Dear Leighton Families,

It is so hard to believe we are already into September and will soon be enjoying the beauty of leaves changing colors, cool breezes, and amazing sunsets that light up the evening sky. I hope each of you can take some time to enjoy the beauty of the season with family and friends whether that is a walk or just sitting outside and enjoying nature.

We are in the process of completing our benchmarking assessments for Fall called Aimsweb and our staff is working diligently to continually refine our instructional practices to meet the ever-changing needs of each of our students. Our students are off to an amazing start this year as it has been amazing to see each of them pick up where we left off last year being engaged in situations that support critical thinking, innovation, and collaboration in each of their classrooms. It is very easy to see our strategic vision goals embedded into daily instruction as our classroom environments exemplify that learning is social and our teachers are focused on helping students embrace the process vs. the product through our reading, writing, and mathematical frameworks. All these skills are expedient for students to be "future-ready".

Mr. Lehman and I are excited to kick off Principal Pals in a few weeks where we visit each classroom and share a story with our learners. We love the Q and A with students about what it is like to be a Principal and what our days look like. Our favorite part of course is enjoining popsicles at lunch with our students. Thank you to our PTO moms who help us with this process each year.

We also had our first "few" fire drills this past week as well as our Grade 3 bus safety drills. Students did a great job with these safety drills and following all safety protocols. As shared earlier this week, we had a few extra fire drills due to our alarms malfunctioning after one of our hoods in the kitchen triggered the fire alarm before school. Thus, we got in lots of great practice on a beautiful sunny day!

We ended a busy week with some amazing PBIS "kickoff" assemblies at each grade level where we celebrated students being back to school and their efforts in demonstrating being respectful, responsible, and problem solvers by following our building wide expectations. Our new Pom Pom system is a big hit! Check out some of the highlights from our assemblies below as well checking out our "Spotlight on PBIS".

Thank you for an amazing first few weeks of school! It has been such a smooth start and so wonderful to welcome our learners back! As always, please don't hesitate to reach out to us with any questions, concerns, or feedback! We value your continued partnership and support!

Enjoy the long weekend!

Kind Regards,

Michelle Nizen, Building Principal

Ben Lehman, Assistant Principal

Students and staff have been excited about our new "Pom pom" system representing our 3 pillars (green poms=respectful; white= responsible; and black= problem solving) and earning poms for demonstrating these pillars in any area of the school. Each pom earned is used to fill up their classroom pom pom jars. When these jars are filled, student bring their classroom jars to the office and empty them into the Building Wide Pom Pom Pail!!

We are so excited to find out what our building wide reward will be as we are half way to filling up our building wide Pom Pom Pail.

Don't be surprised if you child comes home excited about earning the "platinum platter" as a class during lunch and recess. Classes are always working to earn "positive compliments" during lunch and recess. Every two weeks, classes who earn the most "positive compliments" earn the right to display the "platinum platter" outside their classroom door for all to see and enjoy popsicles at lunch or an extra recess with Mrs. Nizen and Mr. Lehman.

Pom Pom Shout Out occur every Friday where we acknowledge students over announcements who have earned a special shout out for outstanding efforts in demonstrating our 3 pillars in their academic or behavioral pursuits. Students will recieve a pom pom shout out reward and pick out of our PBIS store!

Leighton Pride is Building Wide!

Thank you to everyone who purchased Kona Ice at Meet & Greets!

PTO provided the soil for pallet gardens at Leighton. We are excited to see what the students from: Mrs. Carlson, Nagy, Stoyle, VanFossen, Kidwell and Yonally plant!

PTO provided funds for Mrs. Kudley and Mrs. Ambrosia to purchase Diversity and Inclusion books at Craddock. Tell your student to keep an eye out for these awesome books that will be arriving at the Craddock Library in a few weeks!

THANK YOU to all who ordered from our Mumkin fundraiser! We were able to raise $7,063 which is over $1,000 of our set goal! Any orders that had 10 or more items will receive a copy of your order slip so you can make arrangements for pick up.

• Sunday September 18 – Your flowers arrive at The Board of Education parking lot, pick up time is from 10:30 AM - 1:30 PM

• PLEASE NOTE: If you are unable to pick up your plants on this date and time, please make arrangements with friends or family to have them picked up. We are NOT responsible for any plants not picked up.

Volunteer Opportunities:
Leighton Garden Committee: Help us support our teachers by maintaining the outdoor learning space at Leighton. Volunteer opportunities include light weeding, edging and planting in the outdoor garden space, and helping to pick up sticks, spread mulch and other maintenance activities on the nature trail between Miller and Leighton. We'll plan monthly clean-ups, but may also ask for volunteers for specific jobs as requested by the teaching staff using the spaces.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080E4AA8AF2DA6FB6-leighton

Mumkin Pickup: Help sort and organize plants. Volunteers will pick and load orders as families drive-through to pick up their orders.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/508084AAEA628A6FD0-mumkin2

Upcoming Events:
9/5: No School Labor Day
9/7: PTO Kickoff Meeting 6:30PM @ MadJacks
9/15: MES- Picture Day
9/17: Chipotle Give Back 5:00PM-9:00PM @ Twinsburg (2640 Creekside Dr.)
9/18: Mumkin Flower Pick Up @ Board Office
9/21: LES- Picture Day
9/26-9/30: Leighton Laps Fundraiser during PE times

Leighton Laps
Leighton Laps in a NEW fundraising event! More information will be coming soon!

PTO Sign ups:

There is still time to sign up for the PTO, please click the link below!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc3Dd_3rWnMDiEpjtaqO7MSDJjplAhs2BcKcYKQGa7mFlwQhA/viewform?usp=embed_facebook

Spirit Wear

There is still time to get your child's Class Shirt, please see link below.
https://forms.gle/UyyZfMQpZGwVMCVg9

Please make sure to join us for our first PTO meeting September 7th at Mad Jack’s. It is going to be a great time!

Please remember that when you take your child out of school for a doctor or dentist appointment, the State of Ohio requires that a doctor's note be brought back to the school for attendance purposes. You can give the note to the secretaries in the main office.

If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Tanski in the clinic at 330-954-2285 or email her at atanski@aurora-schools.org

As a reminder, please monitor your child for any COVID-related symptoms and contact our school nurse if you have any questions. We appreciate your attention to this.

• Check your child each day for COVID-related symptoms. If your child is showing any symptoms whatsoever, it is best to keep him/her home to monitor.
• Students sent home with a fever, may not return to school until they are fever-free without medication for at least 24 hours. This means if your child was sent home on Tuesday at 12:00 p.m. with a fever, he/she may not return to school until Thursday. If your child does return the next day, our school nurse will be calling for you to come to pick him/her up. Thank you for your support and efforts in this area.
  
• We have COVID-19 home testing kits available that we can send home with any child or family should you question symptoms or exposure. We will be able to answer any questions about these kits should the need arise.
• Please make sure your Final Forms medical information is up to date. We will closely read the health sections to address any medical concerns.

**** If your child will be absent for an extended period, please reach out to your child's teacher and they will get school work ready for your student for the period of the absence. You may pick up the work outside the main office on a table that will be labeled with your student's name.