There are so many wonderful things to celebrate, Bulldogs! Our students and staff are working together to build a safe and joyful community that is focused on learning. Our staff is making every effort to respond to the challenges of schooling during the pandemic while working incredibly hard, above and beyond, on a daily basis to create the very best experience for your child, our students. Our Churchill team is here to serve and we want to partner with all of our families. We care very deeply about the success of every child that attends our school. Thank you families for your continued support and trust in us. Should you have a question or concern, know that you are encouraged to reach out to the AMAZING professionals in our building so we can work with you to provide more information or create a solution together. Please consider giving a shoutout to a staff member making a difference.

https://forms.office.com/r/wTPfQmQKyC

Parent/Teacher conferences will be held on Monday, November 21 from 8am-8pm and Tuesday, November 22 from 8am-12pm. They are a wonderful opportunity for us to connect and partner on a plan of action for your child's success. An email from your child's teacher will be sent on Friday, November 5th with the directions and sign-up link. Specials and PE links will also be included. We will be offering both in-person and Zoom conferences on Monday and only Zoom on Tuesday so choose the day and format that best suits your schedule and needs.

We are in the beginning stages of planning for a tutoring programming at Churchill. Stay tuned for more exciting details!

To help us keep our classrooms clean and clear of sticky spills, any special drinks (i.e., Starbucks) must be ready to be disposed of upon entering the classroom. Send only water to school for drinking during the school day. A juice, but no soda is okay at lunch.

We are handing out on average 15 masks per day at arrival. We replaced an average of 20 masks a day. Our school site is going through 175 masks on average per week. All students must arrive onsite with a mask and an extra in their backpack. Thank you for your cooperation and attention to this matter.

Churchill has started the Test-to-Stay (TTS) protocol at our buildings in order to keep more students who are "close contacts" in school as opposed to being excluded from attendance. Test-to-Stay allows schools to test students identified as "close contacts" on the first, third, fifth, and seventh day after contact (or as close to this sequence as possible) and--if the student continually tests negative--remain in school. While not all students qualify for TTS, we hope to be able to use this when a student does qualify in order to keep them in school. Your school nurse will notify you if your student qualifies for Test-to-Stay. Please note this only applies for school contacts and not household contacts.

Our Halloween celebrations are planned for this Friday, 10/29. We want to thank our wonderful PTA room representatives and party volunteers for helping make this a special event for our students. If you are a room rep or volunteer, be sure to stop in the office to have your ID and vaccination status proof recorded. Students will engage in a craft/game during this time. There will be no parade or food/snack this school year. There will be an alternate location and activity for any students who do not celebrate. Let your child's teacher know if they will be attending the alternate location. Please review the costume guidelines below:

• If wearing one, must wear costume to school. Students will not be allowed to change into a costume.
• Must be able to wear a costume comfortably while conducting daily activities.
• No make-up or masks are allowed.
• Refrain from any costumes that contain blood/gore, weapons.
• No props of any kind.

We have been learning this week about procedures to take if there is a disturbance/threat outside or inside the building. Students will participate in a code yellow and code red drill on the afternoon of Monday, October 25th. Police will be onsite to provide instruction and feedback as needed so we can learn from conducting the drill. There will be no simulation, but rather teachers will be calmly walking students through the procedures. Please discuss what your child learned about the drill this week at home over the weekend and feel free to contact the office with any questions regarding your child's participation in the drill.

What a week of learning and coming together! Thank you to everyone for participating and making our anti-bullying spirit week full of teachable moments and fun spirit wear. It was inspiring to see so much orange today in unity against bullying.

We released our Kindness Challenge today and the whole school is buzzing with excitement: For every act of kindness shown, your class is rewarded a point. If your class earns 40 points or more, everyone in your class gets a small prize. If your class earns more than 100 points, you all get the small prize AND one person from your class gets to pie an Office Staff Member’s face. Bonus: If your class is the winning class for the entire grade, then several students in your class gets to pie all participating office members faces! Bullying of any kind, unkind acts, student referrals are things that will deduct class points. So, everyone in your class is counting on YOU to win! Do your part! The Kindness Challenge will run until 11/12/21.

Join us on Sunday, October 31st, at MOD Pizza for some delicious, custom-made pizza and to help raise funds for Homewood PTA! The fundraiser takes place at the Homewood MOD Pizza, from 10:30 am until 10 pm. Grab some pizza and/or salads for the family before, or after, your day’s activities! Homewood PTA thanks you for your support!! Please click the link below for all the information, and to RSVP for this event!

https://www.groupraise.com/events/206405