Cougar Clips
21 February 2025
Happy Friday Kipling Families,
District 109 participates in a Consortium for Interdistrict Collaboration (CIC). The CIC is a group of educators from neighboring North Shore districts who discuss and explore instructional practices that make districts high-performing. As part of their work, they visit one another’s schools to observe, benchmark practices, celebrate successes, and offer recommendations for continuous improvement.
A visiting team will be in District 109 March 12-14, and we are looking for 15 parents/guardians to participate in a 40-minute focus group at Kipling on Wednesday, March 12th at 1:45pm. Any information provided in the focus group would not be associated with an individual name. It would simply help the team identify trends across our school settings.
If interested, please complete this 1 minute form no later than Wednesday, February 26th. If more than 15 parents/guardians express interest, we will select by lottery. A confirmation of your selection will be sent no later than Wednesday, March 5th. Thanks in advance for considering. We are really proud of our school and can’t wait to share it with other educators!
All my best to you and your families over the weekend.
Respectfully,
Mr. Matthew O. Lombardo, NBCT
Principal
Kipling Elementary School
Kipling PTO
Don't forget to log in/sign up at the PTO site. Visit https://kiplingpto.membershiptoolkit.com/home to get started.
We hope to see you at Skate Night this Sunday! The event is FREE!
No need to sign up, just show up!
Please feel free to email ptokipling@gmail.com for any questions!
Parent Teacher Conferences
Mark your calendars! Parent-Teacher Conferences will be held on Thursday, March 20 from 1:00-4:00pm & 5:00-8:00pm and Friday, March 21 from 8:30-11:30am. All DPS109 schools will hold in-person parent-teachers conferences this year with a virtual option for parents/guardians who are not available for an in-person conference.
Parents will sign up for a conference using Sign-Up Genius. The links for all teacher sign-up forms can be found here.
It is best practice to hold one parent conference per child, to ensure that both parents receive the same information regarding their child’s strengths and needs. Therefore, I ask that parents sign up for one joint conference per student.
Conferences are a discussion between parents and teachers. At this time elementary conferences do not include students and therefore we ask that children not attend the parent-teacher conference.
Sole Mates Running Club for 3rd-5th Grade
Hello 3rd-5th Grade Kipling Parents!
We are excited to announce that registration for the Kipling Running Club, Sole Mates, will open Monday, March 3rd!
Sole Mates is an after school program that utilizes a teacher-created curriculum which focuses on 3rd-5th graders’ many social-emotional needs. Students who participate in this program will learn strategies for fostering friendships, leadership skills, and the confidence needed to conquer their goals.
Practices will take place every Tuesday from 3:45-5:00pm starting on April 1st. Our season will end with a celebratory 5K run on the Deerfield High School track on Saturday, June 7th from 9:00-11:00am. Kipling families and staff members will be encouraged to come run with or cheer on their students at this fun event.
Please see this calendar for more information regarding practice dates and the 5K event.
The link to register will be sent out on Monday, March 3rd, and registration will close on Friday, March 7th. After this registration is closed, we will hold a lottery to determine the 40 students that will be on our team this year. This lottery will be a random wheel name selector that we will put all registered students' names into to select our 40 team members. This option was chosen in an attempt to make it fair for all families and students, as we have had so much interest in this program after last year’s success. :)
If you have any questions, or if you would like more information, please contact the Sole Mates coaches: Heather Sepper (hsepper@dps109.org) and Kellie Cacioppo (kcacioppo@dps109.org).
Instrumental Music Potbelly’s Fundraiser
Panorama Parent SEL Survey (Replacing the 5Essentials Parent Survey)
Dear Parents/Guardians of Deerfield 109 students,
Again this year, parents across Illinois have an opportunity to participate in the annual survey to provide feedback about the schools their children attend. District 109 is fortunate to be able to use the Panorama platform for this survey, which is the same used for students. Ultimately, the family survey is designed for you to share your thoughts on the home-school partnership and other important elements of school effectiveness. Your responses help guide our improvement.
To take the survey, please visit https://surveys.panoramaed.com/deerfieldil/1589963429/surveys and select your child’s school. The survey should take no more than 10 minutes to complete.
If you have children in multiple schools, we encourage you to provide feedback on both schools. Please know that your identity and responses are confidential and will not be connected to you or your child. Thank you in advance for taking the time to give us this important feedback.
Family-School Relationships Survey
Young Authors
It is time for Young Authors! For those who do not know, Young Authors is a program that encourages students to embrace being an author and write their own creative stories. This is an optional program that has been shared with your child during their LMC time. A packet was also sent home with more information for those who are interested in participating. Attached you will find THIS presentation that walks you through deadlines, logistics, and other pieces of helpful information regarding Young Authors. We are so excited to see what our amazing young authors will create this year. If you have any questions, please reach out to Ms. Kaufman or Ms. Thurman.
Best,
Ms. Kaufman (akaufman@dps109.org)
Mrs. Thurman (lthurman@dps109.org)
Seeking Cultures to Showcase
Thank you to the Strobel family for filling our Cultural Collection case with your beautiful and rich Chilean artifacts. Thank you for taking the lead this year for our school community. We all have so many unique and special cultural perspectives and lived experiences to share with each other and I am very proud and eager to learn about each of yours.
In an effort to ensure inclusion of diverse populations and perspectives, we are looking for other Kipling families to use the Kipling Cultural Collection to teach the Kipling community about your culture! Display objects may include 6-8 traditional or cultural objects, a family video describing the significance of each object, recipe, flag, map, music, etc - anything to bring your vibrant culture to life!
Volunteering at Kipling
Composting
We need volunteers to help compost during lunch periods. This is a great chance to help the planet and see your kids in action!
LMC
The LMC is looking for volunteers every day between
8:50-11:20am and 12:50-3:25pm (Wednesdays 12:50-2:25pm)
Sign up for a slot and come in any time you are free.
DPS109 Info
Minute with Maldonado: School Zones
As the temperatures drop and the days grow longer, it’s easy to feel rushed and impatient, especially at the end of the day. However, to ensure everyone's safety, we kindly ask all our families to respect and follow school procedures during arrival and dismissal. To help us all stay on track, we spoke with our School Resource Officer, Officer Maldonado, who shared some important reminders.
Calendar Reminder: School is in session on Monday, March 3.
Due to an emergency day used in August of this school year, we are using Monday, March 3 as an emergency make-up day.
Missed a Tech Tip? We got you covered!
In October, we began sharing weekly tech tips in our newsletters to encourage digital safety. If you missed a tech tip or just want to review them, we have a Digital Hub for you to view them at your convenience. Make sure to keep your eyes open for more tech tips to come in the following weeks.Upcoming Important Dates
-Wed 2/26: 1st Grade music show, 5:30pm
-Mon 3/3: School IS in session - Make-up attendance day
-Fri 3/7: PTO Meeting, 10am in the Staff Lounge
-Wed 3/12: 5th Grade Inquiry Fair, 1:30pm
-Wed 3/12: CIC Parent Focus Group, 1:45-2:25pm
-Thurs 3/13: Board of Education Meeting, District Board Room - 7pm
-Wed 3/19-Fri 3/31: LMC Book Fair
-Thurs 3/20: 1/2 Day for Students, 11:40am Dismissal
-Thurs 3/20: Parent Teacher Conferences: 1-4pm, and 5-8pm
-Fri 3/21: No School for Students
-Fri 3/21: Parent Teacher Conferences: 8:30-11:30am
-Mon 3/24-Fri 3/28: Spring Break
-Mon 3/31: School Resumes