3/1/23
March has arrived, and now that Tom Skilling has retired, I am searching for a new weather person to trust. It looks like March is coming in like a lamb, much like most of this winter has been. We have a bunch of items in the blog this week.
Upcoming Dates:
3/4- No School
Congratulations to Woodlawn’s Geography Club team of Sanjay Devabhaktuni (team captain), Advait Nagarkar, Alex Radon, and Anna Raja who won the Middle School Geography Bowl hosted by Stevenson High School last Friday, February 23. They solidly won four matches as well as the Championship round. Robert Ginger (team captain), Oliver Sinchak, Aakarsh Srivastave, Anadya Jain, and Karthi Raja also competed, winning two of their four matches. These students showed a wide range of knowledge about geography!
Parents, it is time. Please click THIS LINK and take the 5Essentials Survey for Parents/Guardians.
Woodlawn would like to increase parent participation. Currently, we are only at a participation rate of 7% for parents. It needs to be at 20%
As a parent, this opportunity will allow you to share your thoughts on the important elements of school effectiveness in a survey about your child’s school. Your participation will help us understand the conditions at your child’s school and guide our improvement. Parent identity and survey responses will be kept completely confidential and will never be connected to you or your child.
The window to complete the survey closes on March 29th. Please see below for more information.
Thank you in advance!
Illinois Science Assessment (ISA)- 8th Graders Only
Students in grades 5 and 8 take the Illinois Science Assessment (ISA) each spring. The district will be administering the ISA to students in grades 5 and 8 in the mornings on Wednesday, 3/6; Thursday 3/7; and Friday, 3/8.
Trimester 2 Report Cards
Trimester 2 report cards will be available online after 3 PM on Friday, March 1, for students in Early Childhood through 8th Grade.
See instructions to access the report cards online HERE.
Please contact the SCHOOL OFFICE with questions.
NEW *Fall Family/Educator Conferences*
Spring Family/Educator Conferences are right around the corner. The conference dates are Thursday, March 21st from 5:00 PM to 8:30 PM and Friday, March 22nd from 10:00 AM to 1:30 PM.
We will be using Meet the Teacher as an electronic sign-up for conferences. A School Messenger email will be sent to families on Tuesday, March 5th at 5:00 p.m. with a link to sign up for conferences.
Conferences will be held virtually using Meet the Teacher’s video conferencing platform unless parents request an in-person conference using the instructions bolded at the end of this message. After you have scheduled your conferences, you will receive an email from Meet the Teacher with a link you will use to access the video conferences.
Middle school parents will have the option to sign up with one core content teacher (see below) and pertinent exploratory/PE teachers. Please note: Students on the B-Day schedule will have their Spanish teachers available during this round of conferences. Available Middle School Core Teachers:
6th Grade: 3rd Period Teacher
7th Grade: 2nd Period Teacher
8th Grade: 4th Period Teacher
If you are unable to schedule a conference with a specific teacher, please remember that conferences are not the only time to communicate with teachers. Please feel free to reach out at any time.
REQUESTING AN IN-PERSON CONFERENCE
If you want to have an in-person conference with the teachers, you must notify the teachers via email by the end of the day on Tuesday, March 19th.
Sense of Belonging Surveys
In District 96, we believe that feedback from students regarding their perception of the school climate and teacher-student relationships provides valuable input about their sense of belonging. Our school district is committed to providing our students with every opportunity to succeed. Substantial research indicates that supporting students’ social-emotional development improves their readiness to learn, positive classroom engagement, and overall academic performance. As a result, District 96 will administer a student belonging survey to all students EC-8. These surveys are below for your review. A physical copy will be available from the district office upon request.
Surveys Below:
With this information, the District can make thoughtful and informed decisions to support students' deeper sense of belonging at school. As always, student privacy and safety are of the utmost importance. This survey is FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy and Protection Act), and PPRA (The Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment) certified. The collected data will improve our students’ sense of belonging and will only be used by our schools. Student responses will support group patterns so schools can provide support in those targeted areas. Thank you for supporting our school communities and their corresponding sense of belonging.
If you would like to exclude your child from participating in the survey, please contact your child/children’s building principal.
Opening March 1: Registration for 2024-25 School Year
Registration for the 2024-25 school year opens on Friday, March 1. Parents and guardians of new Kindergarten students and returning District 96 students will be emailed a link to register their child for the 2024-25 school year.
Complete registration by April 15 to receive a $20 Early-Bird discount. Families with returning students who register after April 15 will pay the standard registration fee. Registering early helps us to plan for the upcoming school year.
Registration fees paid by April 15 for the 2024-25 school year are:
Early Childhood Blended Tuition: $2,870 (or $335.07 monthly)
Kindergarten: $90
Grades 1-4: $110
Grade 5: $120
Grades 6-8: $135
Families new to District 96 can find more registration information here: https://www.kcsd96.org/about/registration
Additionally, beginning in the 2025-26 school year, delayed enrollment will not be permitted, including in Kindergarten.
Any child being registered in District 96:
who is five years old on or before September 1st of a given school year will be enrolled in Kindergarten.
who is six years old on or before September 1st of that school year will be enrolled in first grade.
6th Grade Dental Forms Needed
Dear Parents/Guardians of District 96 6th Grade Students:
Please note that your child’s completed dental examination is now due, per Illinois school law. The deadline for the dental examination is no later than May 15 of the current school year. Proof of this required dental examination must have been completed within eighteen months prior to the May 15 deadline.
If you haven’t already done so, please make an appointment with your child’s dentist for a dental examination, have him and/or her complete the required form, and return it to your child’s school nurse.
State of Illinois Proof of Dental Examination Form
In the event that you are unable to fulfill this requirement, the state of Illinois does permit a waiver of the examination.
State of Illinois Dental Waiver Form
Dental examination forms, as well as dental waiver forms, can be downloaded from the District’s website.
If you have any questions, please contact Denise Kaufmann at [email protected] or call the Woodlawn office at 847-353-8500.
Thank you for your prompt cooperation.
Woodlawn PTO Presents
Spring Fling 2024
Wednesday, March 13th, 2:30 - 5pm
**THIS EVENT IS FREE**
Stay tuned for more details!
If you would like to volunteer to help at the event or if you would like to volunteer to referee (usually Dad’s love helping with this) or for more information, contact Spring Fling co-chair Dana Mills at [email protected]
Click here for the Woodlawn Daily Announcements
Finally, I feel bad for the guy who had the controls for the moon lander, Odysseus. Now I have no idea if it was one guy who had the joystick trying to land this bad boy, but if it was, he (or she) is taking a lot of garbage from those in command central. Let’s imagine for a moment that it was one guy who went up against multiple Moonlander professionals. And just out of curiosity, how do you become someone who:
- Has something on their resume that says they can park a Moonlander?
- Do they go through a grueling training program, landing drones in the desert to simulate the moon?
- Maybe they spent hours playing video games and were recruited out of middle school to become the great moon landing hope for an entire nation.
I digress. Someone was picked to land this puppy. I wonder if the people who got cut from this job are secretly reveling in the Moonlander misfortune. I also wonder what the tone was at mission control when all of a sudden, the view on the screen had everyone turning their heads to the side, saying “Well this cannot be right.” And what was it like that evening for the poor person who toppled this multi-million dollar machine? Do they lay in bed and think, “Well, I messed this one up.” I imagine that was a rough night of sleep. I mean is this person considered the Bill Buckner or Scott Norwood (two guys who I have always had a ton of compassion for) of moon landings? 25 years from now, at a neighborhood dinner party, they get outed by someone as the person who crashed the Odysseus lander on the moon. First, it spoils the entire evening, and second, do you just own it? “Yeah, that was me. I thought that I had more room and, well you know, it just didn’t work out.” Tough one to live down. It is like all your friends have the ultimate trump card against you…”oh yeah, well remember the time you crashed that lander on the moon?” It has to be a tough time to be a moon landing professional.
Enjoy the three-day weekend.