Walt Disney School Update

We are sharing important information with P-H-M families relative to the latest student achievement data in Penn-Harris-Madison. We continue to be proud of our P-H-M Triangle of success connecting students, teachers and parents. We're excited to share with you points of #PHMExcellence from across the district.

Dear Walt Disney Families,

We have had a wonderful week at Walt Disney Elementary! Thank you to the parents and staff who joined us at our PTO meeting yesterday. We have many exciting plans in the works! More is included below regarding two upcoming events in the month of October. We have decided to continue with all PTO meetings held in person. Our next meeting will be Thursday, October 20th, in the Walt Disney library. We welcome all parents and staff.

I'm also excited to share that the PHM Education Foundation Silver Mile is quickly approaching. More information is included below, and you can sign up for the running events by follow this link.

I wish all Dolphins an outstanding weekend!

Go Dolphins!

- Mr. Towner

We are excited to share about a few upcoming PTO events (and more information to come!)

- Our Fall Festival will be the evening of Friday, October 7th.

- We are planning a Trunk or Treat event for the evening of Friday, October 28th.

- We will be doing a fall World's Finest Chocolate fundraiser that will kickoff Friday, September 30, and conclude Monday, October 17th.

If you have questions, please feel welcome to contact me (Mr. Towner), or email our PTO at waltdisneypto99@gmail.com .

Every year we always have fun celebrating International Talk Like a Pirate Day! We encourage all students to dress like a pirate, and talk like a pirate this Monday, September 19th. Our staff will join in as well. Please keep swords and parrots at home!

Each parent newsletter I have the pleasure of introducing more of our wonderful faculty. This week, I am excited to introduce our Fifth Grade Team!

We are blessed with an incredible group of fifth grade teachers, who make incredible gains with our students in this pivotal year. Fifth grade is where so much comes together in terms of reading and content. In fifth grade we go to great depths with complex text, and also incorporate paired passages that allow students to analyze, make connections, and to make informed inferences. Fifth grade math is loads of fun as well! Adding and subtracting fractions, along with entry level algebra, with the use of variables are core skills.

At Monday's school board meeting I will have the pleasure of sharing about our instructional programs at Walt Disney, along with information about our testing outcomes. We have great news to share!

• As reported by the IDOE similar schools summary, Walt Disney is in the top 6.7% of schools that are similar in size and demographics, as measured by ILEARN. Of 127 similar schools, we outperform 118 of them. Our focus is of course on outperforming everyone, and being the best!
• Walt Disney continues to beat state averages on the IREAD-3 assessment, and we have returned to pre-Covid performance for our students in third grade. Walt Disney is the only school in the state where minority subpopulations and ENL subpopulations have outperformed the overall school performance on IREAD-3 (as well as beating the state overall passing percentage!) Our free/reduced subpopulation always outperforms the state for that category by nearly 10%.

Skyward Family Access is your one stop shop to your child's student information system information. This is everything from report cards to updating your child's emergency contacts. Along that line - Please make sure you have entered updated emergency contact information for your child!

If you have questions about Skyward Family Access, please email them to familyaccess@phm.k12.in.us and we will be glad to assist you!

PHM must be in compliance with all state and federal laws with regard to students immunizations. As a reminder, the due date for immunization records to be updated is Wednesday, September 14th. Please work with your family doctor to have these completed as quickly as possible if you have not already done so.

If you have questions, please feel welcome to call our office, and we can connect you with our health aide or school nurse. As well, if you have a religious objection to immunizations, please contact our health office, and they will send home with your child the form that would need to be completed.

We want to remind all parents that free/reduced meals and textbook assistance is available for eligible families. An application can be completed for this program online, by following the link below. As well, we are happy to provide a paper copy upon request.

For information on school fees, or to proceed with paying your child's school fees, please follow the button below.

To access accounts digitally, go to https://www.phmschools.org/pay-meals-online to access our School Cafe program online.

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