Country Meadows Families,
It’s hard to believe that next week we begin on March 1st. As we approach the anniversary of our schools deviating from what we knew then to be normal, I would like to thank the entire community for your partnership and all the sacrifices that have been made due to this great challenge.
Our students had the opportunity to experience our PTO sponsored cultural arts assembly focused on music technology. The feedback we have received from students and families was that the assembly was incredible! As always, we are so thankful for our supportive PTO and grateful for the additional learning experiences they provide our students!
Please remember that our elementary schools will begin having in-person learners report to school on their pre-assigned Wednesdays. This week on March 3, we will begin our rotation of in-person students with last names beginning with the letters A through L. Procedures for students reporting for in-person learning will remain unchanged for the upcoming week. In-person students will continue our procedures with saliva screening on assigned days and families of in-person students still need to complete daily self-certification through TeacherEase. See you all next week.
Warm Regards,
Meghan Bird - Principal
NEW: *Regarding the District 96 Online Family Directory*
We have been informed that an outside organization has accessed our District 96 online Family Directory and has used email addresses contained in that directory for solicitation purposes.
This is a reminder that doing so is prohibited, as clearly stated in the District’s online student registration form.
There is no general public access to the online Directory. To access the online Family Directory, District 96 families must have agreed to include their District 96 student’s information in the Directory.
As a reminder, no parent may distribute copies of the Directory to outside interests, including business or charity organizations. In addition, information contained in the Family Directory is not to be used for solicitation or commercial use.
NEW: CM Library Book Check-out and Recommendations
Our Country Meadows library is open for book check-out through the Researcher app! Students' login is their student ID number and their last name is the password. Books are delivered to in-person students on one of their attendance days. Books are put in the vestibule outside the main office for pick-up on Fridays for our remote students. Please, click here, for specific instructions on how to check out books. Here are some slideshows with ideas for some of our popular library books to check-out in case your student wants some ideas and recommendations!
NEW: PTO Blog
If you are interested in being a part of our incredible Country Meadows, PTO Executive Board, please click here to show interest. Please take a moment to read this week's PTO Blog.
NEW: *Specials Materials & Materials for Students Reporting In Person*
For students reporting for in person learning, please look for specific information from your child's classroom teacher regarding materials he or she will need to bring to class on days he/she reports. Here is the updated Specials Materials List. Please reach out to your child's classroom teacher or specific specials teachers with any questions.
NEW: PTO Sponsored Virtual Science Fair
We are excited for our PTO sponsored Virtual Science Fair taking place March 4th! As a reminder, the 1st-3rd grade science fair is from 3:30-4:30 and 4th-5th grade is from 4:30 to 5:30.
REPEATING: Spring Parent/Educator Conferences
Spring Parent/Educator Conferences are right around the corner! The conference will take place on Thursday, March 11th from 5 PM to 8:30 PM and Friday, March 12th from 10:00 AM to 1:30 PM. These conferences will be 15 minutes in length, and held remotely over Zoom. We will continue using Meet the Teacher as an electronic sign up for conferences.
Meet The Teacher does not require that multiple conferences be made, but it does default to every teacher a student works with being checked. These individuals include classroom teachers, specials teachers, related service staff, and interventionists that students work with. Please see the picture below for directions on how to uncheck a teacher/interventionist if you do not need to meet with during conferences.
REPEATING: Illinois 5Essentials Survey
Share your thoughts about how your child’s school is doing on the 5Essentials for school success. On behalf of the Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois 5Essentials Survey will be administered online by UChicago Impact at the University of Chicago. District 96 will participate in the statewide 2020–21 5Essentials Survey to meet state legislation and the Board’s mandate. District 96 parents may voluntarily participate to complete the survey. Please select the Parent Survey and begin.
Beginning in February and through Apr. 2, students and teachers will complete surveys to help identify strengths and weaknesses in their school’s learning environment. In District 96, students in grades 4–8 will complete their surveys on Mar. 19.
This survey is designed to help school and district leaders better understand the parent/school relationship. All responses are anonymous. Parents are asked to complete a survey for each student attending a Kildeer Countryside District 96 school. The survey will be open through Apr. 2, 2021. Questions? See Frequently Asked Questions and/or contact 5Essentials Client Services 866.440.1874.
REPEATING: Kindergarten and 2nd Grade Parents Dental Screening Reminder
The Illinois School Code requires all children in kindergarten, second and sixth grades to have a dental examination by May 15th of each year in compliance with the rules adopted by the Illinois Department of Public Health. If you have not already done so, please submit your 2nd-grade child’s dental exam form to our building nurse. To see a complete list of the health forms required for students, please visit our Student Health Section of our Web page.
REPEATING: CM Library Book Check Out
We are excited to announce that we will be opening the Country Meadows’ library for Remote and In-Person learners. Recently, students have been provided with access to Sora, an app that allows students to check out Ebooks. Additionally, we are offering the opportunity to check out the diverse hard copy books from our library collection. The importance of reading books is vital for success!
Holds must be placed through Alexandria by Monday morning at 8:00 a.m. This will allow the time needed to organize and pull books off the shelves.
- Remote Students will be picking books up at Country Meadows’ front vestibule outside the main office on Friday during school hours 7:45am-4:00pm the same week.
- In-Person Students will have their books delivered to their classrooms on one of the days they are attending (either Monday/Tuesday or Thursday/Friday) the same week.
Please, click here, for specific instructions on how to check out books.
IMPORTANT: You should have received an email with your child's username and password. Please use this student specific information to reserve books for check out!
REPEATING *Obtaining Free Meals*
Preorder free meals for in-person students by 6 PM on Thursday for the week ahead. Order at onlineordering.linq.com only for your student's in-person days.
Pick up meal supplies for 5 days for remote students on Wednesdays from 11 AM– 2 PM at Twin Groves or Woodlawn. No preordering needed.
Please direct questions to the public info coordinator [email protected].
REPEATING: Dual Language Parent Night for 21–22 Kindergarten Parents
District 96 Director of Language and Early Literacy Kathryn Sheridan will present a live virtual program for parents interested in the Spanish/English Dual Language program opportunity for their incoming 2021–22 kindergartners.
REGISTER HERE to receive the link to attend the live virtual informational program for parents of incoming kindergartners Wed., Mar. 3, at 6:30 PM.
See the District website to LEARN MORE about the District's optional Spanish/English Dual Language program.
REPEATING *PTO February Artistic Challenge*
Our incredible PTO is sponsoring another fun challenge this month! Please see this flyer for information regarding our February Artistic Contest!
REPEATING *IMPORTANT REMINDERS FOR PARENTS OF IN-PERSON LEARNERS*
Parents who have children coming in must do their daily self-certification. It significantly slows down our arrival procedures when students don't have this.
Likewise, parents whose students do not bring their saliva samples will be called to come to the school and bring their student’s sample collection vial, barcode label, and plastic baggie and assist their student in collecting the sample.
Please remember that completing the daily self-certification and providing the weekly saliva sample is a commitment you made for your child to attend in-person. If there are repeat incidences for the daily self-certification and/or saliva collection, the student may need to go back to remote learning. Please set alarm reminders for yourself. I do not want anyone to have to move back to remote learning for this reason.
The schedule for saliva sample collection for EC–Grade 2 is as follows:
Monday
- Ivy Hall Grades 1-2 (Last names A-L)
- Prairie Grades 1-2 (Last names A-L)
Tuesday
- Country Meadows Grades 1-2 (Last names A-L)
- Kildeer Grades 1-2 (Last names A-L)
- Willow Grove PM Students
Wednesday
- Willow Grove AM Students
Thursday
- Country Meadows Grades 1-2 (Last names M-Z)
- Ivy Hall Grades 1-2 (Last names M-Z)
- Prairie Grades 1-2 (Last names M-Z)
- Kildeer Grades 1-2 (Last names M-Z)
See MORE INFO regarding saliva samples and collecting them.
To access the required Daily Self-Certification Form, you need to log into TeacherEase each day your student will attend in person to submit self-certification.
This VIDEO gives instructions, including how to access the daily self-certification form using your cell phone (iOS or android).
If you will be using your home computer to send daily self-certification, we suggest that you bookmark the TeacherEase website. The link is: https://www.teacherease.com/common/login.aspx
REPEATING: *News From the Library - Introducing Sora*
We are so excited to announce the purchase of over 1,500 e-books for our students to check out directly onto their iPads on an app called Sora by Overdrive. All of the classrooms have been introduced to this new app and students immediately began checking out books. Students can check out one book at a time and place one book on hold at a time.
Many of the e-books have a limited number of checkouts before they disappear from the collection. Because of this, we strongly encourage children to read a sample of the book before borrowing it. This way they can decide whether the book is a good fit and it will help our e-books last longer. In addition, we are asking students to return books as soon as they finish reading it so another student can check it out plus they can check out their next book right away.
An exciting feature of Sora is if you have a public library card, students can add their library card number to the app and have thousands more books to choose from. All you need is a library card. See this video for instructions on how to add a public library to the Sora app. Please feel free to reach out with any questions!
REPEATING *In Person Learning Protocols*
Parents whose hybrid in-person students will be learning in person, please be sure to review the Revised IN-PERSON LEARNING PROTOCOLS for information about health and safety protocols and expectations for families and their students who will be learning in person in our schools.
REPEATING *Updated COVID-19 Metrics*
This UPDATED COVID-19 METRICS is the information “dashboard” that maintains transparent and open communication around COVID-19 metrics. As a user of the dashboard, the District has access to COVID-19 data as recommended by the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Northern Illinois Public Health Consortium. We review this data daily, update the dashboard weekly, and consider this data in making many decisions.
REPEATING *Family Tradition Survey*
Last year, families filled out a form to share their family traditions with us. We shared those traditions in a daily slideshow for students and the kids absolutely loved reading about themselves and other students in the school. We would love for you to participate again this year!
Read more about how you can share your family traditions this year. It will show you a QR code and a link you can use to participate.