The Hawk
Holmes Elementary School - Week Ending 4/23/21
IMPORTANT DATES/THINGS TO REMEMBER
- 21/22 School Year Registration Begins - April 26
- Remote Planning Day - No School - May 7
Full Day starts Monday April 26
It is imperative that families adhere to our lunch expectations and monitor the foods they send in their children's lunches since lunch will be eaten in the classroom each day. ALL LUNCHES MUST BE NUT FREE. This includes peanut butter, Nutella, almond butter, or any other nut butter, in addition, do not send any candy, granola/breakfast bars, or trail mix that may contain nuts. This will be the case in every classroom regardless of any specific food allergies. Additionally, your child's teacher will share any other foods that may not be allowed due to specific food allergies in a specific classroom.
If a child accidentally brings a lunch that contains any of these products an alternate lunch of a sandwich or pizza kit will be provided.
Each week you will receive a lunch order form where you will order your child's lunch for the week. Choices will be either a sandwich or pizza kit and regular or chocolate milk. Please see the form below.
Alas, our daily schedule is changing once again and will more closely resemble what our schedules looked like at the beginning of the school year with specials being throughout the day. Specials teachers will now be pushing into each classroom and will still utilize Zoom to instruct our remote learners. Classroom teachers will be sharing their new schedules in this week's newsletters.
Keep D97 Schools Allergy Safe - No Nuts Allowed
Please check with your child's teacher for other allergy considerations in the classroom. We appreciate your help in adhering to this preventative measure.
School Lunch Order Form
We also ask you to indicate if you will be bringing a lunch from home. If you will always be sending a lunch from home, you only need to fill the form out once, if not, you can indicate what the lunch needs will be on any day.
Be sure to complete this form for each of your children.
Registration for 21/22 School Year - ALL STUDENTS MUST REGISTER
Online registration for the 2021-22 school year in District 97 will officially launch on Monday, April 26. Please visit https://www.op97.org/hr/student-registration for complete details.
Returning Students
Registration for returning students who are currently in kindergarten through seventh grade will be entirely online April 26 through May 31. The parent/guardian listed as PG1 in PowerSchool will receive an email from infosnap@is.op97.org with their student’s snapcode and instructions to register. Emails will be sent in waves beginning April 26.
Returning Student Registration Information >
Note: In order to register, Oak Park renters must have a lease that covers August 31, 2021, or the student’s first day of school.
VIDEO: "The ABCs of Registration are 'D-E-F'"
CLICK HERE for a brief video that outlines the District 97 registration process!
As you begin the process, remember that the "ABCs" of registration are "D-E-F."
- D - Documents: All required documents must be scanned and ready to upload before starting registration.
- E - Early: Registration is a longer process and we ask that families register early!
- F - Finish: Registration is finished once you receive a confirmation email from the district.
Families who wish to enroll new students or kindergarteners must first gather all required documents and make an appointment to have them reviewed. At your appointment, the registrar will explain the online process, verify your documentation and child's grade level, and enter the student into the online registration system. After your appointment, you will receive an email for each student, with a unique link to submit that student’s registration information. Information for Incoming Kindergarteners >
Appointments can be scheduled using this link:
https://registration.powerschool.com/family/gosnap.aspx?event=3548&culture=en
Updated Contact Tracing Procedures - Responding to a Positive Case
Beginning April 26, designated seating charts will be used for all classrooms to streamline and accelerate the contact tracing process when a person tests positive. This will allow nurses to focus their contact tracing investigation on those who are designated close contacts and follow the associated guidance for quarantine requirements. A close contact is defined as someone who was within 6 feet of an infected person for a cumulative total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period, starting from two days before illness onset (or, for asymptomatic patients, two days before getting tested) until the time the patient is isolated.
As a result of our updated process, schools will no longer automatically quarantine entire classrooms when a positive case is identified, and will instead focus on isolating close contacts. Full classroom and/or school quarantines may still be possible depending on the outcome of contact tracing; nurses will work closely with the Oak Park Department of Public Health to determine if additional safety measures are needed.
The following communication procedures will be used for positive cases, beginning the week of April 26:
- The principal will send an email notification to all students and staff of the affected classroom that there was a participant in the class who tested positive. All new cases will then be publicly reported on the district’s COVID-19 Metrics Dashboard.
- If the participant(s) are determined to have been close contacts and/or significant exposure, they will be contacted separately by the school and told to quarantine for 14 full days from their last contact with the case. The nurse will clear those close contact participants on a case by case basis to return to school/work.
We will continue to work closely with the Oak Park Department of Public Health to take any and all measures necessary to protect the safety of our school community.
Elementary Student Profile Forms for Students Entering Grades 1-5 in SY22
Placement of students in classrooms for next year is an important decision. We use
multiple criteria to inform these decisions. These are some of the criteria used in making
our decisions:
- Balance of gender/race/ethnicity
- Balance of performance levels
- Balance of students with special programming (Special Services, ELL, Title I, etc.)
- Balance of high behavioral needs
- Balance of varying social skill and work-habit levels
- Equitable class size across grade level
- Equitable access to school resources for programming needs.
Please trust that with your additional information, we will make the best placement decision for your child. Due to the nature and complexity of this task, we cannot reduce the process to simply accepting requests for specific teachers. Please be aware that requests for specific teachers will not be considered in this process.
Completing this form is optional. If you wish to complete it, please do so by the end of the day on Monday, April 26, 2021.
Click here to access the form.
District 97 to Host Three Additional Parent University Sessions in April 2021
District 97 will host three new Virtual Parent University sessions in April to help families learn strategies for collaborating with school administrators, teachers and staff to support equity and student success.
The sessions will be facilitated by Reesheda Graham Washington, principal consultant of RGW Consulting and CEO of L!VE 2.0.
The final event will be held on April 24. CLICK HERE to learn more and register.
Next Meal D97 Meal Distribution: Tuesday, April 27
Meal distribution will be held Tuesday, from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., at Brooks Middle School
325 S. Kenilworth Ave.
Expectations for D97 Students and Staff Who Travel Out of State
Click here to view a summary of the district's expectations for students and staff.
SAVE THE DATE: D97 Virtual Summer Step-Up Program
Summer Step Up is designed to support any District 97 student who could benefit from revisiting grade-level standards from the previous year. Additional information and sign-up forms will be shared by schools in May 2021.
Requests for further support (as needed)
Holmes School is committed to providing support to ensure all students experience social and academic success. Please fill out this form if your child is struggling to function socially, emotionally, or behaviorally at school. A member of our Tier 2 PBIS team will contact you in regards to the next steps.
Book Spotlight!
The books spotlighted this week all have a setting taking place during World War II. We will take a look at a fiction book, a fiction book that is based on a true story, and a non-fiction book. If you like to learn about history, these are the books for you.
Josie O’Malley looks for any way to help the war effort during World War II, but she is rejected from a puzzle-cracking tryout because she is a girl. Josie soon finds herself a part of a secretive program that turns her and her new friends, Akiko and Mae, into the newest caped heroes in town. Follow along with these new superheroes in the first book in an exciting new series, The League of Secret Heroes: Cape, as they fight against evil during World War II.
In Lifeboat 12, you meet 13-year-old Ken. He is one of many children boarding the SS City of Benares to sail to Canada from England. The Nazis are bombing London, and Ken’s dad wants him safe. Ken starts his journey excited to be on a ship with good food and new friends, but on the fifth night at sea, an explosion roars through the ship, and the passengers must band together if they want to survive.
Torpedoed: The True Story of the World War II Sinking of “The Children’s Ship” is a non-fiction book telling the story of not only Ken in Lifeboat 12 but also the other passengers involved. During World War II British parents wanted their children safe from the German bombs hitting England. This book tells how one hundred children were traveling to Canada on the passenger liner SS City of Benares when a German submarine torpedoed the ship and how the survivors fought to stay alive.
Request library books by filling out the Library Book Request Form. Check out these books and others by searching the Holmes Library catalog by clicking here and then selecting "Holmes Elementary School."
April Spirit Wear Sale
Celebrate Holmes Staff
Families, have you noticed a Holmes teacher or staff member who deserves a compliment or a thank you? Has this person made a difference for your child? Please share the reason in a brief email to me (czelaya@op97.org) so that we may recognize and thank them!
Community Hawk
Teacher & Staff Appreciation week is May 3rd-7th
Holmes PTO Board needs YOU!
The PTO Board is looking for new Board members to join the Board for the 2021-2022 school year. Help build a welcoming and vibrant community for all Hawk families, come join us!
If you are interested or a little bit curious, feel free to talk with a Board member, feel free to contact us at Holmes PTO website: https://www.holmespto.org/contact or email: pto@holmespto.org for more information.Hawk Hustle Update
COVID Vaccinations
This is for anyone who would like to receive the COVID vaccine and needs help signing up for an appointment. Please reach out to the Holmes DivCo team, and we will work together to set up an appointment. You can contact Aisha Raees or Richa Singhal at holmesdivco@gmail.com.
Inviting Arab American Families to Contribute to Morning Announcements
In honor of Arab American Heritage Month (April), we would love to include facts about the Arab American culture or people in our morning announcements. We feel the facts would best honor the month, if it came from the Holmes’s Arab American community. Please fill out this form if you would like to contribute: Arab American Heritage Form
Race and Education in Oak Park
Let us continue to educate ourselves on race. There is a series written by John Duffy in the Wednesday Journal that shares the history of Oak Park and race. Each week we will share a new essay written by John Duffy. Here is the second in the series: Housing in Oak Park and Maywood
Previous posts
Here is the first in the series: Educational Equity in Oak ParkBystander Intervention Virtual Trainings
Let us stand with our Asian American community. The Asian American community has faced a rise in hate crimes after the COVID-19 pandemic. If you would like to attend a bystander intervention virtual training, please go to this link: https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/events. There are multiple dates and times to choose from.
Dr. Christine Zelaya
Email: czelaya@op97.org
Website: http://www.op97.org/holmes/
Location: 508 N Kenilworth Ave, Oak Park, IL, United States
Phone: 708-524-3100
Facebook: facebook.com/christine.zelaya.96
Twitter: @ChristineZelaya
Contact your PTO
Email: pto@holmespto.org
Website: https://www.holmespto.org/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HolmesPTO/
Twitter: @HolmesPTO