Good Afternoon Highland Families,

I hope you had a wonderful long weekend and were able to enjoy the beautiful weather. This week we wrapped up Fall benchmark testing and Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) scores were sent home with 4th-6th graders today. If you did not receive a score report for your student, please contact the Highland main office. We are looking forward to a busy week next week that includes Highland presenting at the Board of Education meeting on Monday night, picture day, and our One Book, One School kick-off event! All of our families are welcome to join us at the Board of Education meeting and our One Book, One School event on Wednesday, we hope to see you there! If you have any questions or need any assistance, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at 630-719-5835. Take care and have a great weekend!

My Best,

Zac Craft

Principal, Highland School

• 09/09/24: Highland spotlight at the Board of Education Meeting
• 09/10/24: PTA Dining for Dollars night at Gia Mia
• 09/11/24: Picture Day!
• 09/11/24: OBOS kick-off event!
• 09/13/24: DG58 Oktoberfest!

• 09/17/24: PTA Meeting at 7:00 p.m.
• 09/20/24: Fun Food Friday - Pizza Lunch

The Highlanad Playbook is your place to find important information about Highland including a staff directory, arrival/dismissal procedures, informaion about social-emotional learning, and much more. Click the image to the right to access the 2024-2025 Highland Playbook.

As the year begins, we’ve noticed an increase in students visiting our health offices for insect bites, particularly on the neck, face, and arms. These bites are often red and itchy, and while we can provide Calamine lotion or an ice pack to ease discomfort, other over-the-counter treatments like Benadryl cream or Hydrocortisone require a completed Medication Authorization Form.

Please ensure that these medications are not sent to school with your child unless proper authorization is in place. If you have any questions or need assistance, don’t hesitate to contact your school’s health office.

Thank you for your cooperation in keeping our students safe and healthy.

Highland will recognize Patriot Day on Wednesday, Sept. 11 by flying the American flag at half-staff, observing a moment of silence, and sharing the following message with all students during morning announcements at 8:45 a.m.:

September 11 is Patriot Day. On this day, the President requests that the American flag be flown at half-staff and that we observe a moment of silence.

Patriot Day is a day we remember the events of September 11, 2001 and we honor and celebrate the courageous service of our firefighters, police officers, paramedics and military. On this day in our nation’s history, in the face of tragedy, we saw courage: firefighters, police officers, and paramedics rushed to help. We saw selflessness: strangers helped strangers. We saw love: people from around the world sent cards, supplies, and comfort. In honor, respect and remembrance of this important event in our nation’s history, we will now observe a moment of silence.

[brief moment of silence]

Today is an opportunity to turn something negative into a positive activity by honoring the good work of others and by doing good works ourselves. Today, look for opportunities to be courageous, selfless, and loving, and if possible, say thank you to those who work so hard to keep us well and safe.

As required by law, all new students, as well as students entering grades K, 2, and 6, must receive health examinations and immunizations and submit completed health forms by October 15th. To learn more check out the Health Services page on the District 58 website.

Thank you to many of the families who have already completed and submitted these forms. In accordance with Illinois law, failure to comply with these requirements by Oct 15 of the current school year, or 30 days following registration for first-time registrants, will result in the student's exclusion from school until such requirements have been met. All sections of the child examination form must be completed including the health history, which must be filled out by the parent.

District 58 communicates frequently regarding these requirements as it is our hope to avoid school exclusion for all of our students. If you are in need of additional assistance, our school nurse, Mrs. Sweet (nsweet@dg58.org), would be happy to assist you in answering questions or connecting you with resources to complete this requirement.

District 58 invites the community to Downers Grove Oktoberfest on Friday, Sept. 13 and Saturday, Sept. 14. The festival will feature live music, a Kids Zone and authentic Oktoberfest food and brew in a traditional German atmosphere. This event is the Education Foundation of Downers Grove District 58’s largest fundraiser, and all proceeds will support the foundation’s programs for District 58 students and staff. Purchase tickets here.

Outdoor Family Movie Night

Please join us at DG Swim & Racquet on the evening of Friday September 6 for the annual Outdoor Family Movie Night! This year the movie will be Super Pets!

Join in on the movie fun starting at 7pm, with the movie starting at 7:45pm. Free popcorn!

Bring your own chairs, blankets, snacks & bug spray.

DG Swim & Racquet, 5560 Fairview

Mums Volunteers

We are looking for volunteers to help with mum set up on Friday 9/13 in the morning. And for volunteers in the afternoon during mum pick-up. Mum Day is always a fun day! Come and help out! Sign up here to help with mums!

Picture Day Volunteers

Picture Day is coming! Are you available to help teachers and staff organize the kids for their pictures? There are two time slots, if you are available for both please feel free to sign up for both. You can sign up to help here.

PTA Information

Please follow us on Facebook at Highland PTA 58 and on Instagram at highlandpta58. Feel free to email the PTA at any time at highlandpta58@gmail.com

*Also, please spend just a minute or two completing this survey for the PTA and different communication methods. We appreciate your time and input! Survey Link Here

Why should you join the PTA? The Highland Parent Teacher Association (PTA) is an all-volunteer organization dedicated to providing enriching, fun and educational programs to our school community. These may include family fun events - Bingo Night, Welcome to School Party - or educational programs - World Cultures Night, One Book One School program. We also support and fund many in-school activities, including school t-shirts, birthday books, additional field trips and assemblies.

One easy way to support the PTA is to purchase a parent membership for $15 (one user) or a family membership (two users) for $20. The purchase makes you a member of the Illinois PTA, and a portion of the proceeds will fund our Highland PTA activities. Members receive a regular newsletter with information about PTA activities and is the only way to access the all-school directory. Link Here Again To Buy/Renew Membership So You Don’t Have To Scroll Back Up

Room Parent/Party Host Volunteer

Wondering how you can volunteer this year?! Room Parents and Party Hosts could be that opportunity! Click here to fill out the form!

Dining for Dollars

The next Dining for Dollars will be at Gia Mia on Tuesday September 10 from 11am-9pm. Enjoy tasty food and support your school’s PTA. More information to come!

One Book, One School

Highland School will kick-off the 2024 One Book, One School program with an evening event open to all students and families on Wednesday, September 11th from 6-7:30pm! This event will feature the unveiling of this year's book, the reading of the beginning of the book, as well as activities related to this year's book & creating a love of reading! A flier with more details will come home this week!

Any questions, or if you'd like to volunteer, please contact Katie Hurckes at katiehurckes@gmail.com or Courtney Homan (courtwagner@gmail.com).

Fun Food Fridays

It’s time to place your Fun Lunch, Pizza Lunch and Treat Day orders

for September through December!

Season Passes:

• FFF Season Pass - ALL Fun Lunches (FL), Pizza Lunches (PL) and Treat Days (TD) through December (dates: PL 9/20, FL 9/27, TD 10/11, FL 10/18, PL 10/25, PL 11/8, FL 11/15, TD 11/22, FL 12/6, PL 12/13)

• FFF Pizza Only Season Pass - all Pizza Lunches through December (9/20, 10/25, 11/8, 12/13)

A’la Carte:

• Pizza Lunch 9/20 - Al’s cheese pizza slice

• Fun Lunch 9/27 - Outpost beef tacos & chips

• Treat Day 10/11 - Mrs. Field’s chocolate chip cookie

• Fun Lunch 10/18 - Al’s cheese ravioli

• Pizza Lunch 10/25 - Al’s cheese pizza slice

• Pizza Lunch 11/8 - Al’s cheese pizza slice

• Fun Lunch 11/15 - Culver’s chicken tenders & custard

• Treat Day 11/22 - Cakepop vanilla cake pop

• Fun Lunch 12/6 - Al’s vegetarian chili

• Pizza Lunch 12/13 - Al’s cheese pizza slice

STORE OPEN NOW!!!

You may purchase online now through September 6th at midnight

at highland58pta.givebacks.com/store.

No late orders will be accepted.

Questions? General: HighlandPTA58@gmail.com

• Fun Lunch: Olga Saad Karam (arabqueen2@hotmail.com) or Deanna Smetana (djsmetana.nnp@hotmail.com)

• Pizza Lunch: Jenny Bain (jenny.gallagher.bain@gmail.com) or Melissa Mitra (melissammitra@gmail.com)

• Treat Day: Erin Grady (etgrady32@gmail.com)

Fall Fundraiser

Secure your babysitters now! The date for our third annual Parents Night Out Fundraiser is Friday November 15!!!

We are all so excited to have another great event at the Moose Lodge with all of our awesome parents.

PTA Meeting

It’s the first PTA meeting of the school year! Please join us on Tuesday, September 17, at 7pm, in the Highland Gym, for the first PTA meeting of the year! We would love to pack to the place, so please join us!

Item's that can be found in every edition of the Highland Happenings, such as the Highland Playbook and our student attendance form can be found below. We want to ensure that these resources are always available to our families while also making each week's Happenings as reader-friendly as possible!

Please click below to see the most up to date school health requirements. If you have any questions regarding health requirements for your student, please reach out to one of the members of our school nursing team.

District 58 strives to create a culture of well-being for students, parents, staff and community. To further support this endeavor, the District has invested in an additional support service through ReferralGPS.

ReferralGPS is a service providing assistance to our community in finding local mental health and substance use-related treatment resources. The service compliments the District’s existing systems of support as a tool for student service teams and families to connect with treatment. Along with a searchable database of treatment options, ReferralGPS assists families in triage and appointment setting.

School district staff and families may access ReferralGPS in two ways:

1. Contact Student Services (social workers, psychologists, counselors) to seek out treatment options

2. Visit this link at https://referralgps.com/find-help/DG58 to search for treatment resources or connect with a Care Navigator anonymously

The platform has the ability to filter by mental health concern, clinician gender/specialty, location, and insurance acceptance. The service is available for all types of private and public insurance options including PPO, HMO, Medicaid, and families that are uninsured or underinsured.

ReferralGPS is available for use by district students, staff, and families at no cost. All information entered on the ReferralGPS tool is completely confidential and securely stored.

It is amazing how far technology has come over the last decade and continues to advance. We recognize the value technology has not just in education, but our world. However, we hope that we can work together to remind students that during the school day, personal electronic devices should be turned off or silenced and out of sight. This includes wearable devices if they become distracting to the learning environment. Students should not be using phones, Apple Watches, or other devices to send or receive text messages or phone calls during the school day.

Email: zcraft@dg58.org
Website: DG58.org/HG
Location: 3935 Highland Avenue, Downers Grove, IL, USA
Phone: (630)-719-5835
Facebook: facebook.com/HGHuskies
Twitter: @HGHuskies