Dear Westwood Families,

What a wonderful week we had full of learning! Speaking of learning, our district has a new reading curriculum that teachers are using for daily instruction. The name of the curriculum is Benchmark Workshop. The curriculum is organized by units of study. Each unit is about 3 weeks long. At this time, we are in the middle of unit 2. The link below has parent letters organized by grade level then by unit. These letters give you an idea of what our students are learning about during their reading time. A big celebration is that we have the letters translated into Spanish and Marshallese for our families who have a language other than English in the home. Please take a few minutes to look over the letter and let us know if there are questions or if you would like to learn more about the new Benchmark curriculum. Do not hesitate to contact us via email, phone, or using Rooms to let us know if there are any questions.

Have a WONDERful week!

Mrs. Kimberly Crumby, Principal

Mrs. Martha Tompkins, Assistant Principal/Parent Facilitator

Upcoming Dates:

Oct. 11th-Chuck-e-Cheese Night 3:00 pm-9:00 pm.

Oct. 16th-Wear Orange for Bullying Prevention

Oct. 17th- Howling for Fall Festival (5:00-6:30)

Oct. 18th- PD day-NO SCHOOL

Oct. 22nd-Report Cards sent home

Oct. 24th-Skate Night

Oct. 28th-Nov. 1st-Red Ribbon Week

Nov. 3rd-Daylight Savings Time ends

Nov. 5th-3rd Grade Music Program

Nov. 11th-Veterans Day

Nov. 19th-Student Flu Shot clinic

Nov. 20th-Picture re-takes

Nov. 21st-Skate night

We had a little oops with our dates but the Chuck-E-Cheese Night is still on tonight! YAY!

We have 19 Domino's Pizza cards left for sale. They are $20 each. Come by the office or send money with your student if you would like one. Thank you for your support!

Student's need to have an AUA on file for this school year. We must have this form for your student to use technology at school. If you have not filled out your Student Registration online tor the current year, then this AUA form needs to be filled out. Thank you for your help with this. One form per student please!

Do you qualify for free and reduced lunch? Complete this form to see! As a reminder, qualifying for free and reduced lunch helps the school more than just offering the free meal. This status is confidential and helps us provide other resources in the district like nurses, school resource officers, and social workers.

All parents/guardians need to complete an online information update at the beginning of each school year. This information is used to effectively communicate with you and your student(s). This information is critical to your child’s health, safety and well-being.

Using this link ( https://rgupdate.sdale.org/) you will be asked to log in and verify your child’s information. You will need their 9 digit student id for user name and their birthdate as the password (xx/xx/xxxx). This should be repeated for each enrolled child.

NOTE: A note will be coming home for students who still need to take care of this update. If you have questions, please call Ms. Griselda at 479-750-8871

TEXTS: Click here to fill out a very short form that will add you to our text list. We use text messages to send out these weekly parent updates and reminders. We know texts are a convenient way to communicate for many of you, so please add yourself to the list by filling out this form. Multiple members of the same family can use it and each receive texts. If your phone number changes, you'll need to complete the form for your new number.

PHONE CALLS: We also send out phone calls through an automated system; you will receive these calls if your phone number is correct in Registration Gateway. If your number changes, you can update the information in Registration Gateway, or call the office to update.

SOCIAL MEDIA/WEBSITE: The weekly parent update and other announcements/stories are also posted on our school's Facebook page and website. We are working on activating our school's Instagram account also- we'll let you know when that's up and running.

PAPER NOTES: We also send out paper notes at times; most of these will be sent in folders that come home every Tuesday. Every now and then, we need to send information on other days, so it's a great practice to check the backpacks each afternoon/evening.

We don't want you to miss any information, so we put things out in lots of ways!

This year's school day schedule is the same as last year. As a reminder, our office is open from 7:20 am to 4:30 pm. We open the doors to our building at 7:20 am and school starts right at 7:45 am. Dismissal is at 3:10 pm every day except Wednesday when we have early dismissal at 1:50 pm.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Car Riders:

• If you have students in grades Kindergarten through 2nd grade, your students will need to be dropped off and picked up in the front of the building.
• If you have students in grades 3rd-5th your students will need to be dropped off and picked up on the east side of the building.
• If you have children in K-2 and 3-5, they will use the front car rider line.
  
• For the safety of all students, please have their car tag hanging on the rear view mirror as we are continuing to use the same dismissal procedures as the last couple of years.
• Teachers and support staff will be available to help students find their way to their classroom the first few days of school.

Walkers:

• Once again this year, students who are walkers or bike riders will be dismissed on the far side of the fence on McRay Ave.
• We ask that parents do not congregate inside the fence for our students' safety.
• We will continue to have a cross guard at the corner of McRay Ave. and Carlton St.
• We ask that students and their families refrain from crossing in front of the building on McRay Ave.

We appreciate your patience as we work through all of these items on the first days of school. Our students' safety is our number one priority. We cannot do it without your help!

Westwood Elementary empowers all learners to grow in a safe and positive environment to launch a lifetime of learning.

Mrs. Kimberly Crumby, Principal, kcrumby@sdale.org

Mrs. Martha Tompkins, Assistant Principal/Parent Facilitator, mtompkins@sdale.org

Email: westwoodinfo@sdale.org
Website: https://westwood.sdale.org/
Location: 1850 McRay Avenue, Springdale, AR, USA
Phone: 479-750-8871
Facebook: Westwood Elementary