HAWTHORNE ELEMENTARY

Gambill’s Rambles

SEPTEMBER 28, 2012VOLUME 2

HAWTHORNE NEWS

Inside this issue:

Spirit Week 2

Press Release 3

Reminders 4

P/T Conferences 5

3rd Grade Guarantee 6

Powerschool Info 7

PTO 8

Libraries for Liberia 9

October Calendar 10

REMINDERS!

Oct.18th is an Early Release Day

There is no school on:

Oct. 19th—COTA Day

Oct. 25th & 26th—P/T Conferences

Please Note!

Newsletters will no longer be sent home with students. You will be able to view it on our webpage! It will be posted monthly on the last Friday of each month. If you provided an email address, we will email it to you!

There is a chill in the air, daylight is getting shorter, and the leaves are starting to turn... it's October! Fall is my favorite season with OSU football,

hoodie sweatshirts, caramel apples, cool nights, and Halloween! October is

a BUSY month here at Hawthorne with lots of important events happening!

Right off the bat we have our Fall Reading OAA for our third graders. Since third grade is the first year for the Ohio Achievement Assessment, they

have two chances to pass the reading test. Third grade students will take their test on Tuesday, Oct. 2nd. It is VERY important that all third graders

are here that day and come to school having had a good night's sleep and

a healthy breakfast! We want them to do their best and having enough sleep and fuel in their bellies will help them do the best that they can!

We also have Count Week in October. Next week (Oct. 1-5) is when the

State Department looks at our attendance and bases school funding on our

numbers. The more bodies we have in our seats, the better it is for Westerville! Attendance is SUPER important, so please make sure your

students can be here if possible. Of course, healthy is the biggest priority so if a child is sick, by all means, STAY HOME!

And at the end of the month are PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCES! These

are VERY important for you to attend as it is a time for you and child's

teacher to talk about his/her progress. Communication between parents and teachers are VITAL to a student's success. One of the biggest

predictors in a student's success is parent involvement with education. If you haven't scheduled a conference with your child's teacher, please

contact them ASAP!

Brett Gambill

Principal

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HAWTHORNE NEWS

Attention families of Hawthorne! We are having a Spirit Week October 8-12

to show our support to an amazing little girl named Amaya. Amaya is a first

grader here at Hawthorne who is fighting cancer and needs our help.

Please join us in showing your support and making a donation to Amaya

and her family by participating in Amaya’s Spirit Week. You can pay 25

cents or more each day to dress up in fun ways.

Monday- Grade Level Color Day

Kindergarten- wears purple clothes

First grade-wears blue or pink clothes

Second grade- wears green clothes

Third grade- wears yellow clothes

Fourth grade- wears orange clothes

Fifth grade-wears red clothes

Tuesday- Hat Day

Wednesday- Pajama Day!!

Thursday- Silly Sock Day

Friday- Crazy Hair Day

(If we raise $1500 our principal, Mr. Gambill, will dye his hair pink!!!)

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VOLUME 2

Press Release

Westerville City Schools is seeking feedback from its elementary parents. The district, in conjunction

with the Elementary Programming Advisory Committee (EPAC), a group that includes elementary

parents, teachers, and principals, is exploring the possibility of expanding access to the current

Magnet Programs. This could be done by replicating the organizational model that is currently in

place at Robert Frost Elementary School, in which magnet-focused classrooms are placed alongside

of traditional classrooms. In doing so throughout the district, all students would have access to these

programs. Parents are encouraged to share their thoughts by completing a survey. To do so online,

please visit the district’s website at www.wcsoh.org and click on the Office of Elementary Academic

Affairs. Or, go directly to the survey link at

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/767P2JY. Those who prefer to fill out a paper survey can pick one up

and return it to their child’s elementary school. Hard copy surveys are available in English, Spanish or

Somali. Electronic and paper surveys will be accepted through noon on Thursday, October 25, 2012.

The School Study Council of Ohio will analyze the survey data and provide the district with a report

that details the findings. A similar survey will be provided to Westerville teachers in mid-October.

EPAC will meet in November and December to discuss survey results and develop a recommendation

to the superintendent. Questions about the survey should be directed to the Office of Elementary

Academic Affairs at 614/797-5934.

Dear Parents,

My name is Jaclyn Dignan I am a senior at Otterbein University as well as student teaching in 3

rd grade at Hawthorne. As a part of my senior year experience I am

expected to implement a service project that involves the community, students, or school as a whole. I will be putting together a teddy bear drive for the patients at Children’s Hospital in the intensive care unit. Students are encouraged to donate NEW teddy bears to Hawthorne which will be taken to Children’s Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit. The teddy bears must be new in order to avoid transfer of harmful germs to the

patients. We are also accepting cards and letters of encouragement!

We hope to bring warmth and peace of mind to these children with our donations!

Thank you for your support!

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HAWTHORNE NEWS

FROM THE SCHOOL NURSE:

We have a great need for gently used clothing in the clinic! When you

are cleaning out your students’ drawers, please consider donating

unwanted clothing items to Hawthorne. All clothing is useful, especially

boys and girls casual pants (sweats, etc.), sized 5-12. Thank you so

much!

Fill out our online parent survey to enter our

drawing for a $25 gift card to Target!

Simply go to

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/G2GHJVW

or visit our school website (www.wcsoh.org/hawthorne) and

click on “Links / Downloads” to find the link to our parent survey.

Make sure you fill in your personal information to be eligible for

the prize.

Attendance Notes:

Please call the

Attendance Line at 797-7144 for all absences.

Reminder: If students sign in after

9:10am or leave before 3:25pm it

will be counted as a Tardy.

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VOLUME 2

PARENT/

TEACHER

CONFERENCES

ARE BEING HELD THE WEEK

OF OCTOBER 22ND

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR STUDENT’S

TEACHER ASAP TO SCHEDULE YOURS!

HAWTHORNE NEWS

Page 6

Westerville City Schools

Vision

Our vision is to be

the benchmark of

educational

excellence.

Mission

Our mission is to

prepare students to

contribute to the

competitive and

changing world in

which we live.

Values

Respect

Inclusiveness

Community

Communication

Collaboration

Innovation

Nurturing

Trust

Accountability

936 Eastwind Drive, Suite 200 Westerville, OH 43081 Main Office (614) 797-5700 Fax (614) 797-5701

September 28, 2012

Dear Westerville Elementary Families,

The purpose of this letter is to inform you of recent legislation that impacts the work of our elementary

schools, not only in Westerville but across the State of Ohio. This summer, the Ohio Legislature

passed Senate Bill 316, and Governor Kasich signed the bill into law shortly thereafter. Portions of

Senate Bill 316 are commonly referred to as the “Third Grade Reading Guarantee.” This new law

requires that all elementary schools in the state do the following:

By September 30, schools must administer a Reading diagnostic assessment to all students in

Kindergarten and in Grades 1-3. In Westerville, Kindergarten students already took the

Kindergarten Readiness Assessment for Literacy (KRA-L) at the very start of the year. Students

in Grades 1-3 will have been assessed using the Fountas & Pinnell Reading Assessment (F&P) by

the September 30 deadline.

Based on the results of these assessments, teachers must identify students as being either “ON

TRACK” or “NOT ON TRACK” to be reading on grade level by the end of the year. Teachers

in Grades 1-3 will compare current assessment results to the end-of-year expectations for the

PREVIOUS GRADE LEVEL.

Districts must notify parents of all students identified as “NOT ON TRACK” with a letter

stating that a reading deficiency exists. Parents will be invited to school to participate in

developing a plan for intervention and monitoring growth. This plan will be updated throughout

the school year. For the current school year, multiple assessment measures, including the Ohio Achievement

Assessment in Reading, will be used to determine if a third grade student is promoted to the fourth

grade. Starting in the 2013-14 school year, any third grade student who does not meet the benchmark

on the Ohio Achievement Assessment in Reading, as determined by the Ohio Department of

Education, will not be able to be promoted to the fourth grade. The notion of administering start-of-year reading assessments to drive instruction and determine

interventions is not a new concept in Westerville City Schools. This is good practice, and our teachers

have been doing this for quite some time. What is new, however, is the practice of identifying students

as “NOT ON TRACK.” If your child is identified as being “NOT ON TRACK,” you will receive a letter from your school

principal. This letter will invite you to participate in the development of your child’s intervention plan,

a meeting that may take place during Parent/Teacher conferences in October. Your child’s teacher will

also provide you with resources you can use at home to support the school’s interventions. Rest assured

that your child’s support team (teachers, principal, and you) will work together to help him or her to

grow and reach his or her potential. Being identified as “NOT ON TRACK” at the start of the school

year does not mean that he or she will not find academic success this school year. Rather, this

identification tells us which students require focused, intensive interventions in order to reach their

potential. Please do not hesitate to contact your child’s principal with any questions you have about the

requirements of this new legislation. Your principal is well-versed in the process being used to comply

with the new legislation and will be happy to clarify the details for you.

Best wishes for a most successful school year,

David J. Baker

Executive Director or Elementary Academic Affairs Visit us at www.westerville.k12.oh.us

POWERSCHOOL INFORMATION Parents, you can access your student's achievement record online, link students, and communicate with your child's

teacher all through PowerSchool and the Parent Portal. Check out the PowerSchool section of our district webpage

by clicking on "PowerSchool" at the bottom of the home page, or following this link: http://www.wcsoh.org/administrativeDepartment.aspx?aid=108

One of those features allows you to receive automatic e-mail updates and send e-mails to your child's teachers. After

you have logged into PowerSchool, click on the Email Notification button.

To receive automatic email updates from the school, check off the information that you'd like to receive about your

son or daughter, how often you'd like to receive it, and whether you want that information sent to you immediately. Be sure to include the email address where you would like the information sent and press the blue Submit button.

You can enter multiple email addresses by separating them with a comma. To stop receiving these automatic updates, simply unclick the boxes and press Submit.

(Please note - unless your child's teacher is participating in the grade book pilot this year, the only information available on elementary students will be the Detail Report of Attendance and School

Announcements.)

You can email teachers from the Grades and Attendance screen or from the Teachers Comments screen, (click the

Teacher Comments button). From time to time, teachers may include remarks about your child. To respond to any teacher, simply click on his or her name. Remember, your computer must be set to send emails from your browser.

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VOLUME 2

Page 8

HAWTHORNE NEWS

FUNDRAISER PICKUP IS TUESDAY

OCTOBER 2ND FROM 3:00-6:00PM

JOIN US AT THE NEXT PTO MEETING

ON OCTOBER 15TH AT 7:00 PM

Page 9

VOLUME 2

HAWTHORNE ELEMENTARY

Organization

OCTOBER 2012

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2

Fundraiser

Pickup

3:00-6:00pm

3 4 5 6

7 8

9

10 11 12 13

14 15

PTO Meeting

7:00pm

16 17 18

Early Release

Day

2:25pm

19

NO SCHOOL

COTA DAY

20

21 22 23 24

Grade Cards

Released

P/T Conferences

25

NO SCHOOL

P/T Conferences

26

NO SCHOOL

27

28 29 30 31

Fall Classroom

Parties

2:30pm

Special Thanks to our Business Partner

Kelly Tittle Owner/Operator Jersey Mike's Subs 5957 Sunbury Rd. Westerville, OH W:(614) 899-7200