Duniway Dispatch
March 1, 2024
Calendar
- March 6: Connect to Duniway for Interested Families
- March 13: Fire Drill
- March 21: Lockdown Drill
- March 18-22: Book Fair
- March 25-29: Schools Closed for Spring Break
- April 5: Schools Closed - No School for Students
- April 10: Connect for Kindergarten for Incoming Families
- April 26: Duniway Auction
- May 8: Connect to Duniway for Interested Families
- May 17: Duniway Fund Run
- May 27: Schools Closed - No School for Students
- June 7: Duniway Parade and Carnival
- June 14: Last Day of School
Principal's Message
Dear Duniway School Community,
Happy Friday! We've had a busy and productive week at Duniway. Students celebrated the 100th day of school, we talked about the Leap Year, 5th grade and kindergarten each went on field trips, and a lot of great standards-aligned classroom work is happening. As always, a big thank you to our fantastic teaching staff for making Duniway such a wonderful place for our students to learn and grow.
Duniway Foundation/Auction Info
If you are not yet excited, it is time to start getting excited about our Duniway "Welcome to the Jungle" themed Auction on April 26th, 2024. The 2024 Duniway Auction will be our 25th Annual Auction! The Auction is a time we come together to raise money for support staff at Duniway. We have educational assistants who support academics at every grade level at Duniway due to the funds raised at this event! Learn more about them and what they do here: Meet Your Duniway EAs. Early bird tickets for this event will go on sale very soon! In the meantime, if you know of anyone who wants to be a sponsor for the event, run don't walk to our interest form: Duniway Auction Sponsor Information.
20-24-25 Budget/Class Information
As previously shared, the 2024-25 fiscal year in PPS is going to be challenging. The impact on our school community is being felt with the loss of teachers, specialists have been reduced, as well as counseling. We are really close to gaining another section in our 2024-25 1st grade and 5th grade. Students are the key to this happening. You can learn more about the budget process here: https://www.pps.net/budgetprocess
Please connect your friends and neighbors with Duniway. We have a connection event next Wednesday, March 6th, 2024, from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. This is a perfect time for folks to come and hear about all of the fantastic things happening/offered at Duniway.
Safety at Duniway
In March, we will have a fire drill (March 14th, 2024, at 9:30 a.m.) and a lockdown drill (March 21st, 2024, at 9:00 a.m.) As we strive to make all safety work at Duniway and in PPS more child and trauma-informed, I am excited to share that we will be using a new trauma-informed curriculum with K-2 students called "Sammy & Friends" that aligns a children's book/story with the teaching of safety drills, specifically lockdown drills. You can learn more about it here: https://www.sammyandfriends.com/. Check out the KOIN news spot on it here.
Thank you for all that you do to make Duniway a wonderful school community. Please don't hesitate to reach out to me at any time; I am always happy to connect.
Have a great weekend.
Best.
Principal Rafferty
Duniway Choir Sign Ups
Our school choir is starting up again and we’d love to have your child join! We are a non-auditioned before school club open to all students in grades 3, 4, and 5 that demonstrate responsibility, focus, and a love for singing. Singers of all experience levels are welcome. We rehearse Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 8:00-8:45am in the auditorium.
The spring choir begins Tuesday, April 2nd and ends Thursday, June 6. Sign-up here.
Music in Our Schools Month!
March is Music In Our Schools month! I'll be sharing some of our musical learning this month with families to celebrate the hard work of our students. Click here to see our K-5 songbook that includes the music and games that we've been working on so far this year. Thank you for the privilege to work with your students in the music room!
Book Fair
The spring Book Fair is coming up March 18-22, the week before spring break, in the Duniway library.
Volunteers are needed after school in shifts between 3-6pm, every day that week. You may bring your children with you. This is a super fun way to volunteer at Duniway if you haven’t yet; check on Konstella or Sign Up to Volunteer Here
Students who qualify for free or reduced meals are eligible for Book Fair gift certificates through our school counselors.
Please plan to come shop the fair—stock up on reading for spring break travels! The fair raises funds to support new reading material in our school library and classrooms.
Duniway’s 2024 OBOB Champions
Last weekend, after 42 separate Battles, we arrived at our school Champion team! After a close Final Battle between Hot Chocolate and the Galaxy Readers, the Galaxy Readers were victorious! Congratulations to Stella Dytko, Vivienne O'Hara Ziesmer, Alicia Perhac, Violet Mah and Coach Brooke Marquardt. The Galaxy Readers will battle on, representing Duniway at Regionals this year. The Regional Competition is at Marysville Elementary on Saturday March 16, 2024. Good Luck Galaxy Readers!
Congratulations to everyone on a very successful school OBOB Competition!!
We are about two months out from the Duniway Foundation’s largest fundraiser of the year – the annual Spring Auction! It’s coming up Friday, April 26 at Leftbank Annex and you definitely won’t want to miss this evening out with Duniway families and teachers. Early bird tickets will go on sale March 11!
We are asking for your help to make this event a success so that we can maintain imperative Education Assistants in our classrooms and increase other areas of specialist and support staffing at Duniway!
1) Do you have someone in your circle who may want to sponsor the auction and receive some publicity for their business? Reach out to Alisa alisahardy@yahoo.com or send them here: https://duniway.schoolauction.net/auction2024/register/ticket_sales
2) Do you have a family vacation home, experience or tickets that you’d be willing to donate? Get in touch with Andrea: andrea.duniwayauction@gmail.com (And thanks to those of you who are already leading our classroom art and basket fundraisers.)
3) If you’d be willing to host a sign up party with some friends or want to volunteer to help our auction efforts, reach out to: Liz: lizzylu49@gmail.com.
PPS Decarbonization Roadmap
Dear Duniway School Community,
PPS is working to make our buildings more climate friendly by lowering emissions and increasing health and comfort. To figure out how to prioritize this work, we need your help!
We're asking families, students, and teachers from the Cleveland and Franklin clusters to join us for public listening/input sessions on the district's decarbonization planning. We want to find out what and how we should prioritize this work to help give students and teachers the best possible experience they can have each day in PPS schools. Everyone from the community is invited to join for these 60 minute meetings.
March 18, 5:30-6:30 PM -- Franklin High School, Room M-223, for all schools in the Franklin and Cleveland clusters (all are welcome)
You can also attend the Lincoln High School meeting on March 19, 5:30-6:30 PM @ Lincoln HS if that date works better for you.
Please RSVP here.
If you have any questions, please email decarbonization@pps.net. If you cannot attend in person, you can also submit feedback through this online form.
At PPS, 90% of our greenhouse gas emissions come from our buildings! This is an amazing opportunity for the district to be part of a green future and to make our buildings more sustainable and comfortable for our community.
We appreciate you participating.
Thanks so much,
The PPS decarb team