Miller Elementary Weekly Update

Hello Miller Families!

Happy Friday! We hope this weekly update finds your family ready to kick off a fun-filled weekend! Our weather seems to be just perfect and we have enjoyed playing outside and exploring with our friends.

We want to thank everyone for their flexibility over the past long weekend so we could wrap up some of our kindergarten and preschool "getting to know you" activities! These initial assessments are to identify all the many wonderful qualities of your child and how we can help them have a successful school year. This could be checking their knowledge of letters, numbers, reading and writing. Here in the Aurora Schools, we utilize a Multi-Tiered System of Support, which we often call MTSS. This ensures that we are responding to your child and identifying areas of need to expand or support their development. As the year progresses, your child's teacher may reach out about some of the many supports we have here at Miller. This includes support with social skills, emotional skills and academic skills. We look forward to a wonderful year of growth ahead!

Finally, I want to remind families that school picture day is coming on Monday, September 23rd! As soon as we receive the package information and online ordering links, we will send them out. We expect to see these next week. Please be on the lookout!

Have a great weekend!

Go GREENMEN!

Maria Goodman

Miller Elementary Principal

330-954-2189

Email mgoodman@aurora-schools.org

Our total tuition cost for preschool is $2000 and full-day kindergarten is $2500. Many families have paid the initial down payment and we collect the next set of fees after September 3rd and the final payment will be due on January 15th.

If you sent in a check for the September payment, thank you! We will be running credit cards next week if you have not reached out to us about a change in payment. The tuition information along with our tax-id number for taxes can be found on the tuition contract you signed for preschool or kindergarten enrollment.

Hello Miller! Part of my role as a school counselor consists of connecting families with varying resources. You will note a link to a list of Community Resources should you wish to explore resources for your child outside of the school setting. During the school year, Miller offers a variety of opportunities to assist families with financial needs through partnering with our PTO. By reaching out to me via completing this form, phone, email or in-person, I can assist your student with funds for upcoming Book Fairs or the Holiday Shop, holiday gifts, Thanksgiving “baskets,” winter clothing including jackets, pants and boots; purchase of the class T-shirt, purchase of a yearbook, school supplies and any other need brought to my attention. Please do not hesitate to contact me with the slightest concern. Feel free to simply let me know what you need, and I’ll connect with you to ensure this need is fulfilled!

Mrs. Lindsey Ambrosia

(330) 562-6199, ext. 5414

lambrosia@aurora-schools.org

Please respond back if you recognize an item from our Lost and Found! We will send it home with your child next week. Thanks!

As students begin their educational journey, there are some state-mandated checkpoints and assessments to ensure that we are monitoring your child's growth and development. To accomplish these activities, it's best if we bring small groups of children to school to work on these various assessments.

The dates listed below show the various windows of time we will be conducting assessments.

AIMS Web Benchmarking - A 2-3 minute kindergarten universal screener to check your child's incoming knowledge of letters, sounds, and phonemic awareness. (August 27th)

Kindergarten Readiness Assessment (KRA-R) - Kindergarten Students (Aug. 30th & Sept. 3rd)

This assessment looks at your child’s readiness for engaging with instruction aligned to the kindergarten standards. These assessments are completed through observation in the classroom and via an interactive assessment on an iPad. Here are the skills that are checked:

• Social Foundations- including social and emotional development
• Mathematics
• Language and Literacy
• Physical Well-being and Motor Development

Speech & Language Screening - Kindergarten Students (Week of September 9th)

Your child will work one-on-one with one of our speech and language pathologists to conduct a speech and language screener.

Vision & Hearing Screening - All Kindergarten Students (Month of September & October)

Our school nurse will conduct a vision and hearing screening on all students.

Ohio English Language Proficiency Screener - (Beginning the Week of September 3rd) -

Students whose families speak a 2nd language in the home as reported in Final Forms will take a language proficiency screener. This assessment is given by Mrs. Levey or Mrs. Flannery our English Learner educators.

We will communicate any results that require follow-up or reach out to you if we have any further questions. We are looking forward to getting to know your child a bit more!

September:

• Mon. 9/9 & Tues. 9/10 - Kindergarten Speech and Language Screenings
• Monday, 9/23 - Miller School Picture Day - More Information Forthcoming
• Monday, 9/30 - Board of Education Meeting- Conference Center 7:00PM

PBIS Greenmen Poms

Has your child come home talking about earning a fuzzy pom? Did they bring home a reward ticket? We have officially kicked off teaching our learners about school expectations. At Miller, we work to help our children develop skills to be respectful, responsible, and problem-solvers. However, what does that look like and sound like in our school building? Each week we target a skill that supports the development of social and emotional skills that help all children be a member of a safe and fun learning environment. We will teach them a new skill for the next 6 weeks that helps them be safe, happy, and ready to learn.

Our teaching and reinforcing of school expectations and appropriate choices have started off with "I CAN HAVE A SAFE BODY or I AM READY TO LEARN." These two skills can be some of the most important skills we target at Miller. Many children are learning how to use their words to communicate their wants, needs and feelings instead of using physical means of communication. At school, this can look like taking toys from another friend, pushing too hard when playing tag, swinging their backpack which accidentally hits a friend, or invading someone's personal space. When we see children using a safe body or safe hands, they are rewarded with verbal praise, we hand them a Proud Pom and they get to add their Pom Pom to their class bucket!

There are times that young children need more time developing skills to keep a safe body and safe hands. It is important that we use consistent language at school and at home to monitor these behavioral actions. With consistent reminders about the appropriate expectations and time to practice these skills the right way, the more success students will find using their words instead of using unsafe hands. If we reach out to your family about practicing safe hands, please remember we are all working together to help remind your child about ways to communicate and treat others. We will also share all the great choices they continue to make while at school.

We have a school nurse, Jackie Pawlowski, on staff during school hours. She is here each day to assist students at a time of need or illness. Here are some important reminders to ensure the safety of our school community each day:

• Please make sure your Final Forms medical information is up to date. We will closely read the health sections to address any medical concerns. If your child requires medication (over the counter or prescription) during the school day, we must have a signed medication form on file. You can find this attached below.
• It is important to check your child each day for symptoms of illness as you know them best. If they become I'll during the day, or are injured, we will reach out to you and let you know if their symptoms are worsening. We call home for injuries, fevers, and continued sickness. We do not call home for every trip to the nurse for a band-aid, ice pack or upset tummy. We certainly will call if symptoms worsen. We sometimes use our School Nurse Cell Phone
  
• Students sent home with a fever, may not return to school until they are fever free without medication for at least 24 hours. This means if your child was sent home on Tuesday at 12:00 p.m. with a fever, he/she may not return to school until 24 hours later. If your child does return the next day, our school will be calling for you to come pick him/her up. Please help to support our efforts in this area.
  
• We are required to report to families if there is a confirmed communicable disease in your child's class. This could include strep, pink eye, COVID, hand-foot and mouth or other illnesses.

Finally, please make sure your child has extra clothes in his/her backpack. Accidents and spills happen all the time and it's safe to always have their own clothes in their book bag instead of wearing our spare clothes.

In all our Elementary Buildings, we utilize a Google Form to report attendance, late arrival, early dismissal, and change of transportation such as switching from a bus rider to office pick-up!

To report an absence or change, please scan the QR code below or click the button to fill out our Google form. This can be done from any device and your reply will be sent immediately to our secretary, Mrs. Toler.

Also, if your child is absent, instead of calling us, you can also use this code to report the absence and the reason for the absence. We are working really hard to reduce the amount of phone calls, emails, or notes that we receive. We ask that you reserve those modes of communication for emergencies only. Thank you in advance for your help and let us know if you have any questions at all!

Miller Elementary Principal

Erin Toler : etoler@aurora-schools.org

Miller Elementary Secretary

Email: mgoodman@aurora-schools.org
Website: aurora-schools.org
Location: 646 S Chillicothe Rd, Aurora, OH 44202, USA
Phone: 330-562-6199