Pierce Downer This Week

Pierce Downer Families,

Our students in grades 3-6 have officially started their IAR testing! As a reminder, we will continue testing next week. It is extremely important that students bring their iPads to school, fully charged.

This week we had some fun in 2nd grade with HiTouch-HiTech experiments, the variety show continued rehearsals, and our PD PROMISE assembly recognized our Panthers of the Month for March and kicked off the American Heart Association's Kids Heart Challenge.

For our 1st and 2nd grade students, families should have received our SAVE THE DATE for the upcoming music performance with Mrs. Patton on May 1st.

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to reach out 630-719-5860 or LWagner@DG58.org.

We are PD!

L. Wagner, Principal

The IAR assessment (Illinois Assessment of Readiness) will be administered April 5-14, with all of our 3rd-6th grade students. On average, students will be testing for approximately one hour each day during the testing window. If you have specific questions regarding your child’s testing, please don’t hesitate to reach out to the classroom teacher or me.

It is crucial that students who are participating in the IAR have their iPads fully charged and pack their headphones.

District 58 is excited to offer a universal full-day kindergarten program for the coming 2023-24 school year. What this means is that the tuition-based full-day kindergarten program known as OKEEP will end after the current school year. Yearly student registration fees will still be required. We are excited about this move as it provides a full-day program to all District 58 students and gives teachers more flexibility in delivering instruction, socialization time, deeper discovery and play-based learning. Please ask friends and neighbors with preschool-age children who are eligible for kindergarten (children who are five years old on or before Sept. 1, 2023) to contact our school at 630-719-5860 to be added to our incoming kindergarten list. Kindergarten RoundUp is scheduled for March 21st and we want to ensure that parents and guardians can visit their child’s future school and meet the principal and teacher. Families may visit www.dg58.org/kindergarten to access pertinent information in the District 58 Kindergarten Resource Guide.

District 58 student registration for the 2023-24 school year is now open! Downers Grove Grade School District 58 invites families to register their student(s) for the 2023-24 school year using the District’s PowerSchool Enrollment system! The District asks all returning students to please register by Monday, April 3. This includes all returning District 58 students who attend an outplacement or specialized program. New student registration is open indefinitely. District 58 encourages families to register their student(s) in a timely manner, as early registration helps the District determine its staffing, classroom and transportation needs for the upcoming school year.

District 58 recommends families register their student using a computer when possible (although you can also use a mobile device). Please do not use the PowerSchool mobile app as it does not support registration. If you have technical questions during registration, please contact District 58’s Technology Help Desk by filling out a Technology Help Ticket here or calling 630-719-2768. If you have general registration questions, please contact your school office.

Registration Update for 2023-24: Residency
District 58 will continue to contract with Thomson Reuters CLEAR, a third party vendor, to automatically verify student address information. The vendor will use parent and/or guardian names and addresses to crosscheck the information against other public electronic databases, such as utility companies, DMV records, property tax records. This service has been safely used by many surrounding school districts to verify student residency information, including District 99.

In some circumstances, additional documentation will be needed:

• Families of all new students

• Families of all kindergarten students (regardless of preschool attendance or current siblings in the District)

• Families that annually lease their residence

• Families that provide an affidavit of residency

• Families whose residency is not able to be electronically verified

If the District is unable to verify your address, you will receive a letter directly from our District Office. The letter will provide details regarding the additional information you will need to provide in order for your child to start the 2023-24 school year.

Verifying residency is an effort to protect taxpayers and district resources by identifying non-residents attending District 58 schools. Illinois law mandates that parents demonstrate residency prior to enrollment in school and allows for periodic verification to validate compliance with the law.

How to Register: Returning Students

Step 1: Complete registration forms and submit documents.

• Log on to your PowerSchool account. (Still need to create a PowerSchool account? Click here for instructions.)

• If you have multiple children, please select a student from the menu on the upper left. (Please remember to complete a separate registration for each of your children).

• In the left navigation panel, click on “Forms.”

• In the Forms menu, click on the “Enrollment” tab.

• All registration forms will appear. Click on the first form, “A: Student Information: 2023-24” to begin the registration process.

• Complete all registration forms and download all required supplemental documents. The registration portal will explain which documents are required.

• Your “Enrollment” homepage will show which forms are submitted and empty (“empty” includes forms that haven’t been started, as well as forms in progress).

• Please remember to submit any supplemental documents (i.e. health forms) either by email, mail or in person to your school office. Forms are due by the first day of school, but we encourage families to submit these forms as soon as possible.

Step 2: Pay student fees.

• After District 58 processes your child’s registration, you will receive an email invoice from the District’s PushCoin system with all registration fees for 2023-24.

• The PushCoin email will arrive after April 3.

• Fees are due by the first day of school.

• While we encourage families to use the PushCoin system to pay registration fees, families may also pay by check. If paying by check, please clearly identify the student(s) for whom the fees are being paid. Please make checks payable to “Downers Grove Grade School District 58” and send the check to your school or the District office at:

District 58 Office
2300 Warrenville Road, Suite 200NE
Downers Grove, IL 60515

Will your child attend kindergarten in District 58 next school year? Or do you have a friend or neighbor whose child will? Here are three steps to prepare!

1. Call Pierce Downer to let them know your child will be attending kindergarten next year. They can add you to any school-specific kindergarten contact list.

2. Attend Kindergarten Roundup in March or April.

3. Visit our Kindergarten Resource webpage for information on Kindergarten Roundup schedules, school boundary maps, kindergarten registration, immunization requirements, kindergarten curriculum and much more!

Plus:

Dual Language Program: Did you know that incoming kindergarteners can apply to participate in District 58's two-way Dual Language Program? The program is open to both native English and Spanish speakers and is located at El Sierra School. Click here to learn more about the Dual Language Program. Click here to complete a Kindergarten Dual Language Interest Form.

Congratulations to Nurse Cuyugan for being this week's PD Cup recipient. Nurse Cuyugan is one of our school nurses at Pierce Downer School. She is a calming voice and a caring heart to help our students when they are feeling their worst.

Thank you Nurse Cuyugan for ALL that you do!

District 58 is pleased to announce that after Spring Break, we will begin using the Raptor Visitor Management System in all of our schools to strengthen our program of campus safety for students and faculty. Pierce Downer is excited to be piloting this program effective immediately. Part of keeping students and faculty safe is knowing who is in our buildings at all times. The Raptor system will better allow us to screen visitors, contractors, and volunteers in our schools and provide us with a safer environment for our students and staff. Community High School District 99 currently utilizes the same platform on its campuses.

Upon entering a district building, visitors will be asked to present photo identification, such as a Driver’s License, which can either be scanned or manually entered into the system. If a parent or guardian for any reason does not have a US government-issued ID, the school staff member can use any form of identification and manually enter the person’s name into the Raptor system. The Raptor system will check to ensure that registered sexual offenders are not entering our school campuses without our knowledge. The Raptor system checks the visitor's name and date of birth for comparison with a national database of registered sex offenders. The registered sex offender database is the only official database checked by the Raptor system. No other data from the ID is gathered or recorded and the information is not shared with any outside agency. Once entry is approved, Raptor will issue a badge that identifies the visitor, the date, and the purpose of his/her visit. A visitor’s badge will not be necessary for those who visit our schools simply to drop off an item in the office or pick up paperwork.

The safety of our students is our highest priority and the Raptor visitor management system allows us to quickly identify those that may present a danger to our students. Thank you in advance for your understanding and your support in enhancing the school safety protocols in our district. We appreciate your patience as our office staff works to implement this new protocol.

District 58 has partnered with Safe2Help to give students a safe and confidential way to report potential threats or crises. Safe2Help was launched by the State of Illinois in December 2020 and aims to help prevent suicide, bullying, school violence and other threats to school safety.

With Safe2Help, students can connect with a trained crisis professional during their own crisis, or to report a potential threat. Students can submit a Safe2Help alert via the following ways:

• Website: https://app.safe22helpil.com
• Text: SAFE2 (72332)
• Phone: 844-4-SAFEIL (844-472-3345)
• App: "Safe2Help Illinois" app available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store
• Email: HELP@Safe2HelpIL.com

All alerts are responded to by a trained Safe2Help crisis professional. Safe2Help is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

District 58 staff are not the initial responders to the alert and will receive each alert after the Safe2Help professional provides support. District 58 staff will review alerts sent by Safe2Help during regular school hours, unless the nature of the alert necessitates immediate school action.

April 14

Fun Lunch: Outpost

April 17

6th-grade Outdoor Ed Trip

April 26

PTA Dine-Out @ Pierce Tavern

Email: LWagner@dg58.org
Website: www.DG58.org
Location: 1436 Grant Street, Downers Grove, IL, USA
Phone: 630-719-5860
Twitter: @LWagnerDG58