Just a reminder, there is NO SCHOOL on Monday, January 15th!

Over half of the school year is in the books, which means we are sledding down the hill quickly toward the end of the year.

As a reminder, attendance at school is CRITICAL to a child's academic and social success: Missing even two days a month can accumulate quickly to 20 days out of school.

If your child(ren) must miss school, please communicate those absences to Mrs. Harasewicz, and also your child's classroom teacher.

The Mobile Dentist will be returning to WES on Thursday, March 7th!

Permission slips will be coming home soon, so if you would like for your child to have their teeth cleaned FOR FREE, be on the lookout for that permission slip in the coming weeks!

Firstly, if you are interested in joining the WES PTA, please click HERE for the information form.

New This Year: Sponsor-a-Day! If you would like to sponsor a day at Walkerton Elementary School, please click HERE for more information. The way it works is that each day of the school year, you can be a sponsor (1 Day = $1, Day 46 = $46, etc.). Each week, we will shout out those who have sponsored, with all of the proceeds going to our WES PTA to help fund all of the wonderful events they host throughout the year!

Office Hours: 7:00-3:30

Doors Open: 7:45 AM (Bus Riders and Car Riders)

Breakfast Served: 7:45-8:00 AM

Tardy Bell: 8:05 AM

Dismissal Begins: 2:40 PM (Car Riders)

Dismissal Begins: 2:45 PM (Bus Riders)

Arrival

• Bus Riders: Students riding the bus will enter at Door #6 at 7:45 AM.

• Car Riders: Students who are car riders or walkers will enter at Door #1 at 7:45 AM.

• Click HERE for the map of our car rider procedures.
• Parents, a few reminder about car riders:
• Please form a DOUBLE LINE (BLACK LINE) as you enter at the far end of the parking lot: This process will be very similar to the double line at the McDonald's Drive Thru!
• The Double Line will end and merge into a single line (BLUE) all the way to the front of the building at Door #1.
• Please do not let your child(ren) exit your vehicle any sooner than the sidewalk (Green Arrow).

• Walkers: There will be a crossing guard to stop traffic so that our students may cross the street safely. Please talk with your child(ren) about the importance of listening to the crossing guard, as she is there to keep them safe.

Dismissal

• Bus Riders: Buses will be dismissed at a time starting at 2:45 PM from Door #6.

• Car Riders: Car riders will begin exiting the building at 2:40 PM from Door #1.

• Walkers: Please see the above information for Arrival.

You may have heard that WES is going to have some construction happening this year, and that is indeed correct!

WES is looking to improve various areas of our building, starting with new heating and cooling systems in our classrooms! Construction will not happen before the first day of school, but will happen throughout the upcoming school year.

But don't worry! Classrooms will be moved around so that there will be no students or staff in classrooms where work is being done.

JGSC is finalizing the construction bidding process, and once that happens, I will be able to provide more details on (1) when construction will start and (2) what rooms will be affected during certain times.

More details coming soon!

The Boys and Girls Club is back at Walkerton Elementary School this upcoming year!

Public registration is open TODAY on their website at bgcsjc.org.

Please send any parent questions our way - register@bgcsjc.org.

The First Day for Before and After School Care at WES will be Monday, August 14th.

Welcome to 2024 WES Families!

We may already be a week into 2024, but there is something about the start of a new year that always excites me.

A time for fresh starts and new beginnings.

A time to reinvent yourself.

A time to set new goals.

I am a big advocate of New Year's Resolutions...if we let it, those resolutions can be the roadmap for the unknown year.

I've spoken often about this before, but GOALS are something I encourage everyone to create, young and old.

If we're not constantly trying to better ourselves, we become stagnant, and we can begin to develop that 'stuck' feeling that comes from only having a fixed mindset.

GOALS help us create a version of ourselves that we desire to be.

However, I believe there is a wrong and a right way to create goals.

My dad had a saying about hunting that relates perfectly to how you should set your goals: Too often people want to hunt for elk before they've even caught a single rabbit.

If we create a one year goal to make a million dollars, lose 100 pounds, read 200 books, or become an astronaut, is it likely that those things will happen...?

I never say never, but the likelihood might be slim.

Creating benchmarks within your goals serves as a check to yourself to monitor your progress.

Instead of only saying I want to lose 25 pounds this year, try breaking that goal down, and say I want to lose 2.5 pounds each month...that surpasses your large goal of 25 pounds and seems more attainable, right?

Goals are necessary for everything we do in life: Goals for our kids, goals for our marriage, goals at work...goals help push us to constantly be growling.

And just remember, it's ok to go rabbit hunting ;)