EPE Express
East Pennsboro Elementary School Newsletter
August/September 2021
Principal's Message
We are excited to welcome our students and staff back to school on Monday, August 23rd! While we learned so much about how to expand our teaching repertoire last school year, we are pleased to be returning for full in-person instruction, five days per week. We greatly appreciate your support last school year and do look forward to providing a sense of normalcy for our students, families, and staff.
We have a lot to look forward to this school year! We have a newly renovated school building inclusive of new air handlers that provide a constant flow of outside air that is dehumidified and air conditioned. We have a fabulous new gymnasium and fifth grade wing. Our new gym will allow us to use the cafeteria and old gym as one large cafeteria which will provide better serving times for lunches beginning with this school year. Additionally, through a federal grant, school lunches and breakfasts are free to all students again this year. (A la carte items and snacks do require students to have money in their individual accounts. Please see the bottom section "lunch menus" for more information.) We have retained a highly motivated staff that can't wait to work with your child, in addition to adding our fantastic new staff members featured in the below section of this newsletter. Lastly, we will continue to utilize the Seesaw platform for some school work, homework, and communications. Your child's classroom teacher will send you information on how to sign up for Seesaw if you haven't already done so.
As we navigate through the fall, we will be working on establishing norms and routines with all students. In addition, we have prepared to deliver our new Math program, Everyday Mathematics, continue with our newer English/Language Arts program, Benchmark Workshop, and our Social/Emotional programs Caring School Communities and Zones of Regulation. If there are any questions as we begin the school year, please do not hesitate to reach out to your classroom teacher, the school office, or the EPE administration.
**Please note classroom teacher assignments will be issued on the Sapphire Community Web Portal on Tuesday, August 3rd.
Respectfully,
Rich Tysarczyk, Principal
Dan Etter, Assistant Principal
717-732-0441
Nominate an EPE Staff Member With Our "Panther Spotlight" Form
https://forms.gle/f13ZhDceewQp42wX8
We appreciate the feedback and may share it in future newsletters.
Girls on the Run - Fall Team
Girls on the Run is open to girls in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades.
Please visit this link to register your child: https://www.pinwheel.us/register/index/2021-Fall?sid=3add7319e2fc4160a677c4a8fd7172d6
For further information, visit this link: https://www.capareagirlsontherun.org/
Create a Sapphire Parent Portal!
Please create a Sapphire Parent Portal account. There are several benefits to creating a parent portal account:
- You can access your child's report cards when they are published
- You can keep track of your child's attendance
- You will be able to receive important notifications about your child
To create a parent portal account:
- Go to our website www.epasd.org
- Hover over the "Students" tab
- Click "Sapphire Community Web Portal"
- Click "Create a Web Portal Account"
- Follow the remaining on screen instructions to enter your information.
If you have any questions, please contact Mrs. Wadlinger at pwadlinger@epasd.org. She would be happy to help!
EPE is an American Heart Association "Top 25 School"
Teresa from the American Heart Association came to EPE over the summer to present us with a “Top 25 School” award in honor of the amount of money our students raised from the Kids Heart Challenge this past school year. Under the direction of our amazing PE teacher, Mr. Cashman, EPE students and families raised over $11,000 for the American Heart Association! We were the 6th school in the region with schools from Cumberland, Perry, York, Adams, Dauphin, and Lancaster Counties. Way to go EPE students and families! Thank you for your generosity!
Please Welcome Our New EPE Staff Members
Miss Hannah Yohn - Speech and Language Pathologist
College: Hannah attended Bloomsburg University for her Bachelor's degree and then traveled to Arizona to go to school at Midwestern University for her Master's degree.
Hobbies include skiing, snowboarding, and traveling.
Favorite food: Any type of seafood. Hannah loves crab legs, lobster, shrimp, and fish.
What Hanna likes to do in her free time:
She does not have much free time as she also works for Select Physical Therapy and is a server at T.J. Rockwell's. When she does have free time, she likes to sit at the pool with her family or hangout with friends.
An accomplishment Miss Yohn is proud of would be that she had multiple concussions in high school from playing volleyball which led her to receive speech therapy services. From these concussions and receiving speech therapy, it showed her a career she did not know was out there which ending up being the career she wanted to pursue!
Miss Kaetlyn Wertz - Grade 3
College: Shippensburg University
Hobbies: Baking, reading and trying to keep my succulents alive
Favorite Restaurant: Melting Pot
What she likes to do in her spare time: Kaetlyn enjoys spending time with her friends and family and volunteering.
An accomplishment she is most proud of: Becoming a teacher and joining the Panther Family! As well as being the first person in her family to graduate from a four year college!
Ms. Cassie Burgard- Grade 3
College: Saint Joseph's University for both, her Bachelor's Degree (Elementary Education PreK-4 and Special Education K-8) and Masters Degree (Reading Specialist K-12, Wilson Dyslexia Practitioner)
Hobbies: Reading, baking, home decorating, running, shopping
Favorite Food: Peanut butter cups
Hobbies: Pure Barre classes, hiking with her husband Evan and rescue dog Chase (pitbull- schnauzer mix), going shopping
An accomplishment she is proud of: Earning her Wilson Reading certification and becoming a Wilson Dyslexia Practitioner
Ms. Burgard is looking forward to working in a classroom teacher role and building relationships with the EPE community!
Mrs. Madison Crowther - Grade 5
College: Millersville University of Pennsylvania graduate 2011. She earned her degree in Elementary Education and played on a soccer scholarship for all 4 years there.
Hobbies: She loves the outdoors- snowboarding/skiing in the winter and hiking and kayaking in the summer. Madison also does CrossFit year round and loves exercise!
Favorite Restaurant: One of her local favorites is Als of Hampden which is conveniently right down the road from EP Elementary School!
What she likes to do in her spare time: In this phase of life Madison currently spends almost all of her spare time with her son, Brock! He will be two in August. Madison loves finding new activities to do with him and watching him take in the world around him.
An accomplishment she is most proud of: Madison was a military spouse for the past 8 years and has always been proud of herself for adapting and making the most of every new experience and opportunity that lifestyle has brought her.
Fun Fact: Mrs. Crowther lived in four different states in the past five years (Texas, Virginia, Kansas, Pennsylvania). However, she was born and raised here in PA and is so excited to finally be back for good!
Miss Miranda Gallucci - Special Education
College: Slippery Rock University
Hobbies: Cooking
Favorite Restaurant: Amore Pizza
What she likes to do in her spare time: Spend time with her family and dog, Bug.
An accomplishment she is most proud of: Playing soccer in college after recovering from knee surgery
Mrs. Ginger Martin - Reading Specialist
College: Mrs. Martin has a Bachelor's Degree from Penn State in Human Resources and Family Studies. After moving to the beach, she earned a second Bachelor's from Richard Stockton College of NJ (Stockton) in Elementary Teacher Education. Her Reading Specialist Master’s Degree was completed through Wilkes University.
Hobbies: Prior to becoming a mother, her hobbies revolved around exercising. Ginger enjoys cross-fit, running, high intensity training, swimming, and playing recreational sports. She hopes to get back into some of those soon!!
Favorite Food or Restaurant: Ginger's favorite food is pizza and her favorite restaurant is Mangia Mangia
What she like’s to do in her spare time: As a mom of a 2 year old, she does not have a lot of spare time! Therefore she says, spending time with family.
An accomplishment she is most proud of: Learning how to become a virtual teacher while at home with a newly walking one year old. Also, completing an entire school year as a virtual first grade teacher and gaining a whole new set of tools!
Fun Facts:
After graduating from Penn State, Ginger moved to Ocean City NJ. She lived in Ocean City for 12 years. While living at the beach, she also started her career in education. She taught first and fourth grade throughout her years in NJ. Taking field trips to the beach is something she will never forget. While she was having the time of her life, she was also missing her family. In 2015, Ginger moved back home to Middletown, PA. Mrs. Martin previously worked as a kindergarten and first grade teacher with the Central Dauphin School District since returning to PA.
Miss Jordan Woodward - 5th grade Music and Elementary Instrumentals
College: Lebanon Valley College
Hobbies/Unique Skills: knitting, sewing, cross-stitching, cooking/baking
Favorite Foods: pasta or chocolate
What she likes to do in her spare time: read, nap, knit
An accomplishment she is most proud of: In high school, Jordan composed and arranged music that her indoor percussion group performed in two separate seasons.
Miss Annie Sweeney - Speech and Language Pathologist
College: Bloomsburg University
Hobbies: Painting/drawing
Favorite restaurant: Hellenic Kouzina
What she likes to do in her spare time: Spend time with family and friends
An accomplishment she is most proud of: Becoming a Speech-Language Pathologist
Jennae Piper - Grade 5
College: Millersville University
Hobbies: Dirt Track Racing - Miss Piper has a family owned racing team!
Favorite food: Hibachi
An accomplishment she is most proud of: Jennae one of two Millersville University students selected to develop updated immigration education content, which they presented at the National Council for Social Studies conference.
Car Rider Procedures
School Buses:
School buses will queue at the rear of the school building, behind the new addition for arrival and departure.
Car Riders:
Cars for parent drop off and pick up will queue in front of the school. The first car must pull up to the stop sign. Parents must have their name hanger tags for student pickup. Students may only be dropped off or picked up within the “loading zone” that will be marked in the front of the school - approximately the first ten cars at a time. Parents may not park in the parking lot and walk up to the loop attendant. Stay in your car at all times. Please review the below map of the car rider loop.
School Vans:
School vans will utilize the small loop near the baseball fields for arrival and dismissal. No cars should be in this loop.
Times:
Parent drop-off begins at 8:25 AM. Students must be in the building by 8:50 AM.
Parent pick up times run from 3:20-3:40 PM.
We certainly appreciate your understanding and flexibility as we ensure a safe and orderly process for each student. We continue to recommend that you send your EPE students to and from school on our school buses.
EPASD Attendance Procedures
We would like to remind you of our school attendance procedures as we begin a new school year. To remain consistent with regards to attendance, we ask that you review and adhere to these policies if your child needs to be absent from school.
Excused Absences:
When a child is enrolled in the district’s educational program, the student is subject to the
Pennsylvania State Attendance Laws. The Board considers the following conditions to constitute an excused absence from school:
1. Illness
2. Quarantine
3. Student required court attendance
4. Prearranged doctor and dentist appointment for time of appointment and appropriate travel time only
5. Authorized school activities
6. Pre-approved educational tours and trips, not school sponsored
7. Other urgent reasons, including funerals, that apply to the child and approved by the building administrator
Parents/guardians are expected to telephone the school when students are absent for any reason. In addition, a written excuse from a parent/guardian is required for each absence.
Unexcused Absences:
An unexcused absence shall be defined as:
• Absence from school with parent/guardian consent for reasons other than those considered
excusable.
• Leaving school during school hours without permission from the administrator.
• Absence from school without knowledge/permission of parent/guardian (truancy).
• Absence from school without knowledge/permission of school authorities.
• Absences from school without written parental excuse submitted within 3 school days of the absence.
You may refer to the Elementary Student Handbook in the link below to review more specific information about our attendance policies in certain situations (Page 10 of the document). Please contact our school office if you have any questions about our attendance policies or procedures.
https://4.files.edl.io/69d5/07/19/21/151326-d52fa66e-ffe7-4c30-b50d-154126ce7428.pdf
Automated Absence Alert:
EPE will begin sending automated absence alerts this school year. The Automated Absence Alert system was implemented to inform parents when their students are absent from school. If/when your student is absent or does not report to their classroom they are recorded as absent. When the daily attendance is submitted electronically, an automated message will be sent to a phone identified by the parent/guardian. This call will normally occur by approximately 10:00 am. Should you have questions or concerns you may contact the
attendance secretary by calling: East Pennsboro Elementary School (EPE), (717) 732-0441.
Everyday Mathematics
For more information on our new Mathematics Program, Everyday Math, please visit the following website: https://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/ and our Everyday Math portal on the EPASD website: https://www.epasd.org/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=2167522&type=d&pREC_ID=2198930
Revised K-5 Elementary Report Card
The most notable change is the removal of the 3-2-1 grading system. This is replaced by an academic grading scale indicative of Mastery (M), Proficient (P), Developing (D), and Emerging (E). Approaches to Learning has been replaced with a scale of Always (A), Sometimes (S), Rarely (R).
There will be more information to come as the first marking period progresses.
Become a Junior Achievement Volunteer!
- Volunteer basis in our school
- 5-8 sessions with a class per year
- Scripted lessons from JA
- Topics centered around careers, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, community.
Interested community members may email the EPE Administration or our JA contact, Gini Riese, directly at griese@jascpa.org.
To learn more about Junior Achievement, visit the following websites:
https://www.jascpa.org/classroomk-5
EPE Youth Field Hockey
Any Kindergarten though 6th grader interested in trying a fun sport and being part of a team may want to consider Panther Cub Field Hockey fall league. The league is based on sportsmanship and learning, along with friendly competition. This is a great opportunity to begin a life-long love of the game.
General EPE Information:
Change in Routine Procedures
The classroom teachers follow routine dismissal procedures daily. Changes in those routines
should be for urgent reasons and must be accompanied by a Change of Routine Notice or a
written parental notice requesting such a change. All student verbal requests for such changes will be denied without written notice or a phone call from a parent/guardian. Seesaw messages, text messages, and emails will not be accepted during the school day of a change of routine. Please have these requests into the school ahead of time so we can ensure students are where they need to be for a safe and secure dismissal.
Attendance
General Attendance Process:
2021-2022 School Year Calendar
https://3.files.edl.io/a46e/21/07/12/193153-0662518b-7b67-41b7-9b1b-05072d4992b6.png
Important Dates
August:
5 - School Board Meeting 7:00 PM
5 - Kindergarten Meet and Greet 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
19 - School Board Meeting 7:00 PM
23 - First Student Day of the 2021-2022 School Year
31 - 3rd and 5th grade Back to School Night 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
September:
2 - School Board Meeting 7:00 PM
3 - No School (Labor Day Holiday)
6 - No School (Labor Day Holiday)
7 - 1st, 2nd and 4th grade Back to School Night 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
16 - School Board Meeting 7:00 PM
17 - Early Dismissal 1:20 PM
23 - Fall Picture Day
23 - Title 1 Night 6:00 PM
All above dates are subject to change. Any changes will be communicated via our blackboard connect system.
Please see our previous newsletters:
About us
Email: rtysarczyk@epasd.org
Website: https://www.epasd.org/
Location: 840 Panther Parkway, East Pennsboro Township, PA, USA
Phone: 717-732-0441
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EastPennsboroElem/