Worthington Park Shark Sentinel

Happy Friday Park Sharks. We want to take a minute to thank all of our parents and guardians who were able to take time this past week to join our teaching staff for our Fall Conferences. It was wonderful having so many families back in the buildings and at our Book Fair. Our school based team is extremely grateful to work with each of your children and for your continued collaboration with us!

Below are a few quick messages and reminders for the coming week. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to reach out to our main office or me directly. Have a great weekend and Go Sharks!

-Principal Garrity

(pgarrity@wscloud.org)

(614) 450-5500

Worthington Park Elementary will be celebrating Halloween on Friday, October 28th in the afternoon. Students will be permitted to bring an appropriate costume to school, celebrate the holiday with their classmates, and participate in a school-wide Costume Parade at 1:45 on the back playground.

Below are some important facts about Friday. Please take time to review the information:

• The celebration at Park will start at 1:30 in the grade-level classrooms.
• We are asking parents to please not send in any classroom treats (snacks, candy, etc.) for the celebration, as we are still following district guidelines for sharing of snacks and being a peanut free building.
• Starting at 1:45 pm, classes will begin the costume parade starting with 5th grade and working down towards All Day and PM Kindergarten. We are planning on concluding the parade in plenty of time for traditional dismissal.
• Parents are welcome to come to school to view the parade. *see map below.* Parents do not need to sign into the office as the event will be all outside!
• We ask parents who are driving to the event to please use a parking spot in the back parking lot or park in a neighboring area/walk over to Park.

If you have questions or concerns about the celebration- please do not hesitate to reach out to Principal Garrity at pgarrity@wscloud.org

Here is a link to our previous communication that has more information!

Next week the Student Council is collecting new, adult-sized socks for Socktober. There will be a bag outside each classroom to collect donations. All of the socks will be donated to Huckleberry House for

To help celebrate SOCKtober we hope our Park Sharks will all wear CRAZY SOCKS! on Thursday, October 27th!

Just a reminder that Worthington Park and all Worthington School buildings are NUT FREE.

Please remember to check your child's lunch and snacks to ensure they do not accidently have any peanut or nut based products (especially prepackaged Lunchables). Thank you for helping us keep our Park Shark Students Safe

Absent and New Students

Any student that was absent on our original Student Picture Day (9/19), or has enrolled at

Park since that date, will have their picture taken on Tuesday, October 25. New order form will

be sent home.

Need A Picture Retake?

If you would like your student picture retaken on Tuesday, October 25, you will need to send

the original picture package to school with your student on October 25. The new picture will

be replaced with the same package. Unfortunately, no retakes will be done without the

original picture package.

Please contact Ms. Fisher at 614-450-5500, if you have any questions. Thanks!

Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESEA), provides financial assistance to local educational agencies (LEAs) and schools with high numbers or high percentages of children from low-income families to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic standards. Our school receives Title IA funding.

Parents/families of students in our building have a right to know about teacher qualifications and state-mandated assessments. In addition to being linked here, these documents are available on the Title IA page of our school website.

Worthington Park Elementary is partnering with the Worthington Resource Pantry to help provide support to over 1,000 families in the area this holiday season. We are collecting canned food items, granola bars, and other toiletries here at Worthington Park outside of the main office starting Tuesday, November 1st and continuing until Thursday, November 17th.

Worthington Park will be participating in a school-wide safety drill on 11/17th at 1:30pm. Students and staff will practice the Lock-out and Lock-down safety drills - two drills intended to keep students in classrooms during a suspected emergency and prevent all outside entrance into the school.

We realize that safety drills have the potential to create anxiety for students. Our goal will be to provide clear information in a caring manner and to conduct drills in a way that does not cause fear or anxiety for students. Prior to the drill, teachers will work with students in an age appropriate way to understand the difference between the two types of drills and to review expectations during each drill.

In addition, this safety drill will allow our school to practice communication in the event of a true emergency. As a parent/guardian, you can expect to receive notification on the day of the safety drill via email and text message at the onset of the drill and after it has concluded. Since this is occurring across all of our buildings, families with children in multiple schools will receive drill messages from each school. We apologize in advance for sending multiple messages, but we want to make sure all of our systems are working.

If you would like to confirm or correct a phone number or email address so you can receive notifications, please update your information in the Emergency Data Review section of the parent portal. Instructions can be found here: Emergency Data Review Instructions. Please update any information in advance of the scheduled drill.

As a reminder, if your child has any of the following symptoms, we strongly suggest that you keep them home from school and contact their pediatrician for additional guidance:

• Temperature 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher when taken by mouth

• New or worsened cough

• New onset severe headache

• Shortness of breath

• Loss of taste or smell

• Sore throat

• Vomiting or diarrhea

If your student has COVID-19 symptoms, you can pick up a test from your school's office.

October 24th- Board of Education Meeting 7:00 pm

October 25th- Third Grade ELA Ohio State Testing 8:30am

October 26th- Third Grade ELA Ohio State Testing 8:30am

October 28th- Fall Halloween Celebration at Park

November 8th- No School (Election Day)

November 9th- PTA November Meeting 7pm in the Library

November 17th- School Wide Safety Drill 1:30pm

November 23rd-25th- Thanksgiving Break

Worthington City Schools Special Education Parent Mentor is Colleen Cintrón-Rivelli. Parent Mentors are trained to help. They are guides, collaborators, and, most importantly, they are peers. Parent mentors provide free peer-to-peer support to other families of children with disabilities. Specifically, Colleen can provide information and support to assist in understanding transitions, literacy, guiding families through any special education meetings, connecting families with agencies and support understanding the rights and responsibilities of families, students and schools. Additionally, her training can provide current and updated information about special education laws and policies.

Phone: 614-450-6044, Email: ccintron-rivelli@wscloud.org | Parentmentor.osu.edu

Here is more information about the Parent Mentor Program and how Colleen can support your family in the district: Arabic, Napali, Portuguese, Somali, Spanish and English.

We hope to see everyone at our October PTA meeting, next Wednesday, November 9th at 7 p.m. This meeting will be held in the library. Children are welcome to attend, and there will be activities available for them. We will be joined by a district representative who will be sharing information about the upcoming levy and be available to answer any questions you may have.

If you have any questions, please reach out to worthingtonparkpta@gmail.com.

Email: pgarrity@wscloud.org
Website: https://www.worthington.k12.oh.us/domain/25
Location: 500 Park Road, Westerville, OH, USA
Phone: (614) 450-5500
Twitter: @WoParkSharks