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August is Upon Us!

It is almost time to shift gears and bring our kids back into the building and to welcome all of our new families to Howe. Hopefully you found some time to be adventurous, or relax with your family, or perhaps you still have something fun to look forward to in the last few weeks before we start the new school year.

In case you missed it, here are some of the important reminders for this year.

Reminders for our families:

🚗 Arrival & Dismissal Procedures

This past year, we made changes to reduce congestion on Beach Road and Holdridge Avenue, and overall, it was a success. This year, we’re streamlining even further by adjusting drop-off procedures:

• Drop-Off Location: All cars will now use the north lot off Beach Road, just like our current pickup route.

• Process: Cars will enter the north lot, curve into the gated blacktop area, and drop students off inside the gate. Students will enter through the cafeteria doors, greeted by staff.

• Breakfast: Students arriving early can eat breakfast in the cafeteria. Those arriving closer to our 9:05 AM start can grab breakfast to-go and head to class.

• Late Arrivals: Doors close at 9:05 AM. After that, cars will be directed to the main entrance. Students must be signed in by a parent/guardian.

🚦 Driveline System

Our Driveline system will continue this year. Students will bring home Dashboard IDs for families to use during dismissal.

• Extra copies will be provided to distribute to any approved individuals picking up your child.

• If you provide a family member the pickup ID Number, we do not ask them for their ID.

• This is a required safety measure to ensure a smooth and secure dismissal process.

🥪 Lunch & Recess

Illinois law requires 30 minutes of daily recess for elementary students. At Howe, we’ll continue splitting that time throughout the day.

• Grade Band Schedules: K/1, 2/3, and 4/5.

• During lunch/recess time, each grade will rotate lunch and recess separately to reduce noise and congestion in the lunchroom.

🚫 Outside Food & Birthday Treats

We understand the joy of bringing lunch or treats to school, but in order to maintain a consistent, safe, and focused environment:

• Fast food deliveries are not allowed. Students must either bring lunch from home or receive a school-provided lunch.

• Birthday Treats Policy: We will continue our no birthday treats rule. Students will still be recognized during announcements and in class.

Thank you for helping us maintain a calm, learning-focused environment.

👩‍🏫 Parent Helpers in the Classroom

Interested in volunteering? We’d love your support!

• Talk to your child’s teacher at Meet & Greet in August to express interest.

• We’re especially looking for those who can volunteer at least once a week during intervention time.

• Volunteers might read with small groups or support students in reading/math skills.

• If you're only available as a Mystery Reader, just let the teacher know!

• If you are a grandparent, or older sibling, you can volunteer as well!

We can’t wait to see everyone again in August and continue our shared mission of growing strong, confident, and kind learners. See you at our Meet and Greet the evening of August 19, or for the first day of school on Wednesday, August 20!

Warmly,
Chris Anderson
Principal, Howe Elementary

Dear Parent or Guardian:

If your child will be entering second grade in the fall, the State of Illinois School Code states 2nd grade students must have a dental exam. The examination must be performed by a licensed dentist and he/she must sign the Proof of Examination Form.

If your child will be entering sixth grade in the fall, the State of Illinois requires a current physical, immunizations and dental examination. Please be sure that both sides of the physical form are completed. The completed physical and dental forms can be turned into Beach Park Middle School, 40667 N. Green Bay Rd. Beach Park, IL.

If you have any questions regarding the above information please contact the health clerk at Beach Park Middle School 847-596-5867 for sixth graders and Stephene Ramirez at Howe School 847-599-5351 for students kindergarten through fifth grade.

Thank you!

Parents,

Please utilize the Parent Portal to stay up to date with your child's progress. Grades, attendance, and other school communication can be found here. It is a valuable resource for our parents.

If you are not connected through your Parent Portal account in PowerSchool, you can always reach out to the main office with any questions. (847-599-5362)

August

4 - Back to School Bash 4:00-6:30 @ZBHS

5-7 - New Teacher Orientation

18-19 - Teacher Institute Day

19 - Meet and Greet

20 - 1st Day of School

22 - Bus Evacuation Safety Drill

29 - Evacuation Drill/Off Site Safety Exercise

September

1 - Labor Day - No School

9 - School Improvement Day - Early Release 1:45pm

Our students need to be at school everyday! Please help us in fighting Truancy as a team. We need to teach our students the importance of their education as well as learning the lifelong skill of showing up. School becomes increasingly difficult the more a student is absent, which reduces confidence and brings anxiety. Let's help them succeed by sending them to school everyday.

Howe Families,

A child's attendance at school has one of the largest impacts on their development for so many reasons. First, we are teaching them the importance of an education by making it a priority to attend daily. We teach them routines that they will carry through life, such as being punctual, present and focused on a purpose. Also, looking at our district's trends, attendance has become an area of concern and focus, as we have had a large increase in absences since recovering from schools being closed down. The truth is that we have to recover from this trend and make school a priority again. Below is a comparison of the percentage of students who are Truant as compared to the state average. Truancy is defined as the problem or situation of children being absent from school regularly without permission. (Cambridge) The numbers in the chart mean the following, based on our current student count of 375 students. If we have a truancy rate of 30%, that equates to saying that over 113 students attending Howe school have been absent a minimum of 9 school days. That is 1,017 school days missed (113 X 9). That is 6,610.5 hours of instruction (1,017 X 6.5). When students return after just one day of being absent, we know that it can be hard to catch up and not get frustrated because they missed the day before. We need our students in class to receive all of the support that we have prepared so that they grow as much as they can each day.

At the end of the year, we are required to submit all absences to the state, regardless of being excused, or not. Our goal is to reduce the number of students who are absent from school. This does not mean that we want, or expect students to attend students if they are ill.

As you can see from the chart above, we focused on this last year and saw a significant decrease in our truancy rates. I challenge our community to continue to improve and beat the state percentage this year.

Students will be recognized for Perfect Attendance during each of our monthly celebrations.

Reminders for what you can do at home to help with having students ready to come to school and learn each day is to start with creating regular routines for bedtimes. Help them turn screens off an hour before their bedtime so that their bodies unwind and are ready for rest. Get them up at a regular time and make sure you feed them breakfast, or that they participate in getting breakfast at school each day.

Thank you for your continued partnership in your child's education.

Daily Schedule:

Students enter: 8:55-9:05 AM

School Day begins: 9:05 AM

School Day ends: 3:45 PM

SIP Day Schedule (Early Release; The first Tuesday of every month):

Students enter: 8:55-9:05 AM

School :Day begins 9:05 AM

School Day ends: 1:45 PM

Reminder about making adjustments to your child's transportation.

Parents/Guardians must call the office BEFORE 3:00 PM if you are planning to pick your child up and they normally take the bus. There are a lot of moving parts at the end of the day and this must be arranged ahead of time. If you show up at the end of the day and ask to take your child home, we cannot pull students from the bus because it causes major delays in our end of the day systems which will not be permitted. They will be sent home on the bus. We appreciate your support in helping us get our students home safely.

Each month, the district has an early release day for our buildings. This means that at Howe, we dismiss 2 hours earlier at 1:45 PM. When our students leave, our teachers receive Professional Development to look at teaching practices and review building data.

During the school day, we change things up completely for our students. We focus on community and team up with Buddy Classrooms where our students can meet new friends and learn with other teachers. We start the day off by having a full-school assembly to review expectations, discuss our progress and celebrate all that is going well in our school. For the rest of the day, they have opportunities to do many activities, which include buddy reading, math games, SEL activities, Team Building, and Specials. They even eat lunch and have recess together. It is a chance for them to do something different and to do it with others.

In case you didn't hear, we wanted to make sure you heard that Howe School has moved from a Comprehensive status on the Illinois School Report Card to the status of Commendable. The staff of this building are amazing and work very hard to provide the best education for your children everyday. It takes a team to reach this status, which includes the support of our families. Congratulations to our community. We should be proud.