THE FALCON EXPRESS

APRIL 2025

FROM THE PRINCIPAL'S DESK

Greetings Falcon families,

We are entering the last eleven weeks of the 2025-2026 school year! Hopefully, our scholars experienced a relaxing Spring Break and are eager to return. We are thrilled to welcome all of you back as we continue learning and growing! Our goal is to continue building partnerships and relationships with our parents and scholars.

The month of March was full of excitement as we celebrated March is Reading month and Women’s History month.

The months of April and May mark the beginning to the end of the year M-STEP testing window for Grades 3-5. We will start administering M-STEP the week of April 8th. This testing window will run through May 9th. It is very important that your scholars be at school and on time on M-STEP testing days. Past experience has shown that students who take the assessments with their class perform at a higher level than those who take a make-up assessment at a different time.

Lastly, please encourage your scholar to do their very best and review the PowerPoint presentation on M-STEP for parents.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1032hOCiXOpbAujqp1WSWSEqkHA2Jijny0uUZEJ_3W9I/edit?usp=sharing

Our learning community is a wonderful place to be and, as a team, we continue to work hard to stay the BEST! We are anchoring excellence in a safe harbor for learning and riding the “Waves of Success”!

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

Tonya M. Hickman, Principal

tonya.hickman@southfieldk12.org

TECHNOLOGY USAGE

It's important to be aware of what your kids do online. To help them find the balance, it's important to talk with your kids about how to use social media wisely.

Unfortunately, if your scholar is in violation of our district's technology usage policy consequences will be issued and their devices will be confiscated.

We always like to say, “don't post anything you wouldn't want your grandmother to see!”

Let's partner together,

Coach Thompson

EFFECTS OF TARDINESS

I am concerned at the number of students who are presenting as chronically late for school, and we also have many who are missing significant chunks of time each week.

We all run late sometimes. For your child, arriving late to school occasionally won't cause major disruption. Inevitably, children will feel sick or tired some mornings, or other situations will prevent them from being on time. But chronic lateness eventually takes its toll on a child's overall educational experience. According to the national initiative Attendance Works, missing just 10 percent of the school year in the early grades causes many students to struggle in primary school, and lateness in later grades is associated with increased failure and dropout rates.

Fortunately, parents can help prevent tardiness from becoming frequent enough to negatively impact their child's school life.

After 8:10 am, parents must sign their scholars into school at the main door. Please continue to do your part to make sure your scholar arrives at school on time each day.

Be reminded that breakfast is served until 8:15 am.

DO YOU NEED SERVICES OR ASSISTANCE?

Stevenson has a Social Navigator that will be assigned to our building from the United Way for Southeastern Michigan. Our assigned Social Navigator is Mrs. Theresa Trowell. The goal of our Social Navigator is to provide supportive service providing community members with robust, hands-on support assessing needs, identifying available resources and connecting to services.

*Health Related Social Needs Screening

*Collaborative Service Planning

*Strengths-Based Care Coordination

*Facilitated, Centralized Access to Services

*Certified Community Health Workers (CHW)

Please contact Mrs. Land, if you have any questions or need a referral.

Melanie Land

Community Coordinator

SCIENCE FAIR 2025

On Thursday, April 24, 2025, Adlai Stevenson Elementary School will host our Parent Engagement Science Fair event. This will be a school wide event. Student projects will be on display in the gymnasium for your viewing from 5:30 P.M. to 7:00 P.M.

Students in grades K-5 will complete a science project at home with the assistance of their family and should be prepared to present their individual projects in class. Each student who completes a project will have his/her board displayed, judged, and graded by me on originality, their use of the scientific method, and the overall neatness and clarity of their project. All students who submit a project will receive a participation ribbon for their participation in the fair.

Only one individual project may be submitted per student. Science boards and labels have been distributed to your scholars prior to Spring Break. However, projects should be done at home with the assistance of a parent. Completed projects and additional materials should not be brought to school prior to the designated date.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact your scholar's teacher.

ALL PROJECTS ARE DUE ON Monday, April 21, 2025.

Catherine Hamilton

5th Grade Teacher

BREAKFAST AND LUNCH MENU

https://southfield.nutrislice.com/menu/stevenson-elementary

APRIL CALENDAR

SEL CORNER

EDUCATIONAL YOUTUBE CHANNELS

SPS SUMMER OFFERINGS

We are excited to invite all of our scholar to participate in our SPS Summer Discovery 2025 Program! This program provides both academic support and enrichment activities to keep students engaged and learning throughout the summer. A link was sent to your MiStar accounts last week to register your scholar. This link will be deactivated in the coming days.

So, please register your scholar(s) now.