Highlands Highlights

February - I Love to Read Month!

3/11 PTO Executive Meeting 1:30 - 3:15pm

3/12 Imagination Fair 5:30 - 7:30pm

3/13 - 4/22 Edina Art Show

3/14 Parent-Teacher Conferences - No Students

3/20 Choir Concert 6:30 - 7:30pm

3/31 - 4/4 Spring Break - No School

For more Highlands dates, please Go to the Highlands website at: https://highlands.edinaschools.org/

Time to sign up for the Imagination Fair & Science Expo on March 12th!

Help your kids prepare and get excited by exploring the event website and project ideas. If you have not yet registered your student’s project, fill out this form to sign up by March 5th.

We need volunteers! Sign up to help make this a great experience for all of our student scientists. We especially need volunteer judges – this is a great job for parents, grandparents, or high-school-aged siblings! Sign up on Membership Toolkit

Highlands Elementary wishes to support students and their families observing Ramadan. We are aware at the elementary level, students may or may not be participating in fasting. With that, we want to partner with our families to best support students who will be fasting. Please reach out to Highlands Elementary Principal, Dr. Rieckenberg (cara.rieckenberg@edinaschools.org or 952-848-4599), or your child’s teacher to inform us if your child will be fasting. Dr. Rieckenberg will reach out to discuss how we can best support your child. Farhiya Omar-Samatar, our EPS Somali Cultural Liaison, is also available for questions and support: farhiya.omar-samatar@edinaschools.org or 952-848-4051.

Visitors Welcome in Mrs. Widen's Music Classes!

Did you know that March is Music in our Schools Month? To celebrate, Mrs. Widen would love to invite visitors to attend music class with their child between March 10-28. It will be an "informance"—an informative and informal performance! You'll get to see how your child learns in music and participate and play along with us.

Please look for a sign-up genius link from Mrs. Widen through Talking Points which will allow you to RSVP for the date you'd like to attend your child's class. In the meantime, here is Mrs. Widen's Weekly Schedule so you can look for your child's class and see which day and time they have music and start planning when you'd like to come! Please note—Mrs. Widen teaches 1st grade, Discovery 2, 3, 4, 5 and CP 4-5 classes.

If you have any questions or would like more information about this, reach out to Katie Widen at Katherine.Widen@edinaschools.org.

It is time once again to promote FREE TREES from the Neighborhood Forest Program for classes and student's families. It is a fantastic organization and our CP Family is thankful for the partnership.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/11DipdtBNUOAtsoUcpbvtQT5d_NZDaSbOBMcoNGQEFl8/edit?usp=sharing

Order your Spring Flowers Today!

Highlands has a new leopard gecko in the office! Her name is Luna. She lived at Normandale for a while and then with Nurse Anne, until she moved in to our Highlands office. She is very active and we love having her here . Please stop to see her when you visit! She loves watching faces of her visitors.

We invite you to sign up to help feed Luna, if you are able to. She likes live mealworms. She will need a container of mealworms every other week. Sign up to feed Luna is here. Thank you!

Please take a minute to update Infinite Campus to include any adult who might be picking up your child/ren from school. This could include neighbors or relatives who live out of your home. This is especially important when considering potential Early Releases. For directions to update Infinite Campus, go to the Parent Portal website.

Please have your students check the lost and found! Thank you for labeling items so they can easily be returned to their owners. It helps to keep the lost items to a minimum. We will be donating the unclaimed items more frequently throughout the year to keep it more manageable.

Our upcoming curriculum on body development and puberty is approaching. You should be receiving an email from the principal containing all relevant information, including links to the videos. If you have any questions or would like to opt your student out, please don't hesitate to contact your student's teacher.

Dear Parents and Guardians,

In the district’s 2020-2030 Strategic Plan, student wellness is outlined in Strategy C: Fostering Positive Learning Environments and Whole Student Support. As part of this focus, the district will again be implementing a wellness screener to all students in grades 3-12 this year. This screener will help the district to gain a better understanding of students’ well-being and is the same one that has been utilized the last five years.

The wellness screener is a brief survey that is designed to assess student’s feelings, behaviors, and connection to adults and peers. Edina Public Schools partners with Panorama Education to administer this survey. The survey will not be used to diagnose students; we will use it to help identify groups of students who may need additional support at school. The results will be reviewed by teachers, administrators, and support staff (Social Workers, Psychologists, and Counselors) in the building. The screener will be administered to your student during the survey window of March 10 to March 21, 2025 and will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.

If concerns arise, you will be contacted to review your child's results with school support staff. Please be aware that if your student indicates any safety concerns at home or in school, support staff are mandated reporters and will implement any support that is necessary to ensure a student's safety.

We are asking that all of our students participate in the survey, as their feedback will provide invaluable insights into their experiences and how to improve and adapt our school to their needs. If a student doesn’t feel like they have enough information to answer a question, they will be able to skip the item altogether. Our goal is always to partner with families. Our school district has informed parents of such surveys in the past and federal law also requires us to notify parents of this school activity. The survey is also voluntary. You may choose to have your student not take the survey by completing this EPS Student Wellness Survey Opt Out Form. If you wish to opt your student out of the survey, we ask that you please complete the Form by March 3, 2025.

Questions regarding the wellness screener can be directed to Leigh Ann Feily, District Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) Coordinator (leighann.feily@edinaschools.org) or answers may be found on this FAQ Guide. Thank you for your support.

Thank you,

Edina Public Schools

Main Office Line: 952-848-4500

Attendance Line: 952-848-4502

Website: https://highlands.edinaschools.org/
Location: 5505 Doncaster Way, Edina, MN 55436
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HLHappenings

Tech and Infinite Campus Help: The Help Desk is available to answer media and technology related questions from 7am -4pm. For live assistance, please call 952-848-4915