August Check-in

Hello Jefferson Families,

Welcome to our many new students and families who have enrolled at Jefferson this summer! We are so glad your child will be attending Jefferson, and we hope you will feel a genuine sense of belonging.

As you hopefully know, the Everett Education Association and the district have reach a tentative contract agreement, and we have an official first day of school for 1st-5th graders (Wednesday, September 4th) and for kindergarten (Monday, September 9th). Once the contract is ratified, we will have details on the full school year calendar.

Many of the items below are repeats of my July 29th newsletter to the community (marked "Repeat"), however, there are some updates, which I have marked "New!"

The most noteworthy item I wanted to communicate is our "Meet the Teacher" event which will occur Thursday, August 29th from 6:00pm-6:30pm in our courtyard and playground area. If you are a new to Jefferson family, you are invited to come at 5:30pm for a school tour.

Thank you for giving the items below a read, as they will hopefully inform you of things to be aware of for the start of the school year. Please don't hesitate to reach out me (shopkins2@everettsd.org) if I can be of support.

Kind regards,

Steve Hopkins, principal

Confirmed Dates

Aug 28 Families Notified of Class placements on Home Access Center (4:30pm)

Aug 29 Meet Your Child's Teacher (6:00pm-6:30pm on the JFE playground/courtyard)

Sept 4 First day of school for grades 1-5

Sept 4-6: Kindergarten family conferences

Sept 9: First day of kindergarten

Oct 3: Individual Picture Day

Oct 7: Open House/Curriculum Night, 6:00-7:00

You are invited to come meet your child's teacher on Thursday, August 29th 6:00-6:30pm. This is an updated time from my mid-summer newsletter. Teachers will be out in the courtyard and playground area for a quick meet and greet. Please do not bring any supplies.

If you are new to Jefferson Elementary, we would like to invite your family for a school tour right before the teacher meet and greet on the 29th. I will meet everyone at the main entrance, and host a school/building tour from 5:30-6:00pm.

Home Access Center (HAC) can help answer that question. HAC provides access to information such as student schedules, teacher's names and emails, attendance and transportation. As a school, we use HAC to notify families of their student's teacher assignment before school starts, and our anticipated date for releasing this information will be August 28th in the late afternoon.

If you need access, please send an email to LMS@everettsd.org with your name, student name(s), student ID#, and the school(s) they attend. LMS will respond with your login/password to the email you have on file with the school. For more information, click here.

Dr. Jalene Finley has accepted a principalship at Madison Elementary in Everett, and we are excited for her new adventure! Additionally, we are grateful for Dr. Finley's four years of service at Jefferson, including her critical role in helping re-launch in-person learning after the pandemic.

I am excited to welcome Mrs. Ally Nichol as our new assistant principal. Mrs. Nichol joined Everett Public Schools in 2018. She completed her principal internship in Everett and has been a classroom teacher and instructional coach at the elementary level. Prior to coming to Everett, Mrs. Nichol was a classroom teacher, interventionist and instructional technology curriculum leader in the Bellevue School District. Mrs. Nichol earned her bachelor's degree in education with a major in social studies and a minor in English from Western Washington University, her Master of Science in curriculum and instruction from Western Governor’s University and her principal certification from City University. Like Dr. Finley's role last year, Mrs. Nichol will split her time between Jefferson and another school. The tentative schedule is to have Mrs. Nichol here on Wednesdays, Thursdays and the third and fourth Friday of each month. Welcome Mrs. Nichol!

Do you have or know of a child who will be five years old by August 31st? Make sure to get them enrolled as soon as possible. Click here for details on how to enroll.

Additionally, click on the attachment below for the presentation given by the kindergarten team and myself in early June. It will hopefully answer many questions about kindergarten here at Jefferson.

We have been notified that Jefferson will be able to continue our free breakfast and lunch program through the coming 2024-25 school year. More specifically, this means each student at Jefferson will be able to eat for free each day in our Jefferson cafeteria (breakfast and lunch). We are thankful for the this opportunity, provided through a program entitled Community Eligibility Provision. Everett Public Schools has additional information here if you are interested. For you and your family, please know that your child/children will continue to have a daily option to eat both breakfast and lunch at no cost to you.

Click here for a list with specific items, by grade level as well as our Life Skills and Extended Resource classrooms. Note these are suggested items, and we never want any family to feel burdened by this.

Thanks to our generous community, we will once again have backpacks and supplies available to our families who need them. If you need a backpack for your child, please stop by the office the week of August 26th during office hours (9:00am- noon or 1:00-3:30pm).

Will you be moving over the summer? If you know you will not be returning to Jefferson, please contact the office at 425-385-7400, as soon as possible to let us know, so we can update records.

As we gear up for the coming school year, our communication tools are getting an upgrade! While we are still learning about ParentSquare, and it is not rolled out just yet, we wanted you to be aware of this exciting, upcoming platform shift. Everett Public Schools are thrilled to be moving forward with ParentSquare for our school/home communication.

ParentSquare is a one-stop platform to better connect and streamline communication between our district, schools, classrooms, and families. It allows easy, multilingual communication, quick notifications, a single newsfeed (this is very handy if you have students in multiple grades or schools), a handy mobile app, and more. It combines several older tools into one go-to spot. We look forward to learning and sharing more about this new tool soon.

We are using a new Versatrans My Stop application for bus route tracking and information. The Versatrans My Stop application provides you with an estimated time of arrival for your student's school bus. Please continue to arrive at the scheduled bus stop location 5 minutes prior to the scheduled stop time. When you open the app for the first time, follow the instructions below and select Everett Public Schools (WA).

How to Log In

All information is transmitted securely and protected. No data is provided without proper credentials being provided.

1. Enter your student’s ID number in the username field.

2. Enter your student’s date of birth in the password field. Use the mmddyyyy format with no slashes. For example: if your student was born on Jan. 1, 2017, your password would be 01012017

3. If you have more than one student, their names will appear in a drop-down list in the top left corner. To view a different child's bus information, select their name from the drop down list.

4. In your phone settings, under Notifications, scroll to the Versatrans My Stop app and make sure:

• show notifications are in the on position.

• pop on screen is also in the on position

5. This will allow you to see any notification that Everett Public Schools sends through the Versatrans My Stop App.

Hello Jefferson Families!

Summer is a great time to reestablish routines at home including setting up a nightly reading time.

Reading stamina results from developing a simple reading routine at home and sticking with it! Find a consistent time, like right after dinner or before bed and start with a goal of 5 minutes of distraction free reading. Add one minute on each night and soon your child will be at the goal of reading for 20 minutes each day. With this increased focus, your child will begin to enjoy reading, develop reading independence, and read for longer periods of time.

Here are a few tips to help your child develop reading stamina:

• Allow for variety in how the reading is done. New or struggling readers benefit from listening to reading and reading with or to someone. Try reading in different ways on different evenings or even asking your child to read independently for a couple of minutes followed by listening to a story read aloud.

• Choose appropriate books based on your child’s ability. For reading on their own, help your child choose books in which they can decode nearly every word in the book correctly. If your child is reading with you, choose books that are highly engaging.

• Recognize your child’s reading success! Celebrate your child’s time spent reading each night, share progress with other family members and friends, discuss favorite books and consider trips to the library to find new and exciting books.

If you’d like help in choosing appropriate books for your student, or help in creating reading habits with your child, please contact me!

Winter Graham, Instructional Coach

wgraham@everettsd.org

Did you know our website has a link to Peachjar flyers? This is where you can find after school and community opportunities for your student. The Jefferson website has a Peajar button on the lower right hand side under Quicklinks. Check it out here!

Regular Hours: 9:10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday

Learning Improvement Fridays: 2:15 p.m. dismissal

½ Day Early Release: 1 p.m. dismissal