Emerson Families,

We hope you all have a wonderful and restful long holiday weekend. As a reminder, all District 64 schools will be closed on Monday, September 5th in observance of Labor Day.

Best,

Tessa Shulman

Emerson at a Glance:

• M 9/5: Labor Day - No School

• T 9/6: PTO Movie Night

• F 9/9: Lockdown Drill

Looking ahead…

• M 9/12: Picture Day

• T 9/13: Curriculum Night 6:00-8:00pm (Parents Only, more info to follow)

You may access our guidelines for the 2022 - 2023 School Year on our website. As you will see upon reading them, the guidelines are very different from what we've experienced over the past two years. There are only a couple of mandatory rules we must follow when someone tests positive, yet you'll see the remainder of the guidelines only list recommendations. Each family can decide their own comfort level regarding which recommendations to follow, and we ask that everyone respects the choices of others.

20% of proceeds go to support the D64 Band Orchestra Parents Association (BOPA)!

Tuesday, September 13, 2022 from 11:00am - 10:00pm

See the flyer HERE. *Must mention fundraiser at time of order to ensure credit towards fundraiser*

Lou Malnati's Park Ridge from 11:00am - 10:00pm
650 N Northwest Hwy
Park Ridge, IL 60068
847-292-2277

JOIN US! Emerson Middle School & PTO presents….

The Annual Outdoor Movie Night!

Event is open to Emerson Students & Their Families

Tuesday, September 6th

6:30pm Concessions | 7:30pm Movie

Free Event to Attend

Concessions will be available for purchase

Drinks | Pizza | Snacks | Popcorn | Italian Ice from Rita’s

Bring chairs or blankets to sit on the Emerson Lawn

Note: Each student in attendance must be accompanied by an adult. An adult can be responsible for more than one student if needed.

All District 64 schools and offices will be closed on Monday, September 5th in observance of Labor Day. School will resume on Tuesday. Enjoy the long holiday weekend!

Student Picture Day is Monday, September 12th. Representatives/photographers from Color Portraits will be at Emerson and taking student portraits via your student’s regularly scheduled PE class. For ordering information, please click HERE to view the informational flyer.

6-1 are proud to present the Phoenix (previously known as the Ravens)

6-2 are proud to present the Flying Penguins ( previously known as the Sugar Gliders)

Emerson Middle School will conduct our lockdown drill on September 9th at 8:30 am. Families were sent a letter on August 30, 2022 regarding this lockdown.

The 4pm activity bus will resume on Tuesday, September 6th. There will be three activity buses that will go to the Franklin, Carpenter, and Field areas. The buses will run Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. The exception will be that there is no 4pm bus on Fridays of long weekends.

Beginning on Monday, August 22nd, there will be NO parking on the Greendale side of the building. For Student Drop Off and Pick Up, all families MUST use the Cumberland parking lot. Greendale drop off can ONLY be used for Band/Orchestra students before school, from 7:00-7:25. Please note that this lot will be closed until construction concludes. We appreciate your understanding and flexibility.

All Emerson students and parents are provided access to schedules via the PowerSchool parent and student portals. The PowerSchool Parent Portal allows you access to your student’s academic information, including student schedules and grades. If you have any questions on how to login, please contact the Emerson Main Office for assistance (847) 318-8110.

Please call the office attendance number (847-318-8110) if/when students miss class for any reason. Also, please be sure to contact the school nurse, Julie Niemiec (847- 318-8115) with any illness/medical information related to the absence.

Please remember that you can check your child’s attendance through the PowerSchool Parent Portal..

NOTE: As a reminder and per the D64 Student-Parent Handbook, absences due to vacations, attendance at a cultural or sporting event, or participation in a team sport, acting or fine arts performance are considered unexcused.

From the sixth to the eighth grade at Emerson, our students steadily mature in their social behaviors. One area in which these social skills are on display is lunchtime. This period is a time for students to relax, be with friends, and take a break from the morning work. It is intended to be a healthy, pleasant, and safe time. It is expected each class treats the cafeteria as they would their dining areas at home or at a restaurant. This has been a very successful process in teaching responsible behavior.

In the student planner, there is a section entitled “Cafeteria.” Please take a moment to review it with your student to help ensure a positive experience during lunchtime. The basis of the expected behavior directly relates to our SOARS behavior matrix, which focuses on respect, empathy, safety, responsibility, and self-regulation. Our expectations will be discussed with the students on Wednesday, August 31st. Students will bring a letter home for families to sign on Wednesday evening.

School hours for student classes are from 8:05 a.m.- 3:00 p.m. Please note that each Wednesday, students are dismissed at 2:10 p.m. for staff professional development activities.

Doors to the school open for students each morning at 7:58 a.m. Homeroom begins at 8:05 a.m.


School office hours are from 7:20 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. Remember that our student absence line (847) 318-8110 is available 24 hours a day. Please let the Emerson Office know as soon as possible if your child will not be in attendance. Please do not rely on e-mail notification for reporting absences as it may not be seen until later in the day.

In an effort to keep you informed, we typically send a Friday newsletter each week. We may also send occasional e-blasts for important reminders and notices of events. The Emerson PTO also sends out regular communication with important information for the week. To join our wonderful PTO, please visit their website.

School supply lists are available on the Emerson website. Please remember to mark your student’s personal items with his/her name to avoid confusion if an item is misplaced.

If students forget something at home or are being brought a lunch, items may be dropped off at the Emerson Office. We instruct students to check in with the office during passing periods to pick up these items. We will not interrupt class to notify students of items/lunches delivered to the office. As noted in our district student/parent handbook, parents are discouraged from delivering lunch to the office from local restaurants; lunches brought to the office should be reserved for emergency situations, such as a forgotten lunch.

As a reminder, each Emerson student was issued a Chromebook computer as part of the District’s one-to-one digital learning program. Students will receive their Chromebooks and cases during the first week of school. Your child will also be assigned a gmail account to access Google Apps for Education and other digital resources at school and to further explore concepts introduced in class at home.

As a parent, we ask you to partner with us in ensuring that your child uses the Chromebook and District-provided gmail accounts appropriately. Please remind your student to charge their chromebook each night.

District 64 is excited to continue partnering with our students and parents as we expand the instructional benefits of a digital learning environment. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

You can find more information about the 1:1 Initiative, Chromebooks, and the other technologies available to our students here.

Lunch Reminders
The cafeteria will not be accepting cash to purchase lunch items. Students must use their MySchoolBucks account to purchase any food. Please see this flyer for more information from Quest, our food service company. You can also get a food service overview by clicking HERE.

Unlike elementary school, you do not need to pre-order meals or beverages. Students may select from daily offerings in the Emerson cafeteria. More information about our school lunch offerings and payment can be found here on the D64 Middle School Lunch webpage.

Though we have many food choices in our cafeteria, most Lincoln students bring their lunch to school. We strongly encourage this during the first weeks of school while we get our cafeteria systems and procedures up and running.

We highly encourage waste-free lunches. To help reduce waste, please consider using reusable containers for your child’s food and drink, rather than disposable bags and bottles. Lincoln is committed to green efforts in the lunchroom. The cafeteria also has a lunch waste sort station for students to empty their lunch waste into recycling, compost and trash. We encourage all students to do so every lunch period.

More information about Lincoln's work with eco-friendly changes can be found HERE.We appreciate your partnership in supporting our District and student environmental efforts!

All health forms should now be uploaded directly into Powerschool. This includes school physicals, dental and vision forms as well as athletic forms. When you log into PowerSchool, click on your child’s name at the top of the page, then on the left side click on forms. After that, you can click on “Health Office Document Submission of Athletic Department Document submission” then click add document and submit.

Please make sure that you have filled out and signed the health history parent portion at the top of the
back page of your child's physical. If your child requires a medical action plan or medications while in school, those required forms can be found on the D64 Health Services page under the header "Other Health Forms" If you have any other questions or more immediate needs, please contact the front office at 847-318-8110.

Parents and any visitors to the school should always enter through Door 1. All visitors must sign in at the front desk and put on a visitor’s badge if they have a pre-scheduled meeting or volunteer activity to attend. Never knock on a door and ask a student or staff member to let you in. Students and staff are instructed that they are not to open the locked outside doors for anyone. ALL VISITORS ARE TO ENTER DOOR 1, THE MAIN OFFICE.

Emerson Middle School, along with all District 64 schools, operates in accordance with policies and practices that have been reviewed and implemented by the District 64 Board of Education. Please review the D64 Student-Parent Handbook prior to the start of the school year to familiarize yourself with the information contained in it. We want to work in partnership with you to ensure a positive school year, and having an understanding of this information will help to promote a successful school year. This handbook is intended as a convenience for District 64 families and staff by summarizing selected information about procedures, services and programs. It also provides a quick reference for contact information and District timelines.

We are very fortunate to have a supportive and collaborative partnership with our Emerson PTO. Throughout the year, we will be working together to provide opportunities for our families and students. If you are not a member already, please consider joining this awesome organization. You can find information on starting or renewing your membership by visiting the Emerson PTO website.

The Emerson website and Emerson school calendar are valuable resources to keep informed of important updates and events throughout the year. The calendar is kept up to date throughout the school year, and new information is posted regularly. We hope that these tools are helpful resources for keeping you and your student organized and informed as we progress through the year.