Symmes Elementary School
Newsletter
October 23, 2020
Mark your Calendar!
- October 27: Picture Day (Face to Face AND Virtual)
- October 30: Black and Orange Day
- November 4: Picture Retake Day
PICTURE DAY IS COMING!
Picture Day for face to face students will be held on October 27th during the school day.
Picture Day for Virtual Classroom students will be held at Symmes Elementary on October 27th, from 4:30-6:30.
No sign up required
No pre ordering required
Parents should park in the gym lot and should not enter the building.
Students will enter through the gym doors and be escorted to a socially distanced, safe waiting area.
There should be a minimal wait time. Each picture session takes approximately 1-2 minutes.
- After picture day, families will receive an email with information about how to access and order their student's pictures.
Please help us welcome Katie Greene to the Symmes Elementary family!
Mrs. Greene joined our administrative team on Thursday. She will be assisting Mrs. Ralston during the remainder of Mrs. Van Kirk’s absence.
Mrs. Greene has nine years of school administration experience, serving as a principal in Hamilton City Schools and an assistant principal in Forest Hills School District. She most recently served as a senior business consultant for Hueman Interface, which educated high school and college students on the soft skills needed for securing their first job.
We are thankful Mrs. Greene will be joining our team to assist in the daily operations here at Symmes Elementary. Welcome, Mrs. Greene!
Symmes Construction Update
We are excited to announce that construction is beginning on the renovation plans for Symmes Elementary! The first phase of construction is slated to begin in November/December.
On October 14, two large tractor trailers were placed on our property in preparation for work to begin. In the coming weeks, our extra furniture and materials will be loaded onto these tractor trailers for short-term storage on the soccer fields.
Our front fields will be fenced off and utilized for construction equipment and parking for construction crews. In order to minimize the impact to arrival and dismissal, construction traffic will be restricted to a new access road on the east side of the fields. This access road will cause the front parking lot to be slightly modified.
How this will impact you:
We do not anticipate any major impact to our school day or to arrival and dismissal time. However, the modification to the front parking lot will slightly shorten our driveway where pickup and drop off occur and could cause short delays. As stated above, our fields will also be inaccessible.
We thank you for your patience and invite you to join in our excitement as we start our work!
Parent/Teacher Conferences
ALL conferences will be held virtually, for both Virtual Classroom and Face-to Face students. Parents will receive details regarding the conferences as they get closer. Dates are as follows:
Nov. 19 (Thursday) Evening Conferences (K-6)
Nov. 20 (Friday) Daytime conferences (No School-K-8 only)
Nov. 23 (Monday) Evening Conferences (K-4 and 7-8)
Symmes Steppers is Back!!
We are excited to be able to offer our Steppers program this fall! It will look a little different but will still serve to encourage fitness and fun for Symmes students!
Face to Face Students – Each teacher will be given the option to take their homeroom out to the track one day a week during one of their recess blocks. Those students will “BEe Responsible” for tracking their laps and reporting it to their teacher. Students will be rewarded for reaching their mileage milestones with a special certificate!
Virtual Students – We encourage virtual students to head outside and engage in a physical activity for 20 minutes every Wednesday. That could be a walk or run around the neighborhood, a bike ride, creating an obstacle course… the options are endless! We will be posting ideas to the Symmes PTO Facebook page every Wednesday as well as the reward certificate template for virtual families to print at home and present to your child when you feel they have gone above and beyond!
Please be sure to check the Symmes PTO Facebook page each Wednesday and post a picture of your child “Stepping”!
If you have any questions, please contact Sara O’Hara at symmessteppers@gmail.com
Information for Parents about upcoming Fall/Halloween Celebrations
Due to COVID restrictions, we will not be able to have a Fall/Halloween parade at Symmes this year. While this is a tradition that we all look forward to and love, we need to ensure the safety of our staff and students.
We are planning some fun activities for your students:
Fall Classroom Celebrations
Will feature a book read by Mr. Forsthoefel.
Prepackaged snacks and treats to enjoy outside or to be taken home provided by PTO.
Classroom Games and crafts provided by PTO.
Volunteers and guests are not permitted in the building at this time.
Details will come from your child's teacher.
School Wide Orange and Black Day
On October 30, dress in your orange and black.
No costumes will be permitted at school.
Non Scary Halloween shirts are permitted.
Virtual Halloween Parade
Whether your children are virtual or face to face, please send us pictures of your children in costume
Pictures will be used to create a fun iMovie for classrooms to watch.
Black & Orange Day!
On Friday 10/30/20, we invite everyone to wear
Black & orange or a favorite fall/seasonal shirt!
(no costumes please)
For your information:
LOST and Found
We are accumulating a number of lost and found items. As a reminder, please clearly label all belongings with your child’s last name. To minimize risks due to COVID-19 while attempting to reunite items with their owners, we are going to follow the following process.
Every Friday in our building newsletter we will include a picture of current lost and found items.
If you see an item that belongs to your child, please remind them to claim that item in the cafeteria during their lunch. They can notify any staff member in the cafeteria that they need to claim their item.
If your child forgets, you can email their teacher to ask for help reminding the student.
Your child will have1 week to claim the item.
After 1 week, all items accumulated in the Lost and Found will be removed from the building.
Here are this weeks' lost and found items:
Virtual Picnic
Here are the dates for upcoming lunches:
October 27 from 12:00 pm -12:30 pm
November 3 from 11:35 am -12:05 pm
November 5 from 12:00 pm -12:30 pm
*Please only have your child attend their grade level meet so we can more easily manage our numbers.
This is optional for students, and is an additional time for us to stay connected.
We know that there will be some months that we will not be able to get together, but we look forward to seeing you all as often as possible!
Virtual Meal Curbside Pick Up
The pick-up location for all families for virtual meals is no longer at the High School. You instead will pick up at your student’s assigned school location. IF you have multiple students that attend different buildings, meals for all of your children will be available for pick up at the OLDEST child’s school. You do not need to visit multiple schools.
Pickup time for Symmes will be Wednesdays from 10:00 am to 11:00 am.
If you have not already signed up and would like to do so, please sign up here. Please note, the cutoff each week to sign up is Sunday at Midnight.
TECHNOLOGY HELP FOR VIRTUAL CLASSROOM STUDENTS
Need help?
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Click here to be connected with Symmes Ambassadors:
https://www.sycamoreschools.org/domain/909
Click here if you want to help other families: