It is amazing to think that January is almost over! We have had a wonderful beginning to 2020 and we hope to make this the best semester yet at Erie Elementary. With every new year, like many people, I try to set some goals both personally and professionally. We do the same thing at EES. As a school we have several new initiatives that we are excited to tell you about. We have goals to continue getting better and being more and more relentless in our pursuit of academic and social excellence. The gains we have made in the last 2 years have been great but we are going to keep pushing harder to be the best school anywhere. We love having our EES family and communities along for the ride. Join us for another exciting month at EES.

A couple of big items from January were our County Spelling Bee and our classroom and school history bees. At the county spelling bee EES was represented by three amazing young people. Annie Myers, Hunter McKinnis, and Dylan Hazen were able to compete in Chanute on January 16th. While we did not have a county winner, our kids did make it past several competitors and competed every well against mostly middle school level kids. This was a great experience and a wonderful thing to be a part of.

Our school also has begun participating in the "Who Was? National History Bee." This is based on content from history and social studies and is sponsored by the makers of the Who Was? books. We had each classroom from 3-5th grades send 3-4 students that qualified based on a classroom bee and other qualifiers and they competed in a school level bee on January 17th. Our school winner was none other than Mr. A. J. Pontious. He will take the next step with his social studies teacher and fill out an exam to see if he is asked to compete in the regional or national contests. Good work to all of our history bee competitors and good luck to A. J. Please see below for a picture of all of our classroom winners and qualifiers.

Our district Honor Choir Students also had the chance to strut their stuff last weekend. Congratulations to all of these kiddos and our wonderful music teacher, Mr. Dirk Myers on all of their hard work. Please look for their picture below!

Next, I would like to report back about our new social and emotional curriculum. Our teachers have begun using the Sanford Harmony SEL curriculum as of this January. I have seen some good things already in classrooms that are embracing this tool. With consistency and time, we should see some measurable improvements in the ability of our students to interact with compassion and regulate their emotions. This can be a real positive for our kids moving forward. These skills must be taught and modeled just like any other skill. If you would like to explore the program please check it out at https://www.sanfordharmony.org/

Another new initiative at EES is our fully aligned handwriting curriculum. While many schools have moved away from this as an important part of the curriculum, we have chosen to expand our use. Please ask your students about their new tools and books. The Handwriting Without Tears curriculum, is for all students Pre-K through 5th and will teach both manuscript and cursive handwriting, depending on the grade level of the students. If you have any questions or would like to see a sample, please contact your child's teacher or myself at any time. Our major hope with this is to help students with the manufacturing of their writing so it frees up their working brain to focus on the math, reading and writing tasks that they are doing instead of fighting through making their words and letters.

Our EES Site Council will meet on February 5th. This meeting will take place in the South Resource room at EES. If you have any interest in being a part of this great organization that is very helpful please let a member or myself know and I would be happy to pass along the information to our Site Council members.

I would like to ask for help with a few items as we get going for the second half of the year but first I would like to thank those of you who are already meeting expectations. We have a few requests for all parents and families, which are very normal requests. This is really just a reminder , as we all change a little moving through the year.

If at all possible, I would like to remind parents to avoid dropping students off until at least 7:30. We do not typically have staff to supervise until that time. Student safety is our top priority and this can be a negative in terms of safety.

Next, please make any changes to our daily dismissal routines prior to 1:30. While emergencies do happen, all calls should be made prior to this time if your student is doing something different after school. Once again, this is a student safety issue.

An additional request would also be a safety need for our kids. Please, if you come in the building, do not leave the front office area without signing in and getting a visitors badge. We are training our kids to look for badges and strange or unknown folks and this is one method we use to ensure that all guests are accounted for. Also, we will not allow parents to enter classrooms in the morning or afternoon without a staff member and a badge. This is not to make your day more difficult, it is only to protect our students. This also includes drop-off and pick-up time. Our little ones are becoming so independent and we would like for them to get into their morning routine as quickly as possible so please avoid bringing them in unless you need to speak to the office.

The last favor that I would ask is to please reinforce the need for consistent attendance at school. One day missed every three weeks, would result in a chronically absent student. This would be 12 absences in one year. This adds up to over half of one school year just in the elementary years and is like missing more than a full year by graduation. Students who do not have good attendance show much lower gains and ability as early as third grade. Please help us by ensuring that your students are here whenever they can possibly be so those days when they are very ill do not hurt them as much. Thank you for your understanding and support with this issue.

Our IT Factor has been great so far this month. We have slightly lower attendance numbers with our new structure but the kids are loving the flexibility to get to do all classes each session rather than picking a few. If your student would like to begin coming we will take them at any time. Our enrollment period is going to eventually be open at all times if we can manage the amount of students we get. Thank you for all of your support in this area as well.

We have several dates that we should be aware of in the next month. They will be listed below on our Month at a Glance.

Our EES PTO would like to invite you all to participate as well. They have done some amazing things in the last year and are looking for new members and officers. Below you will find a survey that Mrs. Good designed to help the PTO decide what time would be best for a meeting. Please consider helping this wonderful organization that has helped us so much in the last year. If you have any questions, please contact the school and we will do our best to help answer them for you.

As always please let us know via email, Dojo, or call if you would like to visit or volunteer at any time or if you simply have questions about the great things we are doing at Erie Elementary.

Thank you all for such great support that we have been given over the last year. I couldn't be happier with the way you all respond to our needs and care for our kids. It really shows the heart of this district. Thank you!

1/28/20 3rd-5th graders will be invited to sing the National Anthem and be recognized for winter sports at the EHS basketball game on that night.

2/1/20

Chess at Topeka Collegiate

2/2/20 The Kansas City Chiefs Win Super Bowl LIV

2/5/20 EES Site Council at 7:00 in the South Resource Room

2/8 Chess at Parsons Middle School

2/10-2/21 3rd -5th Winter Predictive State Assessment (Not the final test)

2/14 Dental Outreach letters/forms go home

2/22 Chess at Royster Middle School

3/2 Dental Screenings

Email: bpontious@usd101.com
Website: https://sites.google.com/a/usd101.com/elementary-school/
Location: 410 West 3rd Street, Erie, KS, USA
Phone: (620) 244-5191
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/eesrocks/
Twitter: @mr_pontious