Skillin Newsletter from Principal Connolly (Mid-October)
Hello Skillin Families!
Thanks to all who attended our Family Information Night and PTA Ice Cream Social on October 5th. We had a great turnout and are grateful to the South Portland Fire Department and Slugger for helping to make the event fun for everyone!
Here are some links to information that was shared at Family Information Night:
PBIS - Positive Behavior Interventions and Support
Attendance
Standard Response Protocol for School Safety
Assessments
At the beginning of October, Erica Mazzeo, the Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment for the school district, sent a message regarding upcoming assessments that all students in South Portland participate in. Over the next two weeks, students at Skillin will participate in testing. Teachers will use this data from these assessments to help plan for instruction and interventions if needed. If you have any questions about these assessments, please contact your child’s teacher or Mrs. Connolly.
3rd and 4th grade students will take the Maine Through Year Assessment for Reading and Math
K-2 students will take the NWEA Measure of Academic Progress (MAP) for Fluency in reading and the MAP for math assessment.
Attendance
This year, one of our district and school goals is to reduce the number of students who are chronically absent, meaning they miss 18 or more days of school per year. That’s just 2 days a month and can have a big impact on student learning and engagement at school. Please contact the office and your child’s teacher if they are going to be absent. Contact Nurse Kristie if you have any health related questions. If you need support or have questions regarding your child’s attendance, please reach out to your child’s teacher, Mrs. Holt, Mrs. Connolly, or Mrs. Remsen.
Halloween Reminders
Halloween is celebrated by many Skillin families but not all. We do not celebrate Halloween, or other holidays, in school. Students may learn about holidays as part of the curriculum, but we do not have school-wide holiday celebrations. As Halloween approaches, we have a few reminders:
Please do not send your child to school in costume.
Please do not send candy or Halloween treats into school for your child to distribute.
Picture Retake Day - Tuesday, November 14th
Picture retake day is scheduled for Tuesday, November 14th. To order pictures, go to www.mylifetouch.com and enter the Picture Day ID: EVTCSWZMS or your child’s Student ID.
Upcoming Dates
Wednesday, October 18th - Early release, dismissal at 12:40pm
Tuesday, October 24th - Boundaries and Configurations community forum at Red Bank, 6:00pm
Thursday, October 26th - Playground committee meeting, 6:00-7:00pm in library
Friday, October 27th - Fall Clean up day November 6th - 17th - Fall Conference window
Wednesday, November 8th - conference evening
Thursday, November 9th - PTA meeting, 6:00-7:00pm
Friday, November 10th - No School - Veterans Day
Tuesday, November 14th - Picture Retake Day
Tuesday, November 21st - Early release, dismissal at 12:40pm
Wednesday, November 22nd - Friday, November 24th - no school
PTA Updates
Our PTA is hard at work and in the midst of their fall “No Frills Fundraiser”! So far, $2756 has been donated by 30+ members of the Skillin community! This is over halfway toward their $5000 goal! The fundraiser goes until the end of the month - please consider donating to help raise funds to support field trips for our students!
The PTA is also publishing a student directory. The Student Directory is a voluntary directory of contact information for Skillin students by grade. The Student Directory allows families to connect with each other (think birthday invitations or making plans for play dates.) The school can not give out this information, the directory is optional and will only be distributed to those who choose to participate. You can customize exactly which information you choose to share. Complete the PTA Student Directory Form for each student you have at Skillin Elementary to include them in the directory. Complete the Form
Community Support for Holidays
The Community Partnerships Office for South Portland Schools has resources to help support families with holiday and winter clothing needs. If you have any questions about this, please contact Gretchen McCloy at the district level at mccloygr@spsdme.org or Shana Holt, Skillin school counselor at holtsha@spsdme.org.
Holiday Application (pdf) or google doc here to ALL SPSD families.
Applications due Nov 1.**
Families need to fill out this application for EACH CHILD in their family (ex: if they have 3 children, they will fill it out 3 times, once for each child in their family).
