Pierce Downer This Week

Pierce Downer Families,

Arrival Procedures

As a reminder, the Pierce Downer playground areas are not supervised in the morning before school. Students should arrive no earlier than 8:05, to ensure the safety of all students and maintain an orderly entrance into the building.

Zones of Regulation

The staff at Pierce Downer School have begun implementing The Zones of Regulation™ curriculum (or “The Zones” for short), which are lessons and activities designed to help students gain skills in the area of self-regulation. Self-regulation can go by many names, such as self-control, self-management, and impulse control. It is defined as the best state of alertness of both the body and emotions for a specific situation. The lessons and learning activities are designed to help the students recognize when they are in the different Zones as well as learn how to use strategies to change or stay in the Zone they are in. In addition to addressing self-regulation, the students will gain an increased vocabulary of emotional terms, skills in reading other people’s facial expressions, perspective about how others see and react to their behavior, insight into events that trigger their behavior, calming and alerting strategies, and problem-solving skills.

You can support the student during this process by doing the following:

• Use the language and talk about the concepts of The Zones as they apply to you in a variety of environments. Make comments aloud so the student understands it is natural that we all experience the different Zones and use strategies to control (or regulate) ourselves. For example, “This is really frustrating me and making me go into the Yellow Zone. I need to use a tool to calm down. I will take some deep breaths.”

• Help the student gain awareness of his or her Zones and feelings by pointing out your observations.

• Validate what Zone your students are in and help them brainstorm expected ways to self-regulate so their behavior is expected for the context.

• Share with the student how his or her behavior is affecting the Zone you are in and how you feel.

• Help the student become comfortable using the language to communicate his or her feelings and needs by encouraging the student to share his or her Zone with you.

• Show interest in learning about the student’s triggers and Zones tools. Ask the student if he or she wants reminders to use these tools and how you should present these reminders.

• Ask the student to frequently share his or her Zones Folder with you and talk about what he or she has learned.

• Make sure to positively reinforce students for recognizing their Zone and managing their behaviors while in it, rather than only pointing out when students are demonstrating unexpected behaviors while in a Zone.

It is important to note that everyone experiences all of the Zones—the Red and Yellow Zones are not the “bad” or “naughty” Zones. All of the Zones are expected at one time or another. The Zones of Regulation is intended to be neutral and not communicate judgment.

With that being said, please do not hesitate to reach out. You can email me at LWagner@DG58.org or call the Pierce Downer Main Office at 630-719-5860.

As always, WE are PD!

Dr. Leland (Lucky) Wagner

Grab a friend and come on down to the “Moose” for a fun evening of laughter, prizes and the spirit of giving back! The Education Foundation of Downers Grove District 58 is holding Bougie Bingo, a fundraiser to benefit District 58. Join us at the first annual Bougie event to raise money to enhance educational opportunities for the students of District 58.

Date: Friday, May 3

Venue: Loyal Order of Moose, 1030 Warren Avenue, Downers Grove

Time: 7:00 - 10:00 p.m.

Tickets can be purchased here.

Dear 3rd and 4th Grade Families,

April is an exciting month for our students as they consider selecting an instrument to play. We are thrilled to prepare to welcome you and your child into our instrumental music program for the 2024-2025 school year.

Downers Grove District 58 has a strong commitment to music education in all of our schools. We are exceedingly proud of our students and the people they become through their involvement in studying music. Participation in beginning band or orchestra is the first step in learning a unique skill that will last a lifetime!

You are invited to an informational meeting on Thursday, May 2nd in the Herrick Middle School cafeteria to learn about selecting an instrument, how to register for band or orchestra, and arranging to rent an instrument for your child. The program will last about an hour. Our beginning band meeting (for 4th grade parents) will begin at 6:30pm, and our beginning orchestra meeting (for 3rd grade parents) will begin at 7:30pm.

Later this month, we will be meeting with all 3rd and 4th grade students to demonstrate and talk about the different instruments offered in our program. Students will be encouraged to think about the instruments they like the most and why they like them. We encourage you to discuss instrument choices with your child and contact us if you have any questions.

Beginning band or orchestra is the start of an incredible journey, and we cannot wait to meet and start our beginning instrumental music class for the 2024-2025 School Year!

Please contact one of us if you have any questions about the District 58 Instrumental Music Program. We look forward to seeing you on May 2nd!

Sincerely,

The DG58 Instrumental Music Staff

District 58 opened its online registration for returning students for the 2024-25 school year. Parents are asked to please submit their child’s registration by Monday, April 8. To begin, go to https://www.dg58.org/family-resources/registration and click on “Returning Student Application” and follow the prompts in the step-by-step instructions.

District 58 encourages families to register their student(s) promptly, as early registration helps the District determine its hiring, staffing, classroom, and transportation needs for the upcoming school year. While registration is occurring in February, March and April, an invoice won’t be sent until after May 1. Thank you for your help in supporting a smooth transition to the next school year!

If you have technical questions during the registration process, please contact District 58’s Technology Help Desk by filling out a Technology Help Ticket or calling 630-719-2768. For general registration questions, please contact your school office.

New this year, all registration will be conducted online. If families cannot complete the process online, they can call or visit their child’s school and the process can be completed there. District 58’s preschool registration is also open and is accepting applications at www.dg58.org/preschool.

It is amazing how far technology has come over the last decade and continues to advance. I recognize the value technology has not just in education, but our world. However, I am hoping we can work together to remind students that during the school day, personal electronic devices should be turned off or silenced and out of sight. This includes wearable devices if they become distracting to the learning environment. Students should not be using phones, Apple Watches, or other devices to send or receive text messages or phone calls during the school day.

Construction begins at many District 58 schools over spring break. To keep parents apprised of construction progress, updates will be provided on our website here, including progress dashboards of our middle schools.

• Herrick Dashboard

• O'Neill Dashboard

If you’d like to learn more about spring break work in the District, click here.

Congratulations to Ms. Harland on being the latest PD Cup recipient! Ms. Harland is a second-grade teacher at Pierce Downer School. Ms. Harland always brings a positive attitude to her classroom and ensures she has a warm, welcoming, and encouraging space for all of her students.

Thank you Ms. Harland for ALL that you do!

District 58 strives to create a culture of well-being for students, parents, staff and community. To further support this endeavor, the District has invested in an additional support service through ReferralGPS.

ReferralGPS is a service providing assistance to our community in finding local mental health and substance use-related treatment resources. The service compliments the District’s existing systems of support as a tool for student service teams and families to connect with treatment. Along with a searchable database of treatment options, ReferralGPS assists families in triage and appointment setting.

School district staff and families may access ReferralGPS in two ways:

1. Contact Student Services (social workers, psychologists, counselors) to seek out treatment options

2. Visit this link at https://referralgps.com/find-help/DG58 to search for treatment resources or connect with a Care Navigator anonymously

   
   

The platform has the ability to filter by mental health concern, clinician gender/specialty, location, and insurance acceptance. The service is available for all types of private and public insurance options including PPO, HMO, Medicaid, and families that are uninsured or underinsured.

ReferralGPS is available for use by district students, staff, and families at no cost. All information entered on the ReferralGPS tool is completely confidential and securely stored.

April 22-26

Earth Week (activities above)

Tuesday, April 23

Open House & Book fair 6-7:30pm

Start of ABC Countdown

District 58 has partnered with Safe2Help to give students a safe and confidential way to report potential threats or crises. Safe2Help was launched by the State of Illinois in December 2020 and aims to help prevent suicide, bullying, school violence and other threats to school safety.

With Safe2Help, students can connect with a trained crisis professional during their own crisis, or to report a potential threat. Students can submit a Safe2Help alert via the following ways:

• Website: https://app.safe22helpil.com
• Text: SAFE2 (72332)
• Phone: 844-4-SAFEIL (844-472-3345)
• App: "Safe2Help Illinois" app available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store
• Email: HELP@Safe2HelpIL.com

All alerts are responded to by a trained Safe2Help crisis professional. Safe2Help is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

District 58 staff are not the initial responders to the alert and will receive each alert after the Safe2Help professional provides support. District 58 staff will review alerts sent by Safe2Help during regular school hours, unless the nature of the alert necessitates immediate school action.

District 58 is pleased to continue using the Raptor Visitor Management System in all of our schools to strengthen our program of campus safety for students and faculty. Part of keeping students and faculty safe is knowing who is in our buildings at all times. The Raptor system will better allow us to screen visitors, contractors, and volunteers in our schools and provide us with a safer environment for our students and staff. Community High School District 99 currently utilizes the same platform on its campuses.

Upon entering a district building, visitors will be asked to present photo identification, such as a Driver’s License, which can either be scanned or manually entered into the system. If a parent or guardian for any reason does not have a US government-issued ID, the school staff member can use any form of identification and manually enter the person’s name into the Raptor system. The Raptor system will check to ensure that registered sexual offenders are not entering our school campuses without our knowledge. The Raptor system checks the visitor's name and date of birth for comparison with a national database of registered sex offenders. The registered sex offender database is the only official database checked by the Raptor system. No other data from the ID is gathered or recorded and the information is not shared with any outside agency. Once entry is approved, Raptor will issue a badge that identifies the visitor, the date, and the purpose of his/her visit. A visitor’s badge will not be necessary for those who visit our schools simply to drop off an item in the office or pick up paperwork.

The safety of our students is our highest priority and the Raptor visitor management system allows us to quickly identify those that may present a danger to our students. Thank you in advance for your understanding and your support in enhancing the school safety protocols in our district.