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Principal's Weekly Message
May 31, 2024
Principal's Update
Terrace Families,
As we end another school year, I always like to reflect on the highlights of the school year. This is the conclusion of my 15th year as the principal of Terrace, and this year saw some very unique and positive events that our students, families, and staff had the opportunity to experience. I wanted to highlight just a few memorable things from this school year.
This year we had more family events than we have ever had since I have been here. It was a goal to allocate some of our Title One funds to creating events for our families so that they can learn more about what their children are learning at school. We had both math and reading nights for our students and families as well as brining in a speaker to talk to our families about how to support children with autism. We had really nice turnouts for those events, and if we receive Title One funds next year, we will continue to offer more family events for all of you.
All of our students had opportunities to leave the school building and go on field trips. Field trips are such an important thing that we can offer our students since some of our students and families are not able to go and experience the community beyond Des Plaines. We enjoy being able to provide those learning and real-life experiences to our students. Some places that were visited were the zoo, some students went to a play, students visited nature centers, and some students went to a baseball game. We were also fortunate enough to bring in a couple authors this year to talk to our students about their love of writing.
Not only did we have a once-in-a-lifetime solar eclipse this year, but we are also ending the year with cicadas breaking through their exoskeletons and flying around all over the place. Both of these natural phenomena provided teaching opportunities for our teachers and learning opportunities for our students. This will certainly be a year that will be remembered for sure.
Most importantly, however, is that in each and every student we saw evidence of growth. For some students, their growth was mainly academically. For others, their growth was in the area of social-emotional regulation and coping. All of our students are unique with unique needs, and we are all dedicated to helping guide them to reach their fullest potential. It is a job we take seriously, and it is a job that we all love to do.
I wish our fifth graders and our families who are moving the best of luck in the future, and to the rest of the Terrace community, we hope you have a fun and relaxing summer. We will see you in August!
News & Notes from D62:
As a reminder, we really need everyone who has not yet registered to register as soon as possible. If you student is not registered by the first day of school in August, your child will not be able to begin school until all registration has been finalized. Please contact Mrs. Bojarski in the office if you have any questions, but please take some time to register your child for the 2024-2025 school year.
Please remember that online registration is open. Currently only 85% of Terrace families have completely registered. We are still waiting for 15% to begin the registration process. Please take some time to complete your child's registration.
Additional information about District 62’s online registration process can be found here. If you need assistance with registering, you can contact Mrs. Bojarski in the main office, or there are a number of upcoming registration events at Algonquin Middle School. Those dates are:
June 06: 5:30 - 7:30 PM
Aug. 01: 5:30 - 7:30 PM
*New for next school year (2024-2025) is the addition of Verification of Residency. All families of students going into 2nd and 4th grade will need to prove residency before their student is enrolled for next year. Please call Mrs. Bojarski at (847) 824-1501 to make an appointment to bring in the required documents.
- Free and Reduced Lunch: Free and Reduced Meal applications are available on the Infinite Campus Parent Portal in English and Spanish. District 62 has also provided pre application instructions on the district website in English, Spanish, Polish, and Russian and can be accessed by clicking here. If you are interested in applying for free and reduced meals, please do so in the Infinite Campus Parent Portal. If you have any additional questions, please contact Mrs. Bojarski in the main office.
A couple of additional reminders:
- There are no dogs allowed on school property before or after school. Please leave your dogs at home or in your vehicles when picking up your children. This is a safety concern, and this rule applies to all D62 schools.
- As mentioned below in this newsletter, Apple Watches and other smart watches are not allowed at school. These are viewed as the same as a phone, which should remain turned off and in the lockers throughout the school day. This is a district policy, so we ask that you refrain form allowing your children to wear them to school unless otherwise noted in the below policy.
- Please remember that school breakfasts and lunches are not free. We do not want your children accumulating a large bill for you without you knowing it. Please talk to your children about what they are allowed to purchase and what they are not allowed to purchase. We are never going to turn a child away from getting food unless a parent or guardian has specifically talked to a teacher about it. Our food service provider, Arbor, now has all of their menus online and will no longer be sending paper copies home for families. In order to preview the weekly menus, please click this link.
The district unveiled its new website this summer. It is beautiful, and it has everything you could possibly need at you fingertips. Terrace also has its own new website. One of the things that I think you will be excited about is we now have a Terrace School Calendar for families that you can subscribe to. This is where we will begin to post all relevant school events such as Meet and Greet or Family-Teacher Conferences. There is a button at the top of this page that you can click to see the school calendar as well as the food services prices and menus. Please remember that breakfasts and lunches are not free. I hope this makes things a little easier for all of you. All before and after school events will eventually be posted to this calendar, so please feel free to subscribe.
Please check out the brand new Terrace Times, which is also linked above.
Please read the following information and reminders:
Phones and Smart Watches:
Recently we have seen some students who are bringing wearable devices to school (such as an Apple Watch or other smart watch devices). Just like with mobile phones, we have a Board Policy (7:190) which states that “All electronic devices must be kept powered-off and out of sight during the regular school day unless: (a) the supervising teacher grants permission; (b) use of the device is provided in a student’s individualized education program (IEP); or (c) it is needed in an emergency that threatens the safety of students, staff, or other individuals.”
Please do not send your students with wearable devices to school. If your child is bringing a phone with them to school, the phone must be kept powered off and in the locker during the school day. If a staff member sees a student with a wearable device or a mobile phone, they will be asked to put it in the locker. Thank you for your support with this.
Parent Volunteers:
If you are interested in volunteering at a PTC event during school hours, you must contact Mrs. Bojarski in the office in order to apply to do so. She can be reached at bojarskil@d62.org. If you have been a volunteer previously and have already gone through the background check, you do not need to do so again. Again, contact Mrs. Bojarski if you are not sure of your status or have any questions.
Instagram Page:
Please do not forget that our Facebook page is no longer active. Instead I have created an Instagram page where I will post my pictures. To find it, you can click here, or you can go to https://www.instagram.com/ and search for terraceelementaryschool so you can follow us on Instagram. We would really appreciate this, as we have almost 500 followers on FB! Let's all join Terrace in moving over to Instagram! In addition, I will try and post weekly pictures here within my newsletter for those families who do not have or do not wish to have Instagram. Those pictures will be near the bottom of the newsletter. Thank you for your patience as we make this transition. If you do not want your child's picture posted on social media, please contact our office so you can find out the steps you need to take to make that request.
Terrace PTC Spirit Wear Store:
Thanks to our amazing PTC, we now have a spirit wear store that is open for business 24-7. If you click here, you can view the items for sale and can make a purchase any time you would like. All items will be shipped directly to you. If you have any questions, please reach out to our PTC.
Arrival:
Please remember these few reminders when dropping off your students in the morning in the front circle:
- Please do not drive in the fire lane. This is unsafe. That is why it is marked off by the orange cones.
- While queued up in the circle, please do not leave your car to walk your student(s) to the front entrance. This causes a slowdown in drop-off and is unnecessary. If you wish to walk your child(ren) to the front door, we ask that you please park in the parking lot adjacent to the building and walk your child(ren) to the front door.
- Please do not park in the front circle next to the island to walk your child(ren) to the front entrance. This, too, slows down drop-off and is unsafe. It is unsafe for those crossing the driveway and is also unsafe when the parked cars try to merge back into the circle to leave. Please park your car in the parking lot if you wish to walk your child(ren) to the front door.
We would appreciate everyone's support with this so we can make morning arrival safe and quick for all of our students and families.
Dismissal:
Pickup at dismissal time continues to improve. Please understand that unfortunately our supervisors are not out there to direct traffic. They are there to help your children get into your vehicles safely and quickly. It is up to you, our community members, to be safe and patient as you wait for your students. Please, I ask you to be patient with us but also with one another. There is no rush to get into the front circle. If you follow the directions below, we will get your children to you more quickly with each passing day. Here are some way you can help us do that:
- Display the laminated sign you all should have received from your teacher. If you did not receive a sign, please contact your teacher to let them know.
- DO NOT wait or stand in front of a community member's driveway. The Des Plaines Police Department has asked me to remind you of this.
- Please do not double park on Westgate, get out of your car, and walk up to the front. If you want to park and get your child, please park in our parking lot.
- Do not drive to the left of the cars in the circle drive in order to leave the circle. This is dangerous and can hurt someone. Please be patient if the person in front of you is still loading their car.
- If your child is not outside when you drive up, you should leave the circle and make another pass. Please do not wait and hold up the line behind you.
- Remember, if you want to park and get out of your car to pick up your child, please tell your child to leave out of door 3 (blacktop door) so you can meet them there. We do not want to have too many people congregating in the front of the school at dismissal time.