The holiday season is upon us! This is an exciting time of year both in and out of school. Here is a glimpse into some of the exciting things going on at Neidig.

Grade Level Leadership Meetings

Every two weeks, each grade level meets on our Learning Stairs for a Grade Level Leadership Meeting. During these meetings, students listen to and participate in a discussion about what is going well at their grade level, and what needs to be worked on. It is important to understand that this is not a focus on poor behaviors, but rather an opportunity to focus on what will make us even better. One of our main points to the students is that Leaders are always working to improve themselves and others. We identify and recognize positive student leadership examples and discuss what we can all do to make Neidig even better. Trends are identified and shared, and we establish goals for the next cycle of meetings. For this cycle, each grade level discussed the importance of being an upstander rather than a bystander. Upstanders actively help their friends in need, rather that passively sitting back and watching. To help our students understand this point, we all watched THIS SHORT ANTI-BULLYING VIDEO.

WIGs

Part of our Leader in Me process includes establishing Wildly Important Goals, or WIGs. Each grade level has a literacy goal that supports our building-wide WIG. The Leader in Me process provides a sharp focus on academic growth and achievement. In the coming weeks and months, you will see how your children are tracking their academic goals in their Leadership Notebooks. This is exciting and meaningful work!

No Holiday Shoppe This Year

Unfortunately, we will not have the PAL Holiday Shoppe this year. If you did order holiday plants, you will pick up your plants out front in the car rider line this Thursday, December 2, between 6:00 and 7:30 PM.

Student Lighthouse Team

Our student leadership team is busy at work supporting two community initiatives. Please scroll down in this newsletter to see what they are doing and how you can support them and our community!

Thank you for your continued partnership in your child's education!

Scott D. Godshalk

Neidig Principal

sgodshalk@qcsd.org

The first opportunity is a Food Drive to assist the Quakertown Food Pantry during the holiday season. We are collecting items beginning December 1. We will collect items through December 20. Looking for a recommendation for items to donate?? Please CLICK HERE.

Our goal is to collect 1,000 pounds of food!

Next, our school is partnering with Outreach Care for a mitten, glove, and scarf collection. Please note that these items must be new, not used. This donation effort also ends on December 20.

The fliers are listed below.

This year's car rider line is busier than ever. Covid, bus cancelations, and other reasons have resulted in more car riders than we have EVER experienced. Thankfully, almost all Neidig families have learned the procedures and demonstrate significant amounts of patience in the long, long car rider line. I hope you will acknowledge that once the line begins, it goes quickly. It goes even quicker when everyone follows the procedures. I am including this information in this newsletter because when even one car does not follow the procedures, the car rider line experiences a significant back up. The steps below are listed for everyone, especially for families that are affected by bus closures. The bus closures are a significant inconvenience for families. Levy Bus Company is working hard to recruit new drivers, and we hope that inconvenience ends very soon!

Car Rider Procedures:

• Above all, be safe. This is an elementary school, and student behaviors can be unpredictable. Stay alert, drive slowly, and exercise patience.
  
• Cars enter the Neidig campus from the Glenwood Ave. entrance.
• AM drop off begins at 8:55 AM. Students DO NOT exit cars prior to 8:55 AM. It is important to note that some walkers arrive a few minutes early and wait by the front door. Car riders should not exit their cars prior to 8:55 AM. Thank you for your understanding.
• Always, always, ALWAYS pull up as far as you can. When you pull up as close to the stop sign as you can, you are allowing more cars to unload and load at the same time. With SO many cars in the car rider line, it is essential that cars pull forward as far as possible to help this process run efficiently. Please follow the adults directions as they wave you on to pull forward. Thank you!
• Students should exit (AM) and enter (PM) the car by themselves on the RIGHT side of the vehicle. Cars are passing on the left, so it is important students do not use the left side of the car.
• Please help your students prepare to exit the car so once the car stops they can independently leave the vehicle on the RIGHT side of the vehicle.
• The bell rings at 9:10 AM, and students should be in their classrooms when the bell rings. I appreciate the busyness of the household morning routine! And, I appreciate the importance of classroom routines that lead to a successful school day. Most families are dropping off their children by 9:05, but there are many families who pull in at 9:10 AM or later. Please be sure students are in their classrooms by 9:10 AM.
• Please do not speed in our parking lot. There are many students and adults in this area, so please drive cautiously and slowly. Our surveillance cameras are picking up many speeding cars.
• At the 3:40 pick up time, please follow the directions of the adults supervising this process. We know it can be frustrating when you are the first car in the next set of students that will come outside. That means you will need to pull up toward the stop sign and your child will meet you at your car. Please understand this allows another 15 cars to load at the same time, greatly reducing everyone's time in the car rider line.

We appreciate your attention to these procedures.

The Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) will be administered online to students in grades 3-5 in April and May. Scheduled dates for the PSSA are listed below. Please plan for your third, fourth, and/or fifth grade student to be in school on these dates.

April 25 - April 29: 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade English Language Arts (ELA) Assessment

May 2 - May 6: 3rd, 4th, and 5th Grade Math Assessment AND 4th Grade Science Assessment

May 9 - May 13: This week is used to complete makeup assessments if students missed a test due to illness.

Students will take these online assessments at school on the morning of the testing dates.

If you have any questions related to PSSA testing, please contact Mr. Godshalk.

QCSD schools are closed from Friday, December 24 through Monday, January 3, 2022. School resumes on Tuesday, January 4, 2022.