The Willard Weekly

Hello Willard Families,

We hope you are enjoying the change in weather and relief from last week's heat. We had a busy week with field trips, pictures, and swimming lessons. We appreciate your support in getting through it all.

This week, our Penny Clash will begin, so be sure to grab your loose change and drop it in your grade's jar. Additionally, we continue to collect gently used items for our Rummage Sale. Be sure to drop them off by the main entrance.

Have a wonderful week!

This month is Hispanic Heritage Month. At Willard, we will celebrate this month through assemblies, events, and lessons that highlight the rich heritage of many of our students. To start off, we'd like to wish a Happy Independence day to our families from: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. And on Monday, we'd like to wish a Happy Independence Day to our families from Mexico and Chile!

Parents can now view their children's iReady Diagnostic data. Students completed their testing on Friday. This is a great way to see where your child is starting the year and to track their growth.

Access to the For Families report on the student dashboard requires a two-step authentication:

1. Login into i-Ready Connect with your student's username and password,

2. Enter the districtwide report code: NKJTNC

(Be sure to turn off pop-up blocker for this site.)

Families will be able to view the For Families report in English or Spanish for Reading and Math. Please contact your child's teacher if you have any questions. Thank you!

The Penny Clash has begun! Grab your loose change and help your grade level win. Jars will be by the entrance all week.

I would like to thank our families who volunteered to run for School Site Council. It is the largest number we've had in the last four years. We also had a record number of votes. It very exciting to see so many families engaged with our school community.

We would like to welcome our newest School Site Council members:

Dr. Kate Kurtin and Mrs. Christy Zamani

We look forward to a great year of planning for our students' success!

The Willard Annual Fund is hosting a school-wide rummage sale again this year on October 12th to raise funds for the science program and we need your donations! We are accepting clothing, shoes, books, toys, games, home goods, decor, sports equipment, etc.

Your donations can be dropped in the donation box inside the main doors. We are also in need of clothing hangers and boxes.
Please drop them in the donation box with the other donations.

The more donations we get, the more funds we can raise. Thank you in advance for your generous donations! All items donated will become property of Willard Annual Fund. Items that do not sell will be donated to Amvets.

Items we cannot accept:
• Liquid cleaning products and hazardous products/waste (paint, oil, etc.)
• Weapons
• Gas-powered tools and garden equipment
• Construction materials
• Large appliances
• Plumbing fixtures, water heaters & water filtration systems
• Automotive Parts & equipment
• Infant cribs, playpens, car seats, walkers, strollers, high chairs & wheeled toys
• Carpeting & Carpet padding
• Furniture larger than a side table (anything larger than one person can carry)
• E-Waste
• Food, drinks and other consumables

Here are a few facilities updates:

1. The upstairs student restrooms are complete and open to students.

2. The downstairs students restrooms are now CLOSED and demolition has begun. We don't have a firm completion date for the downstairs restrooms, yet.

3. Temporary restrooms are open - located in front of the Music Building.

4. The field continues to be leveled, but we have suffered a setback. The gophers have returned four (4) times after extermination. PUSD Facilities is looking to an alternative method to protect our field from gophers, once installed. Unfortunately, Facilities has shared that the opening date for the field has now been pushed to December. I know this is disappointing to for our community. I will keep you posted of any other updates.

We thank you for your continued patience as we make safety improvements to our campus.

On Monday, we will host Coffee with the Principal. Come hear information about our school performance, our goals for the year, and information on Measure EE and R. This year, we will meet in room 103. We hope you can join us.

On Thursday, we will host our first School Site Council meeting of the year. We will meet at 3:00pm, virtually. Agenda will follow soon.

Google Meet link: https://meet.google.com/fwf-eeyh-muc

Welcome back Willard Families!

As we enter our third week of 2024-2025, the Wellness Room at Willard is in full swing!

Many of you already know Room 211 as the RTI Room or Ms. Marineh’s room. This is our Wellness Corner, where any student comes to learn and practice positive social, emotional, and behavioral habits. This is a safe place to visit when the classroom or the playground presents stressors which can not be resolved immediately. My focus is to ensure that students return to class free of stress or worries, so that they may continue with their learning. We also build conflict resolution and leadership skills in our students, so they can solve problems in a constructive manner and could become advocates for themselves and their peers.

Last week, Willard students had a walkthrough around the campus where staff introduced and reviewed our school Behavior Rules and Expectations. These are posted in various locations on campus and, also, shared in the Handbook.

Willard has three simple rules and expectations for all to follow. As Willard IB students we are principled which means: safe, respectful, and responsible at all times.

Please take time to go over them with your child and encourage them to be a model citizen at school.

If you have any concerns or questions about the social, emotional wellbeing of your child at Willard, please feel free to contact me via email at fstkchyan.marineh@pusd.us.

Wishing all a healthy, joyful, productive school year.

Ms. Marineh

LEARNs Rising Stars, under the direction of Mrs. Daniel, is looking currently recruiting for this year's performers. Please see the flyer below for details and don't miss out on this great opportunity.

Is your Wildcat interested in playing Flag Football? Willard LEARNs is currently putting this year's team together. Please see the flyer below for details.

September is Attendance Awareness Month. To celebrate, PUSD is launching its Attendance Awareness Campaign: "Showing Up Matter for Real." As always, we will continue to celebrate our students with excellent attendance as we know that daily attendance is a strong predictor of school success. We look forward to seeing all of our Wildcats EVERYDAY!

We are excited to continue providing free breakfast and lunch for all our students. In order to continue being able to offer this, we need your help. You can help by doing ANY of the following:

1. Sign-up and Login to your Parent Portal Account and complete DATA CONFIRMATION
2. Fill out the LCFF Income Survey when it goes home during the first/second week of school.
3. Fill out one of the following forms:

• English: http://s.alchemer.com/s3/aa15fc09ac6a
• Spanish: http://s.alchemer.com/s3/089dbf4c923e

We appreciate all your support.

We would like to remind everyone that Willard has a Uniform Dress Code Policy. We have a number of students not adhering to our Uniform Policy. We will begin enforcing Dress Code policy, asking students to change, and calling home.

Why Uniform Dress Code?

Uniforms contribute to a positive school climate. Students are less distracted by what they or their peers are wearing and focus better on school. This reduces potential bullying and peer conflict. It also helps create community and cohesion as a school. (Uniforms, also, make morning dress routines easier as there is no need to decide what to wear.)

SEPTEMBER:

• 9/15 School Site Council Elections Close @ 3pm
  
• 9/15 Hispanic Heritage Month Begins
• 9/9 Rose Bowl Water Safety Lessons Continue - 3rd Grade
• 9/16 Annual Fund Penny Clash Begins
• 9/16 Coffee with the Principal @ 8:00am (Library)
• 9/17 Oakwood Brass Performances
• 9/18 Bloom Music Workshop - TK
• 9/19 School Site Council Meeting @ 3:00pm
• 9/23-9/25 Field Trip - AstroCamp 5th Grade
• 9/25 Bloom Music Workshop - TK
• 9/27 International Fashion Show
• 9/27 August/September IB Unit 1 Presentation and Awards

OCTOBER:

• 10/2 Custodian Appreciation Day
• 10/2 Bloom Music TK
• 10/4 Free Dress Day
• 10/4 Hispanic Heritage Charros Horse Show (At CIS)
• 10/5 Latino Heritage Parade
• 10/7 Coffee with the Principal @ 8:00am
• 10/8 PTA Restaurant Night
• 10/9 Bloom Music TK
• 10/10 ELAC Meeting @ 8:15am
• 10/10 School Site Council @ 3pm
• 10/12 WAF Rummage Sale
• 10/14-10/18 PTA Read-A-Thon
• 10/17 Great CA Shakeout
• 10/18 Parent Teacher Conferences (K-5); Staff Development (TK)
• 10/22 Principal for the Day PEF
• 10/23 Bloom Music (TK)
• 10/24 Make-Up Picture Day
• 10/25 Movie Night/Fall Festival
• 10/31 Character Parade

NOVEMBER:

• Staff Development (K-5); Parent-Teacher Conferences (TK)

The Willard Annual Fund is a key source of funding for programs at our school. In the past, the WAF has paid for science lab, language classes, and our library coordinator.

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our Annual Fund. Any amount helps. Thank you!

http://weblink.donorperfect.com/Willard

Please select the link to join. Your membership supports all of our students. Thank you!

https://sites.google.com/willardmagnetpta.org/home/

Follow our new Instagram account at:

https://www.instagram.com/willard_elementary_pasadena/

You can also follow our PTA Instagram at:

https://www.instagram.com/willardelementarypta/

Both are a great ways to keep up with school events!

Follow Us on Facebook!

Willard Facebook Page

Please make sure to sign-up for your Parent Portal account. Instructions and details can be found HERE. The Parent Portal is an easy way to keep your contact information up-to-date and monitor your child's attendance and records. You need to verify your data yearly, but only need to register your account one time, while your child is in a PUSD school. Please contact Mrs. Campos for help or your Verification Code. Thank you!

French Toast is partnering with our school for uniform sales. (A portion of sales goes toward supporting our school and students.)

Sizing Guide - English

Tabla de Medidas

Don't forget to see Willard's Family Handbook for the most comprehensive information.

Please see below for the August/September Menus.