Thoreau Park Family Newsletter

Dear Families,

We hope to see many of you at our PTA Wing Ding at the Parma Tap House TOMORROW, September 26th from 6-9pm. There will be limited tickets available at the door, so we suggest buying them online ahead of time. More information on the event PLUS the PTA sign up link are later in the newsletter. Thank you for your support!

You may have noticed a new addition to our playground area this week. Please help us by keeping the new fence gates to our playground closed during school hours!

As a reminder, we ask that during dismissal, for the safety of all students, that families do NOT park their car on W54th and exit their vehicles to try and pick up their child, or signal them to come to the main road. In addition, if you are picking up around the back of the building, please be mindful that there are areas on W51st that say "no parking" during our pick up times. The buses have been having difficulty getting back onto the road when vehicles are parked too close to the entrance/exit. Please note that next week you will see an update regarding arrival and dismissal procedures that will go into effect on October 12th!

Thank you to everyone who participated in our Fall Fundraiser, we appreciate your support and dedication to our school. Please keep in mind that order pick up will not be until the week of November 4th--more information to come!

Fall Picture Day will take place on Thursday, October 1st. Below is our access key as well as the online ordering link. Paper ordering flyers were sent home this week!

Your Online Access Key is: WPLZJF6Q

Your Online Ordering Link is: https://ripchostudio.orderphotos.online/ordering/with?key=WPLZJF6Q

Book Fair time is almost here, and we need YOUR help! Please click this link to sign up to volunteer. We are hopeful that we will have enough volunteers to be able to run the Book Fair during our Trunk or Treat event on the 24th as well.

Trunk or Treat flyers will be coming home this week. In addition, PTA will be running their annual candy drive in preparation for the event. Please see the PTA section of the newsletter for more details!

Finally, one last reminder. School doors open at 8:55--students may go to breakfast or report to their morning location (Grades 1-4 gym, K Room 113) at that time. Students should NOT be left on campus without an adult before 8:55.

Happy Friday!

Sincerely,

Ms. Kokely

September 26th: PTA Wing Ding at Parma Tap House

October 1st: Picture Day

October 2nd: Attend-DANCE (see below for details)

October 9th: NEOEA Day – NO SCHOOL

October 12th: PTA Meeting (6pm at the Parma Snow Library)

October 16th: PTA Candy Drive Ends

October 21st: Unity Day - WEAR ORANGE

October 20th-24th: Book Fair *CLICK HERE--VOLUNTEERS NEEDED!*

October 24th: Trunk or Treat (12:00pm-2:00pm)

We are excited to share that the FAST program will return to our building this year. The goal is to help connect Thoreau Park families with the resources, opportunities, and support available through FAST while encouraging more families to get involved and participate. Please click HERE to visit their Facebook page. If you have any questions regarding the program, please contact the program coordinators at: thoreau.fast@gmail.com

We are looking for Noon Monitors and Noon Monitor Subs to help support our students during lunch and recess!

Noon Monitors work 2.5 hours a day, from 11:30 AM–2:00 PM. This is a great opportunity for retirees, parents with school-aged children, or anyone looking for a part-time position during the school day. Please share with your family and friends—we would love to add some amazing people to our Panther team! Interested in learning more or applying?

https://www.applitrack.com/parma/onlineapp/default.aspx?Category=Support+Staff&subcategory=Noon+Monitor

We have lots of fun planned!

• 🎡 Mystery Attendance Days | Sept. 14–30: On surprise days, classrooms with 100% attendance will get a chance to Spin the Wheel for a classroom prize!

• 📝 Parent-Student Attendance Contract: Families who return their signed contract will be entered into a raffle for Thoreau Park Spirit Wear!

• 🎨 Attendance Coloring Contest: Students can participate in our optional coloring contest. Entries are due September 28, with a winner selected from each grade level. Winners will receive Lunch with the Principal + Thoreau Park Spirit Wear!

• 🎉 Attendance Spirit Week | Sept. 21–25: Get ready for a full week of fun spirit days!

• 💃 ATTEND-Dance | October 2: Panthers who have 90% or better attendance from September 14th –30th will be invited to our special ATTEND-Dance celebration!

Attendance Coloring Contest!

Students received a Thoreau Park Attendance Coloring Contest sheet and are invited to participate in our optional coloring contest! All completed entries are due September 28, and one winner will be selected from each grade level! Prizes: Winners will receive Lunch with the Principal AND Thoreau Park Spirit Wear! If your child is participating, please make sure they return their completed coloring sheet to school with their name, room number, and teacher’s name written on the back. We can’t wait to see our Panthers’ creativity as we celebrate Attendnance at Thoreau Park.

Attend-DANCE- October 2nd

We’re celebrating our Attendance HEROs with a special Attend-DANCE on Friday, October 2!

Students who achieve 90% or higher attendance from September 14th to September 30th will be invited to join the fun! This special celebration is our way of recognizing students for showing up, being ready to learn, and making attendance a priority.

Help your Panther earn their invitation by coming to school every day and arriving on time!

Take the Parent Pledge – Stay in the Game!

Students will take time in class to review and sign the Stay in the Game Student Pledge this week.

Now, we invite our parents and caregivers to join them! Take a few minutes to review the pledge with your child and complete the Parent Pledge. Parents—take the pledge here:
Complete the Stay in the Game! Parent Pledge

By taking the pledge, families and students are making a commitment to show up, be on time, and make every school day count. It’s a simple way for our Panthers to show that they are ready to Stay in the Game!

Let’s show the Cleveland Browns that Thoreau Park Panthers are committed to being here, ready to learn, every day!

Thoreau Park Elementary will become the second school in the Parma City School District to begin composting through our partnership with Rust Belt Riders. Food scraps collected during breakfast and lunch will be composted, and the resulting compost is used as a foundation for soil blends that help grow food throughout our region. Last spring, we were fortunate to use soil from Rust Belt Riders in our own PCSD school garden spaces.

This program gives students the opportunity to see the full cycle of food—from planting and growing, to harvesting, eating, and composting. By participating in composting during their meal periods, students can better understand how food scraps can be given a new purpose and returned to the soil.

We are excited to expand this initiative to Thoreau Park and look forward to seeing our students get involved and experience the process firsthand!

Be a Thoreau Park Attendance HERO!

Everyday. Ready. On Time by 9:25 a.m.

Help us reach our goal to improve attendance by 5% this year! We’re celebrating our amazing students with the HERO Classroom Challenge:

• Daily Paws: Earned every day a class arrives on time together.

• Golden Paw: Awarded weekly to top-performing classrooms to display outside their room!

• Quarterly Rewards: End-of-quarter prizes for the classes with the highest attendance records.

Arriving by 9:25 a.m. ensures your child never misses out on the fun, learning, and morning routine. Let's work together to make every day count!

Week 4 Winners:

Earning 2 Paws:

Kindergarten: Kowalsky and Kluck

First: Badowski

Third: Hall

Fourth: Haws

Small Group: Field and Kress

Earning 1 Paw:

Second: Oleksik

Please consider joining our wonderful PTA! They do so many amazing things for our students and staff. Parents and guardians can be involved as much or as little as they wish, but we encourage everyone to become members.

Click THIS link to become a PTA member by paying online using Givebacks!

Contact PTA President, James Feils with any questions: nhlions@yahoo.com

Please see below for information on PTA's Candy Drive--a pizza party is up for grabs for the class who brings the most candy by the 16th!

We know that many families and staff are not receiving district and school communications because of data errors in PowerSchool. Because PowerSchool supplies contact information to Finalsite, the data must be corrected in PowerSchool before accurate information can flow into Finalsite. Please know that the district continues to rectify these errors, as well as any taking place within Talking Points. As they continue to do so, please utilize the following resources as a way to stay connected!

Want to see all the fun and amazing things happening at Thoreau Park? Follow our social media pages to stay up to date on school events, celebrations, reminders, PTA activities, and all the great things our Panthers are doing!

🐾 PTA Facebook: Thoreau Park PTA
🐾 X (Twitter): @PCSDthoreaupark
🐾 Instagram: @thoreauparkpcsd

Follow us, stay connected, and celebrate all the amazing things happening at Thoreau Park!

As a reminder, the safety of our students and staff are our number one priority. Please do not attempt to enter the building, unless you are buzzing in at the front doors with an ID. In addition, we are kindly asking that you do NOT park on W. 54th and exit your car to pick your child up at the end of the day.

Over the next few weeks, we will be reviewing and updating our dismissal process at Thoreau Park. Our goal is to make dismissal as safe, organized, and efficient as possible for all of our students and families.

As part of this process, we are asking all families to complete a short Dismissal Survey. The survey will help us confirm how each student gets home each day and provide us with important information as we review our current procedures.

Please take a few minutes to complete the survey for your child(ren):

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdXqbS0Um3wjJBuiElD6YDIPWxxP7MAFSh3xQ3cNTGeoJX9vQ/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=109545186427779826902

As a first step, we will also begin adding Dismissal Tags to students' backpacks to help our staff quickly identify each student's dismissal plan.

As we move through this process, we will keep families informed of any updates or changes before they are implemented.

Thank you for partnering with us to help make dismissal at Thoreau Park safe and smooth for everyone!

Thoreau Park partners with Ohio Guidestone to provide school-based behavioral health services and additional support for students. Services may include social skills support, individual, counseling, mental health assessments, behavioral health support, prevention services, and consultation and can be provided at school.

If you feel your child could benefit from additional support, or if you would like to learn more about the services available, please reach out to our Home Liaison, Mrs. Catalano. She can answer questions and help you complete a referral for your child.

📧 Mrs. Catalano: catalanoc@parmacityschools.org

We are here to help connect our Panthers and their families with the support they need!