Woodbury Weekly Update for Families

Welcome to our weekly update! We are thrilled to keep you informed about the happenings at our school, celebrations & achievements and upcoming events, ensuring you're an active part of your students educational journey. In each update, you'll find highlights of the past week and a preview of what's to come, fostering a strong sense of community and collaboration between the school and our cherished families. Most weeks will be brief, but at times there is important information or updates that help support us in your involvement in our little school. Thank you for taking the time to read it!

Kindergarten found the pot of gold in Mrs. Kern's Office after following every clue around the building!

We had lots of shenanigans this past week hunting down leprechauns and solving math mysteries in 2nd grade! Our school was full of green and quite a bit of glitter! Everyone was in the spirit for St. Patrick's Day!

It was so fun to see so many families come out to support the PPA Culver's Night! Thank you for coming! The parking lot and drive through was pretty busy!

This is our last week before spring break! Let's make it count!

A special little shout out to kindergarten student, Marlene G. She has been helping greet at the fence each day during parent pick-up, working with Mrs. Kern to learn student's names and greet everyone with a hug, fist bump or high five! That first greeting in the morning is so important to us in helping get each day started off on the right foot!

Learning Environment Update: I am pleased to say we are seeing lunchroom behavior improving, but we are still a work in progress. Students help to monitor hallways to ensure they are holding each other accountable for showing the Woodbury Way. Please continue to express the importance of maintaining a comfortable lunchroom experience which is quiet conversation, good manners, respect for other's space, and cleaning up after oneself.

Registration is due by April 19th. Please be sure to check out the information on how below. If you have an incoming kindergartner, please be sure to register soon as we want to make sure we have as many of our new students as we can attend our screening and orientation.

Please check out the preschool screening flyer below taking place at Haskin in April. If you or anyone you know is looking to get their child in preschool our pre-k program has been expanded. The program is free! You will also see that they are hosting a 0-3 screening. During these early years, a child’s brain is growing at a rapid speed. Because 80% of brain growth happens in the first three years of a child’s life, learning actually begins at birth. If a child is not on track in their development this is a great way to acquire early intervention support and services. Mrs. Kern is The DeKalb Basics ambassador and is passionate about early intervention and opportunities for early learning for our students. You can also sign up for BASICS INSIGHTS which is a free text messaging program for parents and caregivers of young children that provides science based tips to boost your child's development. Parents, grandparents, and any other caregivers can sign up for these free messages and receive them until your child turns 5. We hope you'll check it out!

This week...

IAR Testing Continues

3/20: 1st Gr. Think First Virtual Assembly

3/22: Therapy Dog Visit

3/25-3/31: Spring Break

2nd Grade solved the mystery! So much fun was had solving the math mystery to find Leo's Pot of Gold! A special shout out to all of the staff members who worked with students and Office Bright for coming to "ask for the students help to solve the clues to crack the case!"

Culver's Night was SO FUN!

APRIL:

4/2: World Autism Day

4/3: Paraprofessional Appreciation Day

4/4: National School Librarian Day

4/8: Woodbury Spring Concert

4/11: 2nd Grade Opera House

4/19: 11:10 Dismissal SIP Day, National Volunteer Appreciation Week

4/22: Spring Benchmarking Begins

4/24: Secretaries Day

4/26: Therapy Dogs

MAY:

5/1: Bicycle Safety Month

5/3: School Lunch Hero Day

5/6: Teacher & Staff Appreciation Week

5/8: School Nurse Day

5/9: Yellow Day

5/10: Kindergarten Mother's Day Tea

5/21: Third Grade Bike Hike

5/28: Fun Afternoon

5/29: Track & Field Day

5/30: LAST DAY, Kindergarten Graduation, 1:10 Dismissal

March is National Nutrition Month!

These websites have fun recipes, games, and ideas to help your family celebrate National Nutrition Month by eating healthy!

https://www.choosemyplate.gov/

https://www.eatright.org/for-kids

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/educational/wecan/index.ht

DENTAL EXAM REMINDER FOR 2023-2024 SCHOOL YEAR:

All Kindergarten and 2nd grade students are required to have a completed dental exam form on file with the school by May 15, 2024.

Personal Items at school: Please do not allow your child to bring personal items from home to school. This includes toys, collectable cards, video games, or other small toys or trinkets. Unfortunately these items can become lost or stolen, become a distraction or cause disruption in the classroom.

Treat Policy Reminder: We have had several birthday treats sent in recently so we wanted to send a quick reminder about the food policy to avoid parents/guardians from making special trips or spending money on treats. Thank you for your support.

TREATS/FOOD POLICY:

Celebrations and positive reinforcement are an important part of our district’s culture of supporting

students. Often students bring treats or snacks to school to share on special occasions, such as their birthday. Due to food allergies and other health concerns, we do not permit students to bring in food items or treats to school to share. We would like to encourage healthy eating habits and promote non-food items such as pencils, stickers, bookmarks, or other small items in place of food treats. Curricular activities or classroom celebrations involving food will be dealt with individually and require approval from the building principal. Safety provisions will be set up for food or environmental allergies on an individual basis.

Registration for the 24-25 school is open. The sooner we have our classrooms set the sooner we can begin planning for the upcoming school year. Returning families to the school district can complete the online application process in a few short minutes through their TeacherEase account. This will be a very similar process to last year. Please be sure that all information is entered correctly.

If you have an incoming kindergartener or a new student to the district you will follow a different process in which you verify your residency before registering on TeacherEase.

Student fees for the 24-25 school year are not due at this time. We ask that you complete the registration process by Friday, April 19. Please use the link below which will walk you through the process of registration.

Dear Woodbury Families,

As of January 30th, the Illinois State Board of Education's 5Essentials Impact Survey is available for stakeholders to take. Please take a few minutes to provide us with your thoughtful and important feedback. The 5Essentials survey is developed around the "Five Essentials for School Success," an evidence-based framework developed by the University of Chicago. This framework identifies how school performance on five factors, or essentials, can lead to important student outcomes, including improved attendance and larger test score gains. Prior research has shown that schools strong in three or more of the 5Essentials were ten times more likely to improve student learning gains than schools weak in three or more of the Essentials. Those 5Essentials are:

Effective Leaders

Collaborative Teachers

Involved Families

Supportive Environment

Ambitious Instruction

Why is this survey important to us? As a building and district, we will use the data and feedback gained through your survey responses to guide building and district improvement efforts. In order to receive a detailed report from ISBE, we need a minimum of 20% parent participation! Additional information about this survey, provided by 5Essentials and ISBE, can be seen here. The survey will remain open for stakeholders until March 29th. Students begin taking their 5Essential surveys in 4th grade. Last year, we were able to meet our participation rate and received great results and the best way to grow and get better is from your feedback. As always, please reach out to Mrs. Kern if you have any questions or feedback for us beyond the survey. Thank you for your time and support!

Looking for ways you can help out and support our Woodbury PPA? Please click the link to check out our sign up genius on upcoming events and items we could use some extra hands on. Our next meeting is Thursday, November 30th. Thank you!

Attendance Policy

Since switching over to our new system, TeacherEase, we've been updating attendance codes, etc. needed for the state and we will soon begin sending out attendance letters again. Below you will find an abbreviated attendance policy to make things a little easier to understand, so if you receive a letter, it will hopefully make more sense. If you do have any questions, we will be happy to address them.

*Students are excused for 7 days per year regardless of why they miss. (This will not count if a student is marked truant from the previous year.) You will receive a letter at 5 excused and 7 excused, just as an update or reminder of your student’s attendance.

*Anything after 7 days needs a doctor note to be excused.

*Any time a doctor note is supplied, it is counted as an excused absence.

*After 3 unexcused absences, a letter will be sent home reminding the parents/guardians about the amount of unexcused absences.

*After 5 unexcused absences, school is required to notify truancy and truancy will usually set up a meeting to discuss needs and/or further actions.

*Parents/guardians must call the office to let school know their student will be absent that day.

Policy Found in Our Handbook

"Students shall be permitted no more than seven (7) excused absences, including vacations, per school year based upon parental/legal guardian confirmation for the reasons of the absence. After the student has been excused seven times in one school year, additional excused absences for illnesses may only be verified through a written medical statement from a physician.

After seven (7) excused absences, the school office will notify the parents/legal guardians by mail. Other excused absences will be limited to death in the family, a family emergency requiring the absence of the student (this must be approved by the administrator at the building level), religious reasons that prohibit attendance for a given time and/or other reasons determined by the administration. The parent/legal guardian must verify the reasons for such absences. If a student is sent home due to illness documented by school personnel or if a student’s absence is verified by a doctor’s excuse before the student has reached the limit of seven days (or classes) of excused absences, that absence will not count towards the seven days permitted by this section. If the student was sent home from school with fever, vomiting, diarrhea or at the nurse/administrator discretion, they will not be penalized with an unexcused absence and will not count toward the seven parent/guardian excused absences. The following day may also be included in instances of fever, vomiting, or diarrhea. All doctor notes must be turned in to the office in a timely manner or the administration has the discretion not to accept the doctor’s note. For extended absences, the administration may ask for updated documentation of the absence.

When a student reaches three (3) unexcused absences, a letter will be sent to the parent/legal guardian warning of future consequences related to attendance. At five (5) unexcused absences, the student will be referred to the DeKalb County Truant Office for intervention.

When counting unexcused absences, the district will count back 180 school days (i.e. unexcused attendance days from the previous year will be counted towards the student’s current school year attendance records). When requested, the student will be required to provide a doctor’s note. Notes and letters will be placed in the student’s temporary file."

Lunch balances can add up quickly. Please check your student's account balance onTeacherEase to make sure your student has a positive balance. If you need assistance logging into TeacherEase, or adding funds to your student's account, please call our main office at 815-786-6316 for assistance.

If you have not yet fulfilled payment for registration fees you have/will receive a note home from school with your remaining balance. If you have any questions regarding these fees, please reach out to our main office at 815-786-6316.

Are you struggling to pay for fees, lunches, field trips, and/or extra fees? Please be aware that there are opportunities to get help with school fees, field trips, lunches, and other fees.

We currently utilize the free and reduced waiver program through the USDA. If you qualify, this waiver may cover lunches, registration fees, sports fees, field trips, etc. If you would like to know more about this program, what the qualifications are, or how to apply, please call Mrs. Kruswicki at 815-786-2187.

Please remember, this program must be renewed every year. Since we utilize the guidelines of the USDA program, we must use their forms.

For those who would like to apply for free/reduced lunch, please do so using the following link: Online Application. Families who qualify for free/reduced lunch will have their registration fees waived or reduced (if process is complete prior to fees being assessed)

Would you like to leave a shoutout for one of our Woodbury Staff? Please use this form to help celebrate and recognize our staff. Your words of praise, recognition, and support lift us up. Thank you for helping us support all those who contribute to our awesome learning community! We love hearing from you!