Dover Avenue Elementary News

DA Families,

Happy New Year! As we are almost ready to return after what was hopefully a restful and joyous holiday break, we welcome you back with open arms after a memorable December! Enjoy some of our favorite holiday memories below!

We're committed to finish out the year strong with your child(ren) with only half of the school year left! This month may be cold and gloomy but our classrooms will be full of a renewed energy and excitement to continue growing together! We're incredibly grateful for your trust and continued partnership. Let's make this January (and the whole year) one to remember!

Mrs. Katie Nicholson, Principal

Dover Avenue Elementary School

Both 4th and 5th grade students will have the opportunity to visit the Performing Arts Center (PAC) in February for a Class Act Performance. Fourth grade students will be going to the PAC on February 4 to view a story-telling experience of Harriet Tubman. Fifth grade students will be going to the PAC on February 18 to view a show titled Quetzali and the Comic Book Queen vs. Alebrije of Darkness. Both performances will take place in the afternoon and students will be bussed there and able to attend free of charge thanks to the Dover Education Foundation! Permission slips will be sent home in the coming weeks and must be returned prior to the field trip. All emergency medical forms must be complete and updated for the 2024-2025 school year prior to any student attending a field trip.

2-Hour Delay

On a 2-Hour Delay, all schools will be open 2 hours later than normal but will end at the normal time. There will be no breakfast served on a 2-Hour Delay. The Dover Avenue schedule for a 2-Hour Delay is below:

• Students may arrive: 9:30am
• Tardy bell rings: 9:50am

(**There will be no band or orchestra on 2-hour delays)

Calamity Day Resource Schedule

Due to our Resource Rotation A-D rather than Monday-Friday, if there is a calamity day, the resource letter day will pick up on the day that we return to school. For example, if there is no school on a Monday, which was scheduled to be a C Day, Tuesday will become a C Day. This allows our students to not miss any resource class.

*Please be sure you're signed up to receive our texts and phone calls from Dover Avenue and the school district. If you're not already receiving them, you can do so by clicking on the link: https://target.brightarrow.com/msg.aspx?a=g-#%23%23%23

The Spelling Bee for Dover Avenue 5th grade students will take place on January 22 at 6:00 in the Dover Avenue gym. (This is a change from the district calendar.) Fifth grade students had the opportunity to participate in their class Bee which determined who will participate in our School Bee on this evening. We look forward to seeing who our Bee Champion is this year!

Parents are reminded to complete the online registration every year. This provides us with updated information about your child. If you haven’t updated this yet, please do so at your earliest convenience by visiting https://dover.esvportal.com/, which is located on the district website under the Parents and Parents Portal tab. Students will NOT be permitted to go on any field trip until this form is completed.

Workbook fees include the cost for novels and workbooks. Grades 4-5 workbook fees are $25.00 (checks payable to Dover Avenue Elementary) and were due September 30, 2024. Unpaid fees will result in not receiving your child's report card the next nine weeks.

Our Holiday Reads Challenge ends today, January 3! Students need to earn all their badges and read 800 minutes to complete this challenge. We will celebrate with a flashlight reading party and popcorn on January 27! Our next challenge will begin later this month!

We are so close to reaching our 500,000 minute challenge for the school year! Once we reach this goal, our PTG will provide a special treat for all students! Keep reading!!

We will have our next PBIS reward party after the second nine weeks on January 17th in the afternoon. Students who have reached a positivity ratio of 70% will be able to participate in the nacho and movie reward party! We look forward to seeing even more students achieve this goal and participate in the fun!

If you have not had a chance to log into the Powerschool website or app to view your child's behavior please reach out to your child's teacher for more information! Letters were sent home in September and again at conferences so you could access this information! This new platform allows teachers to add positive behavior, as well as the unexpected behavior.

Each month, teachers choose a "Top Tornado" for their class based on their PBIS behavior! Teachers are looking to see who is being Respectful, Responsible and Safe! Congratulations to our Top Tornadoes for December!

• Arlie Waller

• Lilah Russell

• Averie Hindman

• Ari Siegenthaler

• Essie Herron

• Kylie Heldt

• Liam Kandel

• Kruze Hay-Warren

• Hudson McNutt

• Brennan Bowe

• Jackson Churchill

• Landen Bailey

• Liam Hinerman

• Izzy Skaer

• Chance McDonald

• Abbas Bouhachem

Throughout the year we will practice Fire Drills, Tornado Drills, Lockdown Drills and Evacuation Drills. We perform these Safety Procedure Drills in order to be prepared in case of an emergency. We will discuss these drills with our students. In December all classes completed a fire drill and they did a great job with this! This month, we will practice a reverse evacuation drill in which we practice students getting into the building quickly in case of an emergency while on the playground.

If your child needs medication at school, in accordance with state and board policies, we are not permitted to dispense medication without directions and signatures of both the physician and the parent or legal guardian. If it is essential that a child takes medication during the school day, medication forms are available on our district website or you may stop in the office.

Please review the 2024-2025 Elementary Student Handbook which can be found on our district website under Parents: https://www.dovertornadoes.com/Handbooks.aspx . Students and families are expected to review this each year.

Updated bus routes will be available before school on the district website under the Parents tab. https://www.dovertornadoes.com/TransportationServices.aspx

If you need to change your child’s mode of transportation home, please contact the office by 1:00PM.

Dover City Schools receives IDEA-B funds for the purpose of the education of children with disabilities. Annually, at the September Board of Education meeting, discussion will be held regarding how the district will spend its IDEA-B funds. Time will be allowed for public comment.

Breakfast and Lunch are available for students daily. Breakfast and lunch will be FREE this year to all students! Milk is available for purchase for $0.50. Ala carte funds can be added using your Payschools Account (https://dovercity.healtheliving.net) or make checks payable to Dover Schools Cafeteria with student name in the memo line. Students are expected to know their lunch pins to get a breakfast or lunch, please help them learn this pin and practice at home!

In compliance with the Missing Child Act and for the safety of our children, parents are requested to call Dover Avenue School (330-364-7117) before 8:30AM to report the reason for your child's absence. We encourage student attendance every day to ensure continuity of learning. However, if your child is absent, please send a note following the return of your child to verify his/her absence. If the absence is due to a medical, dental, or legal appointment, please provide a verification note on the provider’s stationary upon return to school. If no call or note is received within 24 hours, the absence(s) will be marked as unexcused.

Bullying by any student in the Dover City School District is strictly prohibited, and such conduct will result in disciplinary action, including suspension and/or expulsion from school. Examples of conduct that could constitute prohibited behaviors include but are not limited to the following: physical violence; threats; damage or stealing of possessions; spreading of rumors; posting slurs on websites or social networking sites; sending abusive or threatening e-mails or instant messages etc., to circulate gossip and rumors to other students; and use of cameras/phones to take embarrassing or unsolicited photographs or videos of students and distributing and/or posting the photos or videos online or in person. Students should report this behavior to their building principal.

District bullying policies are available on the district webpage under District Dover City Schools Board Policy Policy JFCF (Hazing and Bullying) and JFCF-R (Hazing and Bullying).

Dover City Schools will be using the Raptor Visitor Management System in all of our schools to strengthen school safety for students and faculty. Part of keeping students and faculty safe includes knowing who is in our buildings at all times, and the Raptor system allows us to do that. The Raptor system will better allow us to screen visitors, workers, and volunteers in our schools and provide us with a safer environment for all. Upon entering a district building, visitors will be asked to present a US government-issued ID such as a Driver’s License, which can be scanned or manually entered into the system. If a parent or guardian does not have a scannable ID, the school staff member can use any form of government identification that includes a photo to manually enter the person’s information into the Raptor system. The Raptor system checks the visitor's name and date of birth for comparison with public state and national databases of registered sex offenders. The registered sex offender database is the only official database checked by the Raptor system. No other data from the ID is gathered or recorded, and the information is not shared with any outside agency. Upon approval, Raptor will issue a badge that identifies the visitor, the date, and the purpose of his/her visit. If anyone other than a parent or guardian is signing a child out from school, he or she may be asked to present identification, as well. A visitor’s badge will not be necessary for those who are not going past the main office but are simply dropping off an item in the office or picking up paperwork. The safety of our students is our highest priority. The Raptor visitor management system allows us to quickly identify those who may present a danger to our students. Thank you in advance for your understanding and your support in enhancing school safety procedures in our district.

Dear Parents and Guardians:

As part of our ongoing commitment to the well-being of our students, we will soon begin our personal safety lessons. These lessons are designed to help children recognize safe and unsafe situations, understand personal boundaries, and know how to ask for help when needed. Our goal is to provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to stay safe and confident in various situations. You will be receiving a more detailed notification regarding this lesson in the near future.

In addition, our Second Step lessons for the month of January will focus on social-emotional skills like managing anxiety, avoiding jumping to conclusions, resisting revenge, and handling put-downs. A large part of having success in situations such as these is to continually build essential coping skills. Learning how to manage strong emotions, handle stress, and navigate challenges is crucial for emotional development.

We encourage you to talk with your child about these topics at home and reinforce the importance of both safety and emotional resilience.

Thank you for your continued support in fostering a safe and healthy environment for our students. As always, if I can be of any assistance regarding your child’s social-emotional well-being, please contact me at hindmanj@dovertornadoes.com.

Warm regards,

Mrs. Hindman

School Counselor

During the month of December teachers finished up many units or started new units of learning for each content area. December allows teachers to incorporate some fun holiday activities while continuing to target our learning standards. One way that you can help your child is through practicing math facts and reading with them each night. Taking 15-20 minutes daily to read or practice math facts is a small but powerful way for your child to foster important skills in their literacy and numeracy skills.

During the month of January, students will be completing their mid-year MAP, Measures of Academic Progress, assessments for Reading and Math. This will give our teachers the chance to analyze student growth and identify areas to improve on for each student and the whole class. Students will also be completing their DIBELs assessments, which measures their Oral Reading Fluency and reading comprehension skills. Based on these mid-year assessment results, teachers will be able to specifically identify major areas of focus for each student before state testing occurs in April. We will also use these mid-year assessments to analyze student literacy growth to plan for our winter and spring literacy groups which will begin again in early February.

All tickets for Crimson Tornado home athletic events can be purchased online or with cash at the gate. Reserved-seat season football passes, adult fall all-sports passes, and student (grades 1-12) year-long passes are now available for purchase online through Hometown Tickets via the Dover City Schools webpage: https://www.dovertornadoes.com/Athletics.aspx

*Free language assistance with respect to school programs and activities is available for all students and families of Dover City Schools. Please contact your child's building principal for translation or interpretation services.

A big thank you to our PTG for a wonderful December full of great memories for our students! We had another successful Santa Shop, wrapped and passed out ornaments for each student and provided a special hot chocolate surprise to our students on Polar Express Day! Lastly, all of our room parents had great winter parties before we left for break! We could not do any of this without all of our parent volunteers! Thank you again for your dedication and support.

For more info, contact doveravenueptg@gmail.com or join the Dover Ave PTG Facebook Group! Lots of information can be found on the PTG website as well, upcoming events, school spirit shirts and other information for families for the school year! https://doverelementaryptg.com/ Our meetings are held in the East library at 6:00 on a Thursday of each month!

Our next meeting will be on January 16 at 6:00 at East Elementary!

We look forward to seeing you at our upcoming events and meetings!

Building Board:

• President: Kristin Mulheman
• Vice President: Kayce Hamlin
• Treasurer: Taylor Wright
• Secretary: Julie Arbogast

Executive Board:

• President: Erika Koffa
• Vice President: Veronica Studer
• Treasurer: Kate Yoder
• Secretary: Lisa Hostetler

• January 6: School Resumes (A Day)

• January 10: End of the Second Nine Weeks
• January 10: School Spirit Day - Wear your DA attire!
• January 13, 15: 5th Grade MAP testing
• January 16-17: 4th Grade MAP testing
• January 16: PTG Meeting 6:00 (East Elementary)
• January 17: Report Cards sent home
• January 17: PBIS Reward Party
• January 20: No School - Martin Luther King Jr Day
• January 22: Spelling Bee 6:00
• January 27: Beanstack Reward Party - Holiday Reads
• January 31: Crimson Companions
• February 3: Raise Craze begins
• February 4: Grade 4 PAC field trip
• February 5: Solid Rock Group Photos
• February 5: Kindness Community Night 6:00-7:30
• February 6: PTG Meeting 6:00 (East Elementary)
• February 7: School Spirit Day - Wear your DA attire!
• February 14: Valentine's Day Party (no volunteers)
• February 14: Raise Craze ends
• February 14: Midterms mailed home
• February 17: NO SCHOOL - Presidents' Day
• February 18: Grade 5 PAC Field Trip
• February 20: 4th Grade Musical Rehearsal (morning) and Performance 7:00
• February 21: Kindness Celebration
• February 26: Spring Parent-Teacher Conferences 3:15-6:45
• February 28: Crimson Companions

You can also click on this link to view a yearly calendar of events for Dover Avenue including our Letter day rotation for resources! This calendar will be updated monthly!

Resource & Special Events Calendar