Dear Crow Island Community,

I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend and had some time to relax and recharge! We had a great first full week of school at Crow Island. Despite the hot weather, humidity, and thunderstorms, our students and staff made the most of the week. It has been wonderful to see students settling into their classrooms, practicing routines, building connections, and getting into the rhythm of learning.

We also had two exciting Crow Island moments to celebrate! On Wednesday, we had perfect attendance across the entire school, something Ms. Demas Hall shared that she has never seen happen! I made a special announcement to celebrate and gave our students a challenge: if we have two more perfect attendance days this year, we will celebrate with a schoolwide pajama day!

Crow Island also made an unexpected appearance on Masters Jeopardy! Our school was featured in one of the clues, which was such a fun surprise for our community. Be sure to check out the clip below.

It was also wonderful to see so many families at the PTO Back to School Bash on Thursday. A huge thank you to our PTO and everyone who helped organize such a fun evening and a great way to kick off the school year together.

We are off to a wonderful start, and I am looking forward to another great week at Crow Island!

Sincerely,

Anna

September

Wednesday, September 9th | Picture Day
Thursday, September 17th | Fall Benchmark Assessments Begin for K–4 Students
Monday, September 21st | No School, Yom Kippur
Thursday, September 24th | Go to School Night, 6:00–7:30pm (Parents and caregivers only please)
Thursday, September 24th | MAP Reading Assessment, Grades 3–4 *This is an updated date*
Tuesday, September 29th | MAP Math Assessment, Grades 3–4

October

Monday, October 5th | Safety Week Starts
Wednesday, October 7th | Vision and Hearing Screening
Thursday, October 8th | PTO Runathon
Friday, October 9th | High Five Friday
Wednesday, October 14th | Picture Retake
Thursday, October 22th and Friday, October 23th | Fall Conferences- no student attendance
Friday, October 30th | Halloween Parade and Ghost Walk

Want all of this year’s dates added to your Google Calendar? Click below!

Crow Island Families Google Calendar

Lighthouse Moment: 2nd Grade Hopes and Dreams

Mrs. Dickey's 2nd graders added their "hopes and dreams" to the outside of their lockers this week. I loved seeing the things they hope to learn, accomplish, and experience this year. It's a simple but meaningful way to start the year with excitement and purpose, and to remind our students that their goals and dreams have an important place at school.

School News

Safety Month in The Winnetka Public Schools

Mr. Finnerty, Director of Safety & Security, is leading our third annual Safety Month, intended to continue to raise awareness about best practices in school safety and educate our community on on the “I Love U Guys” Standard Response Protocol (SRP). Students and staff will become familiarized with this Standard Response Protocol throughout the course of emergency drills and safety discussions this year. We are also thrilled to welcome our Village of Winnetka First Responders at “High Five Fridays” at our school campuses throughout the month.

Crow Island will have our Safety Week from October 5th-9th. Please note that we will be having our first Fire Drill this Thursday morning.

Fall After School Discovery Clubs

Fall registration opened on August 31st for Discovery Clubs. Coordinated and run district-wide by Right at School, these fun classes are offered at Crow Island after the school day.

Monday clubs are 2:50–3:50 PM; Tuesday-Friday clubs are 3:20–4:20 PM and the session runs from September 14–December 4th. Below is our fall schedule and for more information—including details about the registration process—please click HERE.

District News

Winnetka Parent Institute

Winnetka Parent Institute: October 7, 2026

Exploring Innovamat: A Fresh Approach to K–4 Mathematics

10:30 am -11:30 a.m. - The Skokie School Resource Center

*Please note - this is an in-person event*

Join us for an interactive introduction to Innovamat, our new K–4 mathematics resource. Parents will experience math learning as our students do—exploring problems, sharing strategies, and building understanding through discussion and discovery, all while learning how Innovamat’s spiraled approach develops confident, flexible mathematical thinkers.

RSVP here

Ability Challenge Parent Survey

Parents/guardians of students receiving special education services are invited to complete this survey.

As a part of the district's focus on strategic planning for the future, we are engaging with The Ability Challenge to complete an analysis that will help us better understand the strengths and growth opportunities related to how we serve students with disabilities in Winnetka. Your perspective is very valuable to us because we want to understand how all members of the community experience the support we provide.

We invite you to complete this anonymous survey. Your responses will be available only to our partners at The Ability Challenge. They will provide the district with updates about completion rates, and the overall trends will help inform findings of their analysis. Individual responses will not be identifiable or able to be attributed to any single respondent.

We thank you for your participation and partnership in helping us serve all students equitably and well in Winnetka.

Resources

Crow Island 101 Document:

Our Crow Island 101 Guide is a helpful, at-a-glance resource for families. Many parents like to keep a copy in their kitchen for quick reference. You can view it here: Crow 101 Document.

Health Forms Due Soon

Families of students entering Kindergarten and Second Grade: Please remember to submit the required health forms before the first day of school. The link below outlines which forms are required for each grade level.

Health Forms Information

You can drop off these forms at Crow Island or upload them using the links below:

Kindergarten Forms (Health, Eye, Dental)

2nd Grade Form (Dental)

*NEW Families Only (not entering Kindergarten): NEW 1st-4th grade families form

Arrival & Dismissal:

Please take a few minutes to review our Arrival & Dismissal procedures for this year. These routines help ensure a safe and smooth start and end to each school day for all students.

Hot Lunch Program:

Crow Island has a hot lunch program run through a third party collaboration with our PTO called Marla's Lunch. You can register and sign-up here: Marla's Hot Lunch.

Contact Us

Email:

annatrilla@winnetka36.org (Principal)

christinedemas-hall@winnetka36.org (Administrative Assistant)
Website: https://crowisland.winnetka36.org/
Location: 1112 Willow Road Winnetka, IL 60093
Phone: (847)-446-0353
Instagram: Winnetka Public Schools

Crow Island Connections

September 8, 2026

IMG_4063.MOV

Want all of this year’s dates added to your Google Calendar? Click below!

Lighthouse Moment: 2nd Grade Hopes and Dreams

School News

Safety Month in The Winnetka Public Schools

Fall After School Discovery Clubs

District News

Winnetka Parent Institute

Ability Challenge Parent Survey

Resources

Contact Us

Want all of this year’s dates added to your Google Calendar? Click below! Want all of this year’s dates added to your Google Calendar? Click below!

Lighthouse Moment: 2nd Grade Hopes and Dreams Lighthouse Moment: 2nd Grade Hopes and Dreams

School News School News

Safety Month in The Winnetka Public Schools Safety Month in The Winnetka Public Schools

Fall After School Discovery Clubs Fall After School Discovery Clubs

District News District News

Winnetka Parent Institute Winnetka Parent Institute

Ability Challenge Parent Survey Ability Challenge Parent Survey

Resources Resources

Contact Us

Want all of this year’s dates added to your Google Calendar? Click below!

Lighthouse Moment: 2nd Grade Hopes and Dreams

School News

Safety Month in The Winnetka Public Schools

Fall After School Discovery Clubs

District News

Winnetka Parent Institute

Ability Challenge Parent Survey

Resources