Washington Woods Family Newsletter

Website: https://wwe.wws.k12.in.us

Location: 19750 Grassy Branch Road, Westfield, IN, USA
Phone: 317-867-7900
Facebook: Washington Woods Facebook

We are looking forward to another full week of learning, growing, and connecting at The Woods!

This week, our 3rd graders will have vision screenings, and our 2nd graders will be heading out for a field trip. We also have several other exciting things happening around school:

• Tuesday: PTO Meeting — Mrs. Agee will kick us off with a short presentation about what it means to be a Title I school and what that means for our students and families.
• This week: Our Enrichment Clubs will begin! Please be sure to check out the important information below if your child is participating.
• Friday evening: We hope to see you at our Family Luau Foam Party! We are looking forward to a fun night together with our Woods families! Thank you for organizing PTO!

Lots of good things happening this week! We are excited to learn, grow, and enjoy it all together.

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Rock Strong Award Nominations

We are so fortunate to have an amazing staff at Washington Woods, and we would love to help recognize the people who make a difference for our students and families.

Rock Strong Award nominations are now open! If there is a staff member you'd like to recognize for the impact they have made, please use the link below to submit a nomination. We can't wait to celebrate the amazing people who help make The Woods such a great place to be!

Rock Strong Award Nomination Form

Fast Lane is going well so far!

• Family members picking up your children need to be added as a View Only Parent for the dates they are picking up. They will be able to access the app and scan the QR code.
• Please remember, you need to have the app open when we come by with the QR code. You are scanning from the app.

It is almost time for Enrichment clubs!! You should now be able to see club options as a dismissal exception option in School Dismissal Manager. Please add your club as an exception to your child's regular dismissal plan. Even if you are normally BAC, please put the exception in for the club, then add in the notes that they can go to BAC when the club ends.

If your child is registered for and attending a club such as Helping Hands, Choir, an academic team, or an enrichment club, you will need to enter the appropriate exception in School Dismissal Manager so we know your child should go to their club instead of following their normal dismissal plan. Please only enter a club as an exception if your child is officially signed up for that club.

This helps ensure they are dismissed to their club as planned.

If an Exception is not entered, your child will be dismissed according to their usual dismissal plan. Thank you for helping us make dismissal run smoothly!

Attendance Procedure

Please use our new School Dismissal Manager app to enter absences, late arrivals, and early dismissals. When you use the SDM app to enter your absence, please include the reason. Once the absence is entered in the SDM app, you will not need to email or call the attendance line.

Traveling for a family event?

If your child will be out for an elective absence—such as a vacation or sports event—those absences are considered Excused if:

• Your child has fewer than 7 total absences, and

• You notify our office at least 2 days in advance.

If you have any questions about your child’s attendance, please reach out to Becky Garver by email at garverr@wws.k12.in.us.

Monitoring Attendance

Please refer to the Elementary School Handbook on the District Webpage for details of attendance policies.

We will be monitoring attendance this year. Students who have missed five, nine, and/or fifteen total days or more during the school term will be informed in writing. As this is cumulative throughout the year and not within one single grading period, this may not require further action unless otherwise indicated.

We are also reaching out to families who have students who are tardy to school more than 5 times.

We want to partner proactively with families this year to assure our students are at school as much as possible! Please let us know if you need support in any way.

Please note, our Chronic Absenteeism trend is going up. Chronic Absentee refers to a student who has been absent 10% or more of the school days during the scholastic year. (Indiana Department of Education)

Voting is one of the most important ways we participate in our community and our democracy. As a school district, we believe in preparing students to be engaged, informed citizens, and we encourage every eligible member of our community to exercise that same civic responsibility.

The deadline to register to vote in Indiana for the November 3 General Election is October 5, 2026.

Whether you need to register, update your registration, or simply check your voter registration status, visit IndianaVoters.in.gov.

Be informed. Be engaged. Make your voice heard.

Hello Washington Woods Families!

We still have two resources open if you are needing weekend food assistance or a one-time home supplies kit!

Our Shamrock Care Kits provide basic household and hygiene essentials, including laundry detergent, dish soap, deodorant, bath soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and more. Please note, Shamrock Care Kits are a one-time resource, with one kit available per family.

If you are interested in this resource, please do not hesitate to reach out to me either by phone or email.

johnsonsa@wws.k12.in.us

317-867-7900 ex. 19006

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Weekend Food Program Beginning Soon!

The Weekend Food program will begin in September! This program allows students to bring home a bag of food each Friday, containing non-perishable breakfast and lunch/dinner meals for the weekend. For a little more information about the BackSack program, click HERE.

If you would like your child to participate in this program, please click on the link below to complete the Google Form.

Weekend Food Sign Up Form

Interested in supporting the Weekend Food program?

Open Doors of Westfield partners with our schools to support our students and families. Approximately 800 bags of food are distributed district-wide each month, so that's a whole lot of applesauce, ravioli, and granola bars (among other items)!! To make this happen, they rely heavily on the support and generosity of our community. Want to pitch in? Go to https://opendoorswestfield.org/ to find out how. Putting together everyone's "little bit" makes a BIG difference!

We are now welcoming Lunch Visitors!

Please sign up for only ONE visit per month and only one family member may visit at a time. *If you have a special need to have multiple visitors, please reach out to the office so we can check available space. Visitors MUST have a SafeVisitor registration on file.

Please do not bring outside food to share with anyone other than your child. We do not allow sharing food in the cafeteria.

We allow 4 visitors per grade level, per day for lunch. Due to limited space and some overlapping lunch times, visitors might be sitting at their child's table. All visitors must enter through Door 1 and check in and check out at the main office prior to going to the cafeteria. Visitors must stay in the cafeteria during their visit; they are not allowed to go back to the classroom or recess with the student. Use the link below to make your lunch reservation.

Sign Up on the Sign Up Genius below:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0545A9AA28A5F4C34-65506711-wwes

Lunch time portal is the place you can manage your child's lunch account, including putting money in the account and marking restrictions to your child's lunch choices. Please make sure you also check your child's transactions. If they take two entrees, they will be charged for both.

You can find the monthly lunch menus on our school website.

Important New in this week's Shamrock Blast includes:

• Transportation is hosting a Drive the Bus event 10/3
• Parents are welcome to bookmark Rocks Media House for photos of many district-wide events
• Updated the referendum webpage

In accordance with Indiana Code (I.C. 20-34-3-12), all students in Kindergarten, 3rd and 5th grade are required to receive a near and far visual acuity screening at school. These are not comprehensive eye exams, after the screening you will be notified if it is recommended your child follow up with an eye doctor. Vision screenings at Washington Woods will occur on the following dates:

• 3rd Grade- Tuesday 10/6/2026- screenings done by Lions Club trained volunteers

• 5th Grade- Thursday 11/19/2026- screenings done by Ball State Nursing students

If you do not want your child to participate in the vision screening, please send a written note or email to southworthk@wws.k12.in.us that includes the following

• Your child’s full name

• Date of birth

• A statement that you do not wish for them to participate in the screening

** Please note if your child wears contacts or glasses please ensure they wear them the day of their screening.*

The Powerschool Parent Portal is an essential part of every WWS student's journey. Please visit and bookmark the link below for easy access. New families should have received a Parent Portal Letter via email, so please check for that (check Spam too!). You can alwaus email our Secretary at garverr@wws.k12.in.us for help. Also, you can now find your student's ID number in the upper right hand corner of Powerschool!

Log into Your PowerSchool Parent Portal Here

Mark those calendars and join us for Fall Fest on Thursday, October 29th from 6-8pm! We’ll have food trucks, cookie decorating, face painting, trunk or treat, and MORE! This is a CASHLESS event!

Contest for best trunk: Top-voted Family and Staff trunk will each win a $50 gift card! Sign up at the link below

https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/10C0A4EAFAF23A2F9CF8-66161754-trunk?useFullSite=false

We will be collecting candy donations again this year for our trunks to pass out. Be on the lookout for Dexter, ready to start taking donations, on October 5th!

Fall party volunteers are now open. Parties will be held on October 16, at the end of the day. (Approximately 1:45, but we are confirming the time. We will share exact times this week.) You must have safe visitor on file.

Fall Class Party Volunteer Sign Up

Stay in the know and up-to-date on school events and activities without ever lifting a finger. You can now subscribe to the PTO calendar on either Google or Apple! Just click the link for the format you want, and you'll always see what's ahead! Don't want to subscribe? The calendar is always viewable from the PTO website under the Calendar tab.

Subscribe to Google Calendar

Subscribe to iCal for Apple

Help local children stay warm! From September through October 15, families can donate new or gently used coats by sending them with their children to any WWS school and placing them in the collection boxes. Families can also register for the Westfield Coat Giveaway on October 31 at Crossroads Church. Registration ends October 8. Every coat helps a local child in need!

Register for Coats