Lincoln Weekly News

Lincoln Early Learning Center houses the preschool programs for three school districts: Fremont District 79, Hawthorn District 73, and Mundelein District 75.

⬅️ Check out the Table of Contents on the left for the latest news from your district.

Please note that you will need to open the newsletter from your browser in order to see the table of contents.

Dear Lincoln Early Learning Center Families,

It was a short but busy week at Lincoln! We continue to enjoy the learning, friendships, and connections growing throughout our classrooms.

• 🍂 Fall Weather: Cooler temperatures are here! Please remember to dress your child in layers so they stay comfortable throughout the day. A jacket or sweatshirt is helpful for outdoor play as the weather changes.

• 🔒 Intruder Safety Lockdown Drill: Next week, we will practice our intruder safety lockdown drill. These practice drills help us build and reinforce important safety routines. Staff will guide students through the process in an age-appropriate and reassuring way. - Please see the letter below that explains this in detail.

Here’s to another great week of learning, laughter, and connection at Lincoln!

Warm regards,

Katie O’Brien
Principal, Lincoln Early Learning Center

kobrien@fsd79.org

Cathi Ivack
Building Assistant Supervisor, Lincoln Early Learning Center

ivackc@hawthorn73.org

Lincoln parents and guardians:

The safety and security of our students is of the utmost importance.

Among our efforts to remain diligent about safety is the completion of a law enforcement supervised Active threat drill. Lincoln has adopted ALICE, a proactive set of responses to an active school intruder event which empowers individuals to utilize human action. ALICE stands for:

Alert – Get the word out! Use clear, concise language to convey the type and location of the event.

Lockdown – We will continue to lockdown students in a secure area, however, we will include barricading the area for additional security.

Inform – Communication keeps the intruder off balance and allows for good decision-making.

Counter – Apply skills to distract, confuse and gain control.

Evacuate – As soon as it is safe to do so, evacuate.

On October 21, 2026 , Lincoln will conduct a law enforcement-supervised active threat drill at our schools. Our goal is to ensure that, in the event of school violence or an intruder incident, students and teachers have all the tools to react based on the information they have available at that time to maximize safety for all.

Parents and guardians have the opportunity to exempt their child for any reason from participating in the active threat drill. If you wish your students to be exempted from the law enforcement active threat drill, please contact your school office prior to October 21, 2026.

We appreciate the assistance of local law enforcement in running our drills and helping keep our schools safe.

Sincerely,

Katie O'Brien

Lincoln Principal

Lincoln padres y tutores:

La seguridad de nuestros estudiantes es de mayor importancia.

Entre nuestros esfuerzos para seguir siendo diligentes con la seguridad se encuentra la realización de un simulacro de encierro supervisado por las fuerzas del orden. Lincoln ha adoptado ALICE, un conjunto proactivo de respuestas a un evento de intrusión escolar activa que empodera a las personas a utilizar la acción humana. ALICE significa:

Alerta – ¡haz correr la voz! Utilice un lenguaje claro y conciso para transmitir el tipo y la ubicación del evento.

Encierro (Lockdown) – continuaremos encerrando a los estudiantes en un área segura, sin embargo, incluiremos barricadas en el área para mayor seguridad.

Informar – la comunicación mantiene al intruso fuera de balance y permite una buena toma de decisiones.

Contraatacar – aplica habilidades para distraer, confundir y obtener el control.

Evacuar – tan pronto como sea seguro hacerlo, evacúe.

El miércoles 21 de octubre Lincoln realizaremos un simulacro de encierro supervisado por la policía en nuestras escuelas. Nuestro objetivo es garantizar que, en caso de violencia escolar o un incidente de intrusión, los estudiantes y maestros tengan todas las herramientas para reaccionar en función de la información que tienen disponible en ese momento para maximizar la seguridad de todos.

Los padres y tutores tienen la oportunidad de eximir a su hijo por cualquier motivo de participar en el simulacro de encierro. Si desea que sus estudiantes estén exentos del simulacro de encierro policial, comuníquese con la oficina de su escuela antes del miércoles 21 de octubre.

Agradecemos la asistencia de las fuerzas del orden público locales para realizar nuestros simulacros y ayudar a mantener segura nuestra escuelas.

Sinceramente,

Katie O'Brien

Administradore de Lincoln

Student Attendance Monitoring, Roles & Responsibilities

Regular school attendance is essential for student success, building habits for lifelong learning, and fostering strong school connections. To support our students, families and staff work together to identify and address attendance challenges early. Below is an overview of key roles and responsibilities in monitoring and supporting attendance:

• Assistant Principals: Lead regular data monitoring, execute family contracts/plans, coordinate truancy filings when mandated by Illinois School Code, and oversee MTSS tier alignment.

• Teachers & Classroom Staff: Record accurate daily attendance, flag emerging patterns early to building leadership, and provide missed academic work compassionately upon student's return.

• Student Support Personnel (Social Workers, Counselors): Conduct Tier 3 diagnostic assessments, provide SEL support, and connect families with outside wraparound resources.

• Families & Guardians: Establish consistent morning routines, communicate absences promptly, and collaborate with administration on Family Attendance Plans.

Connected and Confident

Our classroom communities are in full swing! Predictable morning and sleep routines build confidence and ensure students feel secure in their physical and emotional space each day.

• Instructional Days: Please reserve family travel for district breaks. Missing consecutive days can create learning gaps and cause unnecessary stress.

• Health Check: Children must remain home until they are symptom/fever-free for 24 hours without medication.

We are always better together when every student is present to share in our classroom growth!

Absences

If your child will be absent from school because of illness, doctors’ appointments or vacation, please contact us at Lincoln at 847-949-2720. Please notify the school office by 9:30 a.m. the day of the absence to leave a recorded message regarding your child's absence. Keeping track of all the students on a daily basis is a huge task and we greatly appreciate your prompt attention.

Medical Forms

Annual Physical Examinations are required within the first 30 days of entering preschool. All forms can be emailed, faxed, or brought in with your student. If we do not receive your child’s physical, your child will be excluded from school and cannot return to school until submitted. Per IL State Law we must have a child’s physical by October 15 or within 30 days of starting preschool.

Illness and Injuries

Please remember that any child with a fever should stay home until they have been fever free without the use of fever-reducing medication, for at least 24 hours.

Students should also remain home if they are experiencing vomiting or diarrhea. Students may NOT return to school for at least 24 hours after the last episode.

The health office must have current telephone numbers for parents and designated emergency contact persons. Please select your emergency contacts carefully. This person should be familiar with your child, your family routine, and be available to transport your child home if necessary.

Please pre-plan for a telephone call from the health office. If your child becomes ill at school, you are responsible for picking up your child within 30 minutes of the call.

Medications

All medications, feeding, and treatment supplies are to be supplied by the parent per school policy.

Doctor’s orders for medications, feedings, and treatments are required at the beginning of each school year. The school nurse will not accept or administer any medications (including over the counter medications) or perform nursing services or treatments without a doctor’s order.

Any questions related to the above health office guidelines should be directed to the health office staff.

Lincoln Health Office

847.949.2720 ext.1503

Change in Dismissal

Please contact América Lanuza (lanuzaa@hawthorn73.org) or Danielle Garcia (dgarcia@d75.org) at the Lincoln Front Office(847-949-2720) if there are any end of day changes throughout the school year. Teachers may not always be able to pick up their phone or check email throughout the day, so it would be best to call the front office with any changes. América and Danielle will relay any changes to the classroom teacher after you contact them. Please contact the main office by 10:00 a.m for the morning session and 2:00 pm for the afternoon session for any changes in regards to a child's dismissal procedures.

As a reminder, if your student is in our Tri-District classroom, they will follow the arrival and dismissal times below:

• AM: 8:00 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
• PM: 12:15 p.m. - 2:45 p.m

Please review the Hawthorn School District 73 section for information about important dates. Please review your home district section for any other information.

Need an Interpreter for Parent-Teacher Conferences?

If you or your family require translation support during conferences, please let us know! Fill out our Parent-Teacher Conference Translation Request Form by November 2 so our Student Services department can schedule an interpreter for you.

Parents’ Guide to School Safety Protocols

Thank you to our families who joined us for our first Parent University session of the year last week, which focused on our school safety protocols. Please see below to watch the video of the presentation. Please see our Safety & Security webpage for resources and more information, or contact your child's principal should you have any questions.

• Presentation Slidedeck

• Parent University webpage

Picture Retakes

Picture Retakes are Thursday, October 22nd at Lincoln School and at Fremont Elementary, Intermediate & Middle School. If you are interested in having your child participate in picture retake day, please complete the following Google Form by October 16th.

If you have any questions, please contact Catherine Glidden: pto@fsd79.org

October 23 - No School - Parent Education Event & Preschool Screening

November 3 - No School - Election Day

November 23 - No School - Parent/Teacher Conferences

November 24-27 - No School - Thanksgiving Break

December 2 - No School Tri-District Preschool Screening

Click on the graphic below for PTO News & Notes.

Big PTO News: A New & Improved Student Directory (and website)!

The Hawthorn District 73 PTO is excited to announce that we've upgraded our "PTO Dial" to a new student directory, the "Eagle Directory," using the Membership Toolkit platform! This move gives you more control and better functionality than ever before, including easier contact information updates, more flexible privacy setup, and a more secure, streamlined experience overall.

We ask all families to please create a Membership Toolkit account and add parents and students to the directory. The first 10 families from each school to add themselves to the directory will receive both of our PTO Discount Cards free as a THANK YOU for helping us build out our new system!

Link to site: https://hawthornpto.membershiptoolkit.com/

Note: We are working on connecting our HawthornPTO.org URL to the new site as well!

In this new directory, most fields are optional and you can turn on or off exactly what people see.

The newly launched Eagle Directory will be FREE for the next month while we allow families to add themselves. This way, you can see exactly what other people are seeing and adjust your settings accordingly.

We'll be rolling out new features daily as we fully transition away from our current system, so keep an eye out. Thanks for your patience as we make this upgrade, we think you're going to love it!

October 23 - No School - Parent Involvement Event

November 11 - No School - Preschool Screening

November 24 - No School - Parent/Teacher Conferences

November 25-27 - No School - Thanksgiving Break

December 2 - No School Tri-District Preschool Screening

October PTO Updates

D75 PTO Discount Cards – $20

Save while supporting D75! Our 2026–2027 Discount Card features 26 local businesses and is valid through September 1, 2027.

Purchase Your Discount Card(s) Here!

Learn more about the Discount Card

Box Tops for Education

October is a great month to earn Box Tops for D75! National Box Tops Week is October 12–18, and families can also participate in the October Monthly Challenge for opportunities to earn extra Box Tops.

If you haven't already, download the Box Tops app, search for District 75 PTO Mundelein, and use code PNKN0SEQ.

October Box Tops English Flyer

October Box Tops Spanish Flyer

Want to Get Involved with D75 PTO?

The D75 PTO is always looking for families who would like to help with events, fundraisers, committees, and more! Complete our short Volunteer Interest Form and let us know how you'd like to get involved.

Volunteer Interest Form

D75 PTO-Sponsored Events

Our 2026–2027 PTO-sponsored events are now listed on our website. Mark your calendars and join us throughout the year!

D75 PTO-Sponsored Events List

October 22 - Curriculum Night - 6:30 p.m. (parents only)

November 11 - No School

November 23 - No School - Parent/Teacher Conferences

November 24-27 - No School - Thanksgiving Break

December 2 - No School Tri-District Preschool Screening