Lilja Lions
Your BiWeekly Update from Lilja Elementary School
October 30, 2026
Lunch Menu
School Calendar
School News
Important Dates
November 4th: Early Release, Conferences. Lilja Spirt Day (Wear Red or Lilja Gear!)
November 9th: Picture Retake Day
November 11th: No School
November 18th:Early Release, Conferences. Lilja Spirt Day (Wear Red or Lilja Gear!)
November 25th: Early Release, all students dismissed at 12:15.
November 26th, November 27th, November 30th: Thanksgiving Break, No School
Lilja Mural Update!
Dear Lilja Families,
As we continue our work on the Lilja community mural, we wanted to share an update on the wonderful student contributions that are helping bring this project to life!
As a reminder, the mural is an opportunity for our community to respond to a difficult moment in Lilja’s history by creating something positive, hopeful, and lasting. Our goal is to develop a mural that reflects the values that make Lilja special: Perseverance, Respect, Inclusivity, Dependability, and Empathy.
Over the past several weeks, students have been exploring important ideas about belonging, community, and how people with different roles and strengths work together to make a community thrive. Through classroom conversations and learning activities, students have considered what it means to help others feel welcome, how small acts of kindness can make a difference, and how everyone has something valuable to contribute.
During art with Ms. Golestani, students have brought these ideas to life by creating and submitting original, inspirational drawings of their assigned members of a community garden. Just as a garden needs many different plants and living things to grow and flourish, a strong community depends on the many different people who care for it and contribute to its success.
These student-created pieces will help inspire the mural’s design, ensuring that the finished artwork reflects the creativity, perspectives, and voices of our students.
What’s Next?
Our next steps will include using students’ artwork and ideas as inspiration for developing a mural design that brings these individual contributions together into one shared vision. We will also continue planning for the physical preparation of the mural site, including necessary wall preparation and coordination of installation logistics. As we move through the design and planning phases, we will work to ensure the project is thoughtfully developed and that appropriate site preparation and protective measures are in place before installation begins.
We are grateful to Ms. Golestani for helping students engage meaningfully with this project. Most importantly, we are proud of the thoughtfulness and creativity our students are bringing to this work.
As the project continues to develop, we look forward to sharing additional updates and opportunities for our school community to participate. Together, we are creating more than a mural; we are creating a lasting reminder that everyone has a place in our community, and together, we can make something beautiful.
Thank you for your continued partnership and support!
Best,
Dr. Marscher
Exploring mCLASS to Strengthen Instruction
As part of Goal 2 of Lilja’s School Improvement Plan, we are piloting mCLASS, a benchmarking platform connected to Amplify, to explore how it can better support literacy and math instruction. We recognize that we could have communicated the rationale for this change and what families could expect more clearly, and we appreciate the opportunity to share additional context.
Both mCLASS and Renaissance provide valuable assessment data. Through this pilot, we are evaluating which platform best supports our instructional planning, targeted interventions, and progress monitoring.
mCLASS offers several features that may strengthen this work:
Detailed insight into student skills: Teachers can identify specific strengths and areas of need beyond an overall assessment score.
Actionable instructional data: Reports help teachers identify patterns, group students with similar learning needs, and plan targeted instruction.
Targeted intervention and progress monitoring: Teachers can identify students who may benefit from additional support and monitor whether interventions are effective.
Early identification of foundational literacy needs: mCLASS incorporates DIBELS measures to assess essential early literacy skills and help identify students who may need additional instruction.
Our goal is to use assessment data not simply to measure student performance, but to understand what each student needs next. This pilot will help us determine which platform best supports the instructional practices we are working to strengthen at not only at Lilja, but across NPS.
Families can learn more through Amplify’s DIBELS assessment and benchmark guide and mCLASS Home Connect, which offers resources for supporting learning at home.
PBIS at Lilja
Spot of the Month is Back!
Lilja is excited to re-launch our Spot of the Month!
Students have the opportunity to earn Whole-School Compliments by demonstrating positive hallway behavior, including walking safely, using quiet voices, and showing respect for others as they move throughout the building. This area of focus celebrates students who help make Lilja a safe, welcoming, and positive place to learn.
We look forward to recognizing our students as they show what it means to be a proud Lilja learner!
The Lilja PBIS Team
Handbook Highlight
Conferences
Conferences are around the corner!
Parent conferences are held during the fall and spring of each school year and provide an opportunity for families/caregivers and teachers to connect, share information, and discuss student progress, strengths, and areas for growth.
Families/caregivers will work directly with their child’s classroom teacher to schedule a conference time. Each family will be given one conference time unless a legal document dictates other arrangements are necessary.
On the early release days designated for conferences, all visitors attending a conference must sign in with a building administrator before proceeding to the classroom. A sign-in table will be located in the main hallway for this purpose. After signing in, visitors will receive a Visitor sticker, which must be worn during their time in the building to help ensure a safe and welcoming environment for all students and staff.
Lilja Cultural Arts
Tuesday, October 27th: All students in the 1/2 Classrooms and 2nd grade classrooms will have a visit from the Discovery Museum! Students will participate in hands-on workshops to learn more about physical properties of solids, liquids and gases. Please ask your student about it!
Wednesday, November 4th: Manguito: A Musical Journey through the Caribbean
*ALL Lilja Lions will take a cultural journey to hear music from Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
*Lilja Pride Day: Please participate in wearing Red or Lilja gear as we welcome this music group to Lilja!
Monday, November 9th: Discovery Museum visits 1st Grade Classrooms
*Students will participate in hands-on workshops to learn more about light & sound!
Tuesday, November 17th: Author Megan Litwin visits 4th Grade Classrooms
*Students will participate in workshops to enrich the current poetry unit, focusing on meanings and metaphors.
Lilja Costume Exchange
Want to learn more about the PTO? Have a question or suggestion?
Visit us online at liljapto.org
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Donate to the PTO
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Bullying Incident Report
Use this form to report a bullying incident.