter blues with some serious robotics fun!

• Location: The CW CoLab, Room N102 (Mr. Selgrat’s Room) at Carleton Washburne School

• What to Expect: Collaborate to build and program robots, choose our own paths as a club, and sharpen your creativity and problem-solving skills along the way.

No experience? No problem! Just bring your enthusiasm, curiosity, and willingness to participate. Join us as we innovate, create, and explore the exciting world of robotics together.

Don’t wait—sign up today and let the adventure begin!

Skokie and Washburne Families - Now that 2025 is here, it is time to save the date for our annual dance marathon benefiting Lurie Children’s Hospital! The event will take place on Friday, March 14th from 3:30-5:30pm. There are plenty of ways for parents to volunteer, so look out for information about that from the PTO. For now please save the date and encourage your child to start fundraising. If we raise funds at the rate we have been since 2019, we should easily pass $250,000 cumulatively raised! Yes, a quarter of a million dollars! Unbelievable!

This link provides information about how the money we raise helps LCH.

PTO Contacts: Lauren Osborn and Melisa Twomey

Washburne Contacts: Rachel Hirsh, DeAnna SeLander, Tracy Silverman, and Melissa Yeoman

Skokie Contacts: Rachel Falender and Gina Wild

Advisory Fundraising Links

• Tuesday and Wednesday, January 14th and 15th: Winter MAP Testing
• Monday, January 20th: No School - Dr. Martin Luther King Holiday
• Tuesday, January 28th: D36 School Board Meeting @ 7:15pm

Benchmark assessments are valuable tools that provide a snapshot of student progress at a point in time. These assessments help teachers to identify areas where students are excelling and where they may need additional support. They can also inform instructional decisions by providing data that can be used to tailor teaching to meet each student's unique needs and strengths. Benchmark assessments are an important component of progressive education, which recognizes that students learn in different ways and at different rates. By using benchmark assessments to inform instruction, teachers can provide a more individualized approach to learning that supports each student's academic growth and personal development.

Academic benchmark assessments for literacy and math will occur three times this year for students in grades K-8. The Winter Benchmark Assessments start on January 6th and conclude on January 24th. There are four platforms the district utilizes to gather student learning information; aimswebPlus, mCLASS, NWEA MAP, and SSIS. Benchmark data will be available in Otus beginning January 31, 2025. In order to allow for the data uploads to take place and to provide parents with consistent access to student data, please be aware that the Otus Parent Portal will be inaccessible January 6-January 30.

Building Data Team meetings to review the Winter Benchmarking data will occur February 3-14.

Otus Parent Resources

The District offers regular sessions for families to learn more about a variety of topics.

View the entire 2024/2025 schedule here.

Up Next:

Acceleration Applications Overview with Assistant Superintendent of Innovation, Teaching and Learning Dr. Becky Mathison

January 15, 2025 at 9:30 AM

Location: Carleton Washburne School RC

Attend this session to understand accelerated programming options for students entered grades 3-8 during the 2025/26 school year. Time will be provided for attendees to begin the application for this process.

RSVP Link

Preschool/Kindergarten Family Information Night (with Winnetka Administration and Sue Stolzer, Early Childhood Assessment Team Lead from TrueNorth)

January 15, 2025 at 6:00 PM

Location: Greeley School

This informational session is intended for Winnetka parents of preschool students who will be attending The Winnetka Public Schools. Parents will learn more about the support and services that the District provides to current preschool students attending local preschool programming as well as what is available within our schools once a student enters kindergarten. Families will receive a preview of:

• The transition-to-Kindergarten process by Crow Island, Greeley and Hubbard Woods Principals,

• The resources available to families of current preschool students from the Department of Student Services, Equity and Inclusion

• Details on “Kindergarten Connection” which will take place in Summer 2024

• Highlights of a typical kindergarten day in The Winnetka Public Schools

We look forward to meeting new families at this event!

RSVP Link

Kindergarten enrollment: Children who will be five-years-old on or before September 1, 2025, are eligible to enroll for Kindergarten.

School Admissions and age requirements are addressed in School Board Policy 7:50 School Admissions and student Transfers to and from Non-District Schools.

2-Step Process to complete registration:

• Step 1: Click here to begin the online new student registration process.

• Step 2: Contact Maria Perez via email marizperez@winnetka36.org or phone 847-446-9400 to schedule a time to drop-in with final verification documents.

Kindergarten students who are not currently enrolled in Stay & Play will have the opportunity to register for the 2nd half of the year after 8:00 am January 6th through this link. Please note that the registration period ends January 31, 2025 and will remain closed for the remainder of the year. The rates are prorated below. If you attempt to register before the 6th, you will receive an Item Unavailable message. After purchasing Kindergarten Stay & Play registration, your child will be able to begin their attendance in the program the following Monday so the schools can plan accordingly.

To keep everyone informed on what we are seeing around the district, we are sharing that a lot of students are currently getting diagnosed with pneumonia, flu, strep, and GI viruses. Please keep our health guidelines in mind when thinking of sending your child to school.

Everyone needs to be fever/vomiting/diarrhea free for 24 hours without the use of medication before returning to school.