Lyon & Pleasant Ridge Monthly News
October 4, 2021
Glenview District 34
Our Mission
Aspire. Explore. Discover. Connect.
Lyon School
1335 Waukegan Road
Glenview, IL 60025
(847)998-5045 Phone/(847)998-9701 Fax
(847)657-2894 Absence Calls/Health Office
Website: https://ly.glenview34.org
Pleasant Ridge
1730 Sunset Ridge Road
Gelview, IL 60025
(847)998-5050 Phone/)(847)998-5532
(847)998-2794 Absence Calls/Health Calls
Website: https://pr.glenview34.org
Twitter: #PREagles
Events at Lyon and District 34
Friday, October 8
Lyon School Spirit Day
Friday, October 15
No School - Conference Day
Monday, October 18
Board of Education Meeting 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, October 19
PTA Meeting - 7:15 p.m. via Zoom
Friday, October 22
Lyon School Spirit Day
Friday, October 29
Halloween Classroom Celebration (see information below)
Monday, November 1
No School - Institute Day
Wednesday, November 3
Lyon Picture Re-take Day
Tuesday, November 9
PTA Meeting - 9:15 a.m. at Pleasant Ridge
View the full calendar at the District website (www.glenview34.org -- Parents -- Calendar).
Message from the Lyon Principal
Dear Lyon Families,
Fall is here, and school is in full swing! Students are familiar with routines of their classrooms, relationships within classroom communities are well on their way to being built, and we are building our stamina and making growth as readers, writers, mathematicians, artists, musicians, athletes, and so much more!
We have completed our initial benchmark testing for the school year, and will use this data to inform instruction for large groups of learners, as well as individual students. Additionally, your child’s homeroom teacher is looking forward to connecting with you for parent teacher conferences. This beginning of the year connection is a wonderful opportunity to connect with your child’s teacher, and become more familiar with their academic and social-emotional experience at school. We look forward to partnering with you, and continuing to build the school to home connection, which serves as an important foundation for your child’s learning experience. You can find more conference information below.
The month of October serves as “National Bullying Prevention Month”. Staff have been taking time to become familiar with our “Second Step” Bullying Prevention Unit, and we have discussed D34 policy in regards to reporting of, and documenting bullying when appropriate. We take the social-emotional well being of all students seriously, and will continue to push ourselves to learn and grow in this area as staff, but also in the education of students, of what it means to let a safe adult know when they need support, ensure our students are “supportive bystanders” when they see a bullying situation take place. Below, you can find a specific communication in regards to this important work, for each grade level in our building. Please look out for a separate email that I will send in the coming week, in regards to preventing bullying in our school.
We hope that your family has a safe and enjoyable October, and we look forward to continuing to work with you, towards a successful and impactful school year for your children.
Best,
Stefanie Shefler
Halloween at Lyon
This year Lyon students will still take part in celebrating Halloween! Due to current health guidelines, there will still be many changes to our "typical" celebrations this school year.
Only kindergarten students should arrive to school in costumes on Friday, October 29th. All other students should not wear a costume to school, and will be given the opportunity to change mid-day. Students will not be able to change costumes in the bathroom this year, due to distancing restrictions, so please send a costume that is able to go over student clothing.
As you and your students prepare for Halloween, please note the following:
Please do not let your child bring any type of weapon (fantasy or look-alike). This includes plastic swords, fake guns, or anything that could be perceived as a weapon.
Costumes that are violent or bloody are not allowed.
Masks(that are part of a costume or that cover the entire face) are not allowed at school.
For safety reasons, please be sure that your child can see and walk around easily in his/her costume.
If you have any doubts about the appropriateness of any portion of your child’s costume, please contact your teacher or the main office and we will be glad to advise you.
In addition to our original guidelines, here are a few additional notes about our celebrations this year.
All students must wear a mask (face covering) and a mask that is part of a costume does not take the place of a mask (face covering) used each day.
Unfortunately, we will be unable to hold a parent or student parade this year, due to COVID safety guidelines.
Classroom parties will be modified. There will be no food allowed and all activities will be teacher directed. Our wonderful room parents will be providing activities for Lyon students.
We are committed to keeping Lyon School a safe environment. While we know these changes are different, we are confident that our staff will make Halloween celebrations memorable for our students!
Construction/Wall Signing
As you have already heard, students were able to participate in a very special event on Monday, September 27th. All students were able to sign the floor of the new MPR, and their signatures will forever be a part of the structure! Additionally, students are participating in an inquiry project, stemming from this event, and ideas are already flying. Students will follow the structure of “Ask, Discover, Plan, Create, and Share” to dig deep into their “wonders” about construction.
Some examples of questions we have already seen from our “ask” portion of the activity are:
What is going on with the outside of the building - what will it look like?
Will it be big? (how big?) Will there be a gym?
How do they make cement? Where do they get all the materials?
Did the workers follow instructions to build it?
What is the process of making a building from start to finish aka dirt to school?
How do you make the walls stay up? Do you make the floor or walls first?
What is it going to look like inside?
Where is it going to connect to the old building?
What will the new playground be like? What shape?
In addition to “discovering” answers to our wonders through texts and other resources, students are also participating in a live zoom Q and A with our construction site managers! More updates to come in upcoming newsletters, about where we are in our inquiry process!
You can find pictures and video of this event on our Lyon Facebook page.
SHIELD Testing
Weekly SHIELD testing began Thursday, September 30th at Lyon. Below you will find information relevant to testing procedures and routines.
Classrooms have each been given an assigned time to rotate into the testing space. If you are curious about your child’s specific testing time, please contact your child’s homeroom teacher.
Testing times may be subject to change, as needed.
In order to collect adequate saliva samples, students will be directed to avoid eating and/or drinking one hour prior to their testing time.
We expect to have results within a 24 hour period after samples have been delivered to the lab. We will only notify families in the instance there is a positive COVID diagnosis.
As a reminder, lunchroom close contacts do not qualify for “test to stay”. If your child has a positive COVID diagnosis or is determined to be a close contact, our contact tracers will follow up with you and explain next steps and timelines. You can find more information about close contacts and test-to-stay procedures on the Health & Safety Protocols page of the District website.
Message from Principal Friedman
October is upon us.
I hope this letter finds you and your family healthy and well. I’m sure you’ve been feeling it too, we are getting busy at school. After a smooth and patient start to the year, we are diving into reading, writing, math, social studies, and science units. In addition, all our Fine Arts classes have picked up steam and are introducing students to the various learning objectives in our first trimester. I see that backpacks are going home just a bit heavier than they were the first few weeks of school. I hope your routines at home are working for the family and you got the ‘school swing’ dance down in the house. FYI, we are still figuring out that dance in the Friedman household as our children are inconsistent in regards to their attitudes and desire to get their work done :).
It was quite a first at Pleasant Ridge yesterday as we conducted saliva testing with almost 400 students yesterday. I’d like to thank all our parent and community volunteers who were on hand to support our students and staff with the testing. The logistics of testing this many students is a work in progress and we will continue to refine the schedule so it has minimal impact on the school day.
We look forward to partnering with you this month during conferences. We’ve had an opportunity to get to know our students and look forward to sharing their initial assessments and work habits with you. Your perspectives are so helpful in guiding our efforts with each and every child. These conferences provide us an opportunity to set goals for the year and discuss the ways we can work together to support your child.
Have a great month of October,
Erik
- Please see below for a few timely notes and updates:October is National Bullying Prevention Month- Over the next few weeks we will be introducing students to our Bullying Unit in the Second Step program. Second Step is our curricular resource for Social and Emotional learning and they have created a specific unit for teaching students about bullying. Every classroom in our building will be working through this unit in the month of October.
One of the strongest prevention measures against bullying is a well informed student body. When students understand they have power as bystanders and friends to prevent bullying, all children in the school environment benefit. Over the last month we have introduced students to new resources that support them asking for help or sharing concerns. Safe 2 Help is a confidential tip line students can use to ask for help for themselves or others. Additionally, the District 34 Bullying Tip Line is a resource for our students, staff, and families to report bullying concerns. Students have already utilized these resources to ask for help or support their friends. I’m glad we have these avenues to listen to children’s concerns and support them.
- Halloween @ PR- In the coming weeks I will be sharing our plans for Halloween at Pleasant Ridge. Like last year, we plan to let kids dress up and have fun, while following our most current health and safety guidelines. Classroom teachers are working with room parents to plan activities for our students. More information to come soon.
PLEASANT RIDGE AFTER SCHOOL CLUB INFO
Lyon/Pleasant Ridge Conferences - Need to know
Conferences are important milestones in our school year, but hopefully serve as a confirmation of information you have gathered thus far about your child’s growth and progress (e.g., from ongoing conversations with your child, your child’s teacher, classroom newsletters, student work samples, etc.). As you look ahead to these conversations with your child’s teacher(s), we hope you find the following questions and answers helpful.
What is the main purpose of the fall conference?
These meetings are intended primarily to share our observations thus far regarding your child’s growth and progress at this early stage in the school year. The first month or so of school has established a baseline from which to work, and the conversation with you at the conference really improves our understanding of your child. If there is specific information you would like to receive or address at the conference, please let your child’s teacher know in advance.
How long will the conference be?
This will vary a little from teacher to teacher, but a typical conference will be scheduled for 20 minutes. This amount of time adequately allows for a focused discussion to occur and creates a manageable conference schedule for teachers.
How can I make the most of my conference time?
Arriving promptly for your appointment (via Zoom) helps ensure a smooth start. Coming with questions prepared in advance and taking notes to share later with your child are helpful strategies as well.
What should I do if I’m running late or can’t make the conference?
Please email your child’s teacher. They will follow up to reschedule.
We value this time for reflection and celebration. Conferences, combined with ongoing communication between home and school, help us to strengthen our collective effort to meet the needs of every child at Lyon and Pleasant Ridge and to work in genuine partnership with you.
Bullying Curricular Resources
The links below contain specific communication in regards to the second step program for each grade level in our building.
Covid- Shortened Absence Options
Please continue to follow district messages in regards to Covid Protocols and safety mitigations. In the case your child is identified as a close contact, families are given four options in regards to their child's return to school date.
Option 1: Return date will be 14 days after the date of exposure (the day of exposure is day 0).
Option 2: Return date will be 10 days after the date of exposure (the day of exposure is day 0).
This option requires that your child:
Remains without symptoms and continues to monitor symptoms for the full 14 days after close contact
When returning to school:
Follows distancing of 3-6 ft and continue to properly mask in the classroom
Follows distancing of 6 feet when mask is off during lunch
Option 3: Return date will be 7 days after the date of exposure (the day of exposure is day 0).
This option requires that your child:
Remains without symptoms and continues to monitor symptoms for the full 14 days after close contact
Provides a negative PCR test on day 6 or after (please submit test result to the health office)
When returning to school:
Follows distancing of 3-6 ft and continue to properly mask in the classroom
Follows distancing of 6 feet when mask is off during lunch
Option 4: Test to Stay- Student is not excluded from school. This option is available to students opted-in to SHIELD testing.
This option required that your child:
Remains without symptoms and continues to monitor symptoms for the full 14 days after close contact
When returning to school:
- Following distancing of 3-6 ft and continue to properly mask in the classroom.
- Following distancing of 6 feet when mask is off during lunch.
- If you choose a shortened absence window or "test to stay", students will be able to return to school at the date shared by the health office.
- With the shortened absence option, your child will be given an alternative lunch seat or location, as we are required to keep them six feet apart unmasked, until the full 14 day window is complete.
Please contact our health office with any questions you may have.
Elementary Adventures - Youth Services
We still have room in our Elementary Adventures Social Skills Group which is starting on October 5th. This activity based group for 3rd-5th graders focuses on social skills and friendship making. It will take place on Tuesday nights from 6pm-7pm at Youth Services. Masks are required.
Click here for more information or please contact Nelida Figueroa at nfigueroa@youthservices-gn.org.
News from the Lyon Health Office
All Illinois children in kindergarten, and 2nd grade are required to have a dental examination complete by May 15th of the current school year. Please have your dentist fill out the dental form and return to your child's health office prior to the due date.
All Illinois children entering kindergarten or upon first entry into an Illinois school beyond kindergarten, are required to have an eye examination by October 15th of the current school year.
All required forms can be found at the following link under the “health” tab.
https://www.glenview34.org/for-parents/forms
Please refer to the link below for additional information.
https://www.glenview34.org/for-parents/health-information/requirements-overview
2021-2022 School Calendar
Find Us on Facebook
Lyon School is on Facebook. Follow @ LyonD34 to get news and views into what's happening in classrooms and around the school!
Important Forms
Click this link for the following frequently used forms:
https://www.glenview34.org/for-parents/forms
Authorization And Permission For Administration Of Medication
Cell Phone Use Agreement and Permission Form
Classroom Party Menu Options
Dental Exam Form (completed for Kindergarten, 2nd, and 6th grades)
Dental Exam Waiver
District Policies/Handbook Info
Eye Exam Form
Eye Exam Waiver
Food Guidelines
Health Examination Form