Bear Necessities

Good Afternoon Iowa Community,

What a beautiful week! I am so impressed with the learning happening in our classrooms and already seeing the growth of our students. In the near future, students in Ms. S's classroom will be creating their own "businesses" to sell items in the school (e.g., cookies) to create a real-world experience with a connection to what they learning in the curriculum. Very exciting for our students!

This week we also had volunteers from the Colorado Avalanche come to the school to work with a few of our physical education classes to learn skills in hockey. This was a great opportunity some of our students were able to experience and they had a wonderful time! See the pictures below.

There's a lot in this week's newsletter. Please take the time to read it all the way through. We are very close to our attendance goal. I'm certain we can make it next week!

Please free to reach out to me by email (jbsmith@aurorak12.org) or by phone at 303-751-7413, if you have any questions or concerns. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Sincerely,

Jason Smith

Principal

Iowa Elementary

October Count is a very important day for schools each year. School enrollment (the number of students in attendance) determines a school's budget for the following year. Every year, the official enrollment/attendance count is taken the first school day in October. This year that date is October 2. It is incredibly important that all of our students at school (every day), but especially on October 2 to ensure we receive the necessary funding for the 24-25 school year. To encourage all of our students to attend on October 2, this will also be pajama day for our students. Please help us with the upcoming October Count date by ensuring your son or daughter is in attendance. Thank you!

Please join us for our first Parent Coffee at Iowa. Use this 1 hour opportunity to speak with the Principal, meet staff, share ideas and find out what's happening at Iowa and with Aurora Public Schools. Every Second Tuesday of the month 9am-10am in the Media room. Bring your ID to check-in!

Our attendance has greatly improved this year from the past couple of years. We are continuing to monitor student attendance daily and want to partner with our families to ensure our students are coming to school every day. At Iowa Elementary we are using an attendance protocol moving forward for this school year. When a student reaches the following number of absences families will receive the following notifications and communications.

• 1st Absence: Contact from classroom with a simple message saying regarding the student missing class
• 3rd Absence: Contact from Dean of Climate and Culture Mr. Turner and/or our Family Liaison Mrs. Ellis
• 5th Absence: Letter sent home with information about the number of absences and the importance of attendance.
• 8th Absence: Attendance Improvement Plan Letter sent home to schedule conference for improving attendance and supporting families.
• 11th Absence: Homevisit or 2nd conference to review AIP and see what other next steps are needed to get student to school everyday.

If you have any questions regarding this information, please contact Cody Turner, Dean of Culture and Climate (ccturner@aurorak12.org).

Please understand that we do not celebrate birthdays at Iowa for individual students with food due to student allergies and the financial hardship this may cause for families. Therefore, treats for birthdays are not permitted. We do celebrate winter holidays, Valentine’s Day and the end of the school year as a group in classrooms. Please ask your child’s teacher how you can support these celebrations so that all students can enjoy. We appreciate your support.

We encourage you to schedule all appointments outside of school hours; however, we understand that this is not always possible. If it is necessary for a student to leave school prior to the end of the school day, the parent or authorized person listed on the child’s information sheet must report to the main office to sign the child out. Picture identification is required when checking a student out of school. Once the secretary has verified an authorized adult for student check out, the secretary will notify the child’s teacher to request him/her to report to the main office. We value instructional time and therefore, we will not call a child up to the main office until the parent/guardian is present and has followed the proper procedure to sign-out the child.

The end of the school day is extremely busy as teachers are ending instruction, students are preparing for departure, the office staff is coordinating car and bus dismissal, and cars are arriving for the normal dismissal process. To maintain order and safety while carrying out the procedures of our dismissal, we ask that you not check students out of class after 3:15 pm except for emergency situations.

Communication with you son or daughter's teacher is a critical component to the success of your child in school. We encourage our parents/guardians to establish open communication with your child's teacher to know what is occurring is the classroom and how your child is progressing. However, please understand that teachers are unavailable during the school day to meet with parents/guardians.

If you would like to meet with your son or daughter's teacher, please reach out to the teacher to schedule an appropriate time to meet. If you leave a message for your child's teacher, the teacher should contact you with 24 hours if possible.

Support Iowa Elementary by purchasing school spiritwear. Iowa Elementary receives a portion of the proceeds from all spiritwear purchased. The flyer below shows special promotions occurring now. However, for a list of designs you can personalize for Iowa Elementary, please click on the following link:

https://iowaspiritwear.com/

In collaboration with the Colorado Rapids, Iowa Elementary is setting up an attendance challenge for all of our students/classrooms. The three or four classrooms that have the highest average attendance during the month of September will get to have a Colorado Rapids player read to their classroom on October 26. See the flyer below.

Aurora Fall Festival, Saturday, October 14

Free car seats hosted by Swedish Medical Center at the Denver Zoo. Two dates, see below.

WeeCycle free mobile diapers. Scan the QR code for locations.

Did you know that if you sign up and use your King Soopers card a portion of the sale will go to Iowa Elementary PTO?

If you have not done so already, we are asking everyone to complete a free and reduced lunch application form. Please complete the form, even if you don't believe it applies to your family. Schools receive funding based on our free and reduced lunch count. Every application completed will benefit Iowa Elementary. Please click on the link below to complete the form. If you need support completing the form, please contact our main office.

If a family needs help completing the application, please contact our Family Liaison, Erin Ellis (eellis@aurorak12.org), and she can assist.

Lunch Application

• September 27 - Vision/Hearing Screening
• October 2 - October Count (Attendance) and Pajama Day
• October 10 - Iowa Parent Coffee (9:00am-10:00am, Media Center)
• October 11 - APS EPAC meeting (9:00am-11:00am PLCC 15771 E. 1st Ave Aurora 80011)
• October 11 - PTO/SAC Meeting (5:00pm-6:00pm, Media Center)
• October 12-22 - Fall Break, No School
• October 27 - Trunk or Treat at Iowa Elementary

Main Office Hours - 7:30 am - 4:00 pm

School Hours - 9:00 am - 3:30 pm

Students may enter the building at 8:45 am.

Telephone: 303-751-3660