Keep In Touch Neason Hill Elementary School Parent Newsletter – February, 2015 NEWS FROM MRS. DEARDORFF It’s important to communicate with the school and teachers. One easy way to ‘keep in touch’ is to look at your child’s assignment book. All students in grades 3-4-5-6 have a school assignment book. This book is used to record assignments (homework – a project due next week, etc.). It is also a good way to ask questions and communicate with the teacher/parent. There are sections at the bottom of each page for comments, “TEACHER MESSAGE” and “PARENT MESSAGE”. Please take the time to write questions and remarks to your child’s teacher. They will also make remarks and respond to you. Please do not write absence excuses or notes regarding early pick up or dismissal routine changes in the assignment books, those must be submitted separately and signed by the parent. Thank you. Once again a reminder, students are NOT to be in the building prior to 7:30 am. We appreciate your cooperation with this. On a two hour delay day, students are not to be in the building before 9:30 am. Please note that breakfast is only served until 7:55. Students are tardy if not in their rooms by 7:55. Students who arrive to school late may not be able to get breakfast at school. Please make every effort to have your child to school on time. We continue to have a problem with people parking in front of the school in the driveway. There are “No Parking” signs posted. At NO time during the day are there to be people parking in these posted areas. We continue to stress that this is for the SAFETY OF OUR STUDENTS. Take an extra couple of minutes to make sure your child is safe – park in a parking space and walk them to the building. “CHARACTER…BE ABOUT IT” As per Mrs. Deardorff’s letter dated 1/6/15, Pennsylvania State Trooper, Officer Pifer, has begun this character education program with our fifth and sixth graders as well as Miss Moss’, Ms. Clements’, and Mrs. Nolan-Johnston’s classes. He will be meeting with classes each week presenting lessons on optimism; self-regulation; bravery; zest; grit; integrity; gratitude; social intelligence; kindness; hope; and fairness. He will also be travelling throughout the building during the other times of the day meeting our younger students at lunch, recess, etc. PTO The next PTO will be meeting on February 2nd at 4:00 p.m. in the Neason Hill library. PTO has many upcoming events including activity day, assemblies, book fair, and teacher appreciation week. We encourage parents, guardians, and teachers to try to attend our monthly meetings. If anyone would like a copy of the minutes from January’s meeting, you can email Stephanie at fourhart@zoominternet.net Playground: We would like to have a chairperson for the playground to research the cost of swings, mulch, benches. This person would also be in contact with The Central Office to make sure we are meeting all required guidelines. We would like to have the swings installed as soon as the weather breaks so that the students can enjoy them in the spring. Next week we will begin a fundraiser to raise money to expand our playground equipment. Keep your eyes open for a booklet of postcards that your child will bring home with a picture of the “Glow-InThe-Dark” Smiley Face prize shirt on the cover. By completing this booklet, you will be helping our school raise money to add swings to our playground. You will also find details on how your child can receive a free “Glow-In-The-Dark” Smiley Face T-Shirt; how our school could win $100,000; how your family could win $10,000; and how your child’s teacher could win $5,000 for their classroom. Each student who returns a booklet will have their name put into a drawing to win an IPad Mini, a Radio Controlled Robot, or a T-Shirt. Each participant will also receive a small prize as a participation gift. Thank you for supporting our school! BLACKBOARD CONNECT EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION SYSTEM This is the system used to call parents in the case of a two hour delay, early dismissal, or school cancellation. The phone number called is the number given as the primary number for each student. However, parents may add additional numbers through the district website www.craw.org. Under the Parent/Student Resources section on the main page there is a link titled “Blackboard Connect Emergency Notification System”. You can create an account and add as many numbers as you want and update them in the future if you have changes. THIS DOES NOT NOTIFY THE SCHOOL OR DISTRICT OFFICE OF THE CHANGE OR ADDITION OF A PHONE NUMBER. It is the parent’s responsibility to notify us of any such changes. GREAT NEWS FROM THE LIBRARY! We are happy to report the library received a $1,000 grant from the Crawford Central Community Foundation to buy new animal books. To “Pay It Forward,” Neason Hill will sponsor a school-wide drive in the spring to collect items for the Humane Society. Thank you, CCCF! A memorial collection was taken to buy books in honor of Mrs. Diane Dowler, a former teacher who recently passed away. Over $300 was collected and used to buy science and engineering books, since science was Mrs. Dowler’s favorite subject to teach. Thank you to everyone who donated. If you are interested in the titles of the new books, please e-mail Mrs. Wilson: libby.wilson@craw.org. This year’s Jingle Bell Book program garnered over $300 worth of new books for the library. Thank you to all who participated! The library fund-raising project, begun August 2013, has brought in about $10,300 to date. That’s an excellent start on updating our library books, but the collection’s average copyright date is still 21-years-old. Please stop by our display in the main lobby to see our contributor list and find out how you can help surround our students with books they can’t wait to read! COUNSELORS CORNER February is Black History month, during the month students will be learning about tolerance, diversity, and how to get along with others. Check out the front lobby area. In February our snow man will change into something magical. The students continue to read Project Wisdom announcements in the morning. They have been doing an awesome job. Finally, as always, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns regarding your child/children. LOST AND FOUND Every year it seems like our lost and found gets more and more crowded. It is good practice to write your child’s name on lunch boxes, tags on clothing, shoe tongues, etc. This way we can get the items back to the owners. Clothing and large items are in the lobby, smaller items (i.e. jewelry, glasses, phones, etc.) are kept in the office. VIDEO GAMES Students have been asked to leave their video games/equipment at home. It is amazing how far technology has come. It is difficult to monitor which students are allowed to download games from others and what types of games parents permit on their child’s game system. We don’t want anyone to find themselves in a predicament because of the capabilities of hand-held game systems. Additionally, it would be unfortunate if any items were damaged or stolen at school. Thank you to all parents and students for helping and supporting the school. TRADING CARDS Trading cards of any kind are not allowed at school. Baseball cards, Pokemon cards, Yugioh cards, etc. are to be kept at home. If they are found at school they will be confiscated and kept in the office until a parent is able to pick them up. We are not able to monitor who is and who is not allowed to trade cards. Thank you for understanding. ACTIVITY DAY Happy New Year! Time to start planning 2015’s Field Day. We are looking for parent volunteers to help with our fun-filled day of activities. If you are able to volunteer on Friday, May 29th and / or Monday, June 1st (rain date) please let us know as soon as possible! Parent slips were sent home- or you can email lauren.steinbeck@craw.org to sign up. We appreciate your willingness to make this day a success for our students! CELL PHONES AT SCHOOL We understand that students may need cell phones for before or after school activities. However, they are to be turned off and out of view during the school day. We recommend that cell should be kept in the child’s backpack during the school day. The following disciplinary actions will be followed if a student if discovered using a cell phone during the school day. 1st Offense - Phone Confiscated - Parent must pick up phone 2nd Offense –Phone Confiscated – Parent must pick up phone – Three day out-ofschool suspension. 3rd Offense – Phone Confiscated – Parent must pick up phone – Five day out-ofschool suspension. PEFECT ATTENDANCE AWARD We would like to congratulate all of our students who had perfect attendance and were on time every day for the first semester (8/27-1/16). Great job, keep up the good work. All of the following names were entered in a drawing to receive a new bicycle provided by Greg Sankey and Sean Battin of the Horace Mann Companies. Our winner this semester was Daniel Michaelson, third grade student in Mrs. Shimek’s class. CONGRATULATIONS! Perfect Attendance (no tardies) Robert Beck Braden Bosco Melissa Brandt Ace Brown Elisabeth Collins Jacob Costello Joshua Costello Dylan Dearborn Alexandra Gallagher Charris Hall Lucian Hall Brooke Hart Mackenzie Hurban Mackenzie Jackson Bianca Kelly Makaylah Kelso Elizabeth Kessler Mason Leung Emma Lippert Andrew Locke Coehyn Maynard Jordan McCurdy Daniel Michaelson Ian Miller Justyce Overmier Meena Peterson Avery Phillips Nathan Potter Colin Reichel Ryan Reichel Konner Sayre Cole Shaulis Katherine Singer Patrick Smith Tanner Williams Kaylee York Oscar Zheng We will have another drawing for a bicycle at the end of the school year from students who have perfect attendance second semester (1/21-6/8). IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER 2/2 2/3 2/12 2/13 2/16 2/19 2/25 2/27 P.T.O. Meeting 4:00 pm in the school library 100th Day of School Valentine Parties 1:45 No School President’s Day Break No School President’s Day Break Evening Parent Conferences Two Hour Delay 3rd Grade to Academy Theater Neason Hill Elementary School Sunday 1 Do not park in front of the school in the driveway even when “just dropping someone or something off”. Thank you. 8 Monday 2 P.T.O. Meeting 4:00 pm 3 Wednesday Check out Crawford Central’s new webpage at www.craw.org 16 23 Saturday 5 6 7 11 12 Valentine’s Parties 1:45 13 14 Day of School 10 Friday 4 100th REMINDER: All absences require a written excuse within 3 days of returning to school No School President’s Day Break 17 18 19 20 21 24 Allegheny Jazz Band performance 8:30 am 25 TWO HOUR DELAY 26 27 28 No School President’s Day 22 Thursday Groundhog Day 9 15 Tuesday February, 2015 (no breakfast at school) Progress Reports sent home 3rd-6th Evening Parent-Teacher Conferences 4:00 – 6:00 pm 3rd Grade to Academy Theater 12:30-2:15 “Snow White & the Seven Merry Maids” P.T.O. Basketball Clinic 1:00-3:00 Upcoming Dates to Remember: March 2nd – PTO Meeting; March 5th – no school for students (Teacher In-Service); March 6th – no school for students (Parent-Teacher Conferences); March 11th – Spring Pictures; March 18th – Two Hour Delay