Back to School Bobcat Beat 2026

We hope your summer has been filled with sunshine, relaxation, adventures, and quality time with family and friends! Whether you've been traveling, exploring close to home, or simply enjoying a slower pace, we hope you've had the opportunity to make wonderful summer memories.

We are just two weeks away from welcoming our students back for an exciting 2026–2027 school year! Our staff is already preparing classrooms and planning engaging learning experiences, and we can't wait to see everyone again. Here's our game plan:

Sneak-a-Peek on Thursday, August 27 @2:30pm

Be sure to mark your calendars for our Sneak-a-Peek on Thursday, August 27, at 2:30 p.m. This is a wonderful opportunity for students and families to:

• Meet their teacher
• Visit their classroom
• Drop off school supplies
• Reconnect with friends
• Enjoy a popsicle together on the playground!

First Day of School: Monday, August 31

Then, before we know it, we'll be kicking off the new school year with our first day of school on Monday, August 31. We are looking forward to welcoming everyone back for another year of learning, growth, and community.

Back-to-School Night:

This is a caregiver-only event for our grown-ups to learn about their child's school year. Thank you for arranging childcare to ensure you can attend this session with your child's teacher.

• K-2: Tuesday, September 1 @6:30PM
• 3-5: Wednesday, September 2 @6:30PM

Until then, enjoy the rest of your summer—we'll see you soon!

• August 3 - K-12 email with Back to School Paperwork in Parent Portal (due August 21)
• August 10 - Class Assignments released in Parent Portal
• August 14 - Tentative Bus Schedule released in Parent Portal
• August 24 - Final Bus Schedule released in Parent Portal
• August 27 @2:30 - Sneak-a-Peek Family Event
• August 31 - First Day of School
• September 1 @6:30 - Back to School Night - Caregivers Only
• September 2 @6:30 - Back to School Night - Caregivers Only
• September 4 - Half Day; 12:10 Dismissal
• September 7 - No School; Labor Day
• September 21 - No School; Yom Kippur

A great bonding activity is strolling the school supply aisles together with your bobcat as you check items off their school supply list! Families are encouraged to bring school supplies to Sneak-a-Peek to lighten the load of their backpack on the first day of school.

Click the image to view the New Family Orientation information ranging from main office information, arrival/dismissal, and more!

Please be sure you placed your dismissal car tag in a safe place--we are reusing them! Our new families will receive new car tags. If you need to order a replacement car tag, please complete the car tag order form below. If you do intend to use bus transportation, please do not order a car tag.

We have been working hard this summer to finalize our staffing. Between a retirement and the increased enrollment in response to the spot-redistricting with Exton Elementary, we have some new teammates joining us this Fall! I am proud to share that we have hired the best of the best to work alongside our bobcats. Please join me in welcoming:

• Ms. Englehart is joining FHE as a 1st grade teacher. She previously has worked in Chichester School District and is a member of the Air Force Reserves.
• Mrs. Katie Gray is joining FHE as a 2nd grade teacher. She previously worked in Wallingford-Swarthmore School District and is looking forward to working in the same district that she is raising her family in.
• Ms. Lockhart is joining FHE as a 3rd grade teacher. She previously has worked at Greystone Elementary School in WCASD and enjoys teaching swim lessons when she's not in the classroom.

• Ms. Ana Weiss is joining FHE as our Speech & Language Pathologist. Ms. Weiss has worked at Exton Elementary and most recently at our summer extended school year program and is very familiar with WCASD. She is looking forward to working alongside our bobcats and their speech and language needs.
• Ms. Alanna Greeley is joining FHE as a Learning Support Teacher. Ms. Greeley worked at Extended School Year (ESY) this summer and has previously worked at Greystone Elementary. She's looking forward to being a bobcat! She will be with us through January until Mrs. Varrasse returns from her sabbatical.

PA State school health mandated immunization, physical and dental requirements for 25-26 school year:

1. All students are required to be up to date with PA state mandated immunizations within the first 5 days of school in order to avoid being excluded from school.
2. All kindergarten students and any student registering for the first time to FHE must submit updated physical and dental examination report to the school nurse within the first 60 days of school in order to avoid being excluded from school. Reports can be dated on/after September 2025.
3. Rising 3rd Graders- Your child is required to have a dental exam in his/her 3rd grade school year (2026-2027). This is not a new requirement, but WCASD now has a provisional period of 60 days from the start of school. This means your child’s dental exam report is due on or before November 1, 2026. This deadline feels a long time off, but the nurse can accept upcoming or recent dental reports any time and update your child’s health record now. Exams must have been after 8/30/2025.
   

If you have questions about these requirements, please contact our school nurse, Mrs. Brittany Garraty (bgarraty@wcasd.net).

If you registered your child(ren) through WCASD portal and did not upload all or part of the above PA state school health mandates, please send the information to Mrs. Garraty at the above email address as soon as possible.

Thank you for partnering with us to ensure we have your child's most up-to-date medical records on file.

We are excited to introduce the launch of the LinkIt! portal. Through this online portal, you will be able to view both current and historical assessment data linked to your student’s profile. Information housed in this portal includes state assessments (PSSA and Keystone Exams), with district assessments to be added over time.

To access your student’s profile, please follow the steps below and use your unique registration code to activate your account. Once in the system, you will be prompted to set up a username and password for future access.

STEP 1: ACCESS THE LINKIT! portal

Go to https://wcasd.linkit.com/parent in any web browser (computer, tablet, or phone).

STEP 2: CLICK ON “HAVE A REGISTRATION CODE?”

On the portal login page, click the “Have a Registration Code?” tab.

STEP 3: ENTER YOUR UNIQUE REGISTRATION CODE

Enter the registration code provided from LinkIt! sent to your address on file with the district.

STEP 4: SET UP YOUR INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNT

Follow the onscreen prompts to create your password. Your username will default to the email address the district has on file. If you have multiple children enrolled in WCASD, all of their data will be accessible under one account.

STEP 5: VIEW YOUR CHILD’S ASSESSMENT DATA

Once logged in, click the Reports icon to view assessment results. Click on a test category (such as PSSA or Keystone) to expand and view your child’s scores.

To assist you in understanding your child’s assessment data, we have created resources for your access on the WCASD Assessment Page.

We are confident that providing access to your child’s information on an ongoing basis will support even stronger home-school communication.

If you are having difficulty accessing your LinkIt! portal account, please contact Jim Ronayne at assessment@wcasd.net

Thanks to all of our community's fundraising efforts this past school year, the PTO funded a new mural that will welcome visitors and students into the building. We are thankful for Mrs. Jaclyn Schneider who is a Fugett Middle School art teacher who spent time at Fern Hill this summer to bring this idea to fruition!

To our Bobcat families and friends- we thank you for an awesome school year! Whether you were on one of our PTO committees, volunteered your time and talent, or simply came out and enjoyed our events, we wouldn’t have been able to do it without you- our amazing Bobcat community. Thank you and we hope you have a wonderful summer!

A HUGE thank you to our yearbook editor and creator extraordinaire, Stasia Rae Boyce! The yearbook looks amazing and we’re so grateful for all the special memories captured in it. Your time, care, creativity, and expertise are so appreciated!

We need your help! It’s never too early to start planning how you want to be involved in all the fun activities the PTO puts on for our Bobcats next school year. Take a look at the available opportunities and sign-up here!

If you have any questions, please reach out to Meghan Kazanjian at meghankaz@gmail.com

Earning money for our school has never been easier! All you need to do is download the Box Tops app, create an account, and scan your grocery receipt. Easy and quick! Last year we earned $500 from Box Tops for Fern Hill!

The summer regression is real for many learners when they step out of school routines and the daily practice of reading, writing, math, and more. We appreciate your help in keeping your child's forward progress with literacy by encouraging them to read all summer long. We encourage you to book club a text with your child, or encourage their friend group to find a book to read together. Conversations over characters and plots keep students' imaginations growing and encourage them to learn from others' inferences and perspective--and it's social!

Please refer to the district's recommended Summer Reading List for ideas of texts to borrow from your local library or pick up at a local bookstore.

We love having our families volunteer throughout the building. In order to volunteer, adults are required to have their clearances on file with us. Clearances can take 4-6 weeks to acquire, so please be sure to get the process started if you're looking to volunteer this Fall.

• Fern Hill Website
• PTO Website
• Vacation Approval Request Form

• FHE: Kindergarten Lunch Duty
• FHE: 1st Grade Lunch Duty

Principal

Email: jsouthmayd@wcasd.net
Website: https://www.wcasd.net/fhe
Location: 915 Lincoln Avenue, West Chester, PA, USA
Phone: 484 266 1600
Twitter: @FernHillES