Astor Connection

Dear Families,

It's a three days this week and the last of the first quarter. And, it's Spirit Week! See the flyer below for the specific theme for each day. You might not know, but our MS leadership/project green elective led by Ms. Cortinas organizes many of our school wide celebrations. It's a really great way that our students are leaders in their community. Thank you students!

This week, there is no school Thursday and Friday, as teachers have a grading and planning day. Report cards will be completed and available by Nov 6th on ParentVue, but we ask that families hold questions until conference. You can learn more about conferences and report cards below.

Finally, our site council meets this week. We'll learn more about right sizing, and of course we'll share out anything that's learned. It's certainly a busy month across our district and you can learn more about what our community is doing to support at the PTSO link below. Additionally, the site council has given feedback about sending how paper report cards and iReady data so that families have better access to this information.

I hope your week is great. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you need any support. Our team is here to help!

Warmly,

Mr. Robertson
Principal, Astor K–8

Blake Robertson

Principal @ Astor

Starting Nov. 12, 2026, people applying for or renewing SNAP will need to show proof of their housing and utility costs. These costs can affect how much SNAP a household receives. The change is part of ODHS’s work to make sure people get the correct amount of food benefits.

• If you already receive SNAP do not need to send proof now unless ODHS asks them to. Most can wait until renewal. If ODHS sends a request, follow the instructions in their notice

• Please apply and/or keep your SNAP interview/renewal, even if you do not have documents ready.

• Connect with help: If you have questions or trouble getting proof, contact ODHS before the deadline in their notice. You can call the ONE Customer Service Center at 800-699-9075 or call or visit a local ODHS office.

Book Fair will be open in the Library Monday November 16- Friday November 20, also Monday November 23 during conferences.

Daily Book Fair hours will be 8:30-8:45, during individual class visit times, and after school from 3:20-3:45pm.

More info to come soon!

DRAMA for MS is BACK! HERE is a link to the registration form. The QR code on the flyer also goes to this form. There is additional info on the program at the top of the form.

See the PTSO Newsletter here!

If you didn't already see, you can still sign up for November 23rd and 24th conferences! Conference are sign up are at the links here - K-5 is here and MS is here. This is a great time to connect with your student's teacher about academic and other school based goal setting, see if you student is progressing, share any questions, and build school-family partnership. You can learn more about conferences here.

We have learned that our plan to have parents access i-Ready score reports was problematic for schools, and we apologize for this issue. For this fall, we have loaded For Family Reports to Synergy Documents, and parents can view them in ParentVue (found in the “documents” tile).

Astor K8 School will be sending paper report cards home with K-8 students for grading periods within the school year, per feedback from our site council. We encourage families to sign and return the report envelopes for K-5; paper report cards are being provided as a convenience. Report cards will be coming home on Friday or next Monday (based on teacher K5 red folders).

Electronic report cards will continue to be posted in ParentVUE, just as they have been in the past.
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We ask that any questions you have about your student's report card be held until conferences, as your student's teacher will discuss the report card, progress in the fall, and supply iReady assessment results in paper form, too.
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You can learn more about conferences here and more about report cards here (K-5) and here (MS).

See the fall PTSO After School Activity Calendar here

Astor Handbook with Calendar is here.

PPS District Calendar is here - https://www.pps.net/calendar

October here

26th - Spirit Week Begins!

27th - Site Council 5pm - 4/5 Classes on FT to Wildwood Showing!

28th- Quarter 1 Ends - 4/5 Classes on FT to Wildwood Showing!

29th/30th- No School

November here

2nd - First Day of Q2 -

2nd - Picture Retake Day

3rd-6th - Outdoor School for 6th grade

11th - No School - Veteran's Day

12th - Astor MS Night at 6:30pm

13th - Principal's Coffee Chat

16th - 20th - Book Fair!

17th - Site Council

23rd/24th - Fall Conferences - Conference are sign up are at the links here - K-5 is here and MS is here.

23-27th - No School!

December here

10th - MS Band Performance

11th - Principal Coffee Chat

14th - Spirit Week!

15th- Site Council

16th- Early release at 12:45pm for all students

17th- Mid-Term for MS

17th - Grade 3-5 Winter Performance 6:30pm

21st - Start of Winter Break

January here

4th - First day back from winter break!

15th - Principal's coffee chat

18th - No School MLK JR DAY

22nd - MS dance - End of Quarter!

25th/26th - No School for Teacher planning Days

27th - Start of 3rd Quarter

Dec 5 and 6

Did you know that our PTSO has curated a lot of the after school activities at Astor? You can learn more about them at the links below. Thanks to their partnership in building these out for our students.

Astor After School Program - After School Activity Calendar

Our district and state have aligned to a cell phone free school day. At Astor, we've had this in place for several years. However, we'll now be collecting them from MS students each morning and returning them at the end of the day. You can learn more about all of this here.

In short, the policy is that students are warned by the staff daily to put their cell phones off and way in a class lockbox. If a student breaks this rule, then it goes to a violation, which results in the phone being confiscated and possibly a school based loss of privilege like lunch detention. The third time will be a violation that results in a school plan for the personal electronic.

Not that personal electronics include smart watches, and and other personal electronic device (game system, etc).