Greeley Greeting

August 20, 2024

Week of October 14, 2024

Principal's Message

Dear Families,

We have a busy and fun-filled week ahead! Tonight, you are invited to join Dr. Tess and me at Greeley for a Leader Roundtable Event from 6:30-7:30pm. I also hope to see you at school on Friday in support of our PTO at the Fall Fest from 5-7pm. Details about these events can be found below.

Additionally, this week our teacher teams will be reviewing our fall benchmarking data and using this information to help plan personalized instruction for your child(ren) and set goals for the year. Please be aware that your child's classroom teacher will actively engaged in deep work during these meetings, so you can expect that your child(ren) will have a substitute teacher for part of a day this week. As always, be sure to communicate any last minute changes to dismissal to the office in addition to your classroom teacher(s).

Finally, it is Safety Week at Greeley! In case you did not receive it, here is a link to our drill schedule for this week. Students are invited to participate in High Five Friday with our Winnetka Police and Fire Department personnel, who will be present at arrival on Friday. Please do not be alarmed when you see the fire truck and police cars on site for this special event.

In partnership,

Lindsay Kopinski

Principal, Greeley School

Fourth grade leaders bringing ideas forward to the PTO.

Upcoming Dates

October

10/7-10/18 PTO Food Drive (see flyer below)
10/14 Leader Round Table, 6:30-7:30pm, RSVP Here (see below for more information), October Birthday Lunch with the Principal
10/15 Shelter Drill
10/16 Evacuation Drill
10/18 Lockdown Drill and High Five Friday
10/18 PTO Fall Fest (see flyer below)
10/25 Kindergarten Butterfly Migration
10/30 Picture Retake Day, Pumpkin Showcase
10/31 Halloween Parties, Ghost Dance in the afternoon (details below)
11/1 No School, Teacher Institute Day
11/4 Mascot Election Day
11/5 No School, Election Day
11/6 Mascot Election Results Announced
11/8 Spiritwear Day
11/14 No School-Parent Teacher Conferences
11/15 No School-Parent Teacher Conferences
11/22 Bonus Spiritwear Day!

Subscribe to the Greeley Public Calendar

You’re Invited to a Leader Round Table TONIGHT

We invite you to engage on important District and school-related topics with Dr. Tess and Principal Kopinski. RSVP here:

Greeley School

Monday, October 14

6:30-7:30 p.m.

New Information

Monthly Observances and Celebrations - October 2024

Click here to find October’s edition of the newsletter Belonging Means…

From the District Nurse

We are seeing an increase of illnesses district wide. One communicable illness that is on the rise state and district wide is Pertussis, commonly knowns as whooping cough. Please keep your child home if they are sick. If they are awaiting test results, please keep them home until you have the test results back.

Halloween Information

Halloween Costumes

Students are invited to bring their costumes to school on Halloween Day, Thursday, October 31st. In order to maintain a positive learning environment throughout the day, all costumes will be put on after lunch (exceptions with kindergarten may apply).

The following expectations are in place for costumes:

Masks that cover most of a student's face are prohibited
Any weapons, including facsimiles, must be left at home. In the event that these are brought to school, the teacher will hold onto them for the duration of the school day
All costumes should be age-appropriate for elementary school (per school board policy)
Please consider your child's mobility when selecting a costume; we encourage students to wear articles of clothing that are not overly cumbersome

Ghost Dance

Students have been working hard in KW classes to prepare for our Annual Ghost Dance, Weather permitting, our Ghost Dance will be performed by first- through fourth-grade students on Halloween, Tuesday, October 31st. Families are invited to attend and watch our students' performances, which will begin at 1:00pm.

Please note the following:

We recommend arriving at 12:45pm to get situated
Families line up on the sidewalks surrounding the playground
The playground area itself is for students and staff only-please do not enter the playground area
Students will promptly return to their classrooms following the performance
An email will be sent to families should the Ghost Dance be canceled due to inclement weather

Car Dismissal-Your Help Needed

Please be sure to use the car placards that the PTO graciously provided (or a piece of paper) placed in your car window or sun visor to help us call students to cars efficiently. This will be even more helpful as the weather starts to turn, and we experience rain and snow. Our staff thank you for your assistance.

New Bus Card System and Bus Rider App coming soon

The School District along with North Shore Transit will be rolling out a new bus card system and bus rider app tracking system in the next few weeks. Parents of registered bus riders will receive an email with additional information. The bus passes will be delivered to each school.

Safety Month in The Winnetka Public Schools

Thanks to our First Responders who have been working with Director of Safety & Security, Ray Finnerty, and our schools to practice drills and join us for “High Five Fridays” this October. Please review the Fall 2024 Safety Bulletin, produced in collaboration with the Village, for important safety-related information.

Otus for Families

This week families received an email that included information about how to log onto Otus.com in order to access benchmarking data. If you did not receive your child’s code, please email help@winnetka36.org. For more information click here to access information about how to navigate Otus and click here to view a recording of the Winnetka Parent Institute about Otus.

Winnetka Parents Institute

The District offers regular sessions for families to learn more about a variety of topics. View the entire 2024/2025 schedule here.

Up Next:

AI Literacy Lessons for Grades 5-8

November 13, 2024

9:30 A.M.

Location: Carleton Washburne School RC

UNESCO, in their 2021 report entitled AI and education: Guidance for policy-makers stated that:

“AI is said to be a key enabler of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0)…A recent global estimate suggests that 30% of work activities could be automated by 2030. Up to 375 million workers worldwide could be affected...Meanwhile, however, AI and other frontier technologies are increasing the range of high-skill jobs that require unique creative and analytical abilities and human interactions. In short, many workers’ jobs might disappear, and they will need to develop new skill sets – upskilling or reskilling – to enable them to enter the new occupations made possible by AI. Education ministries and training providers need to anticipate these changes, equipping today’s workers and preparing new generations with the necessary technical and social job skills, to smooth the transition to a world dominated by AI, while ensuring social sustainability.”

Artificial Intelligence is “out of the toothpaste tube” and is not going back in. In response, we’ll share with parents the steps we’re taking to increase the literacy of our students of Artificial Intelligence and how we’re preparing them to be responsible users of this tool.

Interested:

RSVP here

If you missed it, view videos from past sessions:

Insights on K-8 Literacy Programming in The Winnetka Public Schools

From Winnetka’s Volunteer Center

Celebrate Make a Difference Day on October 26th by donating new and gently used baby and toddler items to Share Our Spare. Drop off items at the Indian Hill Train Station in Winnetka on 10/26 from 9am-12pm. Check out www.shareourspare.org/donate-items/ for more details. Please contact laurenswift10@gmail.com with any questions.