FES: Monthly Newsletter
September 2023
Principal Message
Freeland Elementary Families,
We are off to a great start of the school year. The students came in last week like they never left for summer. We are working on building strong classroom communities, strengthening relationships, and ensuring we have the information we need to provide high level instruction.
We want to provide consistent feedback to all of our families on the progress of their child, and the information in this principal message will help guide you with all of our practices that will provide information about your child's academic progress. In order to provide high level of instruction throughout the school year, the teachers collect data and provide progress updates to families in a variety of different ways.
NWEA (Reading and Math): Each year students in 3rd-6th grade will take the NWEA test 3 times (Fall, Winter, Spring) in reading and math to show progress towards standards. Students in 2nd grade will take NWEA Math. This assessment gives our teachers a great idea of how your child is doing and how they are progressing through grade level standards. We break the assessment up over time, and allow students to have breaks between the testing sessions. Results of this assessment, along with other classroom assessments drive our instruction to ensure your child is meeting the grade level expectations. Our goal over time is for students to show high growth as they take the different benchmarks throughout the school year. This assessment is adaptive, which means the tests are not the same for each child and will adjust based on what the students know or don’t know. It provides us as educators a great deal of information and can also predict performance on state assessments such as MSTEP for our 3rd-6th graders. For more information about NWEA testing and how it works, check out the NWEA Family Toolkit.
i-Ready (Reading): The i-Ready Reading Diagnostic is given three times per year (Fall, Winter, Spring) for our 2nd-4th graders. This assessment is used as a screening and diagnostic tool to inform instruction and intervention planning and to monitor growth in core components of early literacy word recognition and language comprehension skills.
Both i-Ready and NWEA, measure student achievement and growth and are designed to monitor progress toward meeting Michigan state math and reading academic standards. Both assessments are a part of a balanced assessment system that include screening, diagnostic, formative, summative, and state-level assessments.
Standards Based Grading: In Freeland Community School District for grades K-5th, we use standards based grading, which is different than your traditional scoring of letter grading and percentages. By using standards based grading, it allows teachers to score children on a scale for the state standards in which they teach, and allows children to receive academic related feedback on an ongoing basis that shows guided improvement. The scale is 1-4, and specific indicator descriptions will be listed on report cards.
At the halfway point in the school year when our first report cards come out, it is important to remember that every standard has not been taught or for that matter retaught. Children have the whole year to learn the required material. If at any time you have questions about the progress of your child, or standards based grading, I encourage you to reach out to your child’s teacher, and my door is always open.
Report Cards and Conferences: Because of our ongoing reporting features through our assessment systems, our teachers will be providing official report cards two times per year. Report cards will be made accessible on Skyward (paper copies will be available upon request to the front office), and timelines for those official report cards will be provides as we get closer to those dates. First will be in January, and the second will be in June. Teachers will be providing reports from NWEA, IXL and i-Ready (if applicable) after each testing session, which will provide our families with continuous updates. Please know that these reports will come from your teachers after the completion of the testing sessions. For example, the first session reports will come out in October, or will be given at conferences. Conferences will take place in early November which will provide our families with a great deal of progress updates and proficiency information. Watch for more information about conferences from your child's teacher in October!
While I know this is a lot of information, it is incredibly important information to continue our ongoing partnership for our Falcons! I am so proud of each one of our students, and I look forward to all of their progress this school year.
Your Proud Principal,
Mrs. Kali McKenna
Skyward Family Access-Updating Information
Within your Skyward account, you can update your child's information, emergency contacts, etc. If you are wanting to update something and the software is not working appropriately, please feel free to reach out to our front office.
Helpful Links:
Do you want to Volunteer at FES?
Are you interested in volunteering at FES? If so, you will need to fill out this form, and hand it in to our front office.
FCSD Volunteer Background Form
We welcome families and community members to visit our building and volunteer their time. At all times when children are in the building, we will be following district policy which includes utilizing the secure entrance, signing in at the Main Office, having an approved background check, and having a prearranged purpose for a visit.
FCSD Multi-Tiered Systems of Support
Falcon Fridays!
Attendance
Good attendance is important in order for children to be successful in school. When a child is absent, they miss up to six hours of instruction each day. While provisions can be made to make up assignments, nothing can replace all the instruction and learning that takes place during the school day. Late arrivals and early dismissals greatly inhibit your child’s learning. Procedures have been established to deal with patterns of attendance that interfere with a child’s learning. This may be deemed as “truancy” and may involve outside agencies (such as the truancy officer, intervention program and/or court system) to help the family and child correct this issue.
Please refer to our attendance policy on page 12-13 of the family handbook.
- Excused Absences: An excused absence is defined as one that provides the front office with proper documentation (doctor's note, etc.) After 10 parent verified absences (those without proper documentation, but a phone call was made), any absence will be marked unexcused. After 10 unexcused absences, truancy may be filed.
- Unexcused Absence/Parent Verified: An unexcused absence is defined as any absence where a call to the office is not made by the parent or guardian. Students that leave class without teacher permission will be marked unexcused and an appropriate consequence will be applied.
Learning Center and Elementary School PTO!
Bus Changes on FCSD Transportation
Great News! FCSD Nutrition Services
BREAKFAST AND LUNCH MENUS
FCSD Vision and Mission
Vision: Preparing Students for the Demands and Opportunities of the 21st Century
Mission Statement: The purpose of the Freeland Community School District is to prepare students to be successful adults by providing a challenging curriculum that connects students' lives to their future in a safe and supportive environment.
Important Upcoming Dates
September 15: Clash for a Cure Football Game, (Freeland vs. Bridgeport)
September 20: FCSD School Board Meeting 6:00 p.m. @ HS Auditorium
September 25-September 29: Homecoming Week
September 29: Homecoming Game (Freeland vs. Birch Run)
October 18: FCSD School Board Meeting 6:00 p.m. @ HS Auditorium
Freeland Elementary School
Kali McKenna, Principal
Lauren Hall, Secretary
Meghan Maxwell, Secretary
Annette Moore, Secretary
Email: mckennak@freelandschools.net
Website: freelandschools.net
Location: 710 Powley Drive, Freeland, MI, USA
Phone: 989-695-5371
Facebook: facebook.com/freelandschools