Dear Wildcats,

It is officially August and we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the 2024-25 school year. As I said in the July newsletter, preparations are well underway and we are excited for the prospect of another successful school year! Last week staff members of our Building Refresh Committee volunteered their time to make adjustments to our Media Center. Flexible seating and reading nooks will be added to the learning space. The Media Center's learning area was also reimagined and the space looks transformed and multidimensional! Thank you to all of our staff members that helped.

In every newsletter, information about food services will be displayed below. You will see information on menus, and more importantly, free and reduced lunch forms. You should complete the forms online. They are available in English and Spanish. You can also download, print, and fill out the forms and submit to the teacher on the first week of school. Please see the information below in this and all newsletters.

Our goals for the 2024-25 school year will be based on student achievement in academic areas and social/emotional well being of our school community. A Kindness Campaign will be featured for this upcoming school year and our attendance initiatives will continue from the previous year.

The success we had in our attendance improvement from the 2022-23 school year must be mentioned and celebrated! Because of all of our efforts as a school community, parents and guardians included, we dropped our Chronic Absenteeism number significantly last year. The positive attendance numbers are remarkable: Chronic Absenteeism dropped from almost 26% down to 10% in the 2023-24 school year! This shows that anything is possible when we work together on a common goal. Together, we communicated to our children the importance of school, the positive things that can happen with hard work and dedication, and a commitment to the immense value of education. I can't help but think of how important this lifelong lesson is! Attendance will always be a point of emphasis and thanks to all of you, our attendance numbers in every grade level and nearly every possible demographic improved dramatically. Thank you! Attendance initiatives will continue this year, and your continued help is so vitally important. Please continue your discussions with your children about the importance of coming to school everyday, on time, and ready to learn!

Our master schedule and student placements are well underway and information will be going out to parents in the near future. We appreciate your anticipated patience and understanding related to this very important topic. As you know, our goal is to create balanced classes where the students will reach their academic, social, and emotional goals. Placements will be available in Genesis in the coming days. Once student placements are available to you, please understand that there will be no classroom switches for any reason. Also, please make sure all paperwork is in order so that you can receive student placements at the time of release. We are looking forward to another outstanding year!

Please keep up with your summer reading and math skills! Resources are below!

Kindergarten Registration has been ongoing and we are excited to meet our newest Wildcat class! Please note that Kindergarten and New Student Orientation will be held on August 29. Specific information related to classes and classrooms is forthcoming. A letter was sent in July and another reminder was sent last week related to the event via ParentSquare. Kindergarten Orientation will begin at 9:00 AM and New Student Orientation will begin at 11:00 AM.

At our orientations, our newest students and parents will learn about the school, tour classrooms and the school, and receive important information about our district and Walnut Street. If you are the parent of an incoming Kindergarten student or are new to our school or district, please save the date for this event. Also, please make sure your paperwork and medical information is up to date. This is vitally important because you will not be placed in a class until this information is given to and processed by the front office. We will see you there!

Don't forget to use the link below to visit our PTO website. During the course of the school year important information related to PTO meetings, events, fundraisers, and more will be available to you. Please consider getting involved! Our first PTO meeting will be held on Tuesday, October 1 starting at 6:30 PM in Cafeteria C (please enter through this door).

Please save the date: Back To School Night will be held on September 19.

As stated, the District's Kindness initiative will be at the forefront of everything we do this year. In early September, we will have a Kindness Kickoff Spirit Week with themed dress days. Please see below:

Monday, September 9: Wear Blue - Color of Kindness

Tuesday, September 10: ‘Crazy for Kindness’ - Crazy Sock Day

Wednesday, September 11: ‘Be Kind to your Country!’ - Wear Red, White, and Blue/Patriot Day

Thursday, September 12: ‘Hats off to Kindness’ - Wear your favorite hat.

Friday, September 13: Wildcats are Kind!’- Wear Wildcat gear

This will be the last newsletter of the summer. Our first day of school is September 5. We are looking forward to another incredible year! Please call the main office with any needs or questions you may have.

Please consider buying a 'Birthday Gram' for your child to start the school year. Birthday Grams are a way to recognize your child's birthday. For only $5, your child will receive a birthday message from you and receive a special goodie bag filled with trinkets and a birthday message. Please see the flier below! All proceeds will support our PBSIS Committee and our many Walnut Street positive behavioral and social/emotional initiatives! Please see the attached order form below!

- Kindergarten Orientation: Thursday, August 29 starting at 9:00 AM

- New Student Orientation: Thursday, August 29 starting at 11:00 AM

- First Day of School: September 5

- Back to School Night: September 19 (Schedule forthcoming)

- PTO Meeting: October 1 starting at 6:30 PM, Cafeteria C

- Parent/Teacher Conferences: December 3 - 5

As you know, district and school communication are vitally important. Here at Walnut Street Elementary School, we use various means of communication. ParentSquare is a communication app that we use to get information out quickly to our school community. It is a great idea to download the ParentSquare app to your Smartphone and make sure you use banners, sounds, badges, and push notifications so you know a message was sent. ParentSquare also sends an email to you when something is posted and can also translate into any language. Please download the app today!

Finally, the school has an active Instagram Account that we post the many happenings at Walnut Street. This account has over 360 followers. On this handle, we post amazing pictures and video of the goings on during the school year. Please follow us on Instagram: @wsewildcats

As we all know, summer is an important time to refresh and recharge. However, it is vitally important to avoid the 'summer slide'. Summer slide is a term used to describe student learning loss during the summer months. At Walnut Street, we want to give you as many resources and materials to avoid student learning loss. Students have access to digital learning platforms such as iReady and Boost Reading.

Setting student family goals to read books over the summer to promote year round literacy is just one way to have students retain reading growth. Math growth can be maintained by doing fun family things over the summer such as cooking, baking, playing various board games, and practicing math facts!

The Ocean County Library has an entire page dedicated to summer reading. Please click this link to their website. There are also incredible summer programs offered. Please take advantage!

Please see the summer reading expectations for Toms River Reginal Schools below.

Please see these fliers below related to the Summer EBT program. The flier is in English and Spanish and there is great information in them.

Please see below for our teacher Donor's Choose pages:

Mrs. Yodonis: May until September 8th - Magnetic Tiles for Play

Mrs. Schweitzer: June until October 11th - Mrs. Schweitzer's Donors Choose

Mrs. Cerchio: July until November 22nd - Mrs. Cerchio's Donors Choose - Today a Reader, Tomorrow a Leader!

Mrs. Yodonis received an 'Engaging Through Flexible Seating' project for her classroom from Donors Choose. Thank you to The Donors Choose Community!

Mrs. Schweitzer received a "Classroom Essentials Shipment" for her classroom from Donors Choose. We would like to thank the following donors: The Donors Choose Community and An Anonymous Classroom Supporter

Our cafeteria offers our students nutritious and tasty food items every day. The link to the food services website is below. There (along the right side), you will see menus for the month. For information on eligibility for free or reduced meals, please access the website below.