W.E.stchester Weekly

Greetings We Families,

It has been a busy week to start December off and the next two weeks are busy as well. We hosted 22 EL Education visitors from across the country on Tuesday. Actually, there were even two visitors that traveled all the way from China. EL Education is a network that is far-reaching.

It is always great to open our doors to others and share the work of our staff and students. When planning for this visit, we were asked to share the “secret sauce” of Westchester. It really comes down to our WE Crew. The students and staff make our school a joyful, vibrant and exciting place to learn. The visitors shared much appreciation for the rigorous work and evidence of the quality learning but they were most impressed with the feeling of our culture of crew. That is truly a special part of our school.

Thank you to the PTA for supporting our work with EL Education. Several teachers and I attended the National Conference here in Atlanta this week. Ms. Querubin represented our school and accepted our recognition as a Credentialed EL School. Once again this is exciting as we are among a small number of schools that share this recognition for our quality work that develops students as the leaders of their own learning.

As we wrap up our first semester, please mark your calendars for some special events

• December 6th: 2nd Grade celebration of Learning

• December 12th: 1st Grade Celebration of Learning

• December 19th: 1st semester ends.

• December 19th: Community Circle - All invited

• December 19th:12:50 Early Release

• December 20th: Winter Holiday Begins/Teacher Workday

From your very grateful principal,

Christine Knox

School Lunch Policy: Please be sure to maintain a positive lunch balance for your child. This will help us avoid any unexpected lunch changes for students. Check your Parent Portal frequently to make sure your child has adequate funds for the cafeteria. You may also find the Parent Portal app (for Apple or Android) to be more convenient.

Well, you don't have to be a gardener but if you want to help with our school service project, we would love to have you join us. As an EL school service learning projects provide opportunities for students to collaborate beyond the classroom and do something good for their community. It is also an authentic learning experience to work with experts from the field as well as other community members with a shared interest. We are excited that some friends of Woodland Gardens have volunteered to help us prepare the school grounds for the native plants our first graders learned about in the Spring. We need to remove the plants in front of the auditorium and replace them with plants that are native to our geographic area. Please join us next Wednesday, December 11th from 9-11. Many hands make light work! Thank you Laura Qadri for your dedication and expertise. You have shared so much with the students and supported their service learning.

Thank you to the DEF for providing our media center with 2 awesome grants the last year and this year.

We are so excited about our Cricut maker and are finding lots of ways to use it form magnets on lockers to gift for our EL visitors! In January our students are going to pracitce letter writing so we are going to have a stamp design contest and the winners will have there stamp made with the Cricut Maker! With the help of parent volunteer, Megan Ranney- the Cricut maker is in business- Thank you!

The DEF also helped us purchase a lot of sensory books for our students. While this is a small sub group of students who might benefit from these, the DEF saw that ALL means All and all students needs are important.

Please take a moment to participate in CSD's climate survey relevant to your school and ensure your voice is heard! Remember, these surveys will be available until March 31, 2025. Your participation is vital, as the data collected will help determine the School Climate Star Ratings for the 2025-26 school year. City Schools of Decatur values the input from parents, students, and staff!

Take the Westchester Family Climate Survey through March 31, 2025.

STAR Early Literacy, Reading and Math Assessments: December 2-6 and 9-13

K-12 students will take the STAR Early Literacy, Reading and Math Assessments during the winter assessment screening period of December 2-6 and December 9-13. CSD measures results from this winter assessment screening period against results from the previous fall screening period to track growth and adjust instruction to best meet students' individual needs. These assessments are crucial for ensuring your child's continued success.

Families may use these directions to opt-in to receive the results of the STAR assessments upon completion. For questions, please contact Christie Manasso for any questions regarding this assessment.

Keep it Indie-Catur on Giving Tuesday!

Giving Tuesday is right around the corner! There are countless worthwhile organizations to donate to, but when you give to the Decatur Education Foundation, your support directly impacts kids, teens, and educators right here in our community. Your tax-deductible gift provides essential needs for CSD families struggling with food insecurity, supports student mental health initiatives, provides arts infusion programming in our schools, and allows us to support our amazing educators through Teacher Innovation Grants! Through your generosity, we've been able to do so much good work in our community, and with your continued support, we'll be able to do so much more! Visit DEF's website to learn more about how you can get involved!

Westchester newsletters

Who to Contact: Please see who the best contact is for your questions for a quicker response.
Website: https://www.csdecatur.net/Westchester
Location: 758 Scott Boulevard, Decatur, GA, USA
Phone: 404-370-4400
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/westchesterelementarycsd