Washington Woods Family Newsletter

Website: https://wwe.wws.k12.in.us

Location: 19750 Grassy Branch Road, Westfield, IN, USA
Phone: 317-867-7900
Facebook: Washington Woods Facebook

Celebrating Our Students!

This week, we are excited to celebrate our first Students of the Month! Each month, teachers will recognize one student from their class who has consistently been Showing the Woods Way or who has demonstrated something special that their teacher would like to celebrate. We love having the opportunity to recognize the many ways our students are learning, growing, and contributing to our school community.

Each month, Mrs. Agee and Mrs. Baud will have lunch with the Students of the Month from each class, and we will celebrate them with a picture on our Student of the Month board. We can't wait to celebrate our first group of students!

Rock Strong Award Nominations

We are so fortunate to have an amazing staff at Washington Woods, and we would love to help recognize the people who make a difference for our students and families.

Rock Strong Award nominations are now open! If there is a staff member you'd like to recognize for the impact they have made, please use the link below to submit a nomination. We can't wait to celebrate the amazing people who help make The Woods such a great place to be!

Rock Strong Award Nomination Form

There is a lot of important information in this week's newsletter, so please take a few minutes to look through it. Be sure to check out information about Fast Lane for parent pickup, clubs and School Dismissal Manager, and upcoming PTO events. There are several important reminders and updates that will help keep things running smoothly for our families.

As always, thank you for being such an important part of The Woods!

Mrs. Baud

Back Circle Drive started to test our Fast Lane on Friday, and Monday, Front Circle Drive will begin! We are working through some minor trouble shooting, but overall it was running smooth!

• Make sure you have allowed camera access with the app. You will scan our QR code through the app.
• Family members picking up your children need to be added as a View Only Parent. As we tried it Friday, we noticed they don't have an option to scan the QR code, however, they do have a PIN number the comes up. We believe if we enter the pin number, that should work. We will try it Monday!

It is almost time for Enrichment clubs!! You should now be able to see club options as a dismissal exception option in School Dismissal Manager. Please add your club as an exception to your child's regular dismissal plan. Even if you are normally BAC, please put the exception in for the club, then add in the notes that they can go to BAC when the club ends.

If your child is registered for and attending a club such as Helping Hands, Choir, an academic team, or an enrichment club, you will need to enter the appropriate exception in School Dismissal Manager so we know your child should go to their club instead of following their normal dismissal plan. Please only enter a club as an exception if your child is officially signed up for that club.

This helps ensure they are dismissed to their club as planned.

If an Exception is not entered, your child will be dismissed according to their usual dismissal plan. Thank you for helping us make dismissal run smoothly!

New Attendance Procedure

Please use our new School Dismissal Manager app to enter absences, late arrivals, and early dismissals. When you use the SDM app to enter your absence, please include the reason. Once the absence is entered in the SDM app, you will not need to email or call the attendance line.

Traveling for a family event?

If your child will be out for an elective absence—such as a vacation or sports event—those absences are considered Excused if:

• Your child has fewer than 7 total absences, and

• You notify our office at least 2 days in advance.

If you have any questions about your child’s attendance, please reach out to Becky Garver by email at garverr@wws.k12.in.us.

Monitoring Attendance

Please refer to the Elementary School Handbook on the District Webpage for details of attendance policies.

We will be monitoring attendance this year. Students who have missed five, nine, and/or fifteen total days or more during the school term will be informed in writing. As this is cumulative throughout the year and not within one single grading period, this may not require further action unless otherwise indicated.

We are also reaching out to families who have students who are tardy to school more than 5 times.

We want to partner proactively with families this year to assure our students are at school as much as possible! Please let us know if you need support in any way.

Voting is one of the most important ways we participate in our community and our democracy. As a school district, we believe in preparing students to be engaged, informed citizens, and we encourage every eligible member of our community to exercise that same civic responsibility.

The deadline to register to vote in Indiana for the November 3 General Election is October 5, 2026.

Whether you need to register, update your registration, or simply check your voter registration status, visit IndianaVoters.in.gov.

Be informed. Be engaged. Make your voice heard.

Hello Washington Woods Families!

We still have two resources open if you are needing weekend food assistance or a one-time home supplies kit!

Our Shamrock Care Kits provide basic household and hygiene essentials, including laundry detergent, dish soap, deodorant, bath soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and more. Please note, Shamrock Care Kits are a one-time resource, with one kit available per family.

If you are interested in this resource, please do not hesitate to reach out to me either by phone or email.

johnsonsa@wws.k12.in.us

317-867-7900 ex. 19006

______________________________________________

Weekend Food Program Beginning Soon!

The Weekend Food program will begin in September! This program allows students to bring home a bag of food each Friday, containing non-perishable breakfast and lunch/dinner meals for the weekend. For a little more information about the BackSack program, click HERE.

If you would like your child to participate in this program, please click on the link below to complete the Google Form.

Weekend Food Sign Up Form

Interested in supporting the Weekend Food program?

Open Doors of Westfield partners with our schools to support our students and families. Approximately 800 bags of food are distributed district-wide each month, so that's a whole lot of applesauce, ravioli, and granola bars (among other items)!! To make this happen, they rely heavily on the support and generosity of our community. Want to pitch in? Go to https://opendoorswestfield.org/ to find out how. Putting together everyone's "little bit" makes a BIG difference!

We are now welcoming Lunch Visitors!

Please sign up for only ONE visit per month and only one family member may visit at a time. *If you have a special need to have multiple visitors, please reach out to the office so we can check available space. Visitors MUST have a SafeVisitor registration on file.

Please do not bring outside food to share with anyone other than your child. We do not allow sharing food in the cafeteria.

We allow 4 visitors per grade level, per day for lunch. Due to limited space and some overlapping lunch times, visitors might be sitting at their child's table. All visitors must enter through Door 1 and check in and check out at the main office prior to going to the cafeteria. Visitors must stay in the cafeteria during their visit; they are not allowed to go back to the classroom or recess with the student. Use the link below to make your lunch reservation.

Sign Up on the Sign Up Genius below:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0545A9AA28A5F4C34-65506711-wwes

Lunch time portal is the place you can manage your child's lunch account, including putting money in the account and marking restrictions to your child's lunch choices. Please make sure you also check your child's transactions. If they take two entrees, they will be charged for both.

You can find the monthly lunch menus on our school website.

Important New in this week's Shamrock Blast includes:

• Chromebook Protection Plan purchasing has been extended to 9/28
• Community Meeting about the referendum is Tuesday, 9/29 at 6 p.m.
  Everyone in Westfield is invited to join us for a presentation from Dr. Atha and Q&A after
• Transportation is hosting a Drive the Bus event 10/3
• Parents are welcome to bookmark Rocks Media House for photos of many district-wide events
• Updated the referendum webpage

In accordance with Indiana Code (I.C. 20-34-3-12), all students in Kindergarten, 3rd and 5th grade are required to receive a near and far visual acuity screening at school. These are not comprehensive eye exams, after the screening you will be notified if it is recommended your child follow up with an eye doctor. Vision screenings at Washington Woods will occur on the following dates:

• 3rd Grade- Tuesday 10/6/2026- screenings done by Lions Club trained volunteers

• 5th Grade- Thursday 11/19/2026- screenings done by Ball State Nursing students

If you do not want your child to participate in the vision screening, please send a written note or email to southworthk@wws.k12.in.us that includes the following

• Your child’s full name

• Date of birth

• A statement that you do not wish for them to participate in the screening

** Please note if your child wears contacts or glasses please ensure they wear them the day of their screening.*

The Powerschool Parent Portal is an essential part of every WWS student's journey. Please visit and bookmark the link below for easy access. New families should have received a Parent Portal Letter via email, so please check for that (check Spam too!). You can alwaus email our Secretary at garverr@wws.k12.in.us for help. Also, you can now find your student's ID number in the upper right hand corner of Powerschool!

Log into Your PowerSchool Parent Portal Here

Do you know your A,B,C's? Do you know your 1,2,3's? Do you like to create bulletin boards? Come help in the library! Looking for help with shelving books, shelf reading (making sure books are in the right place), and keeping bulletin boards current. Please reach out to Ms. Ottinger. ottingers@wws.k12.in.us

THANK YOU to everyone who helped make our biggest fundraiser of the year such an incredible success!

We are so grateful for every donation, share, volunteer, family member, staff member, and supporter who helped make it all possible. Your support means so much to our school and, most importantly, to our kids!

Take a look at the video for some fun clips from what is truly one of the BEST days of the year for our students. Seeing their smiles, excitement, and school spirit is what it’s all about!

Thank you again for showing up for our kids and helping make this year’s fundraiser so special. We couldn’t do it without you!

https://youtu.be/mDmsajwzegc

Together, we raised $76,060.09, passing our $55,000 goal and bringing us closer to a shade structure near the playground!

And we have one more celebration to come! Mark your calendars for our Family Luau Foam Party on October 9 from 5–7 p.m. at WWES, earned by passing our fundraising goal.

Prize celebrations are being coordinated, and winning families and classrooms are being contacted with details. Thank you for making this year’s Fun Run such a success!

Stay in the know and up-to-date on school events and activities without ever lifting a finger. You can now subscribe to the PTO calendar on either Google or Apple! Just click the link for the format you want, and you'll always see what's ahead! Don't want to subscribe? The calendar is always viewable from the PTO website under the Calendar tab.

Subscribe to Google Calendar

Subscribe to iCal for Apple

Help local children stay warm! From September through October 15, families can donate new or gently used coats by sending them with their children to any WWS school and placing them in the collection boxes. Families can also register for the Westfield Coat Giveaway on October 31 at Crossroads Church. Registration ends October 8. Every coat helps a local child in need!

Register for Coats