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Dear Winnetka Families,
As we hope you are aware, your child's safety at school is of utmost importance to us.
Creating a safe learning environment for all students is a key tenant of The Winnetka Public Schools. Throughout the school year, your student is involved in many school activities that support this commitment through activities that foster being a good citizen and friend as well as being aware of who they can turn to for help if, or when, an issue may arise.
The first step to keeping our communities safe is keeping a secure building. Please know that when visitors come to our buildings, they are buzzed in by our entrance monitors and then asked about the reason for their visit. We thank you in advance for always coming in the front doors, stopping at the front desk, turning in your identification card, and wearing a visitor's lanyard. We do ask you to bring your ID each time you enter the building- even if we know you- as sometimes we have a substitute at the front desk and that person may or may not be familiar with you. Further, it is important for everyone entering the building to know that we are always consistent with our security protocols.
We have several other protocols in place to help us prepare in the event that an emergency situation should arise. Regularly scheduled fire drills take place throughout the year in which students practice safely and quietly evacuating the building. Fire Prevention Week is in early October and the Winnetka Fire Department will visit each school for brief assemblies and a supervised fire drill. We also have regularly scheduled tornado drills.
In addition, each school practices a "safe place" or "lockdown" drill. Teachers introduce this lock down procedure in an age appropriate manner for each grade level. After an announcement, the students move to the "safe place" in their classrooms and teachers follow procedures to secure classrooms and account for children. We also practice a "restricted access" procedure in which we secure the building against the possibility of a safety threat from the outside. We work closely with The Winnetka Police and Fire Departments during these drills. Our Safety Teams regularly participate in Safety Summits hosted by area fire and law enforcement agencies during which we work on refining our practices of the above protocols.
We also have a delayed dismissal procedure in the case of inclement weather at dismissal time. During this procedure, students are held in the building until we are confident that it is safe for them to be outside and we release students to parents and/or wait until we receive an all clear from the district and/or police department to resume a regular dismissal. It is important to note that each school has a designated evacuation site should we ever have to evacuate the building. Please know that when any of these protocols are enacted, and it is not part of a drill, parents will be notified by either the district or the school. If you happen to be present in the building during any of our drills or protocols, you will be asked to join us. As always, thank you for partnering with us to keep all of our students safe.
Sincerely,
Julie Pfeffer, Principal, Crow Island School
Joshua Swanner, Principal, Greeley School
Beth Carmody, Principal, Hubbard Woods School
Crow Island News:
Dear Crow Island Families,
It was so nice to see many of you at our Go To School Night last week. I hope it helped you get a sense of your child's teacher and the work in front of your child for this school year. I also hope you noticed the value our teacher's place on student's overall growth across all areas of development- cognitive, academic, social, emotional and physical. We look forward to partnering with you to ensure that all of our students reach their full potential.
As I shared last week, I will be in Germany on Monday and Tuesday of this week representing Crow Island and the District and sharing about all of the wonderful ways the design of our school supports our philosophy and student learning. I look forward to sharing about my trip when I return.
Have a wonderful week!
Sincerely,
Julie
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Redistricting 2020
After three years of evaluating redistricting scenarios, The Winnetka Public Schools Board has narrowed the
Redistricting options under consideration to three. The options were presented to the Board on August 26, 2019 by Cropper GIS, a demographer working with the District since 2016. New attendance boundaries will be implemented in August 2020.
The School Board has asked for the community to complete a
feedback form
(by September 10) before a final recommendation for Redistricting is made at the School Board Meeting on September 24, 2019. To access the form,
click here or visit the
District website.
At the August 26 Meeting, the School Board also affirmed its commitment to the District's Educational Master Facility Plan, which includes (3) K-4 elementary schools and moving grades 5-8 to Washburne School by 2023. The Board also began discussions on "phasing-in." Phasing-in allows a subset of students to remain at their current elementary school AFTER new boundary lines go into effect. On August 26, 2019, the School Board agreed to phase-in students from the Crow Island area who will be in fourth grade in 2020-2021. They also agreed that any new student enrolling for the 2020-2021 school year will be required to attend their newly assigned school. The Board will continue discussions regarding phasing-in other groups of students at the September 24, 2019, meeting.
Community members are invited to attend the following upcoming meetings:
September 24, 2019
7:15 p.m. at Greeley School
School Board Meeting
A Redistricting Presentation will be shared and the Superintendent will make a recommendation on a plan for Redistricting 2020.
October 22, 2019
7:15 p.m. at Greeley School
School Board Meeting
The School Board will approve the plan for Redistricting 2020. New attendance boundaries and "phase in" accommodations will be approved at this meeting.
Safely Crossing Green Bay Road During Bridge Construction
The Village of Winnetka is in the midst of bridge repair work at the intersections of Cherry Street/Green Bay Road and Oak Street/Green Bay Road, with completion anticipated in November 2019. For students traveling to school through these areas, the Village and Police recommend that the safest area for students to cross Green Bay Road is the pedestrian signal at Elm Street and Green Bay Road. It is advised that students walk their bikes while crossing Green Bay Road.
As always, please ensure that students biking or scootering to school are wearing helmets. It is recommended to remind students who are walking or biking to school to obey traffic signals and street signs and look both ways as they are riding to and from school, especially in the "tree streets" areas where some intersections do not have four-way stops.
Fall MAP Testing
District 36 has established a robust suite of assessments utilizing multiple measures to provide information on student performance. One of those tools is the Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) test.
Fall testing will occur between September 9 - 20 with all students in Grades 3 - 8 taking one Reading Test and one Math test.
Your child's building or teacher will inform you of his or her specific testing dates.
The MAP assessment is designed to measure a student's achievement level at different times of the school year and compute growth over time. MAP is a computer-adaptive test, which means every student receives a unique set of test questions based on responses to previous questions. This provides a personalized assessment experience by adapting to each student's learning level. Fall MAP results will be sent to families on October 4th. Additional information on the MAP assessment may be found on our district website at
www.winnetka36.org/Page/334
.
From the Village
From the Alliance for Early Childhood:
From Family Action Network:
Family Action Network (FAN) is a 501(c)(3) organization that curates a high-quality speaker series each academic year. All FAN programs are free and open to the public. To view a calendar of upcoming events, visit the FAN website:
https://www.familyactionnetwork.net/
.
Coming soon:
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Replies to this email will be sent directly to Julie Pfeffer. If you would like to other family members to receive the Crow Island School Update please hit reply. Please note that by adding names to the Crow Island School Update mailing list you are not updating any other mailing lists including your child's emergency contact information. Please also note that unsubscribing from this email will unsubscribe from all Winnetka school emails. Please contact Lindy Schmidt, Crow Island School secretary, to make changes to your child's records or if you have questions about other email lists.
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Dates to Remember
Tuesday, September 17
3:15pm - 4:00pm, After School Sports - 3rd Grade
Wednesday, September 18
3:15pm - 4:00pm, After School Sports - 4th Grade
Thursday, September 19
7:45am, Morning Strings
Tuesday, September 24
7:15pm, School Board Meeting @ Greeley School
Wednesday, September 25
8:00am, First day of 4th Grade Chorus
Tue-Fri, October 1-4
Walk to School Week
Friday, October 4
Run-A-Thon
Wednesday, October 9
No School - Yom Kippur
Thursday, October 17
Early dismissal @ 11:25am
No School - PM
Parent Teacher Conferences
Friday, October 18
No School -
Parent Teacher Conferences
Tuesday, October 22
7:15pm, School Board Meeting @ Greeley School
Thursday, October 24
Picture Retakes
Thursday, October 31
1:00pm, Halloween Ghost Walk - Parents, please gather on the front lawn to watch the parade
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The Winnetka Public Schools community empowers every student to flourish in an innovative, experiential environment. We support and challenge all learners to actively engage in continual growth and achievement to make a meaningful difference in the world.
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