Dear Wildwood Families,

I hope the week is going well and I miss seeing everyone! If you send me an email, please know that I am not able to read them this week, but will respond as soon as I am back in town. Mr. Dolowich and Dr. Hawn will be at Wildwood this week, keeping an eye on everything, making sure things go smoothly in my absence.

I have had the opportunity to meet with various Wildwood parent/guardian groups in the past two weeks and it’s been super helpful to gather more information and make plans. I met with Randy to talk about Safety Preparedness. We are going to follow up with Pete Palmer, Director of Facilities and talk about our next steps for safety preparedness. I met with Vic and Amy, Parent Club Presidents, to talk about the Parent Club and how to best support our school. I met with Jake, Dads’ Club President, to talk about spending priorities. I met briefly with the DEIB committee (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging) and talked about how we support our community in its goal to be inclusive and equitable. I’m looking forward to doing more work with them, too. There are a lot of wonderful people committed to making Wildwood a stronger community.

Be sure to mark your calendars for the Winterfest at Wildwood on December 13th. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving break and enjoy the week off. See you back at Wildwood on Monday, December 2nd!

Beth Rhine

21 Dad's Club Crab Feed Meeting

22 Mileage Club 7:50a ***if raining - no mileage club**

25-29 Thanksgiving Holiday - NO SCHOOL

DECEMBER

2 Parent Belonging Circle

13 Winterfest - 5-7pm

20 Last Day of Semester

12/23-1/7 Winter Break - NO SCHOOL

K/1 - enter the Kinder play yard and use the door in the corner to enter the Art/MPR Room

2/3 - enter through the main door and go to the Library (please no eating in the library)

4/5 - enter through the main door and go to the Auditorium

There will be supervision in those locations from 8:20 - 8:30am. We ask that students enter the school (carefully!), walk to the assigned room, pick a place to sit and wait for their teacher. Teachers will meet their students in those locations and walk them to the classrooms. And as always, please don't drop off your child before 8:20am.

Thank you for helping us to make rainy days go a little more smoothly!

Our staff room is in need of utensils! If you happen to have some extra forks, knives or spoons that you are willing to donate to our staff room please bring them to the front office. Thank you!

Please check out the lost and found over the next few weeks. Everything left will be donated over Winter Break.

Enrollment is open until this Friday for After School Enrichment (ASE) classes for our WINTER SESSION.

Many classes still have openings! Check out Musical Theatre: Willy Wonka (Tuesdays, 1st to 5th grade), NEW Dungeons and Dragons (Fridays, 3rd to 5th grade), Basketball (Thursdays, 2nd to 5th grade), and Art Workshop, Color, Craft and Create (Thursdays, K to 2nd grade).

ASE is run by the Wildwood Parent Club (WPC) and all funds raised go directly to Wildwood Elementary School. ASE is the WPC's biggest fundraiser!

Contact us at wwafterschoolenrichment@gmail.com with any questions.

As we head toward Thanksgiving, we are sending a sincere and big THANK YOU to the strong Wildwood parent community that supports WPC through its donations, volunteer efforts and community spirit.

WPC loves to celebrate the amazing Wildwood staff as often as possible, from monthly Staff Appreciation Lunches (hosted by 4th Grade this week) to Staff Appreciation Week in May. Also, twice a year WPC distributes money directly to staff through its Gifting Fund. If you haven’t yet donated or would like to again, you can do so here. The first distribution will be in December.

Be on the lookout in the coming days for more info about Winterfest, happening from 5 to 7p.m. Friday, Dec. 13. A solid team of parent volunteers are planning a better-than-ever event, full of sparkle and cheer! To make it a true success, we will need you — please save the date and consider volunteering!

This Thursday Nov 21 8pm at 6 Requa Place

Crab Feed Volunteer Information Session and Kickoff

The Crab Feed is February 8th, 2025! Tickets on sale soon.

Upcoming Events

• Dec 5: Tri-School Dads’ Club Ugly Sweater Holiday Gathering, 8pm at 1635 Grand Ave, Piedmont

The Piedmont Education Foundation (PEF) has launched an exciting participation challenge as part of this year’s Giving Campaign! Our goal is to raise $4 million, and this year, every family’s participation counts toward something special. If we reach 75% participation from Piedmont Unified School District families, the entire town will celebrate with a community-wide pajama day!

Watch the Giving Meter in the center of town to track our progress. Imagine our entire community in PJs, celebrating our united support for our schools.

PEF encourages everyone to contribute, no matter the amount. Let’s come together to make a positive impact and show our commitment to education.

Stay Updated:
Follow the “Pop Up Participation” Giving Meter’s progress in the heart of town, and let’s reach our goal together!

Make a Difference Today:
For more information or to donate, please visit www.piedmontedfoundation.org/donate.

In our Parent Circles on Belonging, we’ll explore what Belonging truly means, feels, and looks like, as well as the experience of Othering and how it shows up and impacts our Wildwood community. Together, we'll discuss ways we can nurture belonging both individually and collectively. If you haven’t participated in a Parent Circle before, it’s a unique opportunity to foster meaningful connections and engage in deeper conversations beyond our normal, everyday interactions.

We had a wonderful turnout for the November 4th circle at Wildwood, and we look forward to the next circle coming up soon. Please join us:

Monday, December 2nd, 6:30pm-8pm

Circles will take place in the Wildwood Library. They will be facilitated by PUSD Parent and Director of DEIB, Jean Takazawa, and Restorative Justice consultant for PUSD, Corey Wechsler. Space will be limited to 30 participants at each Circle. Register to join HERE.

Do you have gently used children's books to pass on? The East Bay Children's Book Project (EBCBP) helps build literacy by putting books into the hands of children who have little or no access to them. Books can be dropped off at the Turkey Trot bib pick up on Wed Nov 27 3-6pm at Veterans' Hall, in the EBCBP box at Piedmont Middle School library during school hours, and Tuesdays 3:30-5:30pm and Sat Dec 7 10am-1pm at EBCBP, 2501 Harrison St., Oakland (across from Whole Foods).

Your Tri-School Elementary Parent Education Program presents:

Cultivating Healthy Relationships - A workshop with Natasha Singh M.Ed.

Join us for a live workshop with Natasha Singh M.Ed. to talk about how to use a value-based approach to teaching our kids about empathy, decision making, consent and more to cultivate healthy relationships. The presentation will offer a professional perspective and essential tools, frameworks, and strategies to enable parents to create and maintain open lines of communication with their kids about these foundational topics - and keep them open.

Dates: at Beach on 12/3 at 7:00 PM. The content will be geared to parents of kids grade K-5. Parents of Havens, Beach and Wildwood families are welcome, and can attend either workshop. RSVP on the PiedmontStore.org is required. Parents are asked to make a suggested donation of $25 per attendee to offset the cost of the workshop. The Tri-School Parent Education Program is presented by your tri-school Principals and Parent Clubs. Please email Katie Castles Shaffer with any questions: kwc.shaffer@gmail.com

(Event Page link for reference: https://piedmontstore.org/products/cultivating-healthy-relationships-a-workshop-with-natasha-singh-m-ed)

As we approach the holiday season, don't forget these easy ways to support WILDWOOD while doing your everyday shopping!

ShopRaise:

Have you started your holiday shopping yet? Remember to use the ShopRaise app or website when making online purchases - including gift cards!!! ShopRaise will donate a percentage of your purchases at thousands of major retailers to our school at no extra cost to you! It's an easy way to fundraise while you shop for the holidays and beyond!

Minted Holiday Cards:

Use CODE: FUNDRAISEWILDWOOD when ordering holiday cards this year! You'll save 20% off your purchase AND Minted will donate 15% of your card purchase to our school! Last year we raised over $600!!

GoodEgg:

Use CODE: GoodEggsForWildwood at checkout for all your grocery shopping, including stocking up on Thanksgiving essentials! GoodEgg will donate 5% of your order's total directly to our school.

Please save the date for the first DEIB book club meeting. We will be reading and discussing Do the Work!: An Antiracist Activity Book by W. Kamau Bell and Kate Schatz on January 22nd at the Haven’s Library from 7pm-9pm. More details to come, but if interested please get the book and start reading.

For questions feel free to reach out to Sean Bartmasser at bartmasser@gmail.com.

ATTENDANCE REPORTING

1. Please report your student's absence or tardiness - and include the reason.
2. You are welcome to email your teacher, but you must also report by either calling

(510) 594-2719 or emailing: wwdattendance@piedmont.k12.ca.us

INVITATIONAL: DONATE FOR ABSENCES

1. Parents, please remember that if your child needs to be out of school, you can submit
   donations for the lost revenue.
2. Each day that a student is out of school (for any reason, including illness) means a loss of
   revenue in the following amounts per day:

K-3rd Grade = $61.32 - 4th-5th Grade = $56.39

• Wildwood School Calendar
• Hot Lunch Order (pw: Wildwood)
• Attendance Reporting

WHATNOT submission requests must be received by Tuesday at 12:00 PM,
whatnot@piedmont.k12.ca.us