The Weekly Update #4

Hello Walker-Winter Families,

As a reminder, for the safety of all students, parents and guardians MUST exit their vehicles and walk to the dismissal door when dropping off or picking up their children, regardless of grade level.

Student safety is our top priority, and we appreciate your cooperation in helping us maintain a safe and orderly arrival and dismissal process.

Thank you for your continued support!

Mr. Smith

The Circus is here with special guest, Legendary Bello Nock! You’re invited to the most next‑level family fun party on the planet. The all‑new Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey® is a nonstop celebration where DJ‑driven music, laughter, jaw‑dropping acrobatics, and edge‑of‑your‑seat stunts come together to create true core memories for your family. From wide-eyed kids to “seen-it-all” grown-ups, we’ve got the WOW that will amaze them all. It’s not just a show--it’s a one-of-a-kind shared experience. So grab your crew and bring your biggest energy.

A special offer has been created for the Wayne-Westland Community Schools! Visit the link here to get your discounted tickets: www.313promos.com/wwcs

Playing Nov.13-15 at Little Caesars Arena

Evergrove Church is a valued community partner of Walker-Winter Elementary. They joined us in August for our Back-to-School Night and also volunteered during our Trunk or Treat event. We are grateful for our continued partnership with Evergrove Church, which also uses our building on Sundays for its church services. We appreciate their ongoing support of our school community. For more information about Evergrove Church, please visit evergrove.church.com.

For the safety of our students and staff, parents and guardians who come to school during the school day must follow our visitor and student release procedures.

When picking up your student or arriving for an appointment, please:

• Show your photo ID to the camera at the front door. This allows our staff to verify your identity before granting access to the building.

• Come into the school in person to pick up your student. Students cannot be released by calling the school and asking that they be sent to the car. A parent or guardian must come inside to complete the release process.

• Sign your student in or out from the vestibule. All student sign-in and sign-out procedures will take place in the vestibule.

When arriving at the school for a meeting or appointment, please:

• Show your photo ID to the camera at the front door. This allows our staff to verify your identity before granting access to the building.

• Enter the school office, provide the name of the staff member you have an appointment with, and obtain a visitor sticker.

Thank you for your cooperation and for helping us maintain a safe and welcoming environment for everyone.

Holiday Family Photos

The Wayne-Westland Education Foundation is offering a Holiday Family Photo session for $40. Sign up link: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E4FACA62CA6F9C25-66501384-family

Here is the link to the flyer that you can put in your newsletter https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VOMB5Ta4ifFRX_z8NKvjKvbu88iWF-7S/view?usp=drive_link

Week 4 – Attendance Is a Winning Habit
Good attendance is a habit that can lead to stronger academic and personal success. Research consistently shows that attendance matters. Students who attend school regularly are more likely to stay on track academically, build strong relationships with teachers and classmates, and develop the habits and skills they need for success in school and beyond.

Missing school,even a few days at a time, can make it harder for students to keep up with lessons, assignments and classroom activities.

Think about attendance like practicing for a sport. You wouldn't expect to improve if you only showed up for some of the practices or games. The more consistently you show up, the more opportunities you have to learn, improve and succeed.

That is why Wayne-Westland Community Schools is encouraging students and families to Aim for 8 or fewer absences during the school year. Eight or fewer absences means students are present for the vast majority of their school days and have more opportunities to benefit from instruction, participate in their school community and build positive attendance habits.

Every day matters. Every day is an opportunity. And every day you show up is a step toward success.

On October 28th from 4:10-5:10pm the Walker Staff will use the Media Center for a staff meeting. Bright Futures will meet in the Life Skills room during that time. Thank you for understanding.

New this year for our district we are having all ICHAT's completed online. Anyone wanting to volunteer in classrooms or fieldtrips must have an approved ICHAT on file. Please feel free to use the link below or the QR code attached as well.

Volunteer Information & ICHAT Form

• All Families MUST Update/Verify Contact Information in Parent Connection each year. *If you recently registered your Kindergarten student, you have already done this.
• Teacher placements can be viewed in Parent Connection.
• Log in to your ParentPortal using your PIN and password and click on the red “Back to School Registration” link at the top of the page.
• CLICK HERE WWCS PARENT CONNECTION
  
• Click through each link confirming or changing any information and then click "submit and save."
• If you have more than one student, you MUST repeat this process for each child so that we have accurate contact information for each student in an emergency. Register for Transportation
• There is a section in Parent Connection asking if you want transportation. If your dwelling meets these qualifications and you want your child to ride the bus, you MUST check YES or a bus route will NOT be assigned.

• We have introduced a brand new online menu portal for all schools. This link is on all webpages where menus are normally attached. Please use this link: https://wwcsd.nutrislice.com/menu. Menus will still be printed monthly to send home with students.

• Please fill out the Electronic Benefits Form online at: https://waynewestland.familyportal.cloud/benefits/onlyapplying - This information is collected for funding purposes and potential student benefits.

Although meals will be served free of charge for all students we still have snacks available for purchase. Families can pre load student accounts with money on the Meal Magic Family Portal at : https://waynewestland.familyportal.cloud/

• All student birthdays will be celebrated within classrooms but we no longer will allow food or non-food treats sent in from home. We have students with food allergies and we want to make sure that every student is recognized in the same way on their birthday.
• We ask that food treats and all other goodie bag treats be saved for home celebrations. Thank you for helping us with this!

• Our AKA Sports spiritwear store is open!
• You can order and pay directly via this link https://walkerwinterspiritwear.itemorder.com/shop/sale/ .
• All items can be shipped directly to you or you can choose to pick up at AKA Sports down the road at 34932 Michigan Ave (Michigan Ave & Wayne Rd).

• 9/4 No School
• 9/7 No School Labor Day
• 9/18-Picture Day
• 10/9-Fall Festival (Trunk or Treat)
• 10/13 Skate Night 6pm-8pm Skatin Station
• 11/25-11/27 Thanksgiving Recess
• 12/21-1/1 Winter Break
• 2/15-2/19 Mid-Winter Break
• 3/29-4/2 Spring Break

39932 Michigan Ave., Canton, MI 48188

wwcsd.net

Main Office 734-419-2780

Attendance Line 734-419-2787

Office Hours 8:30 AM-4:30 PM

Bradley Smith, Principal smithbs@wwcsd.net

Nickie Honke, Secretary honken@wwcsd.net

• All students are welcome to bring a home lunch but FREE breakfast and lunch are provided for all students.
• We kindly ask that families not bring in outside food during lunch. This helps us keep all students safe, especially those with allergies, and ensures consistency for our school community. Thank you for understanding and supporting our cafeteria routines.

• Please wait until 3:55 PM to gather by the Kindergarten & 1st grade dismissal doors. This allows all classes to re-enter the school from their playground recess safely.
• We love pets, especially dogs, but they cannot be on school grounds during arrival or pickup. Thank you for understanding!

• Below are links to important forms that must be filled out yearly. Paper copies will be sent home with students, also.
• If you do print and fill out, please return to our school office or your child's teacher.
• Each volunteer MUST fill out our district ICHAT volunteer form in order to volunteer either at our school or to chaperone on field trips. ICHAT forms MUST be done each school year.
• CLICK HERE ICHAT VOLUNTEER FORM
• We need our families to fill out the Educational Benefit Food Services Form in order for our entire school district to recieve FREE breakfast and lunch.
• CLICK HERE EDUCATIONAL BENEFIT FORM/FOOD SERVICES

• For the Educational Benefit Form, if you have students at multiple schools within the district they only need to fill out one form.

Help Keep Our Students Safe

Wayne-Westland Community Schools is launching a new school bus safety program with @buspatrol to help make our roads safer for students.

As part of the program, we’ve added stop-arm cameras to our school bus fleet. These cameras can detect vehicles that fail to stop when a school bus is stopped with its stop arm extended.

Important dates:

Now through September 27: Warning period

Beginning September 28: Local law enforcement will begin enforcing violations

When you see a school bus with its stop arm extended, STOP. Give students the time and space they need to safely get on and off the bus.

Together, we can help protect our students and make every trip to and from school safe.

• Automated district-wide attendance calls for absent students have started.
• Help your child be successful at school by getting them to school on time each day.
• When students are late or unneccessarily miss days of school, it negatively impacts their learning and they miss out on socializing with friends and fall out of their daily rountine.
• We do understand that students get sick sometimes and need to stay home from school to rest and family emergencies do occur but if your child is healthy, we appreciate you sending your child to school on-time each and every day.
• Thank you for supporting your child's education!

• It's important to be on time every day for school. When students are late, they miss out on important learning time. Students who are late and arrive after the school day are marked absent.

• If your child is going to be absent, please call our attendance line OR enter your child's atbsence using your Parent Connection account. When calling the attendance line, please leave the date, your name, your child’s name, teacher and reason for absence on the line. We review these calls at the beginning of the school day by 9:30 AM.

• We cannot accommodate daily early pick ups after 3:30 PM unless you have an emergency or an appointment.

• Please drive carefully, cautiously and slow in our school parking lot.

• Students may enter our school from either the main entrance or the back parking lot entrance doors at 9:00 AM and families say goodbye outside of our school.

• THERE ARE 2 OPTIONS FOR AM DROP OFF...

• OPTION 1: You can use the front parking lot drop off lane for a quick, 30 second vehicle drop off. Please DO NOT park and walk your child to the main entrance from the front parking lot as there is a lot of traffic.

• OPTION 2: If you'd like to park and walk your child to the doors, please park in the back parking lot of our school. If you do park, please walk your child up to either the back or main entrance doors and say goodbye outside the school.

• The drop off loop in front of the school is for 30 second drop off's only and all vehicles MUST pull all the way up to the end of the drop off lane. We should not have large gaps between vehicles.
• Use the drop off lane closest to the school either in front of or behind the bus zone. *You'll know its the bus zone because it will be blocked off by cones or you will see buses there.
• Students MUST exit from the right side of your vehicle ALWAYS.
• Please do not drop off your child in the second, outside lane of our drop off loop. We don't want students crossing between moving vehicles or buses.
• Adults should stay in their vehicle to keep the drop off lane moving. If your child still needs help unbuckling their seatbelt or getting out of your vehicle, please park in a parking spot and walk them to the main entrance doors.
• Once your child is out of your vehicle, stay in the drop off lane. The first car exits to Michigan Ave and the the car behind follows and so on. We should not have cars cutting out of the drop off lane in front of other vehicles.
• DO NOT PARK IN THE BUS ZONE OR CROSS BETWEEN BUSES.
• Allow for extra time so you aren't rushing.
• Thank you for keeping our students safe!

• 30% discount for District employees
• Families may qualify for no-cost tuition through the Michigan Department of Health & Human Services (DHS) Child Care Assistance Program. For more details, talk with your Champions Site Director.

• Help earn money for our school by registering your Kroger Rewards card simply by visiting https://www.kroger.com/i/community/community-rewards

• Once logged into your Kroger account, you can search for Walker-Winter Elementary by name and then click enroll.

• At Wayne-Westland Community Schools, we utilize an electronic flyer communication tool called Peachjar.

• Our flyer distribution process posts flyers from schools, the district and community partners on Peachjar. There is a Peachjar button on all school’s websites, and the platform will send emails to families with flyer notifications based on their child's school.

Support your Family's Wellbeing

When you or your child needs help, it’s hard to know where to turn. In an effort to ease the burden of finding the mental health and substance use services you need, we’ve partnered with Care Solace, your central hub of care.

With a network of over 560,000 providers and services, Care Solace will help you find the right help at the right time, 24/7/365, at no cost to you. They will connect you with providers accepting all medical insurances, including Medicaid, Medicare, and sliding scale options for those without insurance.

You can access Care Solace services in three ways:

• Call 888-515-0595 at any time. Multilingual support is available 24/7/365. A dedicated Care Companion will help you every step of the way to research options, secure appointments, and follow up to make sure it is a good fit.
• Search anonymously to get matched with an extensive list of care providers at caresolace.com/wwcsd
• Contact your school health professional, and they will submit a referral on your behalf.

No matter what you're experiencing, there is hope and help. We are confident that our new partnership with Care Solace will help us build a healthier, more vibrant school community.

If you have a life-threatening emergency, please call 9-1-1 or The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 9-8-8. Care Solace is not an emergency response service or mental health services provider.

Dear Parents and Guardians of the Wayne-Westland Community School District School Community,

As the new school year begins, supporting our youth's mental health is more important than ever. The new school year can bring feelings of both anxiety and excitement as students transition into a new grade, perhaps a new school, and are all in turn learning and growing into who they are.

We have provided a Back to School resource packet for parents and teachers who are navigating through this time. Click here to access to the flyer.

By working together, we can create an environment where our children thrive. Remember, Care Solace offers valuable mental health care coordination services to connect you with community-based providers for counseling, therapy, and more.

To access Care Solace:

• Call 888-515-0595: Their multilingual helpline is staffed 24/7/365.
• Visit www.caresolace.com/wwcsd: Explore mental health providers independently or click "Book Appointment" for personalized assistance.

By joining hands as a community, we can provide a nurturing environment that supports the mental health and well-being of our youth. Let's prioritize their emotional growth and create a brighter future together.

Thank you for being dedicated parents in the Wayne-Westland Community School District community. Your commitment to our youth is truly commendable.