Stewart Standard

December 2024 Newsletter

ATTENDANCE UPDATES

Attendance Goal

Stewart Attendance Goal - One of the Stewart building goals for the 2024-2025 school year is to reduce the chronic absenteeism rate to below 13%. Last year, we had a 16% chronic absenteeism rate.

Current Attendance Rate - Currently, Stewart Elementary is at a 10% chronic absenteeism rate. Thank you for parents for making sure your students are getting to school!

Attendance Magnet

This month, students will be coming home with an attendance fridge magnet (post below) and a dry erase marker. This can be helpful for tracking your child's attendance at home throughout each trimester and will assist Stewart Elementary and the Washington CSD with improving student chronic absenteeism.

UPDATES

BRRRRR....It's getting cold outside!

A few reminders from the nurse - with the weather getting colder please be sure to send your students in appropriate clothing; winter coat, hats, and gloves!

NESTT Center Updates

What is NESTT? - NESTT stands for Navigating Emotions and Stress Through Teaching. NESTT can provide supports for ANY and ALL students at Stewart Elementary who may have a need.

What supports are provided in NESTT? - NESTT exists to provide support for students beyond what they receive in the general education classroom. Among those supports, NESTT can provide social emotional support and basic needs.

Social Emotional Support - NESTT can help students in that RIGHT NOW moment. A RIGHT NOW moment may include, but is not limited to...

A peer conflict
Experiencing a big emotion and need a safe place to calm down
A upsetting situation or event (i.e. family emergency/crisis, traumatic event, personal health issue, changes to environment and/or routine, etc.)
Needing a calm break to regulate their feelings and before returning to learning

Basic Needs - As adults, we know how hard it is to function when our own basic needs are not met. NESTT seeks to provide some of those basic needs to any students if and when needed to help them have a successful day. Some of these basic needs may include, but are not limited to...

Alternate breakfast items if arriving late
Gloves, hates, and/or jackets on a cold day
Snacks if they are too hungry to concentrate
A place to rest if they had trouble sleeping the night before
Alternate clothing if they’ve had an accident, gotten overly wet or dirty, or ruined their own clothing.

We would love to help as many students as we can using the NESTT classroom. Please reach out if you’d like more information about NESTT by emailing at huiterma@washington.k12.ia.us or by phone at (319)653-3244.

December Food Drive

In December, Stewart Elementary is focusing on the character word of CARING! We're hosting a food drive to show how much we care for our community. Bring any non-perishable food items to Stewart Elementary to help those in need. Let's come together to make a difference!

IMPORTANT DATES

Stewart Boosters Meeting - 12/9 @ 5:00pm

Stewart Boosters will hold their monthly meeting in the Stewart Library. We welcome any interested parents to join!!

Washington CSD School Board Meeting - 12/11 @ 7:00

Feel free to attend the monthly school board meeting at WCSD central office or watch the live stream on the Washington CSD YouTube channel!

2nd Grade Winter Concert - 12/19 @ 7:00

Come join us at the Washington HS Auditorium for our 2nd grade's winter concert performance! They have been practicing so hard and are excited to put on a great show!

Winter Parties - 12/20

Classrooms will be having winter parties on Friday December 20th. Parents are welcome to attend! Please contact your child's teacher to see what time their classroom party will be.