Cheetah Newsletter
Cooperative - Accountable - Respectful - Enthusiastic - Safe
January 21, 2021
A Message from the Principal
Thank you so much for your help and support as we worked to implement district assessments. We appreciate your time, flexibility and energy in support of your child. We know you moved schedules around to support these various assessments and meeting times We are deeply grateful. Your partnership is invaluable. Thankyou for all you do.
As the conclusion of the semester is the end of January, we wanted to inform you of our upcoming report cards. We know that teaching and learning from a distance looks different this year. Your support plays an important and integral role in student success in this environment. We will be sending report cards home on February 8th. Our report card is a formal documentation of the ongoing conversation between the teacher and the family. Our current report card reflects the areas we focused on during our first semester. The areas of focus are Learning and Social Skills, Literacy and Language, Mathematics, and a place for comments.
Our report card is a standards-based report card. Standards based reporting gives you information about how a student is progressing toward meeting the State Standards at this time. Numeric scores are given in the area of Literacy and Language and Mathematics. Scores of 1,2,3, and 4 will be given. Below is the descriptor of the scoring rubric.
Have an amazing weekend! Snow might be on the way. All inclement weather information is included in this newsletter and posted on our website.
Warmly,
Ana
Picture Retakes Friday 9:30am-11:30am
Yoforit PTA Fundraiser
Yoforit Night!!
Our first Yoforit Night is coming up! Mark your calendars and join us Thursday, January 21st from 5-8pm! We also found out that, while the main fundraising hours are 5:00 - 8:00 pm, you can participate any time that day! If you go in outside of the stated hours, just tell them you are with CLE and they will include your purchase in the fundraising. Enjoy a delicious treat and know that a portion of the sales goes to CLE!!
**Important** - Update your Contact Information for School Closures
Make sure your contact information is up-to-date!
It is very important that all families make sure all of their contact information is up-to-date with the school office. In the event of school delays and cancelations, or other emergencies, we need to be able to contact all of our families. When there are urgent messages to share with families, they are sent out via email and phone call. Messages are also posted on the district website, Facebook and Twitter.
If you would like to opt-in to also receive text messages, please send a text message of "Y" or "Yes" to our school's short code number, 67587. You can opt out of these messages any time by simply replying to oue of our messages with "Stop".
Inclement Weather Procedures Reminder
Now that winter is upon us, we wanted to remind you of our inclement weather procedures. Even though it is an unusual school year, we will be following our typical inclement weather procedures just as any other school year. This means that if road conditions are deemed unsafe, we will be delaying or canceling school for that day, including distance learning. Canceled school days may need to be made up at the end of the school year.
While the majority of our students are currently in a distance learning model, we have many staff and students reporting to our buildings every day. Buses are running daily, transporting our preschool, kindergarten and other small groups of students to and from school; many of our teachers continue to work onsite in order to utilize district technology & internet; and many more employees report to work daily in order to provide necessary services to students. Our top priority is always the safety of staff and students when making decisions related to inclement weather and upholding our typical procedures will allow us to keep staff and students safe in the event of unsafe road conditions.
We recognize that canceled school days may disrupt family schedules and that the school year may have to be extended. The decision to close schools in the event of inclement weather is not an easy one and many factors are taken into consideration when making such a decision. It is important to understand that the road conditions of our entire district are taken into account when a delay or closure decision is made. The roads in one part of our district may be clear while other areas are struggling with snow and/or ice and we are unable to close some schools in the district while leaving other schools open.
How the decision to delay or close schools is made:
To help make the best possible decision, weather forecasts are consistently monitored and district staff drive our bus routes to evaluate road and parking lot conditions. We make every effort to make decisions regarding closings or delays in the evening, understanding that parents need time to make arrangements for the following day. However, if the forecast is uncertain and still developing, we wait to get the latest forecast and assess actual road conditions early in the morning. Morning decisions will be announced by 5 a.m. Additionally, if a delayed opening has been announced the night before, and the forecast or conditions worsen overnight, we may need to update the status in the morning and announce that all schools will be closed for the day.
Depending on the winter weather conditions, one of the following four options is decided:
- Schools start on time (no messages will be shared)
- Schools start on time with limited bus service
- Schools start two hours late (no a.m. preschool, no out-of-district transportation) - a delay would only be utilized if/when students and staff return to full days of in-person learning
- Schools are closed (When schools are closed, all after school activities and evening facility use are also canceled.)
If schools are delayed or closed, information will be shared through the following communication channels:
- Email and robocall: An email and automated phone call will go out to all staff and families. Please make sure your contact information is up to date in Family Access to ensure you receive these notifications. Families who have 'unsubscribed' from district emails and/or automated calls will not receive these notifications.
- Text message: A text message will be sent only to those families who have opted-in to receive texts from the district. Learn how to opt-in here.
- District website: A message will be posted to the front page of our district website.
- Social media: Messages will be posted to the district Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.
- School schedule hotline: 360-804-2950
We will not send or post messages if schedules are normal. No news means that schools are open.
Snow bus routes are posted on the district website, here.
Upcoming Events at a Glance:
Jan. 25th School Board Meeting via Zoom 6:00pm
Jan. 29-End of Semester Break-No School
Important Assessment Information
As we head into January, all students will be spending time this month on some important assessments to help us track your student’s growth this school year. In addition to the ongoing assessments - formal and informal - that happen in each classroom, there are three formal district-level assessments that will happen this month:
All students in grades K-5 will be completing their Winter iReady Diagnostic in both Math and Reading by February 12th. Teachers will send your child’s class’s specific iReady diagnostic schedule, but this assessment helps to measure overall progress towards standards in both Math and Reading. Find more information about the iReady Diagnostics for Families here.
Students in grades 3-5 will be completing their Whole Child Survey through BrightBytes by January 28th. This survey will help us be able to better identify student's needs in the areas of Social and Emotional Learning, Safety, Engagement, and Environment. Your child’s participation is essential in helping our schools make informed decisions about how to better support students.
All 2nd & 4th grade students, as well as referred students in other grades will be completing the CogAT Screener for highly capable assessment between January 19th and January 28th.
We appreciate your partnership in supporting your child(ren) with these assessments. We know that any sort of testing can sometimes cause worry for children, but truly our goal is to gather important information to better help your child in their learning. To this end, it’s important that we get data around what your child can do independently.
“Please allow your child to struggle. Productive struggle is good for their brains. It’s one of the ways we all learn. Please do not tell your child the answers or do the work for them -- it is more about working to the answer than the answer itself. On practice and application tasks, you can provide all the hints you want but it is OK to let them do the work their way. If your child struggles too much, teach your child to talk to the teacher about this. On assessments, please allow your child some privacy to make mistakes so that the teacher knows what to do next. Remember if your child gets everything right, the work was too easy” (Fisher, Frey, Bustamante, and Hattie, 2021)
SPIRIT DAY THEMES FOR JANUARY
January 21st - Dress as a teacher for the day
January 28th - Dragon and Unicorn day
Kaci's Stuffed Animal Drive
Counselor's Corner
The Five Best Things You Can Do for Your Kids in the New Year
1. Let kids struggle
Self-esteem is not a gift that we can give our kids, it is a neurochemical response we rob them of when we don’t let them struggle. Our highest-level thinking skills are developed when we push ourselves to think outside of the box. One good thing that has come out of the pandemic is that it has allowed us to slow down and have more unstructured time.
This year, try to set out some challenges for your children that encourage creative thinking and persistence. Then, work on resisting the urge to intervene when they are having trouble.
2. Use the “Four Ss” as a framework to teach resilience
Throughout the winter, use those Four Ss when you feel the urge to step in and help when your child is struggling. Instead of stepping in, give them some guiding questions:
Is your strategy working?
Do you have someone you can ask for help?
What strength do you have that you can draw on?
Can you break this down into smaller parts?
3. Scaffold for independence
Our goal should always be focusing on what our children need in order to become independent, and providing just enough support, gradually removing those supports as our children become more independent.
4. Give them responsibilities
A great household rule, “with privileges come responsibilities and with responsibilities come privileges.” The best way for them to learn that is to begin to take on responsibility early on.
This year, think about age-appropriate chores and responsibilities that your kids can do and teach them how to do them. For example, perhaps your kids are responsible for doing the dishes, taking out the garbage or planning and cooking a meal.
5. Play together
So often, video games become a source of tension between parents and kids. So much of that was because we fear what we don’t understand. Many of our students enjoy video games. Learning about the games they play online not only brings us closer to our kids, but also we can make sure they are using the internet responsibly.
Looking forward...
In order to take care of ourselves and our family, we need to let some things go and take time to care for ourselves. The good news is that it looks like there is a light at the end of the tunnel. This spring will likely begin the journey back to a bit of normalcy, and, hopefully, we can start that journey in a stronger, more resilient place.
Digital Learning
Book Creator
Last week students worked on Book Creator. This highly engaging tool can be used for a variety of purposes. In Kindergarten and Grade 1 students were reminded on how to be a good digital citizen and were asked to take the Digital Citizenship Pledge. They uploaded their picture in one of their class pages in a spot reserved or them with their names.
Grade 2-5 copied a template of a book that they will use as a portfolio for Digital Learning topics. The first topic was digital citizenship and students were asked to upload their picture, as well as an audio recording of the Digital Citizenship Pledge.
Digital Awesomeness Awards
Each week one class is awarded the Digital Awesomeness Award for outstanding participation. First last week’s Book Creator lessons, the award goes to Mrs. Pinz’s class for having the most participation.
Past Lessons
You can always access past DL lessons by going to the Last Week’s Activities button on your teacher’s home page. You will find the DL lesson for the week on Friday’s schedule pages.
Keep Calm and Code On!
Ms. Glaze
A Note from the Library.......
Now is the time to READ!! With the weather turning colder, now is the perfect time for kids to focus on doing some reading, besides they can earn minutes towards the “New Year, New Reads” reading contest that’s going on! For every 100 minutes read a student gets their name put in for a drawing of a Kindle Fire come this February! Nothing excites my kids at home more than the chance to win a prize, they have definitely been clocking more reading minutes every night during their quiet reading time. I will also admit as a parent I sometimes will challenge them to read more by creating our own little reading chart at home, we set a goal with each kid (like say 200 minutes completed, ect.) they can earn a small reward for every little goal reached (the dollar store is this parent’s friend for this) or they can “Bank” their little rewards and cash them in for a bigger reward once they’ve reached say 4 set goals. This has helped improve my kids reading at home, so feel free to give it a try. Need help? Need books? I’m only a quick email away!
Happy Reading,
Mrs. Swalwell
Order Your Yearbook TODAY
https://commpe.pictavo.com/PictavoSchool/FindSchool
Parents also have the awesome opportunity to upload pictures that they have taken of their students doing fun activities this year onto the site as well to be used in the yearbook,
Food Pantry
Chain Lake Elementary has a free food pantry for any family in our community. On Thursdays, non-perishables will be available during the lunchtime pickup, from 11:30-1:30. Additionally, you are welcome to call our office to schedule a different time in the week to pick up food.
Health Room Screening for Student Return
Dear Chain Lake Parents,
We wanted to inform you of the health guidelines our Health Room Staff will be following to screen children for COVID-19 who are either presently at school or who will be attending in person school at a future date. We have provided the flow sheet of this screening for your review and reference.
The district is following guidelines for COVID Screening from the Snohomish Health District. If a child has one of the symptoms listed or more, they will go to a separate room with a health room staff member while the parent is being contacted to pick the child up. Please make sure you have provided a local emergency contact person and phone number in the event we cannot reach you. We will wait 30” before calling the emergency contact.
Please review the attached Screening Tool paying close attention to the box in the lower right corner which explains when the child can return to school. Please note that if your child does not get a COVID test, they will need to wait 10 days from the time the symptom(s) started and at least 24 hrs. after a fever has resolved before they can return. The Snohomish Health District has informed us that they provide COVID testing if you cannot get one from your local medical provider.
We are working to ensure that all children at Chain Lake stay healthy and safe! Thank-you for your understanding and cooperation.
The public health recommendation is that children receive a flu vaccine this season as an extra protection to their immune status!
Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.
Joy Good RN BSN
Chain Lake Certificated School Nurse
360-804-3170
Free & Reduced Lunch Information
Free Meals for Kids Extended for Entire School Year
While we are currently offering FREE breakfast and lunch to all students, the funding for this program has been extended through the entire school year. The link for more information on the Free Meals Program can be found here. Both daily and weekly meal kits are now available for all families. We know that each year many of our families qualify for free or reduced price meals and it is very important that families who may qualify fill out the annual application now in order to receive free or reduced price meals!
If you think there is a chance your family might qualify for free & reduced lunch, please submit your application as soon as possible. The application process is simple and confidential. New this year, is the online application process! Directions for filling out the application online can be found HERE. Prefer print applications? Those can be found here: English/Spanish and returned to any school office or the District Administration Office.
If you qualify for free or reduced price meals, you may also be eligible to receive free internet service at your home. If you qualify for the free or reduced price meal program, you will receive a letter of approval. Once you have this letter, and if you are interested in the free Internet Access Program from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI), please contact Brenda Hunt at: huntb@monroe.wednet.edu or 360.804.2500 to receive the name of the internet provider and the offer/promo code to sign up for free internet. You can find more information on OSPI’s internet program here.
As a reminder, all families wishing to receive free or reduced meals must complete a new application each school year. We care about our students and want to do everything we can to make sure they receive every available support we can offer. If you need assistance filling out the application, please contact your child’s school or the District Administration Office at (360) 804-2500.
CARES
At Chain Lake, each and every one of us is a Cheetah who CARES (Cooperative, Accountable, Respectful, Enthusiastic, Safe)! In school, we talk about what each of these ideas looks like in different settings. In distance learning, being a Cheetah who CARES is important too! Feel free to use the below as a guide to what it means to follow our Chain Lake expectations in this type of learning environment (Click here for larger picture).
Technical Difficulties?
Further Questions?
We encourage you to reach out to our school office:
Chain Lake Elementary - 360-804-3100
About Us
Principal - Ana Apter
Guidance Counselor - Heather Mitchell
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Office Manager - Kathy Bruning
Office Assistant- Lauren Martin
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24 Hour Attendance Hotline - (360) 804-3101
FAX - (360) 804-3199
Health Room - (360) 804-3132
Kitchen - (360) 804-3135
Transportation - (360) 804-2650
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NOTICE OF NON-DISCRIMINATION
The Monroe School District does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, creed, religion, color, national origin, age, honorably discharged veteran or military status, sexual orientation including gender expression or identity, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, or the use of a trained dog guide or service animal by a person with a disability in its programs and activities and provides equal access to the Boy Scouts and other designated youth groups. The following employees have been designated to handle questions and complaints of alleged discrimination:
Title IX Coordinator
Joanne Dickinson
14692 - 179th Avenue S.E., Monroe, WA 98272
(360) 804.2539
Section 504/ADA Coordinator
David Paratore
14692 - 179th Avenue S.E., Monroe, WA 98272
(360) 804.2603
Compliance Coordinator for 28A.640 and 28A.642 RCW
Joanne Dickinson
14692 - 179th Avenue S.E., Monroe, WA 98272
(360) 804.2532
The Monroe School District will also take steps to assure that national origin persons who lack English language skills can participate in all education programs, services and activities. For information regarding translation services or transitional bilingual education programs, contact:
Kimberly Whitworth
14692 - 179th Avenue S.E., Monroe, WA 98272
(360) 804.2558