Heights Happenings

Heights Mission: Heights Elementary IB World School is dedicated to developing balanced, lifelong learners through educational excellence, a global perspective, reflection and action.

Heights Vision: To Be A World Class School.

Heights PBIS Statement:

We strive to be a school that models positive behaviors which develop the whole child and social skills. We have a common culture and language which supports student growth and high expectations to empower our students to become well-rounded global citizens through teaching and recognizing positive behavior.

Principal: Doug Palow

Assistant Principal: Lindsey Thorstad (Grades Prek-2nd)

Assistant Principal: Anika Carter (Grades 3rd-5th and ESE)

School Hours: 7:55 am—2:10 pm

Doors open: 7:30 am

Breakfast: 7:30-7:45 am

Heights Contact Information:

Address: 15200 Alexandria Ct. Ft. Myers, FL 33908

Telephone: 239.481.1761 Fax: 239.481.3154

Website: het.leeschools.net

Twitter: @HeightsIB

Facebook: Heights Elementary

Instagram: heightselementary

Based on the School District of Lee County safety procedures, we are ONLY allowed to accept physical forms of ID when you show up on campus. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept pictures of IDs on the cell phone or from the Florida Real ID website. Thank you for your understanding and helping to keep our campus safe.

School Counselor: Ashley Stanley

IB PYP Coordinator: Lacey Davis

Reading Coach Kg-2nd grade: Katie Bocchino

Reading Coach 3rd-5th grade: Dodie Lytle

Math Coach: Natasha Edinger

After School Program: Jordan Moore

504 Accommodations: Bryanna Van Helden

Contact Information Changes: Michele Curry

Transportation: Lindsey Thorstad

Gifted testing: Ashley Stanley

Clinic: Cheri Mack or Chelsea Carey

April 7th: Good Friday (schools closed)

April 10th: Easter Monday (schools closed)

April 13th: 2nd grade student led conferences

• 8:15-9:00 am Roberts, Best, and McDonald
• 9:30-10:15 am Kebhart, McElyea, and Franz
• 11:30-12:15 Peterson and Tresch

April 14th: Heights PTA Mother/Son event

April 17th: PTA Meeting (2:45 - Heights Media Center)

April 19th: 4th grade student led conferences

• 9:45-10:15 am Chesnut
• 12:30-1:00 pm Williams and Peak

April 20th: 4th grade student led conferences

• 9:45-10:15 am Elrubaie and Breglio

• 10:30-11:00 am Stamper and Marino

April 21st: 3rd grade student led conferences

• 8:30-9:30 am Wood, Wright, Kee, Stoneman, & Javorowsky
• 11:30-12:30 pm Glavin, Millikan, Licata, & M. Trina

April 22nd: Earth Day

April 27th: 5th grade IB Exhibition Night (6:00 pm)

April 27th: 4th quarter interims available in FOCUS

April 28th: 1st grade student led conferences

• 9:00-9:30 am Joyce, Watson, Tielsch, & Rivait
• 11:00-11:30 am Strange, Benedon, Thwaites, Anderson, & Roth

A HUGE thank you to all who supported us at the Taking Hawaii to New Heights Auction! We raised a total of $40,000!

We had several incredibly generous local companies who helped make our night a success by sponsoring our event.

The Big Kahuna Sponsorship

Terra Nostra Ristorante

Let's Get Tiki With It Sponsorship

Sanibel Captiva Community Bank

Mahalo Sponsorship

Finemark National Bank & Trust

Vivie Boutique

Upcoming Dates:

• Mother Son Game On Event - Friday, April 14 at 6 pm at Heights (pre-purchased tickets only)
• Last General Meeting - Monday, April 17 at 2:45 pm in the Heights Cafeteria

Heights Families: Do you have a Focus Account? If not, it's important that you sign up. There are many forms that are required to be signed before getting your child's schedule or in order to ensure your child can receive care at the school clinics. Plus, get access to grades, attendance, and much more. Sign up today: https://www.leeschools.net/our_schools/focus

Quarter 4:

• April 27, 2023 – Interims
• June 12, 2023 – Report Cards

Paper copy interims and report cards will no longer be sent home. Parents may review their student's grades at anytime on Focus. Your student's grades will be up to date on the assigned interim and report card days listed above. If you have any questions or concerns please contact the school.

Volunteer Sign Up: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0F4BACAB22A7FA7-pbis

May 3rd: Kg, 1st grade, & 2nd grade ELA FAST

May 4th: 3rd grade ELA FAST

May 9th & 10th: 5th grade Science FAST

May 11th: Kg, 1st grade, 2nd grade MATH FAST

May 16th: 4th grade & 5th grade ELA FAST

May 22nd: 3rd grade, 4th grade, & 5th grade MATH FAST

As we near the end of the 2022-2023 school year, I know many of you are beginning to think about your student’s placement for the upcoming school year. With our mission statement in mind, we pride ourselves on looking at each of our students and what they need individually to help them become balanced, lifelong learners through educational excellence. Your feedback as a parent is always valued. We ask that you keep in mind each year we are faced with many challenges when creating class assignments. There needs to be a semi-equal distribution of students by gender, achievement levels, and behavioral concerns (and balancing all three of these factors simultaneously is no small feat.) Special considerations must then be made for the placement of English language learners and students with special needs. Often student-teacher personality conflicts are considered, as well as interpersonal conflicts between students who need to be separated from certain peer conflicts. Heights is built on establishing solid positive relationships. With this in mind, we will be moving away from accepting teacher requests for the 2023-2024 school year. We know your students well, and our administrative team along with your child's current teacher will work together to place your child/ our student in the class we feel will best help them thrive not only academically, but personally as well. We ask that you trust us to build classes next year that will be healthy and balanced throughout the grade levels. Thank you for understanding.

On March 30 and March 31st we hosted our IB Exploratory Days. Thank you to all of the parents who volunteered to make this event a success. As students were rotating through different activities related to sports and arts around the world hosted by our Enrichment teachers, our Kindergarten through Fifth grade teachers used the time with Mrs. Davis to work on updating their upcoming IB Planners to allow for amazing learning and inquiry in the classroom.

Our fifth graders will present their IB Exhibition Projects on April 27. These projects are a culmination of all of their research and action over the entire school year. Thank you to all of the students and families that brought in donations to contribute to these action projects.

The IB Learner Profile Balance aims to develop learners who are balanced. Our goal is to allow students to discover and understand the importance of balancing different aspects of their lives. Focusing on the intellectual, physical and emotional in order to achieve well being for themselves and others.

~Create a daily schedule that includes time for school work, outside physical activity, arts and music, rest, balanced meals.

~Allow time for a variety of activities daily with your children (school activities, indoor play, outside play, active play and quiet activities)

~Model doing a little bit of everything in front of your child: play, learn, exercise, rest, eat healthy foods

~Praise your child for demonstrating a balance lifestyle

~Visit many different places to learn: libraries, museums, nature trails and nature preserves, parks, Historical Parks

~Explore different hobbies: yoga, jogging, knitting, cards, marbles, collecting stickers

National Assistant Principals Week is April 3rd-7th and a time to recognize the significant role assistant principals (APs) play in the overall academic achievement of students nationwide. This week we have the opportunity to recognize our APs for all of their hard work and dedication to the Heights students, staff, and families. Thank you Mrs. Carter and Mrs. Thorstad for everything you do. You both are the BEST!

A limited number of yearbooks have been ordered and may not be available later, so please reserve your copy today.

Online Orders Only: BuyTheYearbook.com

https://buytheyearbook.pictavo.com/PictavoSchool/FindSchool

1. Find Heights Elementary on the list

2. Enter ID #708444

No cash, checks, or money orders will be accepted at the school.

The price is $25 per yearbook

The Heights Book Fair will be held from May 10th-17th The materials available for purchase at the Book Fair were not selected by the School District of Lee County. We encourage parents to review their student’s wish list and have a conversation about what they wish their student to purchase at the book fair before sending money to make any purchases.”

The following Book Preview link is a representation of any fair’s actual selection. Some books in the Preview might be excluded based on availability at the branch when Scholastic packs the Fair; likewise, you may see books that aren’t featured in the Preview sent as substitutes for other titles.

This is the website for our school (which also includes a preview of the books available that you said we needed to have).

It's Book Fair Time! (preview link)

Visit our school's homepage to get the latest Book Fair news, shop our Online Fair, and more!

bookfairs.scholastic.com

Want to Volunteer and Help With The Book Fair?

Click the link if you would like to volunteer to assist with the Heights Book Fair this year. All volunteers must be pre approved volunteers in order to assist with the book fair. Contact Mrs. Thorstad at Heights if you would like to become an approved volunteer.

https://bookfairs.scholastic.com/bf/heightselementaryschool2020

Ice cream cups are on sale every Friday during lunch time. Each student will be limited to one ice cream cup during their lunch. The cost is $1 per cup. Money collected from ice cream sales goes to the Principal's Discretionary Fund. This fund is used to celebrate a variety of events and activities for our students and staff throughout the school year.

Did you know that in May (the 8th-13th) is Staff Appreciation week? Our teachers and staff put in countless overtime hours behind the scenes to develop lessons and assessments, grade

papers, share ideas, research strategies, and gather resources to ensure your child has the best opportunity possible to reach his or her potential. Now is the chance to show how much you appreciate them. A simple note in the planner or a kind email or phone call

from a parent or student is all it takes to make it all worthwhile!

Florida State Statute 1012.42 recognizes that teachers at times must be assigned duties in a class outside the field in which the teacher is certified. The following teachers at Heights Elementary are certified, but may be assigned one or more classes outside their areas of certification and are required to take appropriate steps to comply with the statutory regulation:

In addition, the following teachers are engaged in training to add the endorsement, English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), to their certificates: Nicole Driscoll, Monica Fastenau, Jennifer Kee, Mackenzie Millikan, Nicole Rickard,Taylor Wahl, Gina Marino, & Colleen Stoneman.

Board Members:

District 1 - Samuel Fisher, Board Vice Chair

District 2 - Melisa W. Giovannelli

District 3 - Chris N. Patricca

District 4 - Debbie Jordan

District 5 - Armor Persons, Board Chair

District 6 - Jada Langford-Fleming

District 7 - Cathleen O'Daniel Morgan

Superintendent:

Christopher S. Bernier, Ed.D.

School Board Attorney:

Kathy Dupuy-Bruno, Esq.

This school has been recently inspected and certain asbestos-containing materials or assumed asbestos-containing materials such as: fire doors or roofing materials that are tested prior to repairs or removal as needed, have been located in the school buildings. Please be aware that the School District of Lee County has an active management plan designed to ensure that the building is maintained safely for all occupants. These materials are being controlled in accordance with the Asbestos Management Program for the School and following the limitations and procedures of the policies and requirements of the Asbestos Operations and Maintenance Program of the School District of Lee County. The report listing the location, quantities, and condition of all known materials and contains the details of the control procedures is available at the school office for your inspection during normal school hours. Copies of the whole or parts of the school’s asbestos file can be supplied to you at a cost of $0.15/page.