Notes from East Hill Elementary

Dear East Hill Elementary School Families,

Our first full week of school is coming to a close. It has been a great week! Thank you to those families who joined us Wednesday for our Curriculum Night. We had a great turnout.

We are working hard to reinforce our school wide expectations of "Be Respectful, Be Responsible, and Be Safe." The students are doing a great job following those expectations. Thank you for your continued support!

Next week, we will practice our emergency drills, especially our evacuation drill. Before we practice, we teach students what they need to do. We talk about what will happen during the drill. All students and staff are notified that we will be conducting a drill. If you have questions about the drills, please call the me in the main office.

Warm regards,

Susan Meskos

Second Step® Elementary is a research-based social-emotional learning (SEL) program designed to

improve students’ social-emotional skills, including growth mindset, goal-setting, emotion management, kindness and empathy, and problem-solving. Studies show that these skills can support students’ school performance,and increase positive social behaviors. Students engage in weekly classroom Second Step Lessons, teachers will send home parent information, and Mrs. Meskos will focus on topics on the announcements.

Here at East Hill Elementary School, we want everyone to feel welcome and that they belong. We spent the first few days focused on making sure we all feel welcome and all students know what are safe behaviors in all settings including- our hallways, cafeteria, playground, arrival, dismissal and the bus.

Starting Monday, September 16, 2024, you can submit your child’s absence reason through ParentSquare. You must wait for a notification from ParentSquare (via text, app notification or email) confirming your child’s absence before providing the reason.

You have until the end of the school day to submit the reason via ParentSquare. If you miss this deadline, please contact the school directly or send a note with your child.

From the Website:

• Click “Send Note to School”

• Enter the reason for the absence

• Click submit to send it directly to your school’s attendance office

From the App:

• Click “Send Note to School”

• Enter the reason for the absence

• Click submit to send it directly to your school’s attendance office

*Please note the notifications times:

• Grades 5 - 12 - 8:45 - 9:00 AM

• Grades K - 4 - 10:30 - 10:45 AM

Click here for a printable version (PDF) from the website.

To respond to an attendance notification and submit a note, you need to be logged into ParentSquare as a registered user. We’ll send another email invitation this weekend to parents who haven’t registered yet. Please check your spam/junk folders if you don’t see it in your inbox.

We continue to teach and review our school behavior expectations, or rules, in all settings in and out of the building: Be respectful, Be responsible, Be safe. We have some incentives to motivate students. When students are showing Wildcat Wow behaviors they earn tickets and put their name on it and put it in a jar in the main office. On Friday morning we draw 10 names that are selected as this weeks Wildcat Wow top winners! These students pick a small prize and have their picture in the newsletter!

International Dot Day was started in 2009 to celebrate the inspiring story, “The Dot” by Peter H. Reynolds. It is the story of a doubting student who is dared by a caring teacher to “make her mark”. What begins as a small dot on a piece of paper becomes a breakthrough in confidence, creativity, and courage.

Thank you to all of you who have joined the PTA! If you haven't had a chance yet, please do! We'd appreciate your support and would love to meet you at a meeting or one of our events-- please come and introduce yourself!

Some have questioned what the dues are for. Our PTA receives $2 from every membership and the rest goes to our state and national PTA, who use that to advocate on behalf of children and educators at the local, state and national levels. Although we don't get a lot from membership, it's still a great way to show support for the programs that we do throughout the year.

If you have not done so, make sure you let us know your information for the classroom directories! That is due by 9/20. Scan the QR code to fill in the form online or return the yellow sheet that came home last week. If you have already filled out the form online, do not worry about the yellow sheet. If you have filled out the yellow sheet, please do not worry about filling out an online form. Thank you!

If you were unable to attend curriculum night and would like to sign up to be a room rep, someone who helps the room rep during classroom parties, or you want to be a part of a committee (like MakerSpace or 4th grade Moving Up Celebrations), please email us at: wgehpta@westgenesee.org with your name, your child's teacher's name, and what it is you would like to volunteer for! You must be a PTA member to volunteer for us.

Next week information will be coming home for the 31st annual Jog-A-Thon! This is a huge fundraiser for our PTA, as it funds a good part of what we have planned for the year, and it's an event that the kids love! We can't wait to see our runners on 9/27!

Our first meeting will be on September 17 at 6 pm in the library- we look forward to seeing our regular and new members for this year! It's a great place to learn about what's happening day to day at East Hill and to be a part of creating the magic for the kids.

Follow us on Facebook to get the most up to date information from us!

We are pleased to announce that all students enrolled at West Genesee CSD will be able to continue to receive one FREE breakfast and one FREE lunch meal per day at school.

This initiative was implemented in December 2023 and was a result of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) expanding access to the federal Community Eligibility Provision (CEP). CEP allows eligible schools participating in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs to offer school meals at no charge to all students.

• September 17 - PTA Meeting - Library
• September 18 - Board of Education Meeting - WGHS Library 6pm
• September 27 - Jogathon! Wear Blue and Gold! - More info coming soon!