February 2015 Newsletter - Crawford Central School District

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 [email protected]
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:
[email protected].
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 [email protected] 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