Peirce School Family Newsletter

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Greetings Peirce Families,

We are in the final stretch of the year with 13 days of school remaining and each year I wonder where the time went! It is a pleasure to be given the opportunity to work with your children each and every day. I hope that during the summer months, you have the opportunity to connect with your children in a special way, making memories and appreciating all of the qualities that make them who they are. While a teacher at Sabin, I had a colleague, Carmen Maldonado, who told me to never kill the spirit of my daughter - to allow her to explore, be free and nurture the energy that she put out there (and boy was it a ton - often difficult to manage). Those words stuck with me and to this day I hold on to them as I raise my daughter and as I work with your children. Each of our children have their own unique ways - I hope that together we can continue to nurture their spirit so that they are given the opportunity to grow and flourish.

With Regards,

Lori Zaimi

Principal

Maddox House became principal for a day - as the top fundraiser for the school, collecting $1,000 all on his own! In addition to him coming in to work, dressed to impress, my favorite moment was hearing him tell a staff member that he could solve any problem she brought to him - that is the right attitude!

The last weeks of the school year are often when we experience the lowest attendance days of the year - as we wind down, please continue to send your children to school each day - these final days are crucial in helping us reach the 96% goal. Our Year-To-Date attendance is 95.91% and we are so close to making it above 96% - we can do it! Please make sure to send your school each day and on time, and only keep students home when they are sick. Please remember that attendance is 20% of our overall school rating and in order to receive all points we need to be above 96%.

I am very excited to announce that Peirce School was selected to be a partner of the Gust Foundation for the next 5 years. This partnership will support our vision of inclusion practices through teacher professional development, parent workshops, on-site coaching and being a thought partner to the school's administration. Over the last three years, we have worked extensively to develop our special education program, supporting students in the Least Restrictive Environment through co-teaching and inclusion. Our partnership with Gust will allow us to grow and improve our program. More information to come throughout the 2018-2019 school year.

Peirce's Pre-K Program continues to evolve - and has been selected to receive (3) full day pre-school classrooms for the 2018-2019 school year, eliminating the half day options. The announcement of Full Day Pre-K came quickly and many logistics are still being worked out with CPS. As we learn more about the program structure, we will share it with families. We understand that some families are looking for half day options, conversations with the Alderman's office and central office are in place to look at ways that we might still be able to have a half-day option for families. We are very excited about the full day option - this has been a request of families in the community for many years and will provide a strong early childhood experience for students as they transition to kindergarten.

Peirce student leaders share their plans for upcoming topics that they would like to take action on. This group has a ton of leadership and talent!

Ms. Zisook and teachers from the 3rd and 4th grades participated in a math research lesson - a process where teachers plan collaboratively, observe instructional practices, discuss student learning and then think about next steps in their own teaching.

As we close out the year, planning for next year is already underway - we are looking for donations of new or slightly used board games and plastic bins to create age appropriate game bins to be used during inclement weather days. Because of the number of kids that play these games, many of them become worn and tattered over time, requiring us to replace frequently. The best games are quick and easy, with limited pieces and directions (can be played in 20 min or less), examples include:

• Chutes & Ladders
• Candyland
• Connect Four
• Uno
• Sorry
• Trouble
• Go Fish
• Memory
• Pick Up Sticks
• Battle Ship
• Mancala
• Guess Who
• Chess
• Checkers
• Scrabble
• Children's Trivia Pursuit
• & MORE!

If you are interested in making a donation, please drop off games to Sally Suarez or Lynn Carro in the main office.

Kindergarten-8th Grade

Spread the word - we are now enrolling for next school year! Encourage any family that you know of in the neighborhood to begin the registration process. More information can be found on the school website by visiting here.

Pre-Kindergarten

There pre-school application is now live and can be found by visiting chicagoearlylearning.org more information can also be found by visiting here.

Get to know other incoming Peirce families. Join us for Kindergarten playdates on the Peirce playground.

Sunday, July 29 from 10 a.m. - .12 p.m.
Sunday, August 5 from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Saturday, August 18 from 1 p.m. - 3 p.m.
Thursday, August 23 from 5 p.m. - 7 p.m.

If you are interested in finding out your child's teacher for the 2018-2019 school year, you will need to be signed up for parent portal. Please reach out to your child's teacher or Sally Suarez in the main office ebelizario@cps.edu to find out how to sign up. Classroom placements will be made available by August 24th, but please note that there are changes made to classroom placements even up through the first week of school. While we try to have as final of a roster as possible, last minute changes are often needed to be made and sometimes unavoidable - the best laid plans often go awry.

You can find a copy of our 2018-2020 CIWP plan below. The CIWP stands for Continuous Improvement Work Plan which guides our goals as a school in 2 year increments.

The three areas of focus in our school improvement plan for the 2018-2020 school years are:

• Instruction: delivering high quality instruction for all learners
• Multi-Tiered Systems of Support: ensuring academic and behavioral supports are in place for all students, along with appropriate tools to monitor student progress.
• Restorative Approaches to Discipline: Implementation and monitoring of school-wide social emotional learning and community building through through second step, the IB learner profile and restorative practices.

Many of the 2018-2019 dates are currently on the school calendar - found on the Peirce Website - please note that these dates are tentative and subject to change, but offer a good start to planning for next year.

Jun 1 - Parent Volunteer Celebration Breakfast, 8:15am, Gymnatorium, All Invited

Jun 1 - New Kindergarten Parent Orientation, 9:15am, Gymnatorium

Jun 5 - Box Tops Collected

Jun 6 - Student of the Month, 8:15am

Jun 6 - 5th Grade PYP Exhibition

Jun 8 - PAC & BAC Meetings, 8:15am, Fieldhouse

Jun 12 - Friends of Peirce Meeting, 6:30pm, Fieldhouse

Jun 13 - Parent Mixer @ Cescas, 6:00 - 8:00pm

Jun 14 - 8th Grade Graduation @ Senn HS

Jun 14 - Local School Council Meeting, 6:00pm, Gymnatorium

Jun 15 - 5th to 6th Parent-Student transition meeting, 12:30 - 2:30pm

Jun 15 - Peirce Service Organization Meeting, 8:00am, Fieldhouse

Jun 15 - Kindergarten Sign, 9:00am

Jun 19 - Last Day of School, Report Cards Distributed

Back to School Information

August 24th - Classroom Placements updated in Parent Portal (still tentative)

August 30th - Back to School Meet the teacher/drop off supplies from 3:00 - 4:00pm, PSO Back to School Festival from 4:00 - 6:00pm

August 30th - New Family Orientation, 3:00pm (If Kindergarten families missed the June 1st session, this is an opportunity to have a condensed version, and new families to grades other than Kindergarten are welcome to attend)

September 4th - First Day of School for the 2018-2019 School Year!

Email: lzaimi@cps.edu
Website: peirce.cps.edu
Location: 1423 W Bryn Mawr Chicago, IL
Phone: 773-534-2440
Facebook: facebook.com/peircecps