November Newsletter 2026
- Thank you for attending parent-teacher conferences. We are grateful for your time and commitment to your child's education and we truly value our partnership in supporting your students' learning journey! Our partnership is crucial for their success and we look forward to watching them grow and glow this the year! We had 97% parent participation with fall conferences! That is truly amazing.
Halloween Fun!
We had a spooktacular time celebrating Halloween at Whitson! 🎃👻 Thank you to all of our families who joined us for the parade and helped make our classroom parties so much fun! We loved seeing all the costumes, smiles, and excitement throughout the day. Thank you for helping us create such wonderful memories for our students!
A big thank you to 7 Brew Coffee for generously donating delicious coffee drinks for our staff! We appreciate your kindness and support in helping treat our hardworking Whitson staff. What a wonderful way to brighten their day!
Veteran's Day Assembly November 11th at 2:00 pm
Join us as our student council and sponsors host our annual Veteran's Day Assembly. All veterans are welcome to join us!
NO SCHOOL November 23-27
There will be no school November 24-28 for Thanksgiving Break.
4th & 5th Grade Music Program November 17th
The Program will be November 17 at 6:00 in the auditorium. We hope to see you there!
DID YOU KNOW?
Starting in preschool and kindergarten, too many absences can cause children to fall behind in school.
Missing 10%, or about 2 days each month over the course of a school year, can make it harder to learn to read.
Students can still fall behind if they miss just 1 or 2 days every few weeks.
Being late to school may lead to poor attendance.
Absences and tardiness can affect the whole classroom if the teacher has to slow down learning to help children catch up. Attending school regularly helps children feel better about school—and themselves.
Start building this habit now so they learn right away that going to school on time, every day is important. Eventually good attendance will be a skill that will help them succeed in high school and college.
Important Attendance Definitions:
Tardy - arriving after 8:45 am, But before 9:00 am.
½ day absence 10:30 am- 12:15 pm.
½ day absence if leaving 12:15pm-2:00pm
Early pick up – leaving at 2:00pm or after
Unexcused Absences - absent without reasonable justification, or no parental notice given by end of school day.
According to Kansas law (K.S.A. 72-1113) a student is truant if they have missed the following without legitimate excuse:
Three (3) consecutive days
Five (5) unexcused absences in a semester
Seven (7) unexcused absences in a school year
If a student has excessive excused absences (more than 10), a doctor’s note or official documentation will be required for it to be excused.
Families will receive a notification when student fees are assessed. We anticipate this will be sometime in December.
School Menu
Looking for the breakfast and lunch menus?
1. Go to the Whitson Website
2. Click the blue button that says Lunch Menu.
3. Complete the 1st drop down box with Whitson Elementary
4. The 2nd drop down box will have multiple menus for you to choose.
Check out our very own Whitson Spirit Wear Store!
From the District
2026-2027 Academic Calendar
Here is the calendar in both English and Spanish for the 2026-2027 school year.
Upcoming Events
- November 9: PTO Meeting @ 6:00 pm
- November 10: Picture Retakes
- November 11: Veteran's Day Assembly @ 2:00 pm
- November 16-20 Real Men Read/American Education Week
- November 16: Bonkers Night - Fundraiser- 5-7pm
- November 17: 4th & 5th Music Program
- November 23-27 No School -Thanksgiving Break
- December 3: Geography Bee @ 9:30 am
- December 3: Papa John's Night
- December 14: PTO Meeting @ 6:00 pm
- December 18: Winter Parties @ 2:30 pm
- December 21-January 5: Winter Break
- January 6: Students Back to School
Want all of these dates easily accessible and to be able to check if anything changes? Access our school calendar on the Whitson website! There, you can add the calendar to your own or even sign up for email alerts if something changes using the menu with the < sign above Saturday!
Whitson PTO
Dear Parents,
We would like to invite all of the parents of Whitson students to attend our PTO meetings. These meetings are held at 6pm in the library. Please see dates below. We believe that the partnership between school and home is critical to student success and truly believe that YOU can make a difference. Please consider joining us, your children are welcome to come too!
PTO helps raise funds for many school projects such as PE and recess equipment, classroom libraries, and field trips! Come to a meeting or contact us to see what options are available for extra help.
PTO Meeting Dates:
November 9, 2026
December 14, 2026
January 11, 2027
February 8, 2027
March 8, 2027
April 12, 2027
May 10, 2027
Please e-mail us with questions! ptowhitson@gmail.com
Thank you,
Whitson PTO
President: Alicia Soto
Vice President: Jazmine Urena-Lopez
Secretary: Katherine Phelps
Treasurer: Erin Desch
Merchandise: Leslie Lewis
Whitson Elementary School
Email: sperkins@tps501.org
Website: https://whitson.topekapublicschools.net/
Location: 1725 Southwest Arnold Avenue, Topeka, KS, USA
Phone: 785-438-4570
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whitsontps