Pierce Downer This Week
April 5, 2024
Pierce Downer Families,
Did you know that the Downers Grove Grade School District has partnered with the DuPage County ROE to offer all students free homework assistance? This support is already available on your child's device. Simply navigate to Clever and select the Varsity Tutor app. It's that simple!
Upcoming Eclipse
On Monday, April 8, 2024, District 58 will be along the path of a solar eclipse. Locally, this will be experienced as a partial eclipse, occurring during our regular school dismissal time, 2:00 pm for elementary schools and 2:10 pm for middle schools. There will be no changes to the regularly scheduled instructional day.
While this is a rare and exciting phenomenon, it presents a risk of eye injury to everyone, including children who may not understand the dangers of looking directly in the direction of the sun. The timing of the eclipse, when children are transitioning home, requires coordination in explaining to students they should not at any time be looking at the sun without appropriate eye protection. As students are dismissed staff will be reminding students about the importance of not looking directly into the sun.
If you choose to send properly certified protective eyewear to school with your child(ren), we will allow them to put on the glasses when they exit the building. Due to the timing of the partial eclipse occurring at dismissal, there will be no viewing events at any of the schools.
Is your family returning next year?
Families who have not yet registered their child(ren) for the coming year will have received an email from the District earlier this week asking them to register as soon as possible, preferably by Monday, April 8. In addition, our school will start contacting families inquiring whether their child(ren) will be returning for the 2024-25 school year and to ask them to register as soon as possible.
Timely registration is very important to us. It allows us to know how many students will be in each grade level and in each school, and allows us to plan for the number of teachers and support staff needed.
Click here to register. Please call the school if you have questions.
With that being said, please do not hesitate to reach out. You can email me at LWagner@DG58.org or call the Pierce Downer Main Office at 630-719-5860.
As always, WE are PD!
Dr. Leland (Lucky) Wagner
Glow Lunch Fun!
National Schwa Day, April 7th
What is National Schwa Day?
National Schwa Day is observed on April 7. It is all about celebrating the schwa – a sound in the English language- through reading, writing, speaking, and listening to words we use every day!
What is a Schwa?
Do you know what the most common sound in the English language is? It’s the schwa!
Well, what is a schwa? The schwa is a sound that we produce when we say words that have an unstressed syllable, to make the words sound more natural and relaxed. The schwa sound resembles the “uh”, or “ih” sound in place of any vowel with a word that has more than one syllable.
For example: banana has two schwa sounds that take the place of the sound of short a. Say it out loud: buh-na-nuh. Did you hear it?
A schwa appears in an unemphasized syllable of a word, which is said faster and quieter than the emphasized (louder and slower) syllable. The schwa sound is in many common words such as: America, pencil, bottom, salad, carrot, dragon, vinyl and more!
The word “schwa” can be traced back to 1895, with German and Hebrew roots, and is defined as a “neutral vowel” or “emptiness”. It is represented by an upside-down e when it’s written in the International Phonetic Alphabet and you can find it in dictionaries in the pronunciation notes.
Registration is now open!
District 58 opened its online registration for returning students for the 2024-25 school year. Parents are asked to please submit their child’s registration by Monday, April 8. To begin, go to https://www.dg58.org/family-resources/registration and click on “Returning Student Application” and follow the prompts in the step-by-step instructions.
District 58 encourages families to register their student(s) promptly, as early registration helps the District determine its hiring, staffing, classroom, and transportation needs for the upcoming school year. While registration is occurring in February, March and April, an invoice won’t be sent until after May 1. Thank you for your help in supporting a smooth transition to the next school year!
If you have technical questions during the registration process, please contact District 58’s Technology Help Desk by filling out a Technology Help Ticket or calling 630-719-2768. For general registration questions, please contact your school office.
New this year, all registration will be conducted online. If families cannot complete the process online, they can call or visit their child’s school and the process can be completed there. District 58’s preschool registration is also open and is accepting applications at www.dg58.org/preschool.
Personal Electronic/Technology Devices Policy in DG58
It is amazing how far technology has come over the last decade and continues to advance. I recognize the value technology has not just in education, but our world. However, I am hoping we can work together to remind students that during the school day, personal electronic devices should be turned off or silenced and out of sight. This includes wearable devices if they become distracting to the learning environment. Students should not be using phones, Apple Watches, or other devices to send or receive text messages or phone calls during the school day.
Construction begins in District 58
Construction begins at many District 58 schools over spring break. To keep parents apprised of construction progress, updates will be provided on our website here, including progress dashboards of our middle schools.
If you’d like to learn more about spring break work in the District, click here.
PD Cup Recipient
Congratulations to Mrs. Grisamore on being the latest PD Cup recipient! Mrs. Grisamore is a kindergarten teacher at Pierce Downer School. Mrs. Grisamore instills a love for school in our youngest learners. This establishes a mighty strong foundation for moving through Pierce Downer School. Mrs. Grisamore serves on a variety of committees at the building and district level and provides a warm, inviting space for all of her students.
Thank you Mrs. Grisamore for ALL that you do!
BRIDGES Math Support for Families (click the picture to access the link)
New Services for Mental Health Resources
District 58 strives to create a culture of well-being for students, parents, staff and community. To further support this endeavor, the District has invested in an additional support service through ReferralGPS.
ReferralGPS is a service providing assistance to our community in finding local mental health and substance use-related treatment resources. The service compliments the District’s existing systems of support as a tool for student service teams and families to connect with treatment. Along with a searchable database of treatment options, ReferralGPS assists families in triage and appointment setting.
School district staff and families may access ReferralGPS in two ways:
Contact Student Services (social workers, psychologists, counselors) to seek out treatment options
Visit this link at https://referralgps.com/find-help/DG58 to search for treatment resources or connect with a Care Navigator anonymously
The platform has the ability to filter by mental health concern, clinician gender/specialty, location, and insurance acceptance. The service is available for all types of private and public insurance options including PPO, HMO, Medicaid, and families that are uninsured or underinsured.
ReferralGPS is available for use by district students, staff, and families at no cost. All information entered on the ReferralGPS tool is completely confidential and securely stored.
Monday, April 8
6th Grade Outdoor Ed Trip
Thursday, April 11
PTA Pro Kids Show 6:30-7:30pm
Friday, April 12
Battle of the Bands Kids Show 6-8pm
Tuesday, April 23
Open House & Book fair 6-7:30pm
Safe2Help Illinois
District 58 has partnered with Safe2Help to give students a safe and confidential way to report potential threats or crises. Safe2Help was launched by the State of Illinois in December 2020 and aims to help prevent suicide, bullying, school violence and other threats to school safety.
With Safe2Help, students can connect with a trained crisis professional during their own crisis, or to report a potential threat. Students can submit a Safe2Help alert via the following ways:
- Website: https://app.safe22helpil.com
- Text: SAFE2 (72332)
- Phone: 844-4-SAFEIL (844-472-3345)
- App: "Safe2Help Illinois" app available in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store
- Email: HELP@Safe2HelpIL.com
All alerts are responded to by a trained Safe2Help crisis professional. Safe2Help is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
District 58 staff are not the initial responders to the alert and will receive each alert after the Safe2Help professional provides support. District 58 staff will review alerts sent by Safe2Help during regular school hours, unless the nature of the alert necessitates immediate school action.
Raptor Visitor Management System
District 58 is pleased to continue using the Raptor Visitor Management System in all of our schools to strengthen our program of campus safety for students and faculty. Part of keeping students and faculty safe is knowing who is in our buildings at all times. The Raptor system will better allow us to screen visitors, contractors, and volunteers in our schools and provide us with a safer environment for our students and staff. Community High School District 99 currently utilizes the same platform on its campuses.
Upon entering a district building, visitors will be asked to present photo identification, such as a Driver’s License, which can either be scanned or manually entered into the system. If a parent or guardian for any reason does not have a US government-issued ID, the school staff member can use any form of identification and manually enter the person’s name into the Raptor system. The Raptor system will check to ensure that registered sexual offenders are not entering our school campuses without our knowledge. The Raptor system checks the visitor's name and date of birth for comparison with a national database of registered sex offenders. The registered sex offender database is the only official database checked by the Raptor system. No other data from the ID is gathered or recorded and the information is not shared with any outside agency. Once entry is approved, Raptor will issue a badge that identifies the visitor, the date, and the purpose of his/her visit. A visitor’s badge will not be necessary for those who visit our schools simply to drop off an item in the office or pick up paperwork.
The safety of our students is our highest priority and the Raptor visitor management system allows us to quickly identify those that may present a danger to our students. Thank you in advance for your understanding and your support in enhancing the school safety protocols in our district.