Happy Friday Cougar Families,

I hope everyone had a great week!

I wish we had Picture Day every week. It was so great to see everyone come to school dressed to impress yesterday. The combinations of ties with t-shirts and suit coats with shorts or jogging pants were especially fun. You can tell the kids all felt a great sense of pride with their nice clothes and recent haircuts. Like many of you I’m sure, we have our boys’ school pictures in frames on our wall and we change them out each new school year. I cannot believe how old they now look when we update them. Enjoy this time as much as possible and try to be present with your children as much as you can. We all have so much information coming at us from so many directions. We think about the past and the future a lot, but let’s try to remember the here and now more frequently. This three-day weekend is another great opportunity to be present with our loved ones.

All my best to you and your families over the long weekend!

Respectfully,

-Matthew

Mr. Matthew O. Lombardo, NBCT

Principal

Kipling Elementary School

Please visit https://kiplingpto.membershiptoolkit.com/home for all things PTO. Please also note these important upcoming dates:

10/14: Pumpkinfest @ Kipling, 12-3pm, Sensory-friendly time: 11:30am-12pm

11/3: PTO Meeting @ Kipling, 9:30-10:30 in the Lounge

Pumpkinfest!

VOLUNTEERS: Please sign up to volunteer. We need volunteers to help facilitate the games, tickets and food! This event can not happen without each of you. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E44ACAD22A3FBCF8-44472490-kipling/29374066#/

FOR SALE: Pumpkinfest wristbands and raffle tickets are on sale now! Online sales close on Thursday October 5th. Login into https://kiplingpto.membershiptoolkit.com to purchase your items. ONLINE SALES DEALS WILL END ON OCTOBER 5TH!

Please feel free to email ptokipling@gmail.com for any questions!

Parent-Teacher Conferences will be held on Thursday, October 26th from 1:00-4:00pm & 5:00-8:00pm and Friday, October 27th from 8:30-11:30am. All DPS109 schools will hold in-person parent-teachers conferences this year with an option to use Zoom or Google Hangouts for parents/guardians who are not available for an in-person conference.

Parents will sign up for a conference using Sign-Up Genius. The links to sign-up are included here.

It is best practice to hold one parent conference per child, to ensure that both parents receive the same information regarding their child’s strengths and needs. Therefore, I ask that parents sign up for one joint conference per student.

Conferences are a discussion between parents and teachers. At this time elementary conferences do not include students and therefore we ask that children not attend the parent-teacher conference.

In an effort to ensure inclusion of diverse populations and perspectives, we are looking for other Kipling families to use the Kipling Cultural Collection to teach the Kipling community about your culture! Display objects may include 6-8 traditional or cultural objects, a family video describing the significance of each object, recipe, flag, map, music, etc - anything to bring your vibrant culture to life!

If you and your family are interested in sharing your culture with the Kipling community, please complete this brief form. If you sign up, a member of our committee will be in contact about next steps. If you have any questions, please email Mike Schwartz @ mschwartz1@dps109.org.

Please see the linked information here about how to enter the contest!

Halloween is coming to Kipling on Tuesday, October 31st! We want to remind families to be cautious when helping your child select a costume for Halloween. Using another's culture as a Halloween costume can be viewed as insensitive or offensive. In addition, we encourage students to be as inclusive as possible when dressing in group costumes so that students do not feel excluded during the Halloween festivities.

Below are some additional reminders about wearing costumes at school.

-Please do not send students with accessories (e.g witch’s broom).

-Toy weapons are strictly prohibited.

-Students should either wear costumes to school all day or have the ability to change into costumes in the classroom. Students will not be permitted to change clothes in the bathrooms.

-Masks that cover the face as a costume accessory can be worn during the parade and party, not during class time as it may be a distraction during learning.

Parade

-Students will exit out the main entrance, walk around the entire school, and enter back through the main entrance

-If there is inclement weather the parade will take place inside the school. Parents and guardians will not be allowed to enter the school if the parade is indoors.

Timeline

-2:05-2:30 - Costume Parade

-2:30-3:05 - Class Party (Party helpers and volunteers must come to the office to lobby guard before noon on 10/31 to expedite the process of entering to volunteer for the parties.)

-3:05-3:15 - Clean-up + Dismissal

Families who are not comfortable sending their child in costume, please reach out to your teacher so we can be sensitive to you or your child's feelings about dressing up for Halloween. We want everyone at Kipling to feel comfortable.

We are looking for daily parent volunteers to help students as they learn our new routine. Parents can sign up for a once a week, once every other week, or monthly slot. If you aren't familiar with composting, we promise it's easy. We will provide training and the kids are catching on quickly. This is a great chance to help the planet and see your Kipling kids in action. Please email Sandra Merrill at SandraKMerrill@gmail.com or Jessica Lorber at Jzindell@gmail.com or Jessica Cohen at

jessicabrody12@gmail.com for more information about volunteering. Sign up to volunteer here.

Turn In Health Forms!

PHYSICALS: All new students, Early Learners, kindergarteners, and 6th graders must have an updated health form on file by October 15th or they will be excluded from school.

CLICK HERE TO SUBMIT FORMS

A Note From the DHS Athletics Department

Dear Deerfield High School Community,

We greatly appreciate having our community and visitors enjoy our Warrior athletic events at Deerfield High School! To maintain a safe environment for all, students in grades K-8 must be accompanied and supervised by an adult at all events.

Students are expected to demonstrate appropriate behavior while attending these events.

If unsupervised students are found loitering in restricted areas or playing with equipment during the game, they will be instructed by security to return to the bleachers.

Please help us maintain a safe environment for our Warrior community.

The Importance of Attending School!
Parents & Guardians,

Our goal in District 109 is to work together to ensure the success of every child. As we are entering the month of October, we want to remind you that regular student attendance is vital to your child’s success. We are committed to working with you, our families, to achieve this goal by supporting your family with any concerns regarding student attendance.

As a reminder, if your child is going to be absent from school, please reach out to your building’s nurse as soon as possible to discuss the reason for the absence.

You can call Mrs. Szabo at 847-948-5151 X1103 or email to report an absence at kiplingattendance@dps109.org. If we do not hear from you by 10:00am, our school teams will continue attempts to contact parents/guardians and will also begin contacting emergency contacts. If we are still unable to reach you, we will work in collaboration with our School Resource Officer to conduct a wellness check.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Chronic Absenteeism is defined as absences totaling 10 percent or more of school days (including both excused and unexcused absences). If your child is absent 18 days or more (based on an average 180-day school year) then your child will be considered chronically absent.

• Chronic Truancy is defined as absences totaling 5 percent or more of school days without a valid excuse. If your child has 9 or more unexcused absences (based on an average 180-day school year) then they will be considered chronically truant.

We are here to work with our families to support positive school attendance. If there is anything we can do to better assist you and your child, please do not hesitate to let us know. There are many people in our building ready to help address any challenges in getting to school regularly or on time. We can also help identify barriers to regular attendance and implement key resources to support your family in these efforts.

Park District Before and After Care

The Deerfield Park District runs all of our before and after school care programs. Please contact the Park District, 847-945-0650, if you have questions.

Park District After School Enrichment Information

Sharing on behalf of the Deerfield Park District: registration is open for fall enrichment programs. To see a brochure of programs and get more information, visit https://www.deerfieldparks.org/programs/youths-teens/.

If you have any questions, please contact the park district directly as they run the programs.

-Mon 10/9: No School, Indigenous People’s Day

-Tues 10/10-Sat 10/14: Spirit Week!

-Sat 10/14: Pumpkinfest @ Kipling, 11am-2pm, Sensory-friendly time: 10:30am-11am

-Thurs 10/26: ½ Day of School Student Dismissal at 11:40am

-Thurs 10/26: Parent Teacher Conferences, 1-4pm and 5-8pm

-Fri 10/27: Parent Teacher Conferences, 8:30-11:30am

-Tues 10/31: Halloween Parade!

-Fri 11/3: PTO Meeting in the Staff Lounge, 9:30-10:30