Leighton Elementary School has been recognized for its success with Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) for the 2020-2021 school year. PBIS involves teaching students expected behaviors in a consistent and positive way, modeling and acknowledging those behaviors, and helping all students meet expectations and be successful. Since the start of the school year, students have learned, reviewed, and practiced what each of our 3 pillars (being respectful, responsible, and a problem solver) look like and sound like in all areas of the school. This week and last week we have been tapping into our focus skills.

This week's focus skill is I can stop, think, and make a good choice.

Students are positively reinforced using our token economy of caught being good tickets where they are entered into office drawing for an opportunity to pick out of our PBIS store. We hold quarterly building-wide events and students love seeing which classrooms earn the golden fork to display outside their classroom doors for being respectful, responsible, and problem-solvers during lunch and recess.

PBIS has been shown to improve student achievement, student behavior, and school climate. In 2015, Ohio PBIS Network first recognized schools that were model examples of strong PBIS. In 2021, Leighton Elementary School applied and earned state recognition or a bronze medal for high levels of implementation, team configuration, and systems processes. We are one of 354 award-winning schools to be recognized at any of the levels Gold (34), Silver (70), or Bronze (233). Leighton Elementary School will be honored at the 2021 Ohio PBIS Showcase in conjunction with the Ohio Leadership Advisory Council (OLAC) virtual conference on December 9, 2021. Leighton Pride is certainly Building Wide!!! We are looking forward to building on these successes this upcoming year. Stay up to date with our PBIS initiatives in our "Spotlight on PBIS" section in each newsletter. We are looking forward to our building-wide extra recess event in mid-October to celebrate our students' successes for the first quarter.

Nov. 3rd - 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM

Nov. 11th - 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM

Times should be set up with the classroom teachers and they will be reaching out shortly to schedule conferences with families. We received a lot of positive feedback in regards to virtual conferences last year and will still be holding conferences in this manner, but can also support any face to face conferences requested as well. Please let your classroom teacher know your preference upon scheduling.

A big thank you to all of our families for helping to make arrival and dismissal so smooth!! Just a few reminders to continue to help us keep the drop-off line running smoothly.

• Please try to have any instruments or backpacks easily reachable by your student to grab and go.

• Encourage your kids to see that when you’ve pulled up and placed your car in park, that is their clue to open the door and exit quickly.

• Watch the first “on duty” teacher (near the 3rd-grade door). If you pass her on the way toward the top of the line OR if you see her give a “thumbs up sign” to your car, it is safe for your student to exit once you’ve pulled up. If you see her hand held up in a “stop” sign, please have your student stay in the car until you are instructed to pull up.

• Please don’t pass cars when the car ahead is taking longer unless waved ahead to do so. This can create a safety issue.

• Please have students exit the car through the passenger side (side closest to the curb). Students walking around their cars also puts them at a safety risk.

Please let us know if we can help in any way as we are all here to ensure the safety of our students. Thank you again for all your help as the arrival and dismissal line has been so smooth this school year!

Aurora Destination Imagination will be holding an information meeting:

Date: Wednesday, October 6th

Place: Leighton Elementary School (Room TBD)

Time: 7:00m-8:00pm

Zoom call also available please send email to vanessafabec@gmail.com for link.

What is Destination Imagination???

Destination Imagination reinforces the four Cs: communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.

DI empowers its participants to come up with out-of-the-box solutions to problems and work as a team to create solutions.

It also connects students with other innovative problem solvers both in their area and around the globe.

Aurora DI is looking for interested students in Grade K-12th grade and parent team managers to form teams for the 21-22 season.

DI season starts in November with the Regional and State Tournaments in February and March ( maybe virtual or in-person).

For more information see:

www.destinationimagination.org

Please fill out this Google Form if interested:

Aurora Destination Imagination Interest Form

Keep Being Creative,

Vanessa Fabec

Aurora DI Coordinator

vanessafabec@gmail.com / 440-655-0538

We really hope that the start of the school year has gone off without issue so far!! We have set dates, etc, for the upcoming season and we wanted to get that info out as soon as we had it. Sorry for the long email, but wanted to touch on a few issues. Please find those dates and times attached, as well as the link to the sign-up genius that we use to keep track of everyone who has signed up. We are thankfully going to be able to use the high school this year, as opposed to needing to find other locations for tryouts and practices last year. We will be attempting to form as many competitive teams as we can for the boys and girls at grade levels 3-6. The 3rd-grade girls, if willing and capable, would be playing up in tournaments and leagues because they do not have those available for 3rd-grade girls. So if enough 3rd-grade girls try out and we are able to form a team, this will be further discussed with parents at that time. We are currently still working on what league and tournaments we will have our teams compete in this year and will address that as soon as we can. If your son or daughter would make the team that they try out for, the cost this season will be $325. That would get your player their uniform, shooting shirt, practice jersey, league play, and four tournaments. Practices will be twice per week during the season and would start roughly the middle of October, with league play beginning sometime in November, which is when some tournaments begin as well.

Tryout dates:

Girls:

October 6 at the Aurora High School

3-4 grade: 6-7:15

5-6 grade: 7:30-8:45

Boys:

October 4-5 at the Aurora High School

3-4 grade: 6-7:15

5-6 grade: 7:30-8:45

We understand with fall sports, tryout dates could be tough, but we are also handcuffed by the gym availability with the high school teams. The girls have one day of tryouts, but if that date doesn't work, they can attend one of the boys' tryouts for evaluation as well. Boys can attend one or both tryouts, and if attending both, the tryout scores will be averaged between the two days. Please click on the sign-up genius link to sign up for your tryout date. As in the past, tryouts will be closed to parents.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60b0d4ca4ae28aa8-aurora4

Next, we have always relied on volunteer coaches for these travel teams. If you have any interest in coaching, either head coaching or assistant, please reach out to us!! We will evaluate our list of coaches once teams are set. We do not want the list of coaches to affect which team each player makes. If you have not coached with our teams before, but are interested, do not hesitate to reach out. "New blood" is always appreciated!! We will be having coaches' clinics again this year. Our varsity coaches are involved with our program and very helpful when it comes to teaching our coaches.

We are also looking to possibly fill another board member spot. We are always looking to improve our organization, and what better way to do that than to involve new people. If anyone is interested, please reach out!!

I'm sure I missed a few topics of concern or questions for you all, if so, please let me know and I will answer any questions to the best of my ability!! Looking forward to seeing you all soon!! GO GREENMEN!!

AYTB Board

Thank you for your patience as we have worked very hard to ensure a safe, smooth, and rapid arrival and dismissal process.

For transportation information go to:

https://versatransweb04.tylertech.com/Aurora/elinkrp/Login.aspx (cut & paste into your browser)

The login information is as follows:

User name = jane.smith (That is the students first name period last name with no spaces) Password = students date of birth 01012021 with no characters or spaces between mmdayyear

Please be reminded we now have GPS on all of the school buses. You can see when the bus is to arrive at your home. Download the app "versatrans my stop" from the app store and sign in the same as above. If you have any questions or concerns with transportation, please email us at transportationinfo@aurora-schools.org