Happy Friday!

"Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

At the end of January, you may have seen on the news a sad story about anti-Semitic flyers distributed to a neighborhood right in our backyard. If not, you can catch the story here:

https://www.whec.com/top-news/jewish-community-advocate-speaks-out-after-anti-semitic-flyers-found-in-irondequoit/

After this incident, the four East Irondequoit elementary schools decided to team up and combat this type of hate with love. Our students did a wonderful job creating valentines for our neighbors in the Laurelton area. East Irondequoit staff members delivered these valentines, complete with notes of love, compassion, and acceptance on Monday- just in time for Valentine's Day!

I am incredibly proud of the empathy displayed by our students. While we didn't go into great detail about the incident, students did understand that people in our neighborhood were wrongly judged, just because of the religion they practice. They understand that our cultural differences are assets, not something to be feared or hated. Check out the Channel 13 news story below to see our students in action!

https://13wham.com/news/local/east-irondequoit-students-show-love-for-community-after-antisemitic-incident

Have a wonderful weekend,

Dr. Bello

This summer, LP will be the recipient to some much needed upgrades through our capital improvement project. More to come on that!

For now though, one of our projects needs to start early if we are to finish on time. Our gymnasium will be receiving a new air handling unit. In order to do this work, we have to partition off half of the gym. To start, we will focus on the right side of the gym. This work will begin over February break and will take several weeks. Once the right side is complete, construction will move to the left side of the gym.

What does this mean for our students and you?!

Students will only use the left side of the gym for now. We are hoping for some great weather so we can get students outside as much as possible!

Pick-up and Drop-off changes: The location of the gym door students enter is the only thing that will need to change for this procedure. Instead of driving up to the current gym door on the right side of the gym, we will have you continue forward (towards Norton St.) until you get to the second gym door, located on the left side of the building. We will have signs and staff to help with this transition. This change will take effect Monday, February 27th. We appreciate your flexibility as we navigate this new construction.

East Irondequoit CSD is excited to announce the addition of Full-Day Pre-Kindergarten beginning in the fall of 2023. If you are interested in receiving information about the pre-k lottery, fill out the form at the following link: https://forms.office.com/r/MKDC050B6U. For more information on our Pre-K Program, visit our website: https://www.eastiron.org/page/pre-kindergarten-program or call the registration office at 585-339-1213.

The district is looking to hire teacher aides, bus drivers, and cleaners. For more information, job descriptions and to apply, click the links below:

• Teacher aides
• Bus Drivers
• Cleaners

The 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, and 5th Grade Winter Concerts are now available on the district streaming video webpage for your enjoyment. This is a great way to share theses videos with out of town friends and family. Check out the link below!

Pictures & Videos | East Irondequoit

Schedule:

3rd graders will be every Tuesday.

4th graders will be every Wednesday.

5th graders will be every Thursday.

Time: 7:30am to 8:20am

There is no transportation available, parents will need to transport children. Students can only attend the day that matches their current grade level. Sneakers are mandatory for participation in this program.

Thank you,

Jake Klossner

We have a Twitter page to keep our families up-to-date with all the happenings in physical education. Be sure to check it out!

Look for @LaureltonPE on Twitter!

Be on the lookout for these flyers in your child's backpack! The PTA needs your help and we are hoping this 'No Fuss Fundraiser' is the perfect opportunity to collect necessary funds for our activities without requiring too much from our families.

What is it? This is a way for you to contribute to our mission of providing fun events for our students, classroom support, and teacher support with very little time and effort. We need every dollar we can find at the moment. All you have to do is read below, scan the QR code, and contribute at the level which you relate to the most! 100% of the proceeds go to help the PTA fund future events and our kids/classrooms will get some fun prizes in the process!

Thank you to our school community for making this year's Glow Dance a huge success. We had a great turn out and increased our membership goals! Please enjoy some pictures from the event below.

The PTA is looking for more members!

Please click on the link below for sign-up information:

https://laurelton-pardeepta.memberhub.com/store/items/718050

There are many great perks to being a PTA member...free admission to any of our events for our members!

Kristin Hart Daly President khart@lumetrics.com

Still Needed!! Vice President

Marjorie Hart Treasurer mhart001@rochester.rr.com

Dee Villalona Recording Secretary villadee@aol.com

Our PTA email: LaureltonPardeePTA@gmail.com

Feb. 20-24: No school; February Break Week

Mar. 2: LP Spring Picture Day

Mar. 6-10: LP Spring Book Fair!

Mar. 10: Science Fair @ 7:00pm

Mar. 14: LP PTA Meeting @ 7:00pm

Mar. 16-18: EHS Musical- Sister Act!

Mar. 24: PTA Family Game Night @ 6:00pm

Mar. 29: One School, One Book starts!

Mar. 30: Field trip to Strong Museum of Play!

Apr. 3-7: Spring Recess; No school

Apr. 13: LP PTA Meeting @ 7:00pm

Apr. 14: Half day for students; Parent/Teacher conferences

Arrival procedures changing Tuesday, January 17!

I was hoping the additional cones and signage would help support a safer morning drop-off but unfortunately we still have vehicles going around cars instead of waiting in line. This jeopardizes the safety of our students.

If you are familiar with picking up your student from school than this will make sense to you! We are going to move drop-off to the same location as pick-up, by the gym doors towards the back of the building. We will still have a single file of cars but I believe this will help keep traffic from backing up to Pardee Rd. with the additional space.

A few things to remember:

*Doors do not open until 8:20am.

*Do not drop your student off early. We do not have supervision until 8:20am.

*Students should wait in your car until you pull up to the gym door. We will unload students one car at a time.

*On average, there are 35 cars during morning arrival. This should not take long once families are used the routine.

*Do not go around other vehicles. You place our kids at risk of being hit by car.

As always, thank you for your continued support in making our procedures as safe as they can be!

Email: meghan_bello@eastiron.monroe.edu
Website: https://www.eastiron.org/Domain/11
Location: 600 Pardee Road, Rochester, NY, USA
Phone: (585) 339-1370
Twitter: @LaureltonPardee