Brookside Bulletin

• Sept. 22 - Mumkin Delivery at 3:30pm, pick up 5:00
• Sept 28 - Ready for Reading Training 3:00-4:00
• Oct. 9 - PTA Fall Fest, Hayride, Book Fair begins 6:00-8:00
• Oct. 13 - PTA Meeting 7:00
• Oct. 16 - No School

📢 September is Attendance Awareness Month!

As an All-Star District, we're kicking off our Stay in the Game! Attendance Awareness Campaign, participating in monthly themes that support and celebrate attendance.

September attendance is critical and sets the tone for the entire year. Data shows that students who miss just 1–2 days in September are significantly more likely to become chronically absent. This is why our attention, encouragement, and outreach right now matter so much.

When we connect with students and families early—whether through a quick check-in, a supportive phone call, or simply celebrating their presence—we send the message loud and clear:

✨ You belong here.
✨ We ALL care about your future.
✨ Every day in school matters.

Each week throughout September, we’ll roll out themed activities to spotlight attendance. Plus,
there are opportunities for our school community to:

⚽ Engage in friendly competition and win big prizes sponsored by the Columbus Crew
📸 Be featured on Stay in the Game! and partners' social media pages

Let’s work together to make sure every student feels seen, supported, and celebrated for showing up. With your commitment, we can turn September into the launchpad for a year of success—and help all students become Attendance All-Stars! 🌟

Sign the Stay in the Game Pledge today!

The sun always shines on Brookside! 🌞

Warmly,

Dr. Jenny Wielinski

Dear Families,

As we begin the new school year, we will be implementing our Portrait of a Learner Survey September 7th - September 18th. This tool helps us understand and measure the durable skills our community values most, skills students carry with them throughout their time in Worthington and beyond.

Why the Portrait of a Learner Survey?

Designed in-house to directly serve our district's goals, this survey provides the flexibility, control, and alignment to support our students effectively. Specifically, the survey is designed to:

• Align Directly to the Portrait of a Learner: Highlighting the specific skills and mindsets our community wants students to develop.

• Support Executive Function Skills: Connecting directly to key habits like response inhibition, flexibility, task initiation, emotional control, sustained attention, and organization.

• Provide Actionable Insights: Giving teachers, principals, and staff real-time data to support students’ growth in these critical areas.

What We’re Doing:

The survey is age-appropriate, tiered by grade level, and preceded by a short preparatory lesson to help support students and is administered via Google Forms, with results connected to the district’s Monitoring Score system. Our goal is to use the Portrait of a Learner Survey to build a clear picture of student growth, and identify areas where additional support is needed.

If you have any questions or would like to opt your student out of this spring window, please contact us at 614-450-5300.

Thank you for your continued partnership in helping us grow alongside our students.

Respectfully,

Dr. Jenny Wielinski

Struggling with bedtime battles or middle-of-the-night wake-ups? This informal and supportive session gives you a chance to connect with other families, share experiences, and explore effective approaches to help your child (and you!) get better rest.

For more information, please visit the flyer below.

Triple P Flyer

Milk

If students pack their lunch or want an extra milk, the cost is $0.50. Funds can be added through My Payments Plus.

Student Lunch Accounts

Families can add money to their lunch account through My Payments Plus. You can also use MPP to track your student's account and see much money remains on it. My Payments Plus is also used to pay other fees, like high school parking permits and AP testing fees.

Free & Reduced School Meals for Students

Worthington Schools has eligibility-based pricing of meals (Free/Reduced/Paid).

All Worthington School families are required to complete the online Free/Reduced Lunch Eligibility Form. All students use their Lunch ID for meals. The student's number can be found in the Parent Portal. Select the Student ID tab and look for your Lunch PIN.

There’s still time to join the PTA!

A big thank you to everyone who joined us for our first PTA meeting this week! We’re excited for a great year at Brookside!

We have several open committee positions and are looking for parents who are willing to lend a hand and help make our school events and activities happen!

PTA members receive a Brookside school year calendar magnet—the perfect way to keep important school dates right on your fridge! Join here: brooksidepta.com/join.

Mumkin!

We did it! With your help, we exceeded our fundraising goal. Now it’s time to decorate your porches with beautiful fall colors! A HUGE thank you to everyone who supported Brookside through this year’s Mumkin Sale! Your orders help make so many of our PTA events and activities possible throughout the school year.

Mumkin pickup is Tuesday, September 22, 5-7PM on Brookside’s front lawn. Come hungry—McGinnis’ Grill Food Truck is back this year, so you can pick up your mums and dinner!

Volunteer spots are still available to help with mum pickup. Sign up here!

Mark Your Calendars! Fall Fest is Coming!

Join us October 9th from 6–8pm for a night of family fun at Brookside! We’ll have pumpkin decorating, a bounce house, the Book Fair, airbrush tattoos, a food truck, Bring the Farm To You, and more! And the moment we’ve all been waiting for…

THE HAYRIDE IS BACK!

It’s going to be a great night, and we’ll need some volunteers to help make all the fun happen. Keep an eye out for the Sign-Up Genius coming soon!

We can’t wait to see everyone there!

Brookside is looking for volunteers to build reading skills with kindergarten students. Even if you only have 30 minutes a week, our kindergarten students would love to welcome you! Read below for more information and click HERE or on the flyer to register. Following registration, a program coordinator from our school will be in touch with more information.

Dear Worthington Schools Families,

Instructions for accessing your Infinite Campus Parent account can be found at our Family FAQ page.

If you know about a planned absence, please share that information prior to the absence. It is important that your child arrives on time as school attendance is calculated by the minute and accumulates quickly when tardy.

We also have a new attendance email address for the Brookside office. If your child will be absent for any reason, please call (614-450-5300) or email (broattend@wscloud.org) attendance.

Arrival occurs between 7:30am and 7:40am. The tardy bell rings at 7:40am.

Electronic Backpack

View our Lost and Found items HERE, it is growing again. Simply call, email or have your student stop by the office if you see an item that belongs to them. Please label all of your student’s belongings so that they are easily reunited.

Brookside uses a car loop for parents who choose to drop their children off in the morning. Please be sure your child is ready to exit the car in a quick, but safe manner on the passenger side only. We do this for safety puproses. Please keep your speed to a crawl. Now and then we have family members who are not familiar with our process or are simply new to our school community so your patience is appreciated. Feel free to park in the front parking spaces to drop your child off should you not use the car loop.

Thank you in advance for adhering to our guidelines. 🙂

Dear Elementary Parents,

Worthington Schools is excited to announce its growing partnership with Securly in safeguarding students. Securly is used to monitor students’ online content, blocking access to inappropriate websites and materials on our school network and school-owned devices. Starting with the 2025/26 school year, Worthington Schools will make the Securly Home app available to elementary families.

Chromebook Content Filtering

District-owned Chromebooks will now have similar content filtering whether they are at school or away. This means that Chromebooks will have a base level of filtering no matter what network they are on. Content filtering is an uphill challenge and a very fine line to ensure students have access to the content and resources needed for effective learning while keeping harmful material at bay. While Internet content is ever-changing, our goal is to ensure a safe online experience.

Parental Control

Parents will have access to a website and mobile app, through Securly, to adjust their student’s district-provided Chromebook filtering levels when the device is away from the district network. You can determine the appropriate categories and sites your student has access to. More details can be found at our Parent Securly Information.

Activity Alerts

Worthington Schools' building leadership receives alerts when activity, such as searches or sites visited, indicates a student may be considering self-harm, harming others, or other inappropriate behaviour. This service was implemented so that school administrators are able to partner with you to provide a safer online experience. While these alerts are not perfect, we feel it is an important tool in ensuring your student’s safety

We take student safety very seriously, and online safety is part of the overall approach. If you have questions or comments, please feel free to reach out to your principal. Or if you need specific support from Securly, you can contact them at homesupport@securly.com.

Additional resources can also be viewed below.

Securly Getting Started Video

Securly Home App Walkthrough (English).pdf

Sincerely,

Worthington Schools

Worthington Connects is a community-driven organization dedicated to supporting local families in need year-round. We partner closely with schools to identify families who could benefit from assistance and rely on generous donations from the community to make our efforts possible. Every contribution helps us provide meaningful support to those in need.

If you would like to donate or get involved, please visit https://www.worthingtonconnects.org Families seeking assistance are encouraged to reach out to their school counselors, who work with us to connect resources to those who need them most. Together, we can make a lasting impact in our Worthington community!

Direct donation: https://www.worthingtonconnects.org/giving-page-3

For the safety of children, do not send any nut or peanut items (including Nutella) to school in your child's lunch, snack, or school party item as we are a nut and peanut free school. It could literally mean life or death to another child. Thank you in advance for your understanding and compliance.

Please be sure you are observing road safety laws and educating your student(s) as well. Please always stay vigilant.

• Pedestrians: Where neither sidewalk nor shoulder is available, pedestrians shall walk as near to the outside edge of the roadway and only on the left side of the roadway, facing traffic. Any pedestrian upon a roadway shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway. Cross streets at crosswalks or intersections.
• Cyclists: Cyclists should ride on the right half of the roadway, riding with traffic instead of against it. Please wear a helmet!
• Drivers: Yield the right-of-way to pedestrians at intersections and crosswalks.

Field Trip volunteers/chaperones must have their volunteer badges. If you are interested in volunteering in our school or for a field trip. Please go to the district website and follow the instructions HERE.

CONTACT INFORMATION: Parents, if you have not done so this year, please make sure to verify/update information in the Emergency Data Review through the parent portal. You can access the portal* on the WCS website. This process must be completed every year in case of an emergency and in order for your child(ren) to participate in class field trips. Instructions for using the parent portal appear here.

The Special Education Road Map has been translated into 21 different languages!!

This roadmap is helpful to all families, especially families who are just beginning the special education process.

Worthington’s Special Education Key Communicator Committee strives to build positive, productive and collaborative relationships and partnerships amongst the educators and community of families whose children receive special education and related services. We will engage in two-way communication, with the goal being to provide a circle of influence where we can share out and learn from and with each other.

The key communicators will convey information from their building to the committee, as well as information from the committee to their buildings.

The Key Communicators for Brookside are Sandra Sell at snsell74@gmail.com and Emily Smith at lightseekerem@hotmail.com 614-563-3687. Please reach out to either of our communicators if you have questions or topics to discuss.