Toll Gate Tidbits

December 9, 2023

A Note from Mrs. Lauri

As we approach the holiday season and look forward to a well deserved winter break, it is important to reflect on all of the wonderful events we have taken part of as a Toll Gate community. To say that I am blown away by all of the generosity this community has demonstrated over the past two months is an understatement. TASK was a huge success! Thanks to the PTO, and the parent volunteers, we were able to bake 288 sweet potato pies to be donated along with Thanksgiving meals to TASK, making many families able to enjoy a special Thanksgiving meal. The students were delighted to spend time with their parents baking pies. Thank you to the student council for organizing the Toys for Tots Toy Drive. We were able to collect over 15 boxes filled with toys! Most recently as a community we raised over $5,900.00 for CHOP Child Life services, supporting one of our own families the Doyle family. During our last Gator Group school wide meeting we took some time to make the connection between our pajama day and the importance of giving back and showing empathy for others when they are facing difficulties. Through all of the activities we engaged in this past month, we have provided our children with real like examples of gratitude, kindness, and empathy.

To round out the month of December, we are excited for a visit from the HVCHS Choir for our 3rd, 4th & 5th graders, our winter holiday celebrations on December 21st, and a performance from a ballerina during specials on December 22nd.

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A special note of appreciation from the Doyle Family

Dear Toll Gate community,

We are blown away by your tremendous generosity, love and support demonstrated to our family on Tuesday's pajama day fundraiser for CHOP's Child Life department. This event is very special for us. We are particularly grateful because we've been emphasizing to Colin how this pajama day is one of the many ways he directly helps Caroline in her fight against leukemia. Colin is so proud his school raised so much money to help the sick children at CHOP, especially his littlest sister. The Child Life specialists at CHOP help Caroline and other hospitalized children cope with the anxiety, stress and daily trauma of having both acute and long term illnesses requiring medical care. CHOP’s Child Life program has been vital in giving Caroline joy on her sickest days by providing crafts, toys, music therapy and safe play spaces in the hospital for her to enjoy. As we spent this past weekend in the hospital, Caroline took full advantage of CHOP’s Child Life department by playing with the Little People toys in the playroom, creating a gingerbread door knob decoration and by taking lots of rides around the oncology floor in the pink Little Tikes cars. It felt so good to know that Toll Gate's donation for CHOP’s Child Life in honor of Caroline will help many kids have fun while being hospitalized.

Caroline was diagnosed with leukemia this past August. While her prognosis is favorable, the road to recovery has already proven to be incredibly difficult and long. We've already had many prolonged hospitalizations as she has experienced many complications and challenges secondary to the side effects of the chemotherapy. She is going to require a total of 2.5 years of chemotherapy, with the first nine to twelve months of treatment being the most intense. Our whole family is working together to support her through this fight for her life. As Caroline’s big siblings, Colin (in Mrs. Drewes’ second grade class) and Grace (4.5 years old, future Toll Gater in September 2024) have been absolutely wonderful in supporting their sister by wearing masks at school, spending lots of time with her on the couch, and keeping her giggling even on her hardest of days in the hospital. Even through all of the daily trauma, Caroline continues to be quick to smile and can brighten up any room with her joyful personality. Seeing her able to still have fun and experience joy in small moments is an absolute miracle for us as her parents. It keeps us going. It helps ease the pain of these hard days and gives us hope for the future. We believe she has healthier, easier, brighter days ahead and we cannot wait for Caroline to beat leukemia. We remain steadfast in our belief that in September 2026 she will march through Toll Gate's main doors as a healthy kid ready to start kindergarten.

Thank you again for the tremendous love and support you have demonstrated to our family. It truly touched our hearts. We are so grateful to be a part of this wonderful, warm community. We wish you a wonderful holiday season and a peaceful, healthy New Year!

Sincerely,

Kate and Rob Doyle

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Telesafe for Daily Attendance

It is pertinent that we have accurate daily attendance to ensure the safety of your children. If your child will be absent or will be reporting to school late, please call our Telesafe line at 609-737-4008, option 2. Please refrain from only emailing the classroom teacher and Ms. Smith, the school nurse, to report attendance. In the event a teacher or Ms. Smith is absent for the day, only Telesafe is checked for absences, their emails are not. Ms. Smith will continue to call home to ensure your child's safety, if your child is not in school and we did not receive a phone call through telesafe stating that would be absent.

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Arrival & Dismissal

As the cold weather approaches, please be reminded that students do not enter the school building until 8:35am. Please be sure your child is dressed appropriately with hats and gloves as we wait outside during arrival.

During dismissal, we love that many families choose to take advantage of the playgrounds and the back fields for some after school fun. Thank you in advance for making sure that you are supervising your children while on school grounds after dismissal. Children are not permitted to be on school grounds unsupervised after school hours.

List of Tutors 2023-2024

School Safety Reminders

Please be reminded that parents will be required to show photo identification when picking students up from school early or when entering the building. It is also required that all visitors have an appointment prior to arriving to the school to meet with school personnel. All visitors must sign in to the main office and obtain a visitors badge. In the event you need to pick your child up from school early or you have a change in pick up, please email TGMainoffice@hvrsd.org.