We hope you are having a wonderful summer and enjoying lots of outdoor time with your family! Back at DFS we have been busy preparing for the 2024-25 school year and are excited to welcome our new and returning students on Tuesday, August 27, for the first day of school. Each week during the school year you will receive an email link to our weekly newsletter which provides important up-to-date information so you can maximize the DFS educational experience. The purpose of today's newsletter is to provide you with some summer updates so the beginning of the school doesn't hit you like an unexpected summer afternoon thunderstorm!

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Miss Katelyn Root is very excited to join the fifth-grade team at Daniels Farm School! She spent the last two years teaching fourth grade in Ridgefield Public Schools, and has a strong passion for building relationships with students and families. Miss Root holds master's degrees in curriculum and instruction, and elementary mathematics. When she isn't in school, Miss Root can be found waitressing, teaching classes at the gym, or crafting!

In order to take advantage of the larger classrooms in the Learning Commons wing, we have moved our grade 5 classes to this area. In addition, our math lab and Multilingual Learners' (MLL) room now reside in this area. The classrooms are about 16 square feet larger than the previous locations, providing more space for our oldest students.

Please mark your calendars for this year's Back to School Night on Thursday, September 5, 2024. The evening offers an excellent opportunity to learn about the grade level curriculum and how your child's classroom functions on a daily basis. We hope to see you there!

The district continues to monitor enrollment across all six elementary schools with the hope of making any necessary adjustments in allocated classrooms by late July. In general, the BOE uses the following class sizes along with other variables when making final decisions:

Kindergarten, Grade 1 & Grade 2: Twenty-two students per class

Grade 3, Grade 4 & Grade 5: Twenty-five students per class

As of today, our kindergarten enrollment sits at 53 students, well below the projected 76 students. If we were to begin school today, our most likely class allotment would be as follows:

Kindergarten: Three classes of 17, 18, and 18 students (53 total)

Grade 1: Four classes of 22, 22, 22 and 22 students (88 total)

Grade 2: Four classes of 19, 19, 19 and 20 students (77 total)

Grade 3: Four classes of 20, 20, 20 and 21 students (81 total)

Grade 4: Three classes of 23, 24 and 24 students (71 total)

Grade 5: Four classes of 23, 23, 24 and 24 students (94 total)

A potential reduction from four to three kindergarten classes would necessitate moving teachers within the building to fill our current grade three opening rather than search for a new hire.

Did you know students can lose up to two months of reading advancements over the summer? That's like working a 12-month job and only collecting paychecks for 10 months; who would do that?! Please make reading a daily passion in your home, carving out a specific time when all electronics are off and everyone is buried in a book. When children see their parents reading, they realize it is an important and fun habit. It's not too late to turn this summer around if you start tonight!

Please complete the summer reading form at the link below ONE TIME; we recommend you do this in August. Only students who read and complete the form participate in a fun fall celebration at DFS. Thank you!

Summer Reading Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfnAa-NU-GeKNUPO7iDK7iB130aqU1mc61wT5oGDZRq_a3kbQ/viewform

All Trumbull elementary schools electronically distribute summer packet information sometime in mid-August. Bus routes also become available on the district website at this time. Everything you need for a great start to the school year is provided, and we are available if you have any questions after thoroughly reading all materials.

Each week I meet with Mrs. Katz and Mrs. Cohen to review up-to-date student attendance. This involves looking at each child's attendance and directly connecting with families to ensure students are present for instruction on a consistent basis. We fully understand everyone becomes sick from time-to-time, and focus on absence patterns not related to illness.

Below you will find a graph detailing how many students were absent for a specific number of days last year. For example, sixty students were absent six days and ten students were absent zero days. Our goal is to maximize the number of students who are absent less than five percent of the year (nine absences or less).

Additional 2023-24 Attendance Data:

• Average daily attendance was 96%
• 69.1% of our students were absent less than 5% (this is our target)
• 29.2% of our students were absent more than 5% but less than 10%
• 1.7% of our students were absent 10% or more and considered "chronically absent". This list is forwarded to the state department of education.
• The percentage of students absent in the 5 - 9% range decreased by 4% over the previous school year
• The percentage of students chronically absent decreased from 2.5% to 1.7% over the previous school year

We only have 181 days to ensure each student receives the best possible education, so daily attendance is very important and we take it seriously at DFS. To help families reflect on last year's attendance and plan for improvements, 2023-24 personalized attendance reports will be provided at Back to School Night on September 5. A sample of a prior year's report is below.

Summer is a great time to reinforce our DFS SWIM mantra! It's amazing how following a few simple-to-do mindsets can make a world of difference in yourself and the people around you. Be a positive force!

Our DFS website is another great source of ongoing information!

DFS WEBSITE LINK: https://dfes.trumbullps.org/