Chestnut Elementary School

Dear Chestnut Families,

Happy Monday! We hope you all had a wonderful weekend and enjoyed celebrating World Smile Day with us last week.

• Please keep this important schedule reminder in mind for the upcoming week:

  • No School This Friday (NEOEA Day): There will be no school for students on Friday, October 9th in observance of NEOEA Day. Enjoy the long weekend with your families!

  • Read-a-Thon Progress: Our students are doing a fantastic job logging their reading minutes! Keep up the great reading habits over the upcoming long weekend.

  Thank you for your continued support and partnership. Have a wonderful week!

• Read-A-Thon Fundraiser Information:

Week 1 is in the books! 🙌 Together, we’ve already logged 35,798 minutes and raised $19,106.99 toward our goal. Haven’t registered your reader yet? It only takes a minute: https://www.read-a-thon.com/readers/r/dWKzVk/1?utm=email Keep sharing your reader’s Read-A-Thon page with friends and family to help us hit our goals of reading 80,000 minutes and raising $30,000! 📚
@Read-A-Thon #ReadRaise #MyReadathon

Together let's encourage a lifelong passion for reading!

Warmly,

Brittany Brookbank

Interim Principal, Chestnut Elementary School

Dear Parents & Guardians,

To help ensure all students get home safely and smoothly, please follow these guidelines if your child has a change in their normal dismissal routine:

• Send a Written Note: Please send a physical note to school with your student in the morning. This is the most reliable way to notify us of planned changes.

• Avoid Messaging Teachers During the Day: While ParentSquare is great for general communication, teachers are focused on instruction and cannot routinely check messages during the afternoon. As a result, time-sensitive dismissal messages sent via ParentSquare may be missed.

• Call the Main Office for Emergencies: We know unexpected situations arise! If a last-minute emergency occurs during the school day, please call the main office directly so our staff can relay the message to your child's classroom immediately.

Thank you for your cooperation and partnership in keeping our students safe!

The Chestnut PTA is a group of staff, teachers, administrators and parents who work together to help craft a fun, engaging and enriching learning environment for our students and faculty. We’d love for you to join us this year in helping to fund, organize and execute various initiatives and events for our school community.

Even if you do not want to actively participate in volunteer opportunities or attend meetings, your membership fee alone goes far in supporting PTA sponsored activities. The nominal member costs are $10 per person (or $15 for a family). Visit our PTA Givebacks store to become a member here.

If you are interested in being hands-on with the school this year, we recommend you become a member as paid members will be given priority when it comes to signups for volunteer opportunities. Here are brief descriptions of room parent roles and this year’s planned committees.

And here is a survey where you can communicate your interest in various events and activities throughout the year. Members are also invited to keep up with us on our Chestnut Elementary PTA Facebook group here.

CHESTNUT WEBSITE

Did you know that Chestnut has its own website that is full of lots of great information? We do!!! Feel free to CHECK IT OUT so you're always in the loop on everything that is going on at our school.

BEFORE SCHOOL CARE

FRIENDLY REMINDER ON OUR VISITOR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM PROCEDURES

Please review the following carefully so you will be prepared to follow the protocols associated with our new system. The new Visitu system has been set up at the main entrance. YOU WILL NEED TO SCAN IN WITH YOUR DRIVER’S LICENSE OR STATE-ISSUED ID EACH TIME YOU VISIT THE SCHOOL DURING SCHOOL HOURS.

Upon your arrival::

• Your ID (Driver’s License or state-issued ID) will be scanned into the Visitu system. During your initial check-in using the new system, please plan to allow a few extra minutes the first time you use the system.

• Once your ID has been scanned, a personalized visitor badge will be printed for you. All visitors must wear this badge at all times while in the school building.

• Visitors must return to the Visitu system kiosk to check-out when leaving the building.

Our school buildings will be utilizing the new Visitu system to screen and log all visitors entering a building during the regular school day to attend meetings, volunteer and/or pick up students (i.e., for a doctor’s appointment). NOTE: For parents/caregivers simply picking up a student for an off-campus appointment during the school day, a visitor badge will not need to be issued, however the Visitu system will still be used to log the pick-up.

We ask for your patience with the initial roll-out of this new system beginning September 15th, as we all are new users of the system as well. If you have any questions or need assistance with the new Visitu system, please feel free to ask us in the office or over email. We are happy to assist.

We look forward to the implementation of this new added security measure, and thank you in advance for helping to make our school a safer place for your children.

• October 5 - 3rd grade field trip permission slips go home
• October 8 - 3rd grade field trip permission slips are DUE TODAY!
• October 9 - NEOEA Day - No School
• October 14 - PTA meeting - 6:45 p.m.
• October 16 - Quarter 1 ends