NEWS from the NEST

Dear Woodland Families,

We are now just 4 wakeups away from the first day of school for the 2025-26 school year! If you know of a family that is attending Woodland, please ask them if they are receiving this newsletter. We are finding with the new apps, platforms, and updates that not all families may be receiving the information. If you know of someone, please ask them to contact Woodland: 270-352-5828.

Open House begins tomorrow at 5:30pm and ends at 7pm. We will open the doors at 5:30pm. You can come at ANY TIME during the 1.5 hour time frame. You do NOT have to come to the Main Entrance to get inside the building. There are 6 main doorways and all of them can be utilized during Open House. If you park in the back of the building, please use one of the back entrances. There will be adults stationed inside each entrance to help answer questions and guide the way just in case you may not know where your student's classroom is located. If you have purchased school supplies, this is a great time to drop those off to your student's teacher. Kona Ice will be at the school for a treat after you meet your Eagle’s upcoming teacher, but please make sure to keep those sweet treats outside of the building. Thank you.

Open House Survey Information. You will see below and linked here, the Open House Survey information we need for EACH student at Woodland. This helps with transportation and to make sure that we have all of our Eagles going to the right spot on the first day of school. It is SO helpful if you try to keep their transportation consistent each afternoon. I know that is not always possible, but remember that we have over 500 students that attend Woodland and every change does make a difference.

CLICK HERE FOR SURVEY.

I posted this last week, but wanted to leave it here again. Please rest assured, ALL students at Woodland will receive FREE breakfast and lunch daily through the Community Eligibility Program (CEP). It’s crucial for all Woodland households to fill out the CEP form, and we encourage everyone to participate. Last year, we were the first school in the district to have all families involved—let’s do it again! You can find the form here: CEP Form. Even if you know you will not qualify please fill out this form, it could mean the difference between keeping or losing this program.

School supply lists are also available below, scroll to the bottom. They are also listed on the school website at https://woodland.hardin.kyschools.us/

If you missed Open Enrollment or know a family that has, they can still enroll their child. We want to ensure all students are placed in a classroom before the first day. We will be using ClassDojo for the next few weeks, transitioning to Rooms for communication later on. Text messages and our Woodland Facebook page will remain available as well. Please make sure that you are receiving text messages from us. If you know of a family that is not, please ask them to call Woodland's office.

Thank you for your continued support. We can’t wait to see you soon!

Eagles Fly Because They Try!

Mr. Thompson

Principal - Woodland Elementary

brandon.thompson@hardin.kyschools.us

Woodland Families:

If you would like to get a jump on things before Open House tomorrow night, you can fill out this survey for very important information we will need for the beginning of the school year. It is extremely important that you fill it out for EACH student. If you have a 1st grader and a 3rd grader, you will need to fill it out for each child. Thanks in advance!

https://forms.gle/WEYGcDSXsoGp2Z7H7

STUDENT DROP OFF IN THE MORNING

The faculty and staff of Woodland Elementary put your children’s safety as a top

priority. We want to ensure that all students arrive safely each morning, whether by bus

or car. We realize that your time is precious and many of you are on your way to work or an appointment; however, we think you will agree that all children’s safety must come first. Please read these procedures carefully and share this information with anyone that may be dropping off your children at school.

7:05 A.M. School doors open, school staff will come out to assist & supervise students

during morning car drop. Students who are dropped off by car or who walk to school do not need to arrive until 7:05 a.m. when school personnel are on duty.

The Morning Car Rider Line will be open from 7:05 to 7:28am.

The line will close at 7:28am due to the school day starting at 7:30am.

Please adhere to the following guidelines for Morning Drop Off:

● All vehicles will stay in a single lane of traffic during morning drop-off. Do not pull around the line of

traffic to exit.

● Students are to be dropped off in the designated area only – between the cones and curb. Do not wait until your student is at the front entrance.

● Vehicles should stop before the crosswalk and wait for a member of the school staff to assist students out of vehicles. Please have students exit the vehicle on the passenger side only. Due to the lane of traffic on the driver side of the vehicle, please do not have students exit on the driver's side.

● You are not permitted to unload at the road and have your students walk unaccompanied to the school building.

● If you are using the Drop Off line your student must be able to exit the vehicle by themselves. If they need assistance or additional time, please park and walk your student up to the front door.

● Do not have your student exit your vehicle prior to 7:05 and leave the school property. They will be

unsupervised and this can be considered neglect.

● If you choose to park your vehicle, you are to walk your student to the front door of the building. This is not to be used to bypass others waiting. Everyone’s time is important.

● Please empty vehicles between the two covered entrances to maintain a quick drop off process. In the case of inclement weather, we will motion for vehicles to unload under the awnings. Otherwise your student needs to unload and walk into the building.

● Do not use your cell phone while in the Car Rider Drop Off line.

● Please observe the 10 mph speed limit while on campus and drive carefully at all times.

● Drive like your student/child goes to school at Woodland, because they do!

Free breakfast and lunch will still be provided this upcoming school year. This program is provided by a program called the Community Eligibility Provision or CEP. If you fill out the form and it states that you do not qualify, that does NOT mean that you child will not be given free lunch or breakfast. This is option is for ALL students. The success of this program is contingent on all families filling out the form that we ask of families every school year. It is usually on a light green piece of paper.

We do need all families to fill out this form to maintain accurate data as a requirement for state and federal funding. Funding for our students is so important to the daily operation of our school building. This is how we provide school supplies, workbooks for Reading & Math class, and chromebooks for our students. These are just a few examples.

Last year Woodland was the first school in the district to achieve 100% of their families filling out the CEP form. We received an additional amount of funding because of this. We can do this! The link to the form is included right here.

English HIF public link
https://www.myschoolapps.com/Home/DistrictRedirect/HARDINHIF_KY?langid=1

Spanish HIF public link
https://www.myschoolapps.com/Home/DistrictRedirect/HARDINHIF_KY?langid=2

Follow the directions in the link to obtain a Parent Portal. All families are encouraged to make sure that they have access to their student's Parent Portal. This is where all attendance and grades are housed for your student.

https://www.hardin.kyschools.us/parents/parent-portal-account-how-do-i-get-one

We will begin the school year out using Class Dojo, but we will be transitioning to Rooms as soon as it is ready for us. Rooms will be the way that you can communicate to your child's teacher and school . In the meantime, your student's homeroom teacher will be reaching out within the week introducing themselves and welcoming your Eagle back to Woodland or to Woodland for the first time. Please make sure that you are able to receive information from this platform. Although we will not be able to allow the chat feature, we will still use this for one way school-wide communication and teachers will post updates and pictures of what is going on in their classrooms using Class Dojo.

Starting in the 25-26 school year at Woodland we will begin a process when a student reaches 9 unexcused absences or a total of 15 absences either excused or unexcused families will receive a letter with a scheduled Parent Engagement Meeting or (PEM). This is to help families combat chronic absenteeism.

Letters will be sent out this week if your student missed 15 or more days from school last year. This is to make sure that all families know going forward for the school year what the goal is for their student.

We will work with families and support them in finding solutions to chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism has profound and far-reaching consequences for students, extending well beyond missed school days. It can hinder the development of critical skills, reduce academic success, and create lasting challenges throughout a student's life.

All educators in the state of KY in the public school systems must use the Kentucky Academic Standards. All of the programs that we use at Woodland align to these standards. If you are ever wondering why your student is learning a specific skill or concept in their grade level, you can look to these for guidance.

In order to increase our daily attendance, last year we started Tardy Taters at Woodland. Each day that a homeroom class only has 1 student late/absent from school then the classroom gets to add a piece onto the Tater. Once the class has received 10 days of only missing one student or achieving 100% attendance, then the class will be rewarded with a certificate and a Tater chip party. Classrooms proudly display their certificates out in the hallway. At the end of the school year, the class with the most complete Tardy Taters will receive a class Pizza Party! Last year we filled 153 Tardy Taters. Let's see if we can beat that number in the 25-26 school year.

Do you want to help, but you don't want to go out and buy and drop it off at the school? Click here to help send supplies directly to the school. Thanks in advance!

https://a.co/6QhXhhx

Woodland does have a Wellness policy that is a SBDM (Site Base Decision Making) policy about no outside food coming in for birthday celebrations. We do celebrate every student in a monthly celebration on the last Thursday of the month. Students are given a treat provided by the cafeteria, we sing Happy Birthday, and each child gets a Happy Birthday pencil. If you would like to do something additional, please reach out to your student's homeroom teacher. You are always welcome to send in a trinket/prize/pencil for the students in the class. You can also contact the school and come and eat lunch with your student if you are able to do that. With the ever growing number of students with known and unknown allergies, we do not allow large batches of food (cupcakes, brownies, etc.).

Some suggestions in lieu of food:

• Stickers
• Glow bracelets
• temporary tattoos
• Bubbles
• Play-doh
• Side walk chalk

Thank you for your understanding and support.

If there is a change in your student's transportation, please fill our the form linked here. We must have transportation changes in writing for documentation purposes.

The link is https://bit.ly/WoodlandTransportation

Here is the important information regarding how parents can view and pay for field trips and complete permission slips for their students.

To get started, parents need to complete a two-step sign-up process:

1. Create a free SchoolCash Online account.

   • Visit https://hardin.schoolcashonline.com and click on "Register."
   • Fill in your first name, last name, email address, and create a password.
   • Choose a security question.
   • Select "Yes" to receive email notifications (no promotional emails will be sent).
   • Check your email for a confirmation message (remember to look in the Spam folder if it doesn’t appear).
   • Use your email and password to log in.

2. Add your student(s) to your account profile and make a payment.

• Sign in at https://hardin.schoolcashonline.com.
• Navigate to "My Account" at the top of the page.
• From the dropdown menu, select "My Students."
• Click to add a child:
  • Type your school board name and choose your school from the list.
  • Enter your child's details (up to 8 students can be added).
  • Click "Confirm."
• Select the item you wish to purchase and click "Add to Cart."
• Once finished adding items, click "Continue" to make a payment.

Are you looking for child care after school? The district provides child care, at a low cost, to families. Please visit the link to check it out and fill out the application or you can call 270-769-8800 and ask to speak to Amy Wood. If you are interested please act quickly. Spots do fill up. Thank you!

https://www.hardin.kyschools.us/school-aged-child-care-sacc-1

If you are interested in being a volunteer, this video explains how volunteers can complete a background check (which they need per law and policy).

https://youtu.be/jd8mltg9bmM

Some points of note:

• HCS will send a request for a background check to the Administrative Office of the Courts EVERY FIVE YEARS. The AOC charges the district a $10 fee for each check administered. We ask the volunteer to pay for that background check processing fee.
• We will only ask for a processing fee every five years instead of every year. We ask for the background check form to be completed each year in order to maintain a clear record of the current school year's volunteers.
• The background check will not be processed until the Superintendent’s office has received $10 for the background check and a copy of the receipt issued by the school. For instance, if an adult who has never volunteered becomes a volunteer in 2024, they will not have to pay for another background check until 2029.