The Weekly Update #4

Jackson Families,

We are excited to be welcoming everyone to a new school year! We hope that you have enjoyed your summer, and that you are as eager to send your children to school as we are to welcome them!

The capital improvements project begun by the Duneland School Corporation at Jackson Elementary approximately 15 months ago is rapidly winding down. All of our classrooms have been fully renovated and upgraded to modern standards, with new technology, furniture, and casework. We have added new hallways to improve access and safety throughout the building, which includes moving bathroom entrances so they are accessible off the main hallways. If you have not been inside the school building in some time, we think that you will be very impressed with the changes.

In addition to the physical changes at Jackson, we are welcoming many new families for the first time. Many families are joining us because of the planned shift in the K-4 enrollment boundaries between Liberty Elementary and Jackson Elementary. Other families are joining us from Brummitt Elementary, as we are proud to say that we will now offer Applied Skills programming for students with exceptional needs at Jackson. Still other families are joining us having moved here. We are excited to meet all of our new families and to play a part in helping your children learn and grow.

The most common question I receive at this time of year is 'When will we know who our child's teacher will be?' All teacher assignments will be posted to Skyward on Friday, August 9th by the 3:00pm.

In next week's edition of This Week at Jackson, we will share more information about the coming year, including introductions of new staff members and detailed arrival and dismissal procedures.

Respectfully,

Sam Marshall, Principal

We invite everyone to visit us at Open House on Tuesday, August 13th, from 4-6pm. The building will be open and our staff will be here to welcome back returning families and to greet new ones.

We encourage our kindergarten families to plan to attend presentations at 4:30 or 5:30pm happening in their child's classroom, as there is much to share, especially if this is your first child in kindergarten.

We will say more about arrival and dismissal procedures next week, but Open House will also be a time when you can stop in the office to pick up a placard for those that will be using our car line dismissal procedure.

The school meals program is funded by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The Duneland School Corporation will process free or reduced-price meal benefit applications for those students who apply and are approved. Those students not qualifying for free or reduced-price meals will be charged the paid meal price for breakfast and/or lunch.

Meal prices for the 2024-2025 school year are available on the DSC Child Nutrition website.

The DSC Child Nutrition Department utilizes NutriSlice as its menus program. This app is available for iPhone and Android through your mobile app store. Parents can also access the full website for Duneland Schools on a computer via this NutriSlice link.

This app will allow parents and students to view the menus as well as the nutritional info for each menu item at any of the Duneland Schools. This program will be developed further incorporating images of the actual food items being served at each of the Duneland schools.

Menus will be posted on Thursday, Aug. 1

Duneland School Corporation offers MyPaymentsPlus, a state-of-the-art online service that provides you the convenience and information you need to manage your student's meal account. This system speeds up serving lines in the cafeteria, eliminates the need to send physical payments to school or worry about lost or forgotten lunch money and ensures that your child will receive a nutritious meal.

At no cost, MyPaymentsPlus allows any family to: Create a FREE, secured account to manage all your student’s accounts, check your student's current account balance, and create settings to receive email notifications when the account reaches a low balance.

Also, at no cost, MyPaymentsPlus allows any family to make a prepayment into your student's meal account using a check, credit card, or debit card at MyPaymentsPlus or by calling 1-866-441-9125. Funds deposited through MyPaymentsPlus are usually available for student use within a matter of minutes. Create settings to automatically replenish your student's account when it reaches a low balance.

The Duneland School Corporation encourages all parents (even if you do not prepay for your student's meal account) to create an account at no cost. To create a new account, follow the on-screen directions and register your student using their Student ID number. Student ID numbers can be obtained by contacting customer support at: 1-877-237-0946.

Information regarding student bus transportation for the 2024-2025 school year is available on DSC website under the Transportation Department.

Tentative bus routes and bus stop times for this school year will be available for viewing on Skyward beginning on Friday, August 2. Parents should keep in mind that Transportation is continuing to work on live routing, so these bus routes and bus stop times are subject to change as they make necessary adjustments. Check back on August 12-13 for finalized bus routes and bus stop times for your student.

Contact the Duneland School Corporation IT department via one of these methods:

1. Open a IncidentIQ ticket by sending an email to: helpdesk@duneland.k12.in.us
   
2. Log into IncidentIQ and submit a request duneland.incidentIQ.com

Families without internet due to financial hardship have access to programs from two local providers.

Comcast Internet Essentials:

• Families that qualify for public assistance programs such as the National School Lunch Program, Housing Assistance, Medicaid, SNAP, SSI and other programs may also qualify for the Internet Essentials program from Comcast.

• This program offers internet at a low cost per month.

• Additional options and services are also available

• More information is available at this Comcast link

Frontier Lifeline Program:

• Families that qualify for public assistance programs such as the National School Lunch Program, Housing Assistance, Medicaid, SNAP, SSI and other programs may also qualify for the Lifeline Program from Frontier.

• More information is available at this Frontier link

DSC Health Services and 2024-2025 School Immunization Requirements

The DEF Welcome Back Luau includes entertainment, dinner, and a cash bar. Help us welcome our new teachers to Duneland! Click the image below.