Miller Elementary Weekly Update

Hello Miller Families!

We had such an AMAZING week at Miller Elementary! We loved filling our school with your wonderful children for the past 4 days of preschool and kindergarten! I'm sure you had a lot of emotions preparing to send your little ones off to us each day, but I want to let you know that the smiles, laughs, and giggles in our halls were contagious. These young children did a great job learning new routines at school and we are so very proud of them. Next week will be another great adventure!

Each week, you can expect to find important information about what is happening in our school, some photos we have captured throughout the week, and some tips and tricks to help you learn more about our philosophies for teaching young children to meet their social, emotional, and academic needs.

Kindergarten Only Reminder:

Next Friday we begin our Back to School Assessment Days on Friday, August 30th, and Tuesday, September 3rd.

• Friday, August 30th - Kindergarten KRA-R Assessment Days - Kindergarten Students Whose Last Name Begins with A-L Attend School (M-Z Does not attend school this day)
• Monday, September 2nd - NO SCHOOL - LABOR DAY
• Tuesday, September 3rd - Kindergarten KRA-R Assessment Days - Kindergarten Students Whose Last Name Begins with M-Z Attend School (A-L Does not attend school this day)

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and we can't wait to see all your children back on Monday!

Go GREENMEN!

Maria Goodman

Miller Elementary Principal

330-954-2189

Email mgoodman@aurora-schools.org

A hot lunch may be purchased each day or your child can pack a lunch. They also have the option to purchase white or chocolate milk instead of packing a drink. Each child has a lunch account and we have provided you with their lunch account information at Open House. You can add money to their account via a credit card following the directions on the sheet, send in cash or you can send in a check made out to the Aurora City Schools. If you send in money, please place it in an envelope or baggie with your child’s name and a note indicating the money is for lunch. We will deduct the cost of lunch or milk each day that your child makes a purchase. Please make sure your child knows if they are buying or packing a lunch each day. We spend time helping them make their selection at the beginning of the year and soon this is an independent task they complete each day! Some of our classes eat lunch at 11:00 and other classes eat lunch at 12:00.

As students begin their educational journey, there are some state-mandated checkpoints and assessments to ensure that we are monitoring your child's growth and development. To accomplish these activities, it's best if we bring small groups of children to school to work on these various assessments.

All K-5 (NOT PRESCHOOL) students will participate in our Fall Assessment Days on Friday, August 30th or Tuesday, September 3rd.

Friday, August 30th - Kindergarten KRA-R Assessment Days - Kindergarten Students Whose Last Name Begins with A-L Attend School (M-Z Does not attend school this day)

Tuesday, September 3rd - Kindergarten KRA-R Assessment Days - Kindergarten Students Whose Last Name Begins with M-Z Attend School (A-L Does not attend school this day)

In addition to our assessment days, we will be completing many of our kindergarten assessments during our normal school day. These screening assessments are required by the State of Ohio and they provide us with information to better know your child and to kickstart the school year to best meet their needs. We wanted to share what assessments they will be participating in and the expected dates so you know what is happening at school.

The dates listed below show the various windows of time we will be conducting assessments.

AIMS Web Benchmarking - A 2-3 minute kindergarten universal screener to check your child's incoming knowledge of letters, sounds, and phonemic awareness. (August 27th)

Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA-R) - Kindergarten Students (Aug. 30th & Sept. 3rd)

This assessment looks at your child’s readiness for engaging with instruction aligned to the kindergarten standards. These assessments are completed through observation in the classroom and via an interactive assessment on an iPad. Here are the skills that are checked:

• Social Foundations- including social and emotional development
• Mathematics
• Language and Literacy
• Physical Well-being and Motor Development

Speech & Language Screening - Kindergarten Students (Week of September 9th)

Your child will work one-on-one with one of our speech and language pathologists to conduct a speech and language screener.

Vision & Hearing Screening - All Kindergarten Students (Month of September & October)

Our school nurse will conduct a vision and hearing screening on all students.

Ohio English Language Proficiency Screener - (Beginning the Week of September 3rd) -

Students whose families speak a 2nd language in the home as reported in Final Forms will take a language proficiency screener. This assessment is given by Mrs. Levey or Mrs. Flannery our English Learner educators.

We will communicate any results that require follow-up or reach out to you if we have any further questions. We are looking forward to getting to know your child a bit more!

August:

• Monday, 8/26 - All Preschool and Kindergarten Attend School

Kindergarten Only

• Friday, 8/30 - Getting to Know You Days- KRA-Kindergarten Assessments - Students Whose Last Name Begins with A-L Attend School (M-Z Do not attend school this day)
• Tuesday 9/03 - Getting to Know You Days - KRA-Kindergarten Assessments - Students Whose Last Name Begins with M-Z Attend School (A-L Do not attend school this day)
• Preschool will operate as usual these days with no preschool on Friday and all preschoolers attend on Tuesday 9/3.

September:

• Monday, 9/02 - NO SCHOOL (Labor Day)
• Monday, 9/23 - Miller School Picture Day - More Information Forthcoming

At Miller Elementary, all car riders must park their car and walk their child to our main doors or the preschool entrance. We are aware that our parking is very limited and our number one priority is safety in the parking lot. Please drive carefully and look for little ones. Our handicap parking is reserved for families with the appropriate signs and license plates.

It is important that you adhere to the arrival and dismissal windows of time so that the parking lot is less crowded.

Preschool Arrival and Dismissal Times:

AM Preschool Arrival 8:40-8:50 & AM Preschool Dismissal 11:30 (Arrival Preschool Door 3)

PM Preschool Arrival 12:45-12:50 & PM Preschool Dismissal 3:20-3:25 (Front Doors/Steps)

Kindergarten Arrival and Dismissal Times

Full Day Kindergarten: Arrival 8:55-9:05 and Dismissal 3:25-3:35 (Front Doors/Steps)

AM 1/2 Day Kindergarten: Arrival 8:55-9:05 & Dismissal 11:40-11:45 (Front Doors/Steps)

Our buses typically arrive between 8:50-9:05 in the AM and they pick up Miller children between 3:35-3:45.

Please try to stick to these windows of time in order to smoothly get all children in and out of our building with adult support.

Hello Miller! It has been such a treat to welcome your capable, adorable and kind Kindergarten and Preschool students to our wonderful school! I am honored to introduce myself as the school counselor. I am available to support students and families in the areas of social emotional learning, academics and believe it or not- career exploration. Focusing on student strengths and learning about careers that help our community would be an example of how the career standard is covered in Kindergarten.

The 24-25 school year will be my twentieth year in education. I have spent the previous years working as a classroom teacher, middle school counselor, and an elementary school counselor. Helping students is what I love to do! When I am not at school, you can usually find me at a sporting event for one of my three children: Dominic (13), Daniel (11) and Elle (11). We live right around the corner in Hudson with my husband, Brian and goldendoodle, Lila.

I encourage and welcome open-communication. During the school day, I provide individual counseling, small group counseling and classroom guidance lessons. Classroom guidance topics will be shared as they are introduced in this newsletter. Should your child be recommended for a small group or individual counseling, I would notify you in order to obtain your consent. Initially, I will ensure that all students continue to transition from summer break to their school day with ease.

This school year, I will be at Miller three days each week. Those days will typically be Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. When I am not at Miller, I’ll be very close at Leighton Elementary working with the third, fourth and fifth graders.

Next week will be a longer one for your child, so I thought it would be beneficial to share Tips for Back to School Anxiety from Akron Children’s Hospital and a resource to help with arrival Separation Anxiety.pdf should your child experience any uncertainty when getting on the bus or out of the car. While I know it’s useful, my hope is that you can simply file this resource and not have to utilize it!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me at any time. I look forward to an excellent school year!

My name is Len Spacek. This school year, I will be supporting students in grades K-5 from a mental health perspective. I will be working with students that are dealing with anxiety, depression, self-regulation, and other aspects of their mental well-being. This may be in an individual setting, a small group setting, or educating classes about tools that can help with emotional wellness.

I have been a teacher and a coach in the Aurora City Schools for twenty-eight years. My first 20 years were spent in the classroom as a language arts teacher at Harmon Middle School. Over the past eight years, along with teaching PE at Leighton Elementary school, I have earned my school counseling license and my license as an LPC (Licensed Professional Counselor). Also, during the past eight years, I have done counseling at Spire Institute in Geneva, Grand River Academy in Ashtabula, and Ubuntu Wellness in Chagrin Falls.

I am looking forward to supporting students in grades K-5 and helping them to become the very best version of themselves.

We have a school nurse, Jackie Pawlowski, on staff during school hours. She is here each day to assist students at a time of need or illness. Here are some important reminders to ensure the safety of our school community each day:

• Please make sure your Final Forms medical information is up to date. We will closely read the health sections to address any medical concerns. If your child requires medication (over the counter or prescription) during the school day, we must have a signed medication form on file. You can find this attached below.
• It is important to check your child each day for symptoms of illness as you know them best. If they become I'll during the day, or are injured, we will reach out to you and let you know if their symptoms are worsening. We call home for injuries, fevers, and continued sickness. We do not call home for every trip to the nurse for a band-aid, ice pack or upset tummy. We certainly will call if symptoms worsen. We sometimes use our School Nurse Cell Phone
  
• Students sent home with a fever, may not return to school until they are fever free without medication for at least 24 hours. This means if your child was sent home on Tuesday at 12:00 p.m. with a fever, he/she may not return to school until 24 hours later. If your child does return the next day, our school will be calling for you to come pick him/her up. Please help to support our efforts in this area.
  
• We are required to report to families if there is a confirmed communicable disease in your child's class. This could include strep, pink eye, COVID, hand-foot and mouth or other illnesses.

Finally, please make sure your child has extra clothes in his/her backpack. Accidents and spills happen all the time and it's safe to always have their own clothes in their book bag instead of wearing our spare clothes.

In all our Elementary Buildings, we utilize a Google Form to report attendance, late arrival, early dismissal, and change of transportation such as switching from a bus rider to office pick-up!

To report an absence or change, please scan the QR code below or click the button to fill out our Google form. This can be done from any device and your reply will be sent immediately to our secretary, Mrs. Toler.

Also, if your child is absent, instead of calling us, you can also use this code to report the absence and the reason for the absence. We are working really hard to reduce the amount of phone calls, emails, or notes that we receive. We ask that you reserve those modes of communication for emergencies only. Thank you in advance for your help and let us know if you have any questions at all!

Miller Elementary Principal

Erin Toler : etoler@aurora-schools.org

Miller Elementary Secretary

Email: mgoodman@aurora-schools.org
Website: aurora-schools.org
Location: 646 S Chillicothe Rd, Aurora, OH 44202, USA
Phone: 330-562-6199