Welcome Back to the 2022-2023 School Year
We hope this message finds everyone enjoying the last days of summer break. Our staff members have been working so hard to prepare for your child's arrival and we could not be happier!
Many families are wondering about details of the 2022-2023 year. Below is a short summary to help answer questions. We are starting the year looking the same way that we ended last year.
What is the same?
The most important thing to know is that guidelines may change the way that school looks over the course of the year and our district, schools, and families will need to be flexible to adjust as changes are made. Thank you in advance.
Masks:
Masks are optional and not required unless a student is returning from a COVID-19 exposure, symptom free. In this instance, students are required to mask for five days. These students will sit tables in the lunchroom where they can eat, mask free and socially distanced from other students.
Bus:
CCSD 15 will continue to follow the 3-Tier bus schedule. Bus information will be found through the parent portal of Infinite Campus. Our school start time is 8:25 AM - 3:05 PM M-Th. On Fridays we will dismiss early at 10:35 AM for morning kindergarten students and at 2:15 PM for all other students.
Lunch:
All students will be eating in the cafeteria. We will continue to use the 20-20-20 model to help us with transitions and hand washing. Depending on the weather and our need to review expectations, we may use recess time for indoor recess or to practice expectations at the beginning of the year. Our lunch hour is 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM. Most schools in D15 follow the 20-20-20 model. Please practice with your students how to open packaging and eating in a timely way, so they are ready for in the afternoon. Students have the option to bring a lunch from home or to purchase a lunch and/or milk. Students that require extra time to eat may want to consider bringing a lunch from home. We do have an overflow table should student need some extra time to eat after their grade level period ends.
20/20/20 Schedule
1st and 2nd: Lunchroom - Recess - Recess
3rd and 4th: Recess - Lunchroom - Recess
5th and 6th: Recess - Recess - Lunchroom
Hand sanitizing stations will be located throughout the building for students to use. There are two water bottle filling stations in the building for students to access.
What is different?
This year Hunting Ridge will not be offering the free breakfast or free lunch option available over the past two years. There is no breakfast option at Hunting Ridge. Students interested in purchasing a lunch should visit the Nutrition Services web page, linked below, to learn more about creating an account, menu items, and fees. Student purchasing a lunch will need to know their ID number. We will work with students at the beginning of the year to support this.
Sixth-Grade Switch:
To help transition our students to the middle school experience, our Teaching and Learning Department has restructured the instructional day for our general education sixth-grade students to switch either teachers or groups of students for their science and social studies periods. This will help students learn to adjust to different teaching styles, to move from one instructional space to another, and to develop stronger relationships with students outside of their homeroom classes. Teachers will be talking with parents and caregivers more about this at Parent Orientation.
New Faces in Familiar Places:
We have made adjustments in staffing across the district and at Hunting Ridge. Please welcome the following members to our staff:
- Jeanna Meyer-6th Grade
- Georgine Alfano and Andrew Meyers - Social Work
- Sarina Cimarusti and Jessica Vincent - Special Education Resource
- Hailey Laurencell 5/6 Gifted
- Kaylee Gerhardt 3/4 Gifted
- Kim Nagy - Instructional Coach
- Janice Chong and Julie Doherty- Academic Interventionist
- Vicki Harkness - 2nd Grade
- Megan Chaltin - Itinerant Teacher
Additionally, we will be welcoming several student teachers to the school this year.
- Maddy McKinney will be working with Miss Bianchi in 3rd grade.
- Liz Orr will be working with Mrs. Johnston in 3rd grade.
- Carter Luken will be working with Miss Blunck in 4th grade.
- Kaitlynne O'Connor will be working with Mrs. Jacklow in 4th grade.
- Hailey Hazlett will be working with Mrs. Wagner in 4th grade.
With love in our hearts we wish the following staff members the best with new opportunities within and outside of D15:
- Meredith Cloud
- Kara Marks
- Alex Nasca
- Kelly Olivero
- Shannon Owsley
- Sherry Sherman
- Magda Wolski
- Audra Wurbia
Our first day of school, Wednesday, August 17, 2022 will be a half-day of school for students in grades 1-6. The half day will end at 11:25 AM. Our first full day will be on Thursday, August 18, 2022 for Kindergarten through sixth-grade.
Our beginning weeks of school will focus upon setting expectations and establishing routines for the students and staff members. These routines include practice with our state wide drills. We will practice with fire, lockdown, and shelter in place drills during the first two weeks of school.
District 15 is strongly committed to school safety. Each year, school are required by by Illinois School Code to conduct the following drills:
Three evacuation drills. One of the three evacuation drills must be supervised by the fire department.
One bus evacuation drill.
One severe weather/shelter-in-place drill.
Two law enforcement (lockdown) drills. One of these two law enforcement drills must be a staff initiated lock-down. The schools also conduct an annual drill review meeting with principals and representatives from police and fire departments to continuously improve each school’s readiness to respond to an emergency and/or crisis situation.
House Bill 2400 (The School Safety Drill Act) states:
All lockdown drills will be announced to all school personnel and students prior to the commencement of the drill.
Schools will provide sufficient information and notification to parents and guardians in advance of any lockdown drill that involves the participation of students.
Schools will provide parents and guardians an opportunity to exempt their child for any reason from participating in the walk-through lockdown drill.
Schools will provide alternative safety education and instruction related to an active threat or active shooter event to students who do not participate in a walk-through lockdown drill to provide them with essential information, training, and instruction through less sensorial safety training methods.
Building administrators will notify families of upcoming drills at least one week in advance of the drill. If you prefer your child does NOT participate in the yearly required lockdown drills, please complete this form and notify Mrs. Cefalu. Please submit one form for each of your children you are opting out. Our first drill will be the week of August 22, 2022.
For our returning friends, we cannot wait to see you! For our new friends, we look forward to meeting you and to making it a wonderful year for everyone.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Ortlund
From the Main Office: Mrs. Cefalu and Ms. Amato
Attendance:
Parents or guardians must call our attendance line at 847-963-5301 for any student that will be absent from a school day.
Our first concern when a child is absent is to verify the child’s safety. For that reason, it is very important that the school office knows the whereabouts of your child(ren) when they are absent or will be late arriving at school. When your child is absent or late, it is your responsibility to call the school absence line or the school office to notify the staff of your child’s absence. Please state your child’s full name, the teacher’s name, the date of the absence, and the reason for the absence. Please do not leave this information on your child’s teacher’s voice mail or e-mail. Substitute teachers do not have access to teachers’ voice-mail or e-mail. If your child’s whereabouts are unknown, every effort will be made to reach you using the phone numbers you have provided. Please make sure that your child’s school office has all current phone numbers on record. If you have not notified the school with the reason of an absence and the school office has exhausted all attempts to reach you, your child will be marked truant for that school day and any other school day that your child is unaccounted for.
The Illinois State Board of Education dictates what constitutes a full day of school versus a half day of school, as well as tardies and truancies. District 15 follows the standard shown below:
Any student who is late for school 30 minutes or less will be marked tardy unless the school bus is late in arriving. (We understand that school buses sometimes run late due to unforeseeable circumstances, and in these instances students will not be marked tardy.)
Any student who leaves 30 minutes or less before the end of the school day will be marked with an early pick-up.
Any student who is in attendance for more than 150 class-time minutes (the lunch/recess hour does not count) but less than 300 class-time minutes will be marked absent for a half day.
Any student who is in attendance for fewer than 150 class-time minutes (excluding the lunch/recess hour) will be marked absent for the full day.
Changes to Dismissal Routines:
Please copy our main office or notify them directly at 847-963-5300, of any changes to your child's dismissal routine. This includes if a child leaves early, will be picked up by a different person, will need to not go to CARE etc. Kindly let the office know of the change no later than 30 minutes before the school day so that we can ensure the message is received.
Taking Extra Steps:
Please understand we will be taking any measure that we can to improve our safety practices at Hunting Ridge. This year, should parents or guardians visit the office, we will be greeting you through the intercom and asking for your name and the reason for your visit. The office staff will direct you from there with the best way that we can support your visit.
Volunteers:
All volunteers are expected to bring a photo ID to the main office to be scanned through our Raptor system every time they visit the building. Even though a volunteer may be in the system, we ask for your help in bringing the ID with you every time as the system updates each night.
Leaving Items for Students After the Start of Day:
This year, to further enhance our safety practices, parents leaving items for students that include lunches, water bottles, school supplies etc. will be asked to leave them on a table outside of the office marked with a Post-it. Feel free to ring the bell and let the office know that you are leaving an item for your child so that we can inform them as soon as we can.
Ordering Lunches From Outside Vendors:
We highly encourage students to bring a lunch or order from our school menu to ensure the lunch is at school on time. Many outside services do not deliver on time and that impacts students greatly. These vendors will be asked to leave the lunch item on a table outside of the office door. We will not be letting these delivery people inside the school office.
Important Times To Know
Arrival and Dismissal Times
Students arrive between 8:10 - 8:25 AM; First bell rings at 8:25AM; Students are in class by 8:30 AM
Morning kindergarten dismissal: M-Th, 11:00 AM, Friday, 10:35 AM
Afternoon kindergarten arrival (Door #1): M-Th, 12:25 AM, Friday, 12:00 PM
Afternoon dismissal: M-Th: 3:05 PM, Friday, 2:15 PM
From the Nurse - Mrs. Calderon
Students returning to the 22-23 school year that have medical forms to submit can bring those to the office any time before the start of the school year. This will streamline your visit at Meet the Teacher. Students requiring to take medication on-site or that require medical restrictions or accommodations should make sure that they include physician's orders that outline the student's need. Unopened medication will only be accepted with updated physician's orders. Please help us to receive these prior to the start of the school year. Mrs. Calderon will be in the office this week.
Please review the following health guidelines for students entering kindergarten, second-grade, sixth-grade, or new students to the country or state of Illinois.
Health, Immunization, Dental, and Eye Exams
For the purpose of safeguarding the health of children, District 15 enforces Illinois student health requirements. These requirements consist of health, dental, and eye exams and immunizations specific to grade and age.
HEALTH EXAMS are required for students entering preschool, kindergarten, sixth grade, and those who are new to the school. The Certificate of Child Health Examination form is available online and in the school office.
The Certificate of Child Health Examination form, completed and signed by a licensed healthcare provider, must be dated within one year prior to the first day of school and must include lead screening for children who are six years or younger and diabetes screening. A tuberculosis (TB) skin test is recommended.
According to Board of Education Policy 7:100 Health, Eye, and Dental Examinations, Immunizations, and Exclusion of Students and Illinois School Code, students who do not provide proof of receiving the required immunization and/or exam are excluded from school on October 15. Students new to Illinois schools, who register midterm, are allowed 30 days following registration to comply with the health requirements.
DENTAL EXAMS are required for students in kindergarten, second grade, and sixth grade. The dental examination must have taken place within 18 months prior to May 15 of the school year. A waiver form is available in the case of an undue burden or lack of access to a dentist. The IDPH Dental Examination form (English/Spanish) and the waiver form are available here and in the school office. If a student fails to present proof of a dental exam or a waiver form by May 15, the school may withhold the student's report card until the student presents proof: (1) of a completed dental exam, or (2) that a dental exam will take place within 60 days after May 15.
EYE EXAMS are required for students entering kindergarten and entering Illinois schools for the first time. A waiver form is available in the case of an undue burden or lack of access to an optometrist or to a physician who performs eye examinations. The State of Illinois Eye Examination Report and waiver form are available here and in the school office. If a student fails to present proof of a eye exam or waiver form by October 15, the school may withhold the student's report card until the student presents proof: (1) of a completed eye exam, or (2) that an eye exam will take place within 60 days after October 15.
Interscholastic Sports
In addition, annual health examinations are required for interscholastic sports participation. Physical exams are required, before trying out, for participation in an interscholastic sport. The exam form, completed and signed by a doctor, must be dated within 13 months prior to the start of practice or tryouts, and on file in the school nurse's office. Physical forms (Certificate of Child Health Examination forms) are available in the school office and online.