Meadowbrook Star News 8/22/25

Hello Meadowbrook Families!

We had a wonderful first few days of school! Students were busy learning routines and building their classroom communities. Thanks to everyone for following our arrival and dismissal procedures and for getting your kids to school on time! We will continue to tweak things to maximize our efficiency with carline in the afternoons. On Monday, we'll begin asking parents to "drop and go" when walking your child to the playgrounds in the morning. This will help us get into the habit of having children using their time to play before school and to continue to practice routines for lining up and coming into the building.

I'd like to give a huge thank you to our amazing PTO volunteers who helped with so much as we began the school year. Thanks for organizing school supplies, spirit wear, new family welcomes, kindergarten welcomes, room parents, the delicious lunch this week, the Meadowbrooklet, and all of your other behind the scenes work! We appreciate all of you so much!

I hope you'll join for a Coffee with the Principal on Wednesday, 8/27 in our staff lounge from 9:30-10:30am. This will be an informal time to chat and ask questions. Our local favorite, Bean Bar, will be donating the coffee--big thanks to Bean Bar!

We have some important safety updates outlined below--please take a few minutes to read through this newsletter and remind your friends to stay informed as well! Next Friday, 8/29, is a half day with dismissal at noon. Please alert teachers if your child will have a different dismissal plan. As a reminder, there is no KidCare on 8/29 in the afternoon.

I hope you all have a relaxing and fun-filled weekend. We look forward to seeing everyone on Monday!

Warmly,

Ginny

A few updates as we move into the next phase of construction, excavation...

• We need to move the construction fencing in the back of our building to accommodate the footprint of the new gym. Therefore, our back pathway around the building will not be open for use from the back door of the building to the west/red playground. Parents and students will no longer be able to use the path to get from the east/blue to the west/red playground. Please use the front sidewalk if needed.
• Semi trucks will be hauling soil away during the excavation phase. This will happen between 8:30-3:00. The main entrance to the parking lot will be changed to "exit only" for the trucks. If you need to get into the parking lot between 8:30-3:00, please use the center/bus lane. We will close the gates during lunch recess to ensure student safety or, if needed, we will close the playground area during that time.
• Please remember to ensure students are not arriving before 8:10am without adult supervision!

See the attachment below for details about Meadowbrook's Picture Day on September 18th!

As you may have heard we are happy to have Krieger, our facility dog, joining the Meadowbrook family this year. In order for our students to interact with Krieger, the district requires each student to have a signed waiver on file. Please electronically sign the waiver which you can read here. If you prefer to opt out, please contact the office. Please let us know if you have any questions, and fill out the form at your earliest connivence.

Unfortunately, we are unable to manage individual Door Dash or Uber Eats or other delivery services for students' lunches. The lunch hour is extremely busy in our main office and we can't ensure that deliveries are found/accounted for and delivered to students. Please plan to send lunches with your child, drop them off personally during the morning, or utilize Marla's to order. Thanks for your help with this!

As we move into our first full week at school, we'll continue to share information with students about behavior expectations. We also want to make sure parents are informed about our procedures when students need support with behavior.

• We believe that behavior is communication and that kids do well when they can. Students who display inappropriate or unexpected behaviors often lack the skills to behave appropriately. We will continue to support students with teaching and practicing expectations while also providing appropriate consequences.
• The district's behavior matrix is included below. This should help parents understand the varying categories of behavior and who may be involved in responding to the behavior. If your child engages in a category III behavior, you will always be notified by an administrator or designee. When children engage in category I or II behaviors, teachers may handle those in class and may contact parents with updates as well.
• Consequences for behavior will range based on the behavior and the student's needs. New this year, we will be using a consequence called "reflective lunch." This is an opportunity for students to meet with an administrator or designee in the office during their normal lunch time. The student will eat lunch while talking through their behavior and making a plan for change. Parents will be notified if a teacher assigns a child a reflective lunch. Students who attend reflective lunch will still attend recess as normal.

Although we love dogs here at Meadowbrook, we ask that you please keep your pets off Meadowbrook's campus during arrival and dismissal so we can ensure student safety. We appreciate your help following this procedure.

Signups for the Northbrook 28 Children's Choir is currently underway. Choir starts the week of September 1 and there are multiple options for District 28 children in first through fifth grade. Click through the link below to sign your child up for choir and please contact Mr. Bartunek (jbartunek@northbrook28.net) with any questions.

NB28CC Sign Up

During dismissal, if you pick your child up by car, please do not arrive in our parking lot until after 3:00pm. The parking lot will be closed off with cones until 3:00pm so our construction traffic can exit prior to dismissal. Please refer to the new traffic procedures (sent previously) for staging traffic to ensure we don’t back up onto Waukegan Road.

As a reminder, as you're queuing for the carline at dismissal, please avoid parking in front of the driveway entrances of our neighbors on the streets around school. As well, our neighbors on Shagbark would like to remind others that the cul-de-sac should not be used as a regular drop-off/pick-up site for students. This will be especially important as our construction project progresses. Thanks for being thoughtful about others in our community!

During the first weeks of school, we will complete several of the required emergency drills so students and staff can practice procedures. As required, we will complete a lockdown drill with the support of the Northbrook Police Department. Parents who elect to opt their child out of the lockdown drill should notify Dr. Hiltz by filling out this form by 8/25.

The safety of our students and staff is always our highest priority. As part of our ongoing efforts to strengthen school safety, we want to share that this school year, our district has updated our emergency protocol language.

We have adopted the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) developed by the “I Love U Guys” Foundation, which is used by schools across the country. This protocol provides simple, clear terms to help everyone—students, staff, families, and emergency responders—understand what to do in different types of situations. Here are the five standard terms students may hear:

1. Hold: followed by the Directive: “In Your Room or Area” and is the protocol used when hallways need to be kept clear of occupants.
2. Secure: followed by the Directive: "Get Inside. Lock Outside Doors" and is the protocol used to safeguard people within the building.
3. Lockdown: followed by "Locks, Lights, Out of Sight" and is the protocol used to secure individual rooms and keep occupants quiet and in place.
4. Evacuate: may be followed by a location, and is used to move people from one location to a different location in or out of the building.
5. Shelter: state the Hazard and Safety Strategy for group and self-protection.

If you would like to view more information about the five standard responses, please view this video produced by "I Love U Guys". We appreciate your partnership in keeping our schools safe and supportive places.

District 28 has a robust curriculum review cycle in all subject areas to ensure that our curriculum is dynamic and meets the needs of students. We’re excited to share that this school year, our K–5 classrooms will begin using a new English Language Arts curriculum, Into Reading, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Click here to learn more by reading a message from the district's Teaching & Learning Department.

Each week we'll be providing a Meadowbrook update on the district's Build 28 construction initiative, made possible by the community's support of the $94.9 million referendum last spring. Information will also be posted on the Meadowbrook section of the district's Build 28 webpage.

On Friday, August 15 we kicked off construction at Meadowbrook with a short groundbreaking ceremony! Thanks to our students and parents who attended the event. Crews are prepping for construction of the new gymnasium, which is projected to be completed this spring. This will be followed by construction of the new Meadowbrook building, which will seamlessly connect to the new gym. The entire school is projected to be completed for the start of the 2027-28 school year! Check out some photos from the groundbreaking ceremony below.

Please take a moment to review the most recent PTO newsletter.

The PTO meets monthly on the second Wednesday of the month. Please join us for our first PTO meeting on September 10th at 9:30 in the staff lounge. You can also join us via Zoom at this link: https://northbrook28-net.zoom.us/j/83074635789?pwd=oE9SuuEHSktrOinyj5KryV8j4Z7L1X.1

Subscribe to the Meadowbrook calendar at this link!

August 26: Beginning Band and Orchestra parent meeting @ 6pm @ NBJH

August 27: Principal Coffee/Chat @ 9:30 @ Meadowbrook

August 29: Krieger's birthday!

August 29: Half Day, Dismissal at 12:00

September 1: NO SCHOOL

September 2: Fall assessment window opens (teachers will share specific dates)

September 3: Curriculum Night (6-6:25: specials teachers available; 6:30-6:55: first session; 7:00-7:35: second session)

September 11: First PTO Pizza Day

September 11: Back to School Social @ 5:30-7PM- Sensory Friendly Time from 5-5:30

September 12: School-wide Spirit Day: Favorite Sports Team

September 18: Picture Day

September 23: NO SCHOOL

District 28 invites local non-profit organizations and community government agencies to promote events for families and children. Each week, some event are highlighted in the newsletter. View the complete list of events on the Virtual Backpack web page. To submit an event, please email the web-friendly flier to Samantha Scheinman, Communications Director. All fliers are subject to approval.