Jefferson Elementary

Upcoming Dates:

March 4 - Spring Safety Day at Jefferson 10-11am

March 4 - PTO meeting - 6:30pm - Zoom

March 7 - Last Day of 3rd Quarter

March 7 - PBIS - Glow Celebration - Wear White or Neon colors!

March 10 - 14 - Spring Break - No School

March 17 - 21 - Music in the schools appreciation Week! See Details Below!

April 18 - 21 - Good Friday and Easter Monday - No School

May 12 - 16 - Spring Book Fair!

May 23 - Last Day of School! Quarter 4 Ends today!

Memorial Day - May 26th

PLC Wednesday Dismissal will continue with K-2 dismissing at 2:05 and PreK following their PM dismissal schedule of 2:15pm. This will take place every Wednesday unless it is a District Half Day and we will dismiss at 11:30am on those occasions.

March 3 - 7th is National School Social Worker Week! Mrs. Smith has been a wonderful addition to the Jefferson Faculty. We are so happy she decided that Jefferson was the right place for her. Our students and staff agree that she fits right in! We are thankful for her help and knowledge each day!

Students increased their attendance goals to 94% this week! We hope we are over the winter sickness and can count on our students being present each day! Below is an update to our student handbook as it pertains to health related information. Nurse Kaley will implement these procedures for any reason to exclude a student from school as well as the rest of the Nurses in the District. We have these policies in place so that we have consistency between buildings.

Please note this information from Nurse Kaley. She wanted all our families to be aware of this as information as some changes have been applied as we work towards ensuring consistency between all buildings.

The PTO meets in person on a monthly basis, but provides an opportunity via zoom to join as well. Please consider joining our group. We have a great group of parents who have some interest in building bak an awesome PTO as an organization.

Zoom Link

The PTO has started a new Facebook group. You can join using the following link.

Jefferson/Lincoln PTO

Meeting Dates:

• March 4, 2025

• April 1, 2025

• May 6, 2025

Historically, the PTO has fundraised for our schools to assist with the following:

• purchase playground equipment
• contribute to the cost of field trips
• provide classroom and school grants
• fund a Teacher Appreciation luncheon at each building
• host family events, such as Movie Night and the Fun Fair
• host an End-of-Year Party for the Lincoln Students
• assist with Field Day for Jefferson Students
• assist with the Book Fair
• and much more

From March 3 - 21, the PTO will be selling Meat products from The Butcher Shop as a Spring Fundraiser. Order forms will be sent home with students on March 3rd and should be returned on March 21st. The pick up date is April 17th at The Butcher Shop at 3606 East Lincolnway in Sterling. Thank you in advance for supporting our PTO!

Friday, March 7th will be our 3rd quarter PBIS celebration. This quarter we will have a glow party in the gym! Students will come to the gym and they will receive a glow stick and an adult will provide glow paint while they dance to music. We are encouraging the students to wear white or neon colors.

Here are the times for our Celebration Dance Party

1st grade: 9:30-9:45

kindergarten: 9:50-10:05

2nd grade: 10:10-10:25

Mark your calendars for our Spring Safety Day on Tuesday, March 4th. Students will use this hour of time to participate in the following drills as a school: Tornado Drill (10:00am), review ALICE procedures with students (10:15 - 10:45), and school wide walk through Fire Drill (10:45am). Following the hour of practice, the schedule will resume back to normal activities at 11am.

Jefferson students will take Spring Pictures on April 3rd. Each student will get their picture taken and will receive a code to view the pictures from home. Pictures are uploaded within a few days of taking the Spring pictures.

After having our first E-Learning Day, we have worked through any little "kinks" that we experienced to make any future E-Learning Days even more smooth. We appreciated our families and our students who took the learning day as an opportunity to participate with their class virtually and also to work independently on core curriculum. If you had any other insight or had any feedback to provide, please make sure that you have communicated this as it is important to hear from all members of the community.

If any E-Learning Days are called for in the future, students will have a packet in the backs of their take home folders that will stay in place until needed. Teachers will send home iPads prior to inclement weather for students to be prepared as well. We appreciate you keeping these items in student book bags unless needed. Otherwise, they will simply come back to school with students, unused or not completed. Thank you!

Mrs. Kuebel, our School Counselor, wants parents to know that she will be teaching 4 weeks of mini-lessons to support the continued education revolving around bully prevention. She will start these lessons in homeroom classrooms for students in Kindergarten - 2nd Grade. She will work with students to identify how to problem solve when someone is unkind or when they could stop a bully. We remind students that bully behavior is repeated behavior that happens to the same person over and over again and how to prevent that from happening. We do not want bullies at Jefferson School!

Schedule (Mon., Tues., Thurs., and Fri.)

• 7:50 School Doors Open - Breakfast line first to get kids to their lockers and then to the gym for breakfast quickly. Then non-breakfast eaters are allowed entrance to wait by their lockers.

• 8:05 Classroom Doors Open/End of Breakfast Line Bell

• 8:15 Tardy Bell Rings/Breakfast is Over

• 2:55 Dismissal

Schedule (Wed.)

• 7:50 School Doors Open - Breakfast line first to get kids to their lockers and then to the gym for breakfast quickly. Then non-breakfast eaters are allowed entrance to wait by their lockers.
  

• 8:05 Classroom Doors Open/End of Breakfast Line Bell

• 8:15 Tardy Bell Rings/Breakfast is Over

• 2:05 Dismissal (Kindergarten may dismiss at 2pm to avoid congestion)
  

Please do not drop off your child earlier than 7:40 as there is no supervision available until this time. The YMCA offers a before-school program for those in need. They have a sliding fee scale and will transport your child from the YMCA to any of the four elementary schools.

Students are outside as long as it is not raining and temps are at or above 15 degrees.

Is your family struggling and in need of additional support? Nexus is a support program offered by the Regional Office of Education #47 for participating school districts in Lee, Ogle, and Whiteside Counties, including Sterling Public Schools. Nexus supports the whole child/children by supporting the whole family. Through personal, respectful, and confidential interactions with a trained Family Support Staff, families create goals geared towards social-emotional needs, school readiness, and overall family well-being. The Family Support Staff connects and helps families navigate local community resources, thus creating a stronger community.

Please reach out to any office staff member to be referred to the Nexus program.

Being a Community School has so many benefits. One of these benefits is being surrounded by a friendly neighborhood. Jefferson is fortunate to have neighbors who are understanding of the traffic flow, the noises from playing children, and parents and children walking to and from the school. As you are dropping off students, waiting to pick up students, parking along the side streets, or walking the sidewalks, please remember to respect our neighbors and their personal property. Do not to block driveways, park in peoples' yards, or disrupt their personal property. Kindly pick up any trash or items that belong to you. We want to continue to have good relationships with our neighbors, so please help by doing your part.

Heather Wittenauer, Principal

Email: hwittenauer@sps5.org
Website: http://www.sterlingpublicschools.org
Location: 806 East Le Fevre Road, Sterling, IL, USA
Phone: 815-625-6402