Husky Family Newsletter
Hopkins Hill Husky Happenings
WELCOME BACK - Week of August 29
Good Morning, Families!
We are officially ready to Rock and Roll as we welcome our first-fifth graders on Wednesday, August 31 and our K students on September 6. Last week's newsletter had a lot of information so I will add that link to the email that contains the link for this email. Families, please check in with each other about whether or not the newsletter is being received as this is the primary way we will be communicating. If someone is not receiving the newsletter emails, the first thing to do is check spam. If it isn't there call us to verify your email address.
If your child will be buying lunch or breakfast, you will want to take a look at this link:
https://www.coventryschools.net/Content2/foodservice
On this page you will fine the breakfast and lunch menus (also linked on the school page and below), free and reduced lunch forms, and how to prepay breakfast and lunch by setting up a My School Bucks account. When you do that, you will be asked for a student ID number, which you should be able to see on the parent portal, but if not, let us know.
Another important link to check out is the link for Ocean State Transit, the bus company that transports Coventry students: https://www.coventryschools.net/Content2/busruns
2022-2023 bus runs are posted. This link is also on the school and district pages.
Finally, a request for patience the first few days as we sort through questions about lunches, busses, and arrival and dismissal. Arrival and dismissl admittedly goes a bit more slowly the first few days of school. Related information is included again in this week's newsletter but the most important thing is to have an ID when collecting your child. Even of you are a parent who has been with us, please have that ID ready in case someone new is assisting the first few days. Generally, you will see Ms Beauchemin in the crosswalk in the morning and Mrs. Marran and Mr. Greene in the back for dismissal of parent pick ups in grades 1-5. K teachers will dismiss their own students at the K door. If anyone other than a parent is picking up, please make sure that person is on the emergency form, has an ID with them, and that you have written a note letting us know.
Lastly, the Parent Portal. Please make sure you are signed up for the Parent Portal. This is how you will view your child's report card and how you can update phone numbers and emails. Unfortunately, this is much more difficult to do and view on a phone so please make us aware of any special circumstances, especially around report card time. A Parent Portal "cheat sheet" is right below this section and on that sheet is also information for the parent help desk; here is that link:parenthelp@coventryschools.net. This is only for parent portal help.
This is another long newsletter to try and cover as much as possible before school starts. They will get shorter, I promise! We are all very excited to start the year and to welcome children and families back to school. Please know that we understand the trust you are placing in us when you leave your children in our care and we will always do our best to support you and our Hopkins Hill Huskies. Have a great weekend - see you soon!
Mrs. Tancrelle
In Other News...
Schedules: We have had a schedule change this year in order to make things more consistent among elementary school and to provide important teacher professional development time as we implement two new programs - EL Education for Reading/Literacy and ZEARN for math. Links to an overview of both are on the school page. The three early schools have the same schedule (BR, TIO, WC) and the two later schools have the same (HH, WO)differing from the early schools by 30 minutes. In grades K-2, a little over 3 hours is designated for Literacy instruction broken into 3 blocks - skills, module, labs and a little over an hour for math. In grades 3-5, they have a little over two hours for literacy instruction - a module block and what is called the All Block in which they complete skills and writing activities. Math is about 70 minutes. At each grade level, the literacy instruction has four units - modules - and science and social studies topics are embedded in these modules. Grades K-2 have additional time to explore during Labs and grades 3-5 have an additional half hour block as more in depth study/research is often necessary. All grades have intervention time and, what we call Encore time. Encore time encompasses phys ed, health, art, music, and library with the grades having one of these each day with K having two days of phys ed rather than health. The biggest change has been to our lunch/recess block during which all the schools are implementing a 20, 20, 20 model. Each grade will have a stand alone recess of 20 minutes with additional options for using this time. That time would also be snack time. Lunch is 20 minutes immediately followed by a 20 minute recess. 20 minutes may not seem like a long time for lunch so we have made provisions for children who may eat more slowly, but the 20, 20, 20 model has been successfully used at Western for a number of years, so we know its doable. Teachers will also be sending schedules out for their classrooms.
Lunch/Recess: Our supervisory assistants who monitor lunch and recess have a safety sheet that they review with children many times during the year. I have attached these below. Generally, they address things that we have seen as impacting both behavior and safety.
Positive Behavior and Intervention Supports (PBIS): All Coventry Elementary Schools utilize the PBIS approach, which involves directly teaching expectations in different school settings. The approach is intended to be proactive and positive. Deliberately inappropriate behavior is always addressed, and may involve a parent phone call, but the premise of the PBIS approach is that if children know what to do - what is expected of them, they will rise to the occasion. Most mishaps are part of learning and growing up and addressed with reteaching and some conference time to help children reflect on what went wrong, why, and what can be done the next time a similar situation arises. Here is the link to the PBIS site: https://www.pbis.org/
Our expectation matrix is below and posted in classrooms. Our School Improvement Team will be early in September in order to plan out kick off event during which we review the expectations as a school community in some way. Teachers also do a matrix walk through the first few days of school showing children what respectful, responsible, and safe looks like and sounds like in various school settings.
Arrival Dismissal: Please see the attached document right after this section. Other than times, dismissal will look pretty much the same as last year, but new families might want to print the information for reference. To remind you of three terms we use:
Walker - walkers are children in grades 3-5 who have parent permission to walk home or walk to their parent's car in the lot or on the road. There is a form to sign up for this. I will attach those next week and they will also go home the first week of school.
Parent Pick Up - parent pick ups are students whose parents, or someone they determine, collects the child from an adult on dismissal duty. It's basically a direct hand off. Parents park in the lot and walk to the gym (or K door) where adults will dismiss children. The specifics are in the attached doc. Important is that if someone other than a parent is picking up the child, they have to be on the emergency list and we require a note that someone different will be picking up. We are unable to do parent pick ups from the front door and are unable to accommodate pick ups after 3:15. After 3:15, the pick up person will have to go to the parent pick up location.
Free and Reduced Lunch: The pandemic related Federal Lunch Program that provided free breakfast and lunch to all students will end with the start of the 2022-2023 school year. If you feel that you qualify for free or reduced breakfast and lunch, please make sure you complete the lunch form and return to school. If you need a paper copy, please give us a call. Click on this link, which takes you to the form:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RlVePvO2BBgo2rmXanlQ-dkhgG1Zrfbj/view
I have also attached another PDF that brings you to a QR code to access the form and how to sign up for a My School Bucks account. The school lunch program is run by SODEXO. Click on that link for contact information and to see the l
breakfast and lunch prices, which have increased.
Also, just an FYI, nut products are not allowed in any of the classrooms but are allowed in the cafeteria. We have nut free tables where children with nut allergies can sit along with friends as long as the friends don't have nut products in their lunches. Wow butter is sometimes an alternative that families like so some information about that is attached.
Hopkins Hill Food Pantry: Hopkins Hill operates a free food pantry for families. What we did last year, and will continue to do this year, is have families to sign up for a biweekly pre-bagged grocery delivery, which you can stop or start anytime as long as we have available food resources. You can also call us if you have a short term need or emergency. We use the Coventry High School Transition Program to do our deliveries or bags can be picked up at school. As you can imagine, donations of items are always appreciated and we do a food drive at the start of each year, before Thanksgiving, and mid winter. Please call us if you need the food pantry or email me - all such inquiries are confidential. We are looking for donations to restock. An updated flyer will be in next week's newsletter.
Drills: Just a reminder that schools are required by RIDE to conduct 15 safety drills a year. These can be a combination of lockdown drills, fire drills, and evacuation drills. Nicer weather usually brings an increase in these drills. Often, Coventry police and/or fire attend these drills both to show support and to monitor in order to provide suggestions. Please don't be alarmed if you are driving by and happen upon a drill in progress. Children and teachers practice often, and are used to the routes they take exiting the building as well as the procedures we follow once outside to make sure everyone is accounted for. I do try to inform parents after a drill has taken place but may not get to it until the end of the day. The exceptions are after an evacuation drill or when we have had police/fire guest observers - in these instances, I will do my best to let you know right after the drill to avoid any undue panic.
More to come next week, folks. Please feel free to email me if there is a topic you would like to see addressed. Lots of this is also on the web page. You can get to our page by going to the district page - www.coventryschools.net - and clicking on the Hopkins Hill section.
Husky Happenings
August 31 - First Day for grades 1-5
August 31 and September 1 and 2 - K Screenings; appointments made at orientation
September 5 - No School, Labor Day
September 6 - K First Day
September 13 - No School, Primary Election Day (Schools are often used as polling locations.)
September 26 - Open House SAVE THE DATE
PTA News
PTA Web Page Link: https://www.facebook.com/Hopkins-Hill-Elementary-PTA-104160215338849
PTA Meeting Schedule - Meetings are at 6 PM at Hopkins Hill - All are welcome!
September 6
October 4
November 1
December 6
January 3
February 7
March 7
April 4
May 2
June 6
Congratulations to the PTA Officers for the 2022-2023 school Year. Officers are elected every 2 years.
President - Shana Cinquimani (child entering grade 1 in fall)
Vice President - Brandy Teixeira (child entering grade 3 in fall)
Secretary - Meghan Broz (child entering grade 3 in fall)
Treasure - Emily Chadwick (child entering grades 3 in fall)
Social Media Coordinator - Open
The hard work of our PTA to support our children is much appreciated.
HH PTA
Facebook: Hopkins Hill Elementary PTA
Stay Connected
Website: https://www.coventryschools.net/4/home
Or access Hopkins Hill from the district page: https://www.coventryschools.net/
Location: 95 Johnson Blvd, Coventry, RI, USA
Phone: 401-822-9477
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathryn.tancrelle.18
Twitter: @HH_Husky
Contact Us
- Kathryn Tancrelle, Principal tancrellekathryn@coventryschools.net
- Kathleen Mealey, Secretary, mealeykathleen@coventryschools.net
- Deborah Oliver "Nurse Deb", School Nurse, oliverdeborah@coventryschools.net