Waltham Elementary School

Where Kids Come First

A Note from Mrs. Lukacsy...

Dear Families,

As we continue our journey toward achieving our two schoolwide goals, I’d like to share a quick update:

Improving Student Attendance:

We are making great strides in attendance, and every day counts! Our first AttenDANCE will be held this Friday. Details are below!
We are also excited to introduce our new truancy program, "Every Day Counts," which focuses on building relationships here at school and provides motivating incentives for students to meet their goals.
Thank you to everyone who has supported our attendance goals by donating items—we’ll be collecting them all year long. We couldn't do these programs without your help!

Enhancing School Pride:

With our new mascot, we’re focused on celebrating our successes and creating a school environment where every student feels valued and motivated. We hope families were able to order some new spirit wear to support the HAWKS!
This year, spirit wear is also available from the Waltham concession stand! Students who wear these shirts to a game get in for free. Together, we can build a culture that everyone is proud to be part of.

Safety Drill Update:

Safety is always a top priority for us. We have an upcoming lockdown drill on Wednesday, October 2nd, in collaboration with the Utica police department. This is an important opportunity for our students and staff to practice staying safe in a "hide, flight, fight" situation. During the drill, students will stay in their designated areas and remain out of sight. Our local police officers will walk through the building alongside administration to ensure all procedures are followed—there will be no threatening sounds during the drill.
While parents may opt their child out of this drill by contacting their homeroom teacher and Mrs. Lukacsy, we encourage participation, as knowing what to do in an emergency is critical for everyone’s safety.

Thank you for your support in making our school a safe and welcoming place for all.

Sincerely,

Mrs. Melanie Lukacsy,
Principal

Improving Student Attendance

AttenDANCE

I’m excited to share details about our upcoming AttenDANCE initiative for all K-8 students!

The AttenDANCE will be held on Friday, October 4th. This event is our way of celebrating students with perfect attendance from the previous month, encouraging positive attendance habits, and having a little fun together as a school community.

Here's what students should expect:

All K-8 students and staff will gather to dance for 2-4 songs.
Students with perfect attendance from last month will be entered into prize drawings, and several names will be drawn at the event.
If students are not eligible for prizes this month, please encourage them to strive for great attendance next month.
We are still in need of donations to support these prize drawings and initiatives. Please contact Mrs. Lukacsy at mlukacsy@wesd185.org or 815-667--4417 with questions.

Thank you for helping make this a positive and fun experience for our students!

Attendance Communication

Dear Families,

As you know by now, this year attendance is one of our key goals. Ensuring students are present each day is a top priority, as every day in school provides essential learning experiences that build toward their academic growth and overall development.

Through communication and conversations, you may hear terms like chronic absenteeism and truancy, and I want to explain the difference between them:

Chronic Absenteeism refers to any student who misses 10% or more of school days for any reason—excused or unexcused. This includes all absences, such as illness, family emergencies, or vacations.
Truancy refers to unexcused absences. Chronic truancy occurs when a student has unexcused absences for 5% or more of school days.

As part of our commitment to supporting students' success and in accordance with Illinois School Code, we will send letters home for students who meet the following thresholds:

After 5 days absent
After 10 days absent
After 15 days absent

These letters will be sent for both excused and unexcused absences, as any day a student misses school means missed learning.

We are here to work with you to ensure your child has a successful year. If you have any questions or need support with attendance, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Thank you for partnering with us to make this a great year!

Sincerely,

The Waltham Attendance Committee

Mrs. Lukacsy, Principal

Mrs. Lewis, Administrative Assistant

Mrs. Holtzman, Social Worker/PBIS Tier 2/3 Support

Mrs. Mitchell, Instructional Coach/ PBIS Tier 2/3 Support

Mrs. Holcman, Regional Office of Education #35 Student & Family Services Coordinator

School Pride

Enhancing school pride is one of our schoolwide goals for the year, and as we begin a new chapter, we are excited to strengthen our community spirit. School pride plays a vital role in the success of our students, and we would love your help in fostering this positive environment.

Here are some simple ways to boost school pride at home:

Wear School Colors: Encourage your child to wear red and black, Hawks gear or spirit wear on designated spirit days. This helps create a sense of belonging and excitement!
Support School Events: Attend school events such as sporting events, band concerts, or family nights. Your presence makes a big difference and demonstrates to your child the value of their school community.
Talk Positively About School: Conversations at home can greatly influence how students feel about school. Share enthusiasm for school activities and celebrate your child’s successes, whether academic or extracurricular.
Volunteer: When your schedule allows, volunteer at school events or within the school as needed. Involvement from parents strengthens our community bond and demonstrates to students the importance of teamwork.
Display Student Work: Celebrate your child’s work by displaying it at home. Show interest in what they create at school, and share their achievements with family and friends.
Encourage Kindness: School pride also grows when students feel safe and supported. Encourage your child to be kind and inclusive towards their classmates, building a positive atmosphere.

Your involvement means the world to us and to your children. Together, we can create an environment where everyone is proud to be part of our school.

Thank you for your continued support!

Student and Staff Safety

Our school has adopted The "I Love U Guys" Foundation's Standard Response Protocol (SRP). Students and staff will be trained and drilling the protocol.

The Standard Response Protocol (SRP) is based on an all-hazards approach as opposed to individual scenarios. There is clear, common language used while allowing flexibility in protocol.

The premise is simple - there are five specific actions that can be performed during an incident. When communicating these, the action is labeled with a "Term of Art" and is then followed by a "Directive." Execution of the action is performed by active participants, including students, staff, teachers, and first responders. The SRP is based on the following actions: Hold, Secure, Lockdown, Evacuate, and Shelter. Additional information is attached below.

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Standard Response Protocol Parent Handout

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VIP Lunches

We are thrilled that our beloved VIP Lunches have returned for the 2024-2025 school year!

We know how much these special moments mean to our students and their families, and we’re excited to create more memories together.

Although we still have space constraints within our building, we’ve come up with a fantastic solution. This year, we’ll be utilizing our outdoor covered learning space, allowing us to enjoy the fresh air while spending quality time together. Please note that due to limited seating, we can only accommodate 2 adults per student for these lunches. Dress for the weather, as we will be outside under the awning for lunch.

Also, we ask that you respect the following:

Only milk or water are allowed.
Due to food allergies, please do not share food items with anyone other than your student.
3rd-8th grade students will have 20 minutes for their lunch and then be dismissed to the playground for their 10 minute recess if they choose.
Kindergarten-2nd grade students will have 30 minutes for their lunch.
All VIP guests must provide a photo ID before entering the school.
Lunch will be from 11:45 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. Please do not arrive before 11:40 a.m.

October VIP Lunch Dates:

7th Grade, October 3rd (Thursday)
1st Grade, October 7th (Monday)
4th Grade, October 9th ( Wednesday)
5th Grade, October 15th (Tuesday)
Kindergarten, October 16th (Wednesday)
8th Grade, October 22nd (Tuesday)

Be sure to mark your calendars – we can’t wait to see you there!

TO RSVP: Email Mrs. Susan Hewitt at shewitt@wesd185.org or call the office at 815-667-4417. Please include the student's name, grade level and 2 adults who will be joining them.

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

Four-Day Weekend Coming

Dear Parents,

We wanted to remind you that there will be no school on Friday, October 11th due to a Teacher Institute and no school on Monday, October 14th in observance of Columbus Day.

We hope you and your family enjoy the extended weekend, and we look forward to seeing our students back on Tuesday, October 15th!

School Picture Day

School Picture Day for all PreK-8 students will be on Thursday, October 17th!

Kindergarten News

Kindergarten is off to a great start! We began our year learning to be Can-do Kids:) We are learning our letters and sounds, numbers 0-10, and having lots of fun together. We just finished learning about apples. We tasted red, yellow, and green apples and did a science experiment by touching an apple with our hands before and after washing them. Ask a kindergartener how that turned out!!! We are ready for fall. We made fall trees from our handprints and will be taking a trip to the pumpkin patch! --- Mrs. Karin Kummer

First Grade

Our first writing unit was "Launching the Writer's Workshop." We learned the writing process chant, how to pick an idea, plan it out, write, revise, edit and then "send our work into the world". The Superkids are excited to share our writing with our other first grade friends and our families. We are looking forward to our next unit where we learn all about illustrations, the magic line and our new writing friend, Alpert. --- Mrs. Heather Linnig

Second Grade

Learning is in full force here in 2nd grade! The students have successfully learned the routines and procedures in the classroom and are performing their best each day in the classroom. So far this year, students have mastered their first Math module, adding and subtracting within 100. They all mastered this skill with flying colors. They are tackling FUNdations head on and showing off their skills of reading and writing words with digraph blends! The 2nd grade students are beginning to work on the writing process and how each step of the process works to help make their writing better! We have dove deep into nouns, verbs, adjectives and what makes a sentence a complete sentence! Lastly, 2nd grade is digging deep into properties of matter in science and looking at the Government and its purpose in Social Studies. The first couple months have school have already flown by and the students in second grade have proven they are ready to learn and can DO HARD THINGS:) --- Mrs. Hill and Mrs. Hollingsworth

Third Grade

3rd grade has been diving into learning all things multiplication & division! They are strengthening their math vocabulary by using terms such as: vertical, horizontal, arrays, rows & columns! What better way to practice making arrays than with pop its!? The kids loved interacting with their pop its to show their knowledge about arrays! --- Miss Kayla Guenther

3rd grade is excited to share our recent exploration in science: the life cycle of plants, pollination, and the purpose of flowers.

Our class has been actively learning the stages of plant growth from seed to a flower. We’ve learned about the vital role of pollination and how pollinators like bees and butterflies contribute to plant reproduction.

Students also discovered why plants produce fruit: to protect seeds and aid in their dispersal. Through discussions and hands-on activities, they’ve connected these concepts to their own experience to identify science fruits and science vegetables. ---Mrs. Cynthia Lara

Fourth Grade

4G has been super busy talking about addition and subtraction during math. We have also been super involved in writing our personal narratives. We are so excited to tell our stories. We also just finished reading our story Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. We discussed if we had a younger sibling that was like the character in the story and a lot of them said they could really relate to our main character and his younger brother :) --- Mr. Daniel Gustafson

Junior High ELA

The Junior High ELA team piloted an activity on September 16th that they hope to continue throughout the academic year. To showcase student work for our community, the team hopes to add more events. For their first assignment, the students were to write a poem of five to ten lines introducing themselves for the upcoming academic year. All poetry was done in class with supervision from the ELA teachers.

The team, working alongside the students, started to throw out some ideas for a class meeting outside of school. With a positive response from the students, the team began planning to go into the community after school hours. The team knew this would make for a long day and may be difficult to plan around sporting events amongst other after school activities. Collaborating with the students, they organized a 7:00 p.m. start time. The team reached out to Bruce & Ollies, who graciously agreed to host up to 57 Jr. High students for the evening.

Prior to the meeting, the team reviewed expectations for the night and provided some student choice incentives to bolster attendance. The anticipation was growing throughout each class.

On September 16th the ELA team joined 37 students at Bruce & Ollies for a wildly successful poetry night. Parent feedback has been positive, and student feedback was excellent, some stated “Let’s do it again”, “let’s go to a bigger place”, and “I thought I wasn’t going to like this at all, it was actually fun”.

The team reflected on the night and is currently working on our next gathering, slated for October. Encouraging Jr. High students to focus on learning outside of school in the evening, is undeniably an arduous task. The ELA team has the results to work towards another successful event! ---Ms. Jackie Lucio and Mr. Ray Bailey