Thank you for coming out to light up the night with our PBIS Glow Night. We had over 700 people attend the event and students visited stations centered around our ROAR expectations. Bingo, freeze dance, mystery writing, face painting and more! We had raffle winners and smiles all around. Thanks for joining us, we had a great time!

2/21 Early Release at 12:40 p.m.

2/22 Black History Month Celebration at Woodland Middle School (see details below!)

2/28 Early Release at 12:40 p.m.

3/7 Early Release at 12:40 p.m.

3/7 Wiley's Friday Focus Assemblies! Wear your ROAR gear or school colors!

3/13 PTA Meeting

3/19 & 3/20 Conferences

3/21 No student or staff attendance

3/24-3/28 Spring Break

Special Friday Release Dates and Times for the 2024-2025 School Year

Congratulations to Kayden from Mrs. Heeres' class for her picture of Aretha Franklin. Zade from Ms. Banks' class won 2nd place with his drawing of George Washington Carver's farm and Aarav drew about world harmony.

They all did a great job!

Signing Up

Starting on Monday, February 24, parents and guardians will be able to sign-up for Parent Teacher Conferences in Skyward. We used this forum districtwide in November so that no matter which school your child (or children) attends, you can login to one spot to schedule your conference. We had great feedback from using this system last fall and so it will look the same for our spring conferences.

Conference Style by Program

Our spring conferences are student-led for kindergarten. This means your child will be present during the conference and prepared to share their learning with you. This means when you sign up for your time slot, whether it is in person or virtual, your child needs to be with you for the conference.

For Dual Language conferences, you will sign up for the partner teacher by language preference. This means you will have access to both teachers when signing up, but you only choose one teacher to conference with. Your child will be showing you skills in both English and Spanish.

For EC/WELE, we will have our traditional parent-teacher conferences.

Directions for Signing Up

To sign up for conferences, please follow these tips:

• Log in to Skyward Family Access from your computer or mobile device. The interface is easy and straightforward regardless, but our initial testing shows the easiest user experience is with the Skyward Family Access App on your phone or mobile device. Apple, Google/Android
  
  

• Check out this video to see what to expect once the sign-up window opens on Monday, February 24th.
  
  

• Make sure you know how to login to Skyward! Woodland continues to expand the options available through Skyward Family Access. If you need your Family Access login credentials please send an email to AccessHelp@Dist50.net.

• The window to sign up is only open until March 12th. If you haven't signed up for a spot you will be assigned a date/time.

Dates and Special Release Schedule

Please note we have a special attendance schedule in order for our staff to conference with all families.

Wednesday, March 19th: Students released at 10:40 a.m. and conferences will be in person and run from 12:00-4:00 and 5:00-8:00 p.m. For EC/WELE, only AM attends and NO PM.

Thursday, March 20th: Students released at 10:40 a.m. and conferences will be virtual and run from 12:00-5:30 p.m. For EC/WELE only PM attends and they attend in the AM session. AM students don't attend.

There is no staff or student attendance on Friday, March 21st. Spring break follows the next week running March 24-March 28th.

Teacher/StaffAppreciationDinner

On Wednesday, March 19th, our teachers and staff stay until 8:00 for parent-teacher conferences. They have a dinner break from 4:00-5:00 p.m. It's a nice treat if they don't have to pack their dinner for that night, so if you'd like to donate any amount towards this special staff dinner, it would be greatly appreciated. It's a meaningful way to show our staff how much they are appreciated. Donations will be accepted online through the District 50 webstore and all donations raised will go to the spring conference dinner. Your generous donations last fall provided a fabulous dinner for our staff and we truly appreciate it! Thank you for supporting our amazing staff!

Woodland Primary School held its 13th annual Kids Heart Challenge (formerly Jump Rope for Heart) fundraiser in February to support the American Heart Association. Kids Heart Challenge raises money for the American Heart Association, which uses the donations for heart disease and stroke research, CPR/AED training, and public education and awareness.

Our students also greatly benefit on a school wide level by learning a great deal about how their heart works, why it is important to make healthy lifestyle choices, and how to make their heart stronger through exercise and proper nutrition. Our final total raised this year was $4,859.63! As a result of this AMAZING total, our PE department will earn $300 in gift certificates to U.S. Games (a PE equipment supplier). This will enable us to purchase new equipment for all students to utilize in our gym for years to come!

The PE department would like to thank all of our students and their families, staff members, and community members who helped make the 2025 Kids Heart Challenge fundraiser a great success!

Our top 3 fundraisers this year were:

Milo from Mrs. McCafferty's class with $871.12 raised.

Sydney from Mrs. Stadig's class with $504.57 raised.

Calvin from Mrs. O'Neil's class with $451.31 raised.

In total, Woodland Primary School has now raised $118,672.70 for the American Heart Association since our first fundraiser in 2012! Awesome job, Primary Wildcats! Thank you!

Our next Primary Playdate is coming soon. This one is going to be at Woodland Primary for an open gym experience! If you plan to attend, please fill out the RSVP below. If you have any questions contact, Kristen Carruthers kcarruthers@dist50.net or Lavonna Garner lgarner@dist50.net.

You are invited to participate in the eleventh annual statewide Illinois 5Essentials Survey. This survey is designed to generate a detailed picture of the inner workings of your child’s school. As a parent/guardian, this opportunity will allow you to share your thoughts on the important elements of school effectiveness in a survey about your child’s school.

On behalf of the Illinois State Board of Education, the 5Essentials Survey will be administered online by UChicago Impact at the University of Chicago. The survey gathers data related to five indicators that can predict important student outcomes, including improved attendance and larger test score gains. These five indicators that affect and predict school success are:

· Effective Leaders

· Collaborative Teachers

· Involved Families

· Supportive Environments

· Ambitious Instruction

We have chosen to provide the optional supplement parent survey. If at least 20 percent of Woodland Primary School parents/guardians complete this survey, a parent report will also be generated. The parent data will not be included on the State Report Card.

Your participation in the parent portion of the survey will help us understand the conditions at your child’s school and guide improvement. Your identity and survey responses will be kept completely confidential and will never be connected to you or your child.

The survey will be open until March 28th. Thank you in advance for providing us your valuable feedback.

Please click the image below from the Lake County Health Department to increase awareness and provide additional guidance for staying home, recovering and returning to school when students are well. The letter is in both English and Spanish.

Save the Date for Woodland’s Black History Month Celebration
All district families are welcome to join us at Woodland Middle School on Feb. 22, 2025 from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. as we celebrate Black History Month! There will be live performances, a student art show, and we are bringing back the very popular "Black Dads Rock!" panel again this year. If you are interested in being a Black Dads Rock panelist, please fill out this google form. (photo from Feb. 2024 event)

Upcoming Events

The PTA needs your input! The PTA is hosting a School Board Candidate Forum in March. The goal of this forum is to allow the community members an opportunity to learn more about the candidates running for the School Board in the upcoming election. The PTA is looking for input on questions you would like to ask the candidates. Please use this Google Form to submit questions to be considered for the forum. Responses will be accepted through March 2nd. Thank you for your participation!

SAVE THE DATES:

3/8: PTA Family Dance!, stay tuned for details

3/11: Second Tuesdays Fundraiser, Raising Cane's Gurnee, stay tuned for details

PTA Meetings

Thursday 2/13, 7pm via ZOOM

Thursday 3/13, 9AM in person at ESC

Thursday 4/17, 7pm via ZOOM

Thursday 5/8, 9AM in person at ESC

We've added a new media forum to keep you in the know! We post on X, Snapchat and now Instagram! Find us and follow us to see lots of great pictures and happenings around Primary.