WFES Newsletter
October 16th, 2020
Virtual Parent-Teacher Conferences
Parent-Teacher Conferences will be virtual this fall and are the week of October 26th - 29th. Please click the link below to sign-up for a conference time with your student(s) teacher.
Important Conference Reminders
- Any conferences scheduled after October 23rd will need to be made directly with the teacher.
- Teachers will send a conference meeting link directly to parents/guardians after a conference time has been scheduled.
- Tuesday, October 27th, is the conference late night with conferences being scheduled to 7:00 PM
- Wednesday, October 28th, and Thursday, October 29th are early release days to accommodate afternoon conference times.
- There is no school on Friday, October 30th.
Annual Harvest Parade Information
As with every year, remember that only school appropriate costumes may be worn. No weapons, fake blood, gore, or obscene costumes will be allowed. Costume masks may be worn during the catwalk but need to remain off the rest of the day.
All students are still required to wear their cloth face mask with their costume.
PVConnect students are welcome to participate by sending in a picture or short video to their teacher to show off to their class!
Staffing Updates
Art
While Mrs. Telfer's creativity and artistic talents will be hard to replace, we are excited to welcome Mrs. Dawn Disney to the Art classroom!
Meet Mrs. Dawn Disney!
Hi, my name is Dawn Disney. I am an Arizona native originally from Flagstaff, who married her high school sweetheart and graduated from ASU with a Bachelors of Fine Arts degree. Immediately out of college, I went to work for an amazing art gallery in Old Town Scottsdale called Wilde Meyer Gallery where I worked my way up to being their Director of Management and Marketing. After the birth of my first daughter, I decided to focus on being a mom and work on my art by request for several years. When my second daughter was in preschool I worked as a muralist for her preschool as well as for several businesses around the valley. I taught a preschool art classes and was the Artist in Residence at Copper Canyon Elementary for their second grade. After years of volunteering most of my time, I finally decided to do more for the school and was hired on as a one on one Para Educator. I have worked for the Paradise Valley School District going on five years now. I am so excited to now be a part of the Wildfire community as your art teacher this year!
Social and Emotional Learning Specialist
We are also sad to announce that our SEL Specialist, Mrs. Ronna Horowitz-Eging is unfortunately no longer with Wildfire Elementary School as she is needing to attend to some unforeseen personal matters. We are extremely grateful to Mrs. Horowitz-Eging for her guidance and support of our students and families during our online learning and transition back to in-person learning.
Welcome to the Team!
Please help us welcome to Wildfire Mrs. Genevieve Fourmy as a one-on-one para-professional and Mrs. Jamie Barber as a lunch/recess duty aide. We are excited to welcome them to our staff!
Help Wanted
STUGO & WFES WEEKS OF KINDNESS
Face Mask Reminder
All persons, including, but not limited to, staff, students, vendors, visitors, and volunteers, shall wear a cloth face mask while on any District property, in any District facility, at any District event, whether indoors or outdoors, and in any District vehicle, including District buses or vehicles rented or leased by the District.
Cloth face masks are to fully cover a person’s nose and mouth fitting snugly, but comfortably against the sides of the face and under the chin. Masks are to be of solid material and double-layered. For example, a double-layered cotton mask or a surgical mask. They are to remain affixed in place without the use of one’s hands and are to not have holes or valves. They are to be laundered regularly at home or disposed of appropriately.
2019 - 2020 Yearbooks are here!
- Wednesday, October 21st-Yearbook Club Meeting: Students will sort and separate yearbooks into current grade level classes.
- Friday, October 23rd: Yearbooks will be given to teachers to be passed out at the end of the school day.
- Students who are participating in PVConnect will receive the yearbooks in their packets from their homeroom teachers to be picked up over the weekend.
- Monday, October 26th-Tuesday, October 27th: Yearbook Pick Up 3:30-4:30
- Students who no longer attend Wildfire (6th graders and students who transferred schools), as well as PVonline students, can pick up their yearbooks outside the front of the school. Abby will email parents of students who no longer attend Wildfire to notify them.
- Yearbooks to sell: Anyone who did not order a yearbook last year may purchase their yearbook online through the PTO toolkit. We only have a specific amount of extras to sell so it is first come first serve.
Thank you Volunteers and Parents
Also, thank you parents for your patience and support as we have returned to in-person learning, we appreciate your help in making sure all our students get to and from school safely.
Staff Shout-Outs
If you would like to thank a staff member for all their hard work or for any of the other amazing things they do, you can give them a shout-out! Simply complete the form below and the shout-outs will be shared with the staff member and without a doubt will make their day!
Attendance Information
Please report any student absence to our attendance line: (602) 449-4301. A message can be left on the attendance line 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
When calling the attendance line to report an absence:
Please clearly state your student’s name, their teacher’s name, and reason for the absence.
If your student is ill, please describe their symptoms, including their temperature and the date when the symptoms began. This information is important.
If your child has complaints of any COVID-19 symptoms, they must remain home from school or will be sent home from school for 10 days from the onset of the symptoms.
If the symptoms have improved after 10 days and they have been fever-free for at least 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication, then they may return to school.
PVConnect Attendance: If your child has been asked to stay home from in-person learning due to illness and to attend school via PVConnect, parents do not need to call in the absence on the attendance line.
Health Office Information
Emergency Card Update
If you haven't already, we are asking all parents/guardians please update your student(s) emergency card.
This information is vital to Nurse Royce, so she knows any medical allergies and/or conditions that students may have. This information also is important to teachers and front office staff so that we have current parent and emergency contact information.
If you haven't already completed your emergency card update, please do so as soon as possible. You can go online to the Infinite Campus Parent Portal and follow these directions, to update.
Technology is ever-changing and we are becoming more digital in our records. Our school site has been the leader in elementary schools for getting the annual update completed online. While it has been challenging and frustrating at times, we are thankful to the many families that have chosen to update online and help us as we continue into a more digital future.
News from the Nurse
As we look forward to returning to on-campus learning, I wanted to share a few reminders:
COVID-19 affects people differently and this includes children and teens. Anyone can get the virus and anyone can spread the virus. Twelve percent (12%) of cases in Maricopa County are individuals under the age of 19.
Be sure to monitor yourself and your family for the following symptoms:
Fever (100.4 or greater) or chills
Cough
Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
Fatigue
Muscle or body aches
Headache
New loss of taste or smell
Sore throat
Congestion or runny nose
Nausea or vomiting
Diarrhea
If any of these symptoms are present or if a household member or close contact tested positive, please keep your child home and isolated from others. Maricopa County has a useful interactive home decision making tool to help guide you:
https://maricopasneb.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3wLf31Anb2yNAUZ. Also, please be sure to leave a detailed message with regards to illness when reporting absences.
The health office will have a low threshold for sending ill students home. For the safety of your child and others, please make every attempt to pick your child up from the health office in a timely manner.
Your child must be up-to-date on vaccines before returning to campus. Please be sure to send any updated vaccine records to me prior to your child’s first day back.
Over-the-counter medications, such as Tylenol and Advil will only be administered with parent permission for parent-specified conditions (migraines, menstrual cramps, etc..); we will not routinely administer for general headaches or pain because we don’t want to mask any possible COVID-19 symptoms. Please contact me for more information and for the medication form.
With regards to asthma, the CDC recommends metered-dose inhalers with spacers over nebulizer treatments during the COVID-19 pandemic. If your student requires nebulizer treatments, please contact your physician to see if an inhaler with a spacer would be appropriate as we will not be administering any nebulizer treatments in the health office this school year. In addition, all inhalers used on campus must have a spacer. Please contact your child’s physician for a prescription for a spacer if you do not have one (you may also order a spacer online without a prescription). If your student is going to self-carry an inhaler with a spacer, you must still complete an asthma action plan and you must also complete a consent to self-carry. Contact me for the paperwork.
I am excited to see your children back on campus! Stay well and please don’t ever hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Nurse Royce
(602) 449-4303
PTO Information
Smile.Amazon.Com
AmazonSmile is a simple way for you to support Wildfire Elementary every time you shop, at no cost to you. AmazonSmile is available at Smile.Amazon.Com on your web browser and can be activated in the Amazon Shopping app for iOS and Android phones.
How to turn on AmazonSmile in the mobile app:
- Join AmazonSmile. If you are not already an AmazonSmile member, sign up on your web browser. Simply select Wildfire Elementary PTO to start generating donations, at no cost to you.
- Get the app. Download or update to the latest version of the Amazon Shopping app on your phone. You can find it in the App Store for iOS or Google Play for Android.
- Turn on AmazonSmile. Open the app and find ’Settings’ in the main menu (☰). Tap on ‘AmazonSmile’ and follow the on-screen instructions to turn on AmazonSmile on your phone.
On your first visit to smile.amazon.com, you will be prompted to select a charitable organization. Select Wildfire Elementary School Parent Teacher Organization. Every time you shop on Amazon simply start at smile.amazon.com and the school earns 0.5% of every purchase. It's that easy to make a difference! Ask your friends, family and co-workers to participate too! As always, Thank you for your support!
Coke Rewards
BOX TOP$ for Education
Box Top$ for Education is now digital! No more cutting and collecting box tops.
Click here to see how it works and how to contribute.
Fry's Community Rewards
If you are a Fry's VIP member you can link your card to Wildfire PTO and effortlessly earn money for our school simply by doing your normal shopping. You just have to signup once and the school will reap the benefits all year!
Important Upcoming Dates:
- Virtual PTO Meeting: October 19th at 5:00 PM
- STUGO Meeting: October 20th at 3:20 PM
- Yearbook Club Meeting: October 21st at 3:20 PM
- Governing Board Meeting: October 22nd at 7:00 PM
- STUGO Spirit Wear Day - Sports Day: October 23rd
- Parent-Teacher Conferences: October 26th - 29th
- Early Release Day: October 28th
- Virtual Harvest Parade and Celebrations: October 29th
- Early Release Day: October 29th
- No School: October 30th
- Election Day: November 3rd
- Yearbook Club Meeting
- Veterans Day - No School: November 11th
Wildfire Elementary School Firebirds
Email: wfes@pvschools.net
Website: https://www.pvschools.net/wfes
Location: 3997 East Lockwood Drive, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Phone: (602) 449-4300
Facebook: facebook.com/WFESFirebirds
Twitter: @WFESFirebirds