Greetings, Van Allen Families -

To conclude our last full week of September, we just finished celebrating a fantastic homecoming week filled with awesome participation during our dress-up days to exhibit school spirit and Van Allen Pride. A special thank you to the Liberty High School student-athletes and marching band for their attendance during our morning arrival on Wednesday, which included a live performance. It was also great to see so many students and families who came out to participate and/or cheer on our community during Wednesday evening's homecoming parade at Liberty High School.

On Friday morning, we had our second school-wide PBIS assembly. We focused our learning on the core competency of Self-Management, proudly announced our Student Council representatives for the 26/27 school year, and capped things off with a high-energy "Minute to Win It" leaf relay contest between students. Additionally, throughout September, our students earned an astounding 10,000 PBIS Rewards points by showing respect to self, others, and property. To celebrate this accomplishment, we are holding a Mismatch Day on Monday, September 28th—so encourage your child to wear their craziest, wackiest outfit to school!

Understanding Your Child's Literacy Assessment Information

Would you like to better understand your child’s literacy assessment results and reading
progress?

Our school is partnering with Lindsay Shultz, a doctoral candidate at Mount St. Joseph University, on a research study evaluating resources designed to help caregivers understand literacy assessment information and support conversations with educators about student learning.

We invite you to participate in a 75-minute in-person caregiver learning session at the Van Allen Elementary in a Team Pod on Tuesday, September 29th at 6:00 p.m. During the session, you will:

Complete brief surveys before and after the learning activities
Explore caregiver-friendly resources
Learn about literacy assessments and how to understand your child’s reading data

To support participation:

Refreshments will be provided
Childcare for children ages 4 and older will be available
A laptop or Chromebook will be provided, if needed
Participants will be entered into a drawing for one $25 Amazon gift card

Interested in learning more? Click here to view a flyer with more details

Interested in participating? Complete this registration form

Completing the registration form does not indicate consent to participate in the research study.

Those who choose to participate will sign the consent form immediately before the learning session begins.

Questions? Please contact Lindsay Shultz by emailing lindsay.shultz@msj.edu or call 319-631-0128.

Thank you for considering this opportunity to learn more about your child's literacy development while contributing to research that may help better support families in understanding literacy assessment information.

At our school, we aim to provide every child with the resources and encouragement necessary to thrive academically, socially, emotionally, and behaviorally. To help us identify and address potential challenges, we are introducing a new Guardian Referral Form. This form gives you a direct way to nominate your child if you feel they could benefit from additional social, emotional, behavioral, or attendance support at school; it will be available for you to use throughout the school year.

Who We Are

Our multidisciplinary Student Support Team meets weekly to collaborate, brainstorm, and problem-solve around individual student needs. Our team includes: Principal, Instructional Coaches, School Counselor, School Family Advocate, Behavior Interventionist, School Facilitator, School Nurse, as well as contributions from our School Psychologist and School Social Worker.

How We Help

When strong Tier 1 classroom and/or schoolwide strategies aren’t quite enough to remove barriers to a student's learning, our team identifies student strengths and opportunities for growth through a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) framework. We look at the whole child—focusing on attendance, behavior, and social emotional well-being—and then select targeted, evidence-based interventions to implement.

Partnership with you is essential to this process. Once a referral is submitted, our team will collaborate directly with families and teachers to map out next steps, implement tailored support strategies, and regularly evaluate your child's progress to ensure that they get the help they need.

How to Refer Your Child

If you have noticed changes and/or if you have concerns with your child's behavior or their social-emotional well-being, we invite you to complete the Guardian Referral Form: https://forms.gle/BBbayQcsmDrPQZ8FA

Once submitted, our team will review the information and then someone will reach out to discuss how we can best partner together. Thank you for your partnership with us to keep our school community supported and thriving.

TalkingPoints is a two-way multilingual family engagement platform that allows staff to communicate with families across language barriers. The platform translates messages back and forth into over 100 languages, allowing for staff to be able to reach families in their preferred language, which in turn increases parent engagement in the classroom and school communities.

You are automatically subscribed to messages from your child's teachers and administrators via SMS text using the cellphone provided during registration.
Download the TalkingPoints for Families app to receive messages through the app.
For more information about TalkingPoints for Families, click here.

Did you know we serve breakfast every day?

We invite your children to join us for breakfast daily! We know how busy mornings can be for families, and our school breakfast is a convenient, nutritious way to ensure your child is ready to learn. Eating a healthy meal at the start of the day is vital for student success; it nourishes young minds and improves concentration, memory, and energy levels. Help your child start their day off right with us!

Breakfast Price: $2.45 full priced, $.40 reduced
Breakfast Serving Times: Starting at 7:30am, through 8:00am

🚨 High Reliability Schools (HRS) Update 🚨

We are continuing to embrace the HRS framework at Van Allen and throughout the ICCSD. Please see this linked form (also inserted, below) that helps us achieve Leading Indicator 1.6, "Students, parents, and the community have formal ways to provide input regarding the optimal functioning in the school."

This will be a standing item in our newsletter. Please note that submitting an idea to this form does not ensure that it will be implemented. Once we have a collection of responses to share, we will plan to include a recurring section within our newsletter dedicated to providing feedback and/or any response in regards to the different ideas that we have received from this form.

Continuous Notice of Non-Discrimination Policy Statement

It is the policy of the Iowa City Community School District not to discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, religion, creed, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or socioeconomic status in its educational programs, activities, or employment practices. There is a grievance procedure for processing complaints of discrimination. If you have questions or a grievance related to this policy, please contact the Student Success Office at StudentSuccess@iowacityschools.org for programming, or the Human Resources Office at HR@iowacityschools.org for employment (2255 N. Dubuque Rd, Iowa City, IA 52245, 319-688-1000). If you are unsure how to proceed or would like assistance in discussing your options, you may also contact the Ombuds at ombuds@iowacityschools.org or 319-688-1312.