The Leighton News
October 14th, 2022
From the Principals
Dear Leighton Families,
With the official end of the first grading period and first quarter being complete we are looking forward to continuing our momentum of excellence in the second quarter. Students have been hard at work revisiting old concepts, learning new ones, and setting rigorous goals to support their learning.
As a reminder, there is no school on Monday, October 17th due a Teacher Professional Development Day and Tuesday, October 18th will be our District Wide Evacuation Drill to practice this portion of our Alice Drills. Mr. Roberto has shared this communication with all families on Wednesday of this week. We have prepared students for this safety drill. It is important to practice these drills so that in the event of an emergency we know what to do and all staff and students are well prepared. We will be sure to send a communication to all families upon completion of the drill as well.
Our bus evacuation drills will also be occuring this upcoming week where students practice using the emergency exits on the bus. This is an annual practice.
Please see below for some important dates and guidelines for some upcoming events including Fall Festival, LES Band Concert, and Fall Conferences.
As we enter mid October, we continue to take time to think of all of those things for which we are thankful! Ultimately, our number one will always be our learners! We are so grateful for the opportunities each day to make an impact, support, and nurture our young learners so they can grow into future-ready citizens and achieve all of their goals and aspirations. We are also grateful for the support of our parents. Thank you for all you do to partner with us in these efforts.
Kind Regards,
Michelle Nizen, Building Principal
Ben Lehman, Assistant Principal
October Spirit Days!
Counselor's Corner
October is National Bully Prevention Month and students are working hard to spread kindness!
Class lessons are focused around making good choices, spreading kindness, and taking proactive approaches to problem solving.
Students are enjoying whole class, small group, and individual lessons centered around these themes.
Be sure to visit my Google Site (often) for updates and fun things we are doing!!
https://sites.google.com/aurora-schools.org/leightonschoolcounselor/home?authuser=1
Tami S. Mazzella
School Counselor
330-954-2260
Spotlight on PBIS!
Students are hard at work earning poms and filling up their classroom 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 working on filling up our second Pom Pom Pail for our next building wide reward.
"Platinum platter" award winners abound as our classes are doing a great job demonstrating our 3 pillars 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 those names are entered into a monthly drawing to pick out of our PBIS store at the end of the month.
Leighton Pride is Building Wide!
Fall Festival Parties
Party times are below:
Grade 3: 10:00-11:00 (PTO helpers setting up from 10:00-10:15)
Grade 4 and 5: 2:15-3:15 (PTO helpers setting up from 2:15-2:30)
Guidelines for our Fall Festivals are the following:
Students can wear their costumes to school all day long. Please be sure costumes are functional and school safe. We ask that there are no weapons, blood, guts, or face coverings to accompany the costumes. Students will be sharing their costumes within their homerooms and hallways but there will not be a formal parade.
Each classroom has three volunteers to help support the celebrations' activities. All visitors will be checked in. Thank you to our PTO head parents for organizing all of this.
The PTO will be supplying oreos as a take home snack this year and the nutritional information and ingredients facts can be found below.
Thank you to our PTO parents who work so hard each year to plan lots of fun games and activities. We are so grateful for your time, effort, and hardwork in making each year so much fun!
Fall Conferences
We are looking forward to the upcoming Parent Teacher Conferences and collaborating with you on your child's educational journey thus far!
Parent Teacher Conferences will be held on the following Dates:
November 2nd- (5:30-8:30pm)
November 10th (5:30-8:30pm)
We are excited to be welcoming parents back into the building for in person conferences. Your child's teacher will be reaching out, or has already reached out, to have you sign up for a day and time that works best for you. While we are looking forward to opening the building back up for in persons conferences to discuss your child's progress, your child's teacher will also work with you to make alternative arrangements via virtual or phone conferencing to accommodate any needs. We are looking forward to seeing each of our families in a few short weeks!
FIfth Grade Outdoor Math was a hit!
Reading Club Signup
Come join Mrs. VanFossen for Leighton's Reading Club! We will meet over four weeks to discuss books that match our school theme of "We are a Community". Fun projects and activities will wrap up each session this school year.
Join Session 1 using this google form.
Reading Club is looking for readers! National Read Aloud to a Child Week is October 24 - October 28. Take this opportunity to volunteer! We are looking for community members to video record a book that we can share with Leighton Elementary students. Community members can be parents, grandparents, people who work in the community, teachers, or anyone else associated with Aurora.
More information and directions for recording can be found here. Email Mrs. VanFossen at lvanfossen@aurora-school.org with questions.
PTO News
A special THANK YOU to all of our volunteers for our recent events!
Recent Fundraisers:
Mumkins Raised: $7,063
Chipotle Raised: $172.67
Laps For Leighton: $6,500 and counting
Upcoming Events:
10/14: NO SCHOOL - NEOEA DAY
10/17: NO SCHOOL- PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY
10/24: Angelo's Community Give Back Night
10/25 & 10/30- Miller Conferences
10/31: Fall Festival
BOOK FAIR:
The Scholastic Book Fair and Family night was a big success. Thank you to all of our families who came out to the Family Event.
Community Give Back Night:
October 24th- Lee Angelo's Community Give back night. Lee Angelo's will give back 20% of ALL DAY Sales to the PTO.
New APP coming soon: Schoolze more information to come! For more information please reach out to Auroraptopres@gmail.com
Mrs. Iseman 's Class enjoying "all things" Pumpkins!
Aurora Schools Foundation
Hot Lunches/ Lunch Menu
October Lunch Menu
For the month of October, we will only be providing one option for lunch choices. The alternate lunch choice will not be available for this month and we will communicate when the alternative choice returns. Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Reminder
The "no-cost" lunch program will no longer be provided by the government for the upcoming 2022-23 school year. Students will again be required to pay for their lunches. If a family feels they may qualify-permanently or temporarily-for the 'Free and Reduced Lunch Program', then please have the form filled-out and submitted prior to the school year. The link for this form and the lunch menu for each day can be found on the ACSD's home page under "Forms & Links" (https://www.aurora-schools.org/District/Links-Forms).Please be sure to keep tabs on your child’s lunch account balance to avoid going into a negative balance. We will always ensure all students have access to eat lunch, but it is appreciated by our lunch staff if a positive balance can be maintained.
Here is the link for My Payments Plus:
https://www.mypaymentsplus.com/welcome
We are excited to be working with a new food service provider called the Nutrition Group! They are working to provide balanced and healthy meals to our children each day.
Click on the link below for the school lunch menus
https://auroraschools.nutrislice.com/
Please reach out to Sal Arquilla at sarquilla@aurora-schools.org for any questions.
Transportation Information
The login information is as follows:
User name = jane.smith (That is the student's first name period last name with no spaces) Password = students date of birth 01012021 with no characters or spaces between mmdayyear
Once you are in, go to "Work with students" and then "View my students"; you should see all your students to choose from. Routes do change from time to time when new students are added so please check back over the next week to ensure your pick-up and drop-off times.
All students are assigned a bus route using their home address. If your child will be using an alternative stop such as a daycare or caregiver, please make sure you submit an alternative bus stop form as soon as possible.
We also 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 and we will get back to you as soon as possible. Note, we are never sure how many students will be riding the buses. Once schools open we will make necessary adjustments for buses that may be full.
Arrival and Dismissal Reminders
We are off to a great start to the school year with a smooth, safe, and expedient arrival and dismissal process.
Thank you to all of our parents for your help in making these processes so smooth!
Drop off cart
Important Dates and Reminders
October
3-7 PTO Book Fair
5 PTO Meeting at C&I Building (10:00 AM)
13 End of 1st Grading Period
14 NO SCHOOL ~ NEOEA Day
17 NO SCHOOL ~ Teacher Professional Day
21 Report Cards Distributed
27 LES Band Concert at High School (7:00 PM)
31 Fall Festival
November
2 Parent/Teacher Conferences (5:30 PM to 8:30 PM)
9 PTO Meeting at C&I Building (6:30 PM)
10 Parent/Teacher Conferences (5:30 PM to 8:30 PM)
17 School Picture Retake Day
23-27 NO SCHOOL ~ Thanksgiving Break
28 School Resumes
28-30 PTO Holiday Shop
Final Forms Reminder
Please be sure to update your Final Forms information for this school year to ensure you can receive the important information and newsletters from our school. If you need any help with updating your Final Forms please contact lverdova@aurora-schools.org
Please use the following link: https://aurora-oh.finalforms.com
Clinic Updates
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.
Leighton Elementary School
Mr. Ben Lehman - Assistant Principal
Email: lverdova@aurora-schools.org
Website: aurora-schools.org
Location: 121 Aurora Hudson Road, Aurora, OH, USA
Phone: (330)562-2209
Twitter: @michelle_nizen