Principal's Message ~ February 4, 2022

Principal's Message ~ February 4, 2022

Dear Families,

Our kindergarten students celebrated their 100th day of school this past week! It was such fun seeing all of the creative articles of clothing families made with their children and the exciting ways teachers celebrated in the classroom. We are proud of all of our Willow Grove students as they have made so much growth over these 100+ days of school! 

Enjoy your weekend!

Kindly,

Jenny Smith, Principal


NEW *Valentine’s Day Parties*

Valentine's Day parties are just around the corner on February 14th. If you choose to include an item with your child's Valentines, please note that only non-food items are permissible. Candy, snacks, or any sort of food item will be sent back home with your child on Valentine's Day if sent to school. Non-food items are permitted, such as stickers, erasers, pencils, bubbles, etc. If you have any questions about what can be included in a Valentine, please contact your child's classroom teacher. 


NEW *Save the Date - Kindergarten Music Performance*

We are looking far ahead at our calendars to prepare for the kindergarten music performance. This event celebrates our kindergarten students as they near the end of their school year. To allow for a larger audience, our kindergarten music performance will be outdoors. We ask that you save the dates of May 6, with May 12 as a rain date. The kindergarten music performance is during the school day and the show is about 30 minutes in length. In very short order I'll have an update that includes the specific time of your child's performance. We also share a recording of the concert with families if you aren't able to make it. 


NEW *PTO UPDATES*

Willow Grove will be hosting a PTO Dinner Night at Culver’s in Buffalo Grove on Wednesday, February 9th! It is an all day event and 25% of the proceeds will be donated back to our school when you mention Willow Grove while placing your order.

Thank you to all of the families who donated books for our Bernie’s Book Drive.  We had a wonderful response with hundreds of books for Bernie’s to collect and distribute.

Please head over to the PTO Blog for more information on these events as well as our PTO Stock the Lounge, Dessert Day, and our rescheduled Movie Night.

Happy 100th Day!

CLICK HERE FOR OUR PTO BLOG FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THESE AND OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS!


REPEAT *Masking Reminder*

As a reminder, all individuals present on school grounds must continue to wear a face-covering consistent with Board of Education policy 4:182 until further notice.  Any individual's refusal to wear a face-covering shall constitute a violation of the District's applicable rules of conduct and may subject the individual to disciplinary action or prevent the individual from entering or remaining on school district property.  We are hopeful that, in the not too distant future, conditions will be conducive to reducing our mitigation measures. Thank you for your continued cooperation as we begin to see a decline in our positive cases!


REPEAT *Spring Parent/Educator Conferences*

Spring Parent/Educator Conferences are around the corner!  The conferences will take place on Monday, March 14th from 5 PM to 8:30 PM and Tuesday, March 15th from 10:00 AM to 1:30 PM.  

Spring conferences will be in a collaborative format with students leading the conferences. Collaborative conferences are focused on reflection and growth. Students must be present at the conferences. These conferences will be 15 minutes in length. 

We will continue using Meet the Teacher as an electronic sign up for conferences. A sign up link will be shared by the district with parents via email on Thursday, February 24th at 6:00 PM. The default option for conferences will be virtual, but parents and guardians will be able to schedule an in-person conference if they wish. Along with the classroom teacher, specials teachers and any related service providers that work with your child will also be available.


REPEATING *Vaccination Cards for 5-11 yr olds*

You can provide vaccination verification after your child has received his/her full vaccination.  Click HERE to complete the upload.


REPEATING *IDPH/ISBE COVID-19 INFORMATION* 

On January 11, 2022 the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) released new COVID-19 information related to school exclusion and test-to-stay protocols.  Please find all updated information on our website.


REPEATING *Zoom Resource & Tech Trouble*

This information will be repeated weekly for families to access as needed. It is relevant for children who are approved for remote learning due to Covid-related quarantine or in the event of a remote severe weather day for all children.

ZOOM Resource - Remote Learning & Possible Emergency Weather Day

Please review this  Zoom Tutorial Video Link with your child to prepare for remote learning. This is for students who have been approved for remote learning or in the event of an emergency weather day for all children.

Tech Trouble

If you are experiencing technical trouble on the iPad, here are a few tips that can help resolve the error you are receiving. 

The first step is to completely remove Zoom through the iPad settings.  Deleting Zoom from the Home Screen is NOT thorough enough to resolve this issue.

  • Go to Settings
  • Scroll down to General
  • Go to the right column and Select iPad Storage
  • Scroll down to Zoom
  • Delete the Zoom App
  • Open the Self Service App and reinstall Zoom

If the issue persists after this we would recommend following the next few steps.

Reset Network Settings:

  • Go to Settings
  • General
  • Go to the right column and scroll down to Reset
  • Reset network settings:  The device will restart and you will have to reconnect to your home wi-fi afterward.

Next:

  • Go to settings
  • Scroll down to Safari
  • Scroll down to Clear History and Website Data

If you're still seeing that error after all of these steps then you may need to troubleshoot your network next. Unplugging your modem and router from power for 60 seconds and plugging it back in can sometimes be enough.

Please email [email protected] for further tech issues or additional support. Please also let us know at the school by calling our office, so we can inform your child's teacher. Call our office at any time with any questions. We completely understand any difficulties you are having and appreciate your patience as we troubleshoot your issue.

As a reminder, remote learning via Zoom will begin on the second full day of absence and is only available for students who meet one of the following requirements.

  • Student is asymptomatic (no symptoms) after receiving a positive Covid test result
  • Student is unvaccinated, asymptomatic, and under mandatory quarantine after being identified as a close contact to a confirmed positive Covid case.
  • Student is unvaccinated, has traveled internationally and is under mandatory quarantine upon returning home.

REPEATING *PCR Results*

If you do not receive your child’s PCR results, we apologize for the inconvenience.

For missing PCR test results, please send an email ~ with your children's first and last names and date of birth ~ to [email protected], indicating that you are looking for missing lab work for them. 


REPEATING *Covid Metrics*

To stay up-to-date this school year on local metrics, please visit the COVID DASHBOARD for District 96. Our priority remains to keep our students safe and follow guidance from the CDC. If your student is identified as a "close contact", you will be notified individually through the contact tracing process.