We hope this Week at Windsor finds your family doing well and enjoying the holiday weekend. It is difficult to believe Friday marked the end of our first full week of school. We all went home feeling happy but exhausted. We hope/guess that is true of your children as well!

Windsor Spirit Wear

Friday marked our first Windsor Wildcat Spirit Day. We love to see staff and students supporting our school and sporting their favorite Wildcat spirit wear on Fridays. Our PTA is now selling Windsor spirit wear and the sale ends Monday, September 9th. Here is a link with more information. https://windsorpta.org/2019/08/21/spirit-wear-2019/

Curriculum Night

We are looking forward to the week ahead and especially to this Wednesday's 9/4 Curriculum Night for parents/guardians. The specific schedule is below. We are following a similar Curriculum Night format as past years at Windsor. This night is an opportunity to meet your child's teacher(s) and gain more information about what your child will be learning this upcoming school year. During the night's middle presentation time, we will highlight some of our school focus areas this year, share ways families can stay informed and be involved, and show a video introducing the 2019-2020 Windsor team! Our specials teachers will also be available to meet with families during the middle transition session. (Hosting everyone together in our Commons can become stand-in-room only, so we will not make this session too long!) We will be sending out a survey after the evening to get your feedback in order to inform planning for next school year. We want this event to meet our parent/guardian community's needs as much as possible.

New Absence Reporting, Review of School Crisis Drills, etc.

A new school year always means we have lots of information to review and share. Keep scrolling down!

Labor Day

As a reminder, we will not have school this Monday, September 2nd in honor of the Labor Day holiday. We are looking forward to welcoming your children back to school on Tuesday!

Warmest regards,

Piper Boston, Principal

Lindsay Anastacio, Assistant Principal

The evening begins at 6:30 PM for primary grades (KAM, 1, 2) parents/guardians, who should report directly to children's classrooms.

We will be meeting with all families in the Commons during the transition session starting at 7:10 PM.

Intermediate grades (KPM, 3,4,5) teachers will be meeting with parents in classrooms during the third session beginning at 7:40 PM.

Regular attendance at school is an essential part of the educational program of each student at Windsor Elementary School. You should contact our office whether the absence is for the morning, afternoon, or the entire day. This procedure not only helps us fulfill required attendance monitoring obligations but also helps to ensure the safety of our students.

Absence Voicemail Hotline

For your convenience, families can now just call our main number (847) 398-4297 to report your child's absence from school. After dialing, the "operator" will prompt families to DIAL 1 to report an absence. The system is operational twenty-four hours a day, so you can call anytime BEFORE 9:15 AM on the day of the absence. .

Absences must be reported before 9:15 AM if you are using the attendance line. As you leave a message, please include the following information:

• Student's name, please spell the last name

• Student's teacher's name

• Length of absence

• Reason for absence

• Requests for homework can be made on the third consecutive day of an unexpected absence.

**NEW** Online Absence Form

New this year, we also have an online attendance form. It can be accessed at the following link. https://forms.gle/Yo8h1JgfSK3P2dSR6 (The link will soon be featured on our web page for easy reference.)

This form will be checked between 6:45 AM and 9:00 AM each school day. After 9:00 AM, please call the school office.

Contacting the Office before 9:15 AM

If the office has not received a voicemail message or online notification by 9:15 AM, a parent will be called, as Illinois law requires us to contact a parent if the child's absence is not reported to us. Home numbers will be phoned first. If no response, a parent's work number will be called. If the school is unable to reach a parent, the person listed on the child's Emergency Form will be called.

Please always help us know your child is at home by contacting our front office (847) 398-4297.

During the beginning weeks of the school year, teachers review a number of important safety items with students (at an age-appropriate level) and reinforce them throughout the school year.

Some of these include:

• All our doors are locked during the school day. Students should not open any doors around the building for outside visitors. All visitors are to enter through the main entrance.
• All visitors should have an ID badge and/or a standardized visitor name tag from the office. (Visitors need to present their driver's license, which is scanned, in order to receive a visitor badge.)
  
• If they encounter an unknown adult (without a staff name badge or a Windsor visitor's name tag) walking in the building, children are to walk in a different direction and/or immediately go the nearest Windsor staff member.
  
• No weapons (or look-alikes) are allowed on school property. Students may not “play” or draw guns/weapons in school.

Teachers also review crisis procedures for Evacuations, Shelter-in-Place, and Soft/Hard Lockdowns. This week, we will begin practicing three school-wide drills.

• Evacuation-When we need everyone to immediately exit the building, such as in the event of a fire. Each teacher reviews procedures/exits for their space. (We will have an announced school-wide evacuation drill early this week. We will practice an unannounced drill with the Arlington Heights Fire Department sometime in October and conduct another one in spring.)

• Shelter-in-Place-When we need to have all students and staff safely away from windows and crouching in areas of shelter, usually in anticipation of a violent storm or tornado. All staff members review their shelter locations with students. (We will practice an announced school-wide shelter-in-place drill this week and conduct an unannounced drill later this year.)
• Hard Lockdown-A hard lockdown alerts students and staff there is a potential/actual threat in the building. Most often, teachers will lock doors and direct students to a spot in the classroom where they can be out-of-sight and away from the door. Increasingly, we are teaching children they must remain quiet and be ready to respond to teacher direction, whether that means hiding or evacuating, as staff assess the safest scenario. (We will practice one announced drill this week. We will conduct an unannounced drill with the Arlington Heights Police Department later in September. We will do another hard lockdown drill in the spring.)
• Soft Lockdown-A soft lockdown alerts students and staff there is no threat but everyone needs to stay in classrooms/spaces. It is usually in response to a medical emergency or spill/clean up in a specific part of the building, where we do not want any movement in hallways, calls to the office, etc. (We will not practice this as a drill.)

We will always schedule additional practice drills when we feel it is needed. We will communicate with families on the days announced or unannounced drills are conducted, so that you can process with your children at home. (Announced means that teachers and students know in advance we will be practicing a drill during a certain day and/or time.)

The reason we practice crisis drills is so that everyone can remain calm and have an understanding of what to do in an emergency situation. Each drill experience also allows us to reflect on current practices and refine procedures and plans as needed.

We are sharing this information so parents can partner with us. The safety of students and staff is of the utmost importance.

So happy to have your students back with us for lunch. We just wanted to drop a note to remind you of a few lunchtime details.

• If you have not already, please set up a Mealtime account for your child so you can see what he or she is purchasing daily.

• Talk with your child about their lunch choices. Encourage them to choose a variety of fruit and vegetables to go with their lunch. We have 3 vegetables and 3 fruits out daily. Your student can choose up to 3 servings (no repeats). All items are served in ½ cup amounts with the exception of whole fruit and leafy greens, which are full cups.

• The school lunch is a menu that meets your child’s nutritional needs. Snacks from home or the smart snack station are not something that is needed every day. Fruits and vegetables are needed every day.

• There has been a change on the number of items that the student can purchase from the smart snack station. Two (2) items only will be allowed daily. Please refer to the District website to see items that are offered on the Smart Snack Station.

• Three new entrees are being offered this year. There is a daily black bean burger option, a vegetarian salad option three days a week and weekly, a chicken drumstick with mashed potatoes has been added to the menu.

Inclement Weather

We want to thank parents/guardians for following our Windsor Arrival/Dismissal Procedures. It was a beautiful week of weather after our rainy Monday start. We appreciate everyone building in more travel time when there is inclement weather.

Crossing Guards

Our crossing guards asked us to reinforce the importance of keeping all crosswalks clear. Please do not stop or park near/on/or in crosswalks and intersections. Our crossing guards will always ask adults walking with children to defer to their direction on when to cross. This is for all children's safety, so that they learn to always watch/defer to the crossing guard before crossing. Our crossing guards provide a much needed service and they need our cooperation.

Bikes On Campus

We are pleased to see so many bike riders wearing helmets and walking their bikes on campus. Please remind your children to lock their bikes!

Arlington Heights Police Department

Finally, it is good for families to know that the Arlington Heights Police Department supports all District 25 schools in watching traffic patterns and enforcing safe habits. You will see them periodically during our school arrival and dismissal times.

We appreciate all that our Windsor PTA does to support the school!

Here is another link to the Windsor PTA's Windsor Spirit Wear sale going on now through September 9th. https://windsorpta.org/2019/08/21/spirit-wear-2019/

Order Fall Harvest items online from 9/1 to 9/13 for pick-up at Windsor on Sept 26! Support Windsor PTA and make it a win-win!

The first PTA meeting of the school year will be on 9.10.19 at 7:00 PM. Parents/guardians can still sign up for the PTA or to volunteer in serving on different committees. See link below to learn more!

Here is a link to a letter previously shared with families to begin the school year regarding District 25 assessments and testing windows.

All Kindergarten and first grade students began Fastbridge testing last week and will continue into this week as needed. (Many thanks to our parent volunteers for assisting with escorting students to/from our staff proctors.) Second graders will complete Fastbridge testing in their classrooms this Friday 9/6. Fastbridge testing for intermediate grades will be the following week.

Many of us love pets of all kinds, including the Windsor administration and staff! Bringing pets onto school property, however, can cause some concerns. We do have students who are allergic to different types of animals and pets. We also have students who are very afraid of dogs. If you do need to bring a pet with you to drop off or pick up your child, please keep dogs leashed and maintain a perimeter of space around your dog to keep all safe.

Our District 25 Parent-Student Handbook is always shared as part of each year's online registration process. Typically, we will highlight sections throughout the school year. Here is a link for families to reference anytime. https://www.sd25.org/cms/lib/IL01904427/Centricity/Domain/24/2019-2020%20-%20UPDATED%207-23%20936am.pdf

We value our Windsor community that is strengthened by diversity, inclusion, and a growth mindset.

• We believe in a kind, safe and responsible community because our students are important.
• We believe in designing lessons that promote inquiry, academic risk taking, and flexible thinking.
• We believe in supporting cultural, emotional, social, and academic diversity.
• We believe in working collaboratively as a school community for continuous improvement in a trusting environment.