Horgan Family Update

The mission of Horgan Elementary School is to challenge our students with high-quality, individualized educational experiences to prepare for lifelong success in a safe, supportive, and engaging environment. Horgan Elementary school is a place that provides a positive educational experience where students develop a love for learning. We are committed to making purposeful connections among learners, educators, and the school community.

Hello Horgan families! We are so excited to welcome our students and families back for another school year! Our faculty and staff are looking forward to partnering with you to make this a year filled with learning, growth, connection, and success. We believe that strong relationships between school and home are an important part of helping every child thrive. Thank you for your continued support, trust, and partnership. We can’t wait to see our students’ smiling faces and begin a fantastic year together!

Our custodians have been hard at work replacing the carpet in many of our classrooms this summer. With this said, only water will be allowed in classrooms. Outside drinks, fruit punches, Dunkin, etc will not be allowed in classrooms.

Upon the first day of school, all students will receive a back to school packet to bring home. This packet will include important back to school information as well as forms to complete and return. Please see the attached letter that will accompany that packet here.

Please make sure to read through this entire update as it includes important information for the first day and week back to school.

With much excitement,

Mrs. Furtado and Mrs. Bouchard

• First day of school for students in grades 1-4 is Tuesday, August 25th. Arrival runs from 8:45 to 9:00 am

• Determine how your child will be getting home (bus routes here) from school every day and fill out the How My Child is Getting Home form. If you already filled out the form and you noticed a change in bus route, please contact your child's teacher directly.

• If you are moving, have recently moved, or are planning on moving, please fill out our moving form. This is helpful in maintaining accurate records

• Activate your Aspen Account - directions are linked

• Make sure your ASPEN contact list, address, and phone numbers are up to date. Those on this list are the ONLY adults allowed to pick up your child - a photo id is required

• If you are in need of assistance, please call the front office.

• To opt-in to receive text and email notifications, text the word "YES" to 79041
• Student class placement will be posted in the Aspen parent portal on Friday, August 21st. Video here

• Arrival and dismissal at Horgan can run very smoothly but we need the help of all adults at this time. You may want to consider having your child ride the bus. If dropping off, please make sure your child is prepared with all materials to get out of the car as soon as you enter the drop off lane. Here are a few steps that you can take to help us make sure this runs smooth, efficient, and safe:

• Consider having your child ride the bus

• If you are dropping off, please make sure your child is ready to exit the car quickly with materials ready to go. Staff will assist with getting them safely on the sidewalk

• At parent pick up/dismissal, make sure to ALWAYS have a photo id ready, even if you know the staff

• We suspend dismissals from the office from 3:05 - 3:25 unless it is an emergency. This allows staff to focus on dismissing all of our students safely

• If your child is a parent pick-up, pick up ends at 3:25.

• Families wishing their student to take a different bus must submit the request in writing to the principal. Office staff will confirm via phone.

• First 2 weeks of dismissal will most likely take longer than usual. Please be patient and kind with one another and our staff members.

• Bus lists- are available and on the district website -- link

• Review bus number and stop with your child prior to school. Please note your child may not have the same bus or stop as last year.

• We strongly suggest families and students be at bus stops 15 minutes ahead of time for both the morning and afternoon.

• Early dismissals from the office will stop between 3:00 and 3:25. This is for staff to focus on safely dismissing our students.
  

• Obtain updated medicine orders (after 7/1/26) for any in school medication. These need to be dropped off by an adult. Children are not allowed to self-carry to school.

• Siblings under age 18 are not permitted to pick up students

• Work with your child on reading, using a public restroom and eating their lunch in a 20 minute time frame, this will assist with their transition to school

• BCI’s need to be completed each year for field trips, volunteering, etc!
  
• We know many families use the summer months to plan ahead for vacations as well as doctor appointments throughout the school year. We kindly ask that you avoid school hours to the best of your ability. We know interruptions do happen, however it is our expectation disruptions to school days are kept to a minimum.

• For all students, please send a clean set of clothes in their backpack. Accidents and spills happen!

We will communicate more about this as we approach the first day, but knowing how your child gets home each day is very important. Please use the button below to tell us how your child gets home each day so that we can match it with our bus records as applicable. Please note--if you filled it out prior to August 20, the bus routes posting went live on the district website on 8/20. Please message your child's teacher directly if there has been a change.

Use the image below to familiarize yourself with the drop off and pick up patterns for school arrival and dismissal

Please see the incoming kindergarten letter here. On Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday August 25th-27th we will be doing incoming kindergarten assessments by appointment only. You may access the sign up link here. During these assessments, parents will stay for a presentation by the administration.

Following assessment days, kindergarten orientation for all students and 1 adult will be held on Friday, August 28th. There will be 2 sessions, 10:00 AM and 1:00 PM. Students with last names beginning A-L will attend the 10 am session and students with last names beginning M-z will attend the 1 pm session.

The first day for all kindergarten students is Monday, August 31st. Drop off starts at 8:45 am and ends at 9:00 AM.

Please find a brief overview of the universal screening tools we will be using for the 2026-2027 school year. Universal screening is an essential educational practice that helps us identify students who may need additional assistance or specialized support to thrive academically and socially. These tools are designed to assess various aspects of a student's development, including academic skills, behavior, and emotional well-being. By identifying students' unique needs early on, we can tailor our educational strategies to ensure that every child reaches their full potential.

At Horgan we will utilize the following universal screening tools:

• Reading

• DIBELS K-4

• Math

• mClass K-4

• Social Emotional Learning (SEL)

• Satchel Pulse K-4

How does universal screening work?

The WWPS universal screening instruments are short assessments that ask students simple questions in the areas of Reading, Math and SEL. The answers your child gives will help the school understand how to best support the ongoing development of their skills and what type of support they may need.

What happens next?

Your child will be asked to complete the questions during their regular school day through an easy-to-use assessment tool guided by their regular teachers.

What do I need to do?

There’s nothing you need to do, but if you have any questions please get in touch and we can tell you more about our universal screening tools and how we’ll use the information we get from it.

When will it start?

Your child will complete their first assessments during the months of September and October.

• First day of school next year- Tuesday, August 25th (grades 1-4)

• August 25-27- Kindergarten assessment days

• Friday, August 28- Kindergarten Parent Orientation

• Monday, August 31st- First day for Kindergarten

• Tuesday, September 15- Open House at 6 PM

• September 22- Picture Day

• October 21st- Local Advisory Committee meeting at WHES

• Picture re-take day- November 4

• Winter Parent Teacher Conferences- Wednesday, December 2 **Half Day for Students**

• January 20th- Local Advisory Committee meeting at WHES

• March 24th- Local Advisory Committee meeting at WHES

• May 11th- Local Advisory Committee meeting at WHES

Multiple times throughout the year our school Improvement team including educators, administrators, and community members meet together to review our school goals, action steps, and progress. We are happy to share we have Goals in the following areas:

- Math

- Literacy

- Social/Emotional

- Attendance

- Science

Our goals for the year heavily drive the work, specifically the teaching and learning we do with our students on a daily basis. We look forward working towards our shared goals this upcoming school year. We will not be able to do it without the help and support of our families!

Interested in joining the school PTO, planning events for students and families, and helping to create memorable elementary moments for our kiddos? Please join the John F Horgan PTO Facebook page. Meetings are held via Google Meet and the meet link, date, and times will be posted on the school website and will be listed in the important dates section of this document.

In addition to following the health and wellness policy we have many students with food allergies. We will no longer be accepting outside food to celebrate your child's birthday. Non-food items like pencils or stickers may be sent in for the class on your child’s special day! Teachers recognize students on their birthday by giving them special jobs, pencils, free homework passes and in other creative ways that do not infringe on instruction. Thank you for helping us keep all our students safe and healthy while at school.

West Warwick Public Schools Website - links to the bus routes, Sodexo School Lunches, calendar and more

John F. Horgan Elementary School

124 Providence Street

West Warwick, RI 02893

Phone- 401-822-8449

Fax- 401-822-8475

Principal: Mrs. Elizabeth (Betsy) Furtado

efurtado@westwarwickpublicschools.com

Assistant Principal: Mrs. Jenna Boucahrd

jbouchard@westwarwickpublicschools.com

Website: https://sites.google.com/westwarwickpublicschools.com/horganschool/home