December Events

December 1, 2009


Dear Families:

We hope that your Thanksgiving Holiday was special and full of good memories of families and friends. It’s now time to continue with our December holiday traditions. Here’s a quick summary of our scheduled activities for the month and a description to follow:

December 2 K-5 Christmas Concert – HS Auditorium
December 7 – December 11 OPT Santa Shop
December 11 Progress Reports for the 15 Weeks sent home
December 14 Volunteer Training for Parents, 1:45 p.m.
Friday December 18 Student of the Month Assembly
Friday, December 22 Last Day of Classes Before Christmas Vacation

We’ll start this week with our annual K-5 Winter Concert at the High School on Wednesday evening. Please bring your child to the high school at approximately 6:45. Each grade level will have a specific room where the children wait until the performance, and they will return there after their time on the stage. We hope that you will be able to courteously attend the entire concert, but if it is necessary to leave early, please allow the children to return to the room and inform the teacher of your plans. There will be a sign-out sheet to acknowledge that you are taking your child with you, either then or at the end of the evening. We hope that enjoy this special traditional event and that we’ll see all of you there.

Another favorite event, Santa’s Secret Shop, will be held from December 7-11 for students to purchase special little gifts for Christmas. Information about this and other specific information for your child’s class holiday activities will be sent home from his or her teacher.

Progress reports for students will be coming home to you on Friday, December 11. Please check bookbags or contact us if you don’t receive your copies.

We will also hold volunteer training after school for parents on Monday December 14. This training is now required if you are interested in chaperoning field trips or working at OPT events. Please come to the library media center 1:45 p.m. The training will end in time for you to pick up your child at dismissal. There will be no child care offered at this training opportunity.

The evening training that was scheduled for December 10 has been cancelled so that parents can attend the Middle School Concert on that evening. The OPT has also cancelled its December meeting so that parents can attend all holiday events scheduled in different buildings.

December is always full of bustle, and the children are excited about the preparations they’re making for you. We hope to see many of you throughout the month.

Important Information for the Coming Week

November 12, 2009

Dear Families,

Here we are in mid-November! It was pleasure to see so many of you during our parent teacher conferences last week. We were hit hard by the flu, so we’re waiting to see some of you during the coming week. As always, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions about your child’s report card.

If you were at parent conferences last week, you may have noticed several posters in school, encouraging you to stop in the computer lab to complete a parent involvement survey. Our goal is to work with our families to make the school as inviting as possible and to provide more opportunities for you to participate in your child’s academic program. The survey will be online on the West Side website until November 24, but you will also receive a paper copy at the end of the week. Please return it as soon as possible and thank you.

If your family has been hit with the flu we are planning clinics for vaccination of our students for the H1N1 virus. An informative letter and consent forms will be sent home this week.

And one last important note. Fifth grade parents, please take note that the social studies assessments are this coming Monday and Tuesday, November 16 and 17. It’s not easy for anyone to test right after the weekend, and I join our teachers, Mrs. Washburn and Mrs. Bell, in asking you to help us by ensuring that your child arrives at school well rested and focused on Monday. We want them to do their best.


We hope that many of you will respond to our parent survey. Don’t forget that you can always write me here. Have a good week.