Brookside Bulletin

Happy September!

It was wonderful to see so many of you at our Meet the Teacher/Ice Cream Social and then again at Curriculum Night. Thank you for attending and your steadfast commitment to your child's education. September is a great time to establish after school schedules and homework routines. Even on the nights your child doesn't have official homework, reading everyday is a habit that puts your child on the road to success. Research has shown that children who are read to have increased vocabularies, hear hundreds of thousands of words by kindergarten, and are more likely to pick up reading skills than those who don't. It's simple - reading is a must! Likewise, challenging numeracy experiences may help your child in mathematics. So - reading, talking about what is read, working with numbers and mathematical problem-solving makes a difference. Thank you for the time you invest in your kids - it does pay off. We love partnering with you and thank you for all you do!

The sun always shines on Brookside! 🌞

Warmly,

Dr. Jenny Wielinski

• Sept. 10 - PTA Meeting 7:00 Brookside Library
• Sept. 11 - 60th Birthday T-shirt orders due
• Sept. 12 - Mum Sale Ends

• Sept. 24 - Mum pick-up

• Sept. 25 - Picture Day

• Oct. 14-17 - Conference Week

This week we held Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) data team meetings. MTSS is a framework that helps educators provide academic and behavioral strategies for students with various needs. Every classroom teacher met with our School Psychologist, School Counselor, Reading Specialist, English Language teacher, and Principal to look at every student's data in our building. These meetings allow us to design targeted interventions and academic support in reading, math and social emotional learning for students. Our MTSS team reviews this data to determine students who would benefit from additional interventions. Three times a year (fall, winter, spring) all students are screened for dyslexia as part of our Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) programming.

Kiersten Hayes, our full time Reading Specialist, is a Certified Academic Language Practitioner (CALP) meeting the state of Ohio highest level of accreditation for teachers providing intervention to at-risk and dyslexic readers. You can learn more about this specialized training here: What is a Certified Academic Language Practitioner. We are thankful to have this specialized support that aligns to our structured literacy classroom instruction and interventions for students.

The PTA Mumkin Sale began Wednesday, August 28. Brochures with ordering instructions were sent home with students that day; parents also received an email with instructions on obtaining an individual sales link for their student. These plants are priced similarly to those you might find at the grocery store, and they always arrive healthy and beautiful just when the summer annuals start looking a bit ragged. Take a moment to call a few neighbors or grandparents or post your child's link on your social media. The last date to order will be September 12, and mumkin pickup will be at the school on the afternoon of September 24.

Brookside Elementary turns 60 this year! We celebrate all the incredible memories, milestones, and moments of learning that have brought us to this point. Our school has been a place of growth, friendship, and discovery for so many, and it continues to shape bright futures every day.

To the dedicated teachers, enthusiastic students, supportive parents, and caring staff — thank you for being the heart of our school community. Here’s to many more years of excellence, inspiration, and success! May the coming years be filled with even more achievements, laughter, and learning!

We created a T-shirt celebrating Brookside's birthday for staff and thought our school community might be intetested in it as well. If you would like to order a celebratory 60th birthday shirt, please visit THIS LINK.

Hey Brookside parents! Have you ever wanted to be more involved with school functions and build stronger relationships with Brookside staff? You can do this by joining the PTA! When selecting your membership, you can sponsor staff members by purchasing their PTA membership for an additional $5!

Your dues help sponsor family fun events like:

• Fall Fest, The Big Bobcat Run, Wellness Night, and The Brookside Bash
• Fund school wide initiatives including Marathon Milers, Try it Tuesdays, and updating related arts equipment
• Spoil the best staff in all of Worthington

To sweeten the deal, when you pay your PTA dues, you'll be entered into a drawing for a JT's gift card at our first meeting on Tuesday, September 10th.

PTA meetings are held the second Tuesday of each month at 7pm in the Brookside library.

To join, use this link.

I am excited to announce that Brookside will be using Artsonia as an online platform to share student art. Family and friends can view the art online, leave comments, and order keepsakes featuring the artwork. 20% of the sales go back to the art room to help fund unique project supplies. You can access this on a computer, or by downloading the Artsonia app on your phone.

Directions:

• Scan the QR Code

• Enter your child's first and last name, grade, and email address

• Enter your information (name, email, phone number)

• Once you enter into your student's portfolio, you can add "fans" (family and friends) so they have access as well; this is NOT public information.

Once we finish creating an artwork, you will receive a notification that a new artwork has been uploaded to your student's portfolio. The physical artwork will come home at some point in the school year.

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me at kmurray@wscloud.org.

Should your family ever need clothing assistance, here is a resource you can use.

Read this FLIER for more information.

The district is planning a change in the email address our infinite Campus email address is delivered from. We plan to make the change before the end of this calendar year. This is just a heads

"Ensure emails from Worthington Schools make it to your inbox - Parent Email Domains"

Brookside is looking for volunteers to build reading skills with kindergarten students. Even if you only have 30 minutes a week, our kindergarten students would love to welcome you! Read below for more information and click HERE or on the flyer to register. Following registration, a program coordinator from our school will be in touch with more information.

PTA will begin running at recess starting on August 26. Students will have the opportunity to participate on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Sign your child up HERE.

Money for breakfasts and lunches need to be deposited in www.mypaymentsplus.com You will set up a parent account and then add a student account for each child using their student ID#. If you decide to pack a lunch (or snack) please be aware that our District is Nut Free (peanuts and all tree nuts). We appreciate your cooperation with this.

• We do serve a grab & go breakfast in the cafeteria from 7:30-7:40
• Breakfast can be purchased for $1.60
• Lunch is $2.75
• Additional milk is $.50.

If a student is free or reduced and the student wants to buy milk (extra or with a packed lunch) the milk is not free, it is $.50.

The USDA had school food services return to pre-pandemic operations last year.

Worthington Schools has eligibility-based pricing of meals (Free/Reduced/Paid).

All Worthington School families are required to complete the online Free/Reduced Lunch Eligibility Form. All students use their Lunch ID for meals. The student's number can be found in the Parent Portal. Select the Student ID tab and look for your Lunch PIN.

Families can add money to their lunch account through My Payments Plus. You can also use MPP to track your student's account and see how much money remains on it. My Payments Plus is also used to pay other fees, like high school parking permits and AP testing fees.

To assist you with the back to school process, please visit our website for Back to School information. Feel free to check out our Brookside Webpage.

Please have your child arrive to school and be an active and engaged learner by our tardy bell at 7:40am. It is important that your child arrives on time as school attendance is calculated by the minute and accumulates quickly when tardy.

If your child will be absent for any reason, please call (614-450-5300) or email (dwadkowski@wscloud.org) attendance. If you know about a planned absence, please share that information prior to the absence, especially extended absences.

Just a few additional reminders:

• No toys/stuffed animals should be brought to school.

• For the safety of students, if they arrive after the 7:40 bell, please come in with them to sign them in.

• Please make sure to put your child’s name inside their coats and jackets.

• Should you know in advance that your child will need an alternative bus stop on their assigned route due to child care or other reasons, please fill out the Alternative Transportation Request Form as soon as possible.

• If your child's afternoon transportation needs to change at the end of the day, you must notify the office by 1:30 that day. Teachers can't get to their emails while teaching, so it is best you contact our school office 614-450-5300.
  

Arrival occurs between 7:30am and 7:40am. The tardy bell rings at 7:40am.

Brookside uses a car loop for parents who choose to drop their children off in the morning. Please be sure your child is ready to exit the car in a quick, but safe manner on the passenger side only. We do this for safety puproses. Please keep your speed to a crawl and please be patient. Now and then we have family members who are not familiar with our process or some are simply new to our school community. Feel free to park in the front parking spaces to drop your child off should you not use the car loop.

Thank you in advance for adhering to our guidelines. 🙂

Thank you for helping us instruct your child on ways to remain safe while walking and bicycling to and from school.

• Be sure your child can recite their name, address, and telephone number so if there is an emergency someone can more easily locate you, if necessary.
• Please tell your child to NEVER talk to, accept rides with, or take presents from a stranger.

For the safety of children, do not send any nut or peanut items to school in your child's lunch, snack, or school party item as we are a nut and peanut free school. It could literally mean life or death to another child. Thank you in advance for your understanding and compliance.

The Board of Education unanimously voted to eliminate classroom consumable fees beginning with the 2024-25 school year. Therefore, those fees will NOT be in My Payments Plus for parents to pay during open houses or schedule pickup as in years past.

Brookside loves Grandparents! If you are interested in getting involved with the Circle of Grandparents, please see this FLIER for more information.

WABFE Newsletter

Field Trip volunteers/chaperones must have their badges OR, if you have applied for your volunteer badge but have not received it, you must have the email from BIB/Secure stating that your volunteer badge has been approved and the badge is in the mail. If you do not have at least one of these proofs, you will not be able to chaperone the field trip. SIGN UP HERE

Brookside is looking for volunteers to build reading skills with kindergarten students. Even if you only have 30 minutes a week, our kindergarten students would love to welcome you! Read below for more information and click HERE or on the flier to register. Following registration, a program coordinator from our school will be in touch with more information. See the FLIER here and SIGN UP HERE.

CONTACT INFORMATION: Parents, if you have not done so this year, please make sure to verify/update information in the Emergency Data Review through the parent portal. You can access the portal* on the WCS website. This process must be completed every year in case of an emergency and in order for your child(ren) to participate in class field trips. Instructions for using the parent portal appear here.

The Special Education Road Map has been translated into 21 different languages!!

This roadmap is helpful to all families, especially families who are just beginning the special education process.

Worthington’s Special Education Key Communicator Committee strives to build positive, productive and collaborative relationships and partnerships amongst the educators and community of families whose children receive special education and related services. We will engage in two-way communication, with the goal being to provide a circle of influence where we can share out and learn from and with each other.

The key communicators will convey information from their building to the committee, as well as information from the committee to their buildings.

The Key Communicators for Brookside are Sandra Sell at snsell74@gmail.com and Emily Smith. Please reach out to either of our communicators if you have questions or topics to discuss.

Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESEA), provides financial assistance to local educational agencies (LEAs) and schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic standards. Our school receives Title IA funding.

Parents/families of students in our building have a right to know about teacher qualifications and state-mandated assessments. All teachers providing Title I interventions are properly licensed for their positions and anyone can search licensure information on any educator at https://core.ode.state.oh.us/Core4/ODE.CORE.Lic.Profile.Public.UI/ . In addition to being linked here, these documents are available on the Title IA page of our school website.