Ferson Creek eNews

SEPTEMBER

9/27 - Pick a Time opens to schedule conferences

OCTOBER

10/4 - Kick-a-Thon & Crosstown Classic

10/10-10/11 - Conferences

10/24 - Picture Retake Day

10/30 - Early Release, dismissal at 2:35 pm

Ferson Families,

Earlier this week you received a district communication detailing D303’s efforts to enhance safety procedures for our students. In August, D303 educators took part in online and in-person ALICE training, which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate. As a result of this training, we are prepared to deliver age-appropriate lessons to our students, which will teach an options-based approach when responding to critical incidents.

Starting the week of September 30th, students in grades 4th-5th grades will view an informational video, introducing them to the concepts of ALICE. Then throughout the fall, all elementary students will engage in six lessons, roughly two lessons per month, with each lesson focusing the core ALICE concepts: Situational Awareness, Alert, Lockdown, Inform, and Evacuate.

Lessons are differentiated based on age-appropriateness and broken down into the following age groups:

• Early Childhood-Kindergarten

• 1st Grade-3rd Grade

• 4th-5th Grade

• Middle School

• High School

D303’s Safety and Security website has been updated to include informational ALICE resources, such as parent letters for each lesson. Students will participate in their first safety drill utilizing the ALICE concepts in January. For more information you are encouraged to visit the ALICE Family and Community site.

If you have any questions specific to your child’s learning, feel free to contact me at:

kristina.mcknight@d303.org

Next week, we will be holding a penny war to raise money for Kick-A-Thon. We are asking everyone to bring in their spare change to fill their grade level jar. We are looking forward to seeing how much Ferson can raise to support this amazing community event. This charity event will benefit the Fox Valley Food for Health, Colette A. Miles Foundation, and the high school dance teams. Mrs. McKnight will be the community kicker for Ferson Creek. We'd love to see you there!

Have you ever dreamed of being a mascot?! If so, now’s your chance! On Fridays, Frankie the Ferson Fox will be outside greeting students with a fist bump as they arrive. Volunteers are needed to be Frankie from 8:40-9:05am. Sign up for a Friday in the sign up genius.

Pick-A-Time will open for all district families to sign up for conferences on Friday, September 27th. Please click the above link for directions for accessing Pick-A-Time. Both in-person and virtual conferences will be offered.

If you are interested in conferencing with a specials teacher, please reach out to them directly. Due to the volume of students they support, they are unable to conference with every family. Conferences with specials teachers will be 10 minutes in length as opposed to the 20 minutes scheduled with the classroom teacher. Please reach out via email to set up a conference with a specials teacher if you have questions or concerns.

Art: Lauren Kruse lauren.kruse@d303.org

Music: Chris Miller christine.miller@d303.org

PE: Kyle Khoury kyle.khoury@d303.org and/or Will Navis william.navis@d303.org

STEM: Lauren Schaaf lauren.schaaf@d303.org and/or Alex Breslin alexandrea.breslin@d303.org

LRC: Renee Ignoffo sharon.ignoffo@d303.org

Orchestra: Jennifer Vazquez jennifer.vazquez@d303.org

Band: Stephanie William stephanie.william@d303.org

KICK-A-THON is a local event that began over 30 years ago as an effort from the St. Charles High School Dance Team to raise money to help kick cancer. It has grown to include East and North High School Dance Teams and other amazing charities. This charity event will benefit the Fox Valley Food for Health, Colette A. Miles Foundation, and the high school dance teams. To date, we have raised over a million dollars and need your help to keep that number growing. Please join the St. Charles High School Dance Teams as we raise money to kick cancer.

This year’s event will take place on Friday, October 4th, 2024, at St. Charles North High School, prior to the start of the varsity football game between St. Charles North and St. Charles East. Local community members who help with fundraising will form a kick line alongside the dance team members and kick 100 times in an effort to raise money for these charities.

Link to donate and support! See you there!

3rd-8th Grade students will participate in an SEL survey. At Ferson, the survey will be taken during the week of September 30th. Please see this letter from our assessment department regarding the survey.

D303 will host the 4th annual Pathways Night at Compass Academy on October 30. This career fair welcomes employers and educational institutions supporting careers that don't require a 4-year college degree. If you are a business owner and wish to participate in Pathways Night, please complete this form. More information for students and families interested in attending will be available in the next few weeks.

District 303 is proud to partner with the Glenbard Parent Series (GPS) to offer our families broader access to information sessions and resources that support their child’s development.

For decades, GPS has been offering free programs that aim to empower and strengthen families, individuals and communities. As a partner organization, District 303 will support promoting upcoming programs and their importance to our local community.

Click image below to listen!

Technology can be a wonderful way to keep in touch with family members. However, smartwatches and phones can become quite disruptive to the learning environment when parents are contacting their children throughout the day (and vice versa). The Elementary Student Handbook contains the following language:

Students are extended the privilege of possessing phones/smartwatches on school grounds; however, their use is limited to after-school dismissal and non-school days. These devices must be in the off position, or not used once the student arrives on campus until the end of the school day.

Teachers will request that phones and smartwatches are off and/or set to school mode for the duration of the school day. If you need to get a message to your child during the day, please reach out to the main office and your child's teacher.

Please see the attached letter for directions on accessing your child's iReady assessment results.

Click image below to order!

Please call 331-228-2300 to report absences and choose option "1" or email Cheryl Wiley at cheryl.wiley@d303.org

• Messages can be left 24 hours a day.
• Please leave your name, your child's name, phone number, reason for absence and your child's symptoms if ill.
• If you have advance notice of an absence please fill out our prearranged absence form, inform your child's teacher and submit the completed form to the front office. You are allowed up to 5 prearranged absences per school year.

Our parent volunteers are an integral part of our school community. Therefore, we'd love to invite you to spend time with Ferson Creek students during lunch and lunch recess.

Interested? Information and sign up can be found using this link.

Please keep in mind that it is important to keep our students, staff members, and volunteers safe while they are in our schools. Given that, all volunteers must:

• Have your ID ready and sign in at the office to receive your visitor badge.
• EACH YEAR complete a Volunteer Liability Form. If the school does not have one on file for you and you do not provide one, the office will provide one for you when you come for your first day as a volunteer.

If you have any questions, please contact:

Dr. DuCharm (331-228-5920, Alison.DuCharm@d303.org)

If you'd like to be a part of the optional, PTO sponsored school directory, please login into your Membership Toolkit account to update your students' information for the 2024-25 school year. All students' grade levels have been advanced, but you will need to update their teachers.

If you don't have an account yet, be sure to register! You can update your account privacy settings at any time!

PTO- Membership Toolkit

Kristy McKnight, Principal

Website: https://fersoncreek.d303.org/
Location: 38W160 Bolcum Road, St. Charles, IL, USA
Phone: 331-228-2300
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Ferson-Creek-Elementary-1492773537612187/