Newsletter Translation
Hello Unity Families!
The first couple of weeks have been fast and furious. I wanted to take this opportunity to thank all the students and parents for making these first days a success. There have been several changes at Unity since May of 2023, and this often means that things are different, or new. I am hoping that our newsletter serves as a great source of information for all the Unity stakeholders.
At Unity, our most important job is to keep everyone safe. Therefore, I would like to share some reminders with everyone as we move into full swing.
· Breakfast begins at 8:00 AM. Please do not drop students off prior to that time. There are no staff members on duty until after 8:00 AM and students are not supervised.
· If you would like to come to breakfast with your child, please check in with the office staff. You will need your drivers license so we can enter you into our system. Once you are issued a sticker badge, you can sit with your child. After that, parents are asked to exit the building. For safety reasons, staff members are the only ones allowed in the halls.
· If students are not eating breakfast, the doors open at 8:20 AM. Please do not drop them off prior to this time. For safety reasons, we will not allow parents to walk students to class. If you feel your child has a special need, please contact Mr. Finkey to develop a plan.
I have had the opportunity to meet many of you, but still there are a lot of faces I don’t recognize. Please feel free to stop in and introduce yourself, and please know we are all here for our students, and if you have questions or concerns, please contact me.
For more up-to-date information, follow us on Facebook and Thrillshare.
Mr. Finkey
Please make sure you have completed your student's Online Verification along with any changes in addresses, phone numbers, and emergency contacts. This can be done on the school website.
If you have not paid your student's Annual Cirriculum Fees, please make sure that you do so as soon as possible. School fees are $34 per student and must be paid annually.
You should have received a copy of the Household Economic Survey from your child's teacher. It is vital that we receive this completed form from each student in order to keep the Free Breakfast and Lunch Program at Unity. If you need another copy of this form, please contact the office and we will send one home with your student. We will be contacting all families that have not yet turned one in.
Stay connected with family-friendly activities, programs, and clubs in the community through Virtual Backpack. The e-newsletter, which includes information from various Siouxland organizations, is sent out monthly to all district families. Or, view the most up-to-date lists of events and activities on the Virtual Backpack website.
Fall Picture Day at Unity will be held on Friday, September 15th! Flyers with the details will be coming home with your student very soon! Photos will be ready to order 5 days after Picture Day. You will receive a proof flyer with your student's personalized gallery, and you will be able to orders photos online at DSSchools.com
Please Note: Photos will be taken on a BLUE BACKGROUND so please refrain from wearing any shade of blue on photo day!
Uinty is part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) program which allows our school to serve breakfast and lunch at no cost to our students. Unity students will not be charged for breakfast or lunch during the upcoming school year.
A complete list of CEP schools in our district can be found on our website. If you have a student attending another school that is not a CEP school, we encourage you to complete the 2023-2024 online application for free and reduced meals. This will help ensure other students in your family receive the meals they need during the upcoming school year.
For questions or assistance with school meals, please contact the District’s Food Service Department at 712-279-6860 or 712-279-6862.
If your student brings a bag lunch to school, you must provide a drink for them or send .55 cents to purchase a milk. Unfortunately, the government sponsored free lunch program does not allow the kitchen staff to provide a milk to students unless the student takes the free lunch offered by the school.
If you have questions about how you can be a part of the Unity PTO, please email us at:
Thursday, September 7th
Thursday, October 5th
Thursday, November 2nd
Thursday, December 7th
Thursday, January 4th
Thursday, February 1st
Thursday, March 7th
Thursday, April 4th
Thursday, May 2nd
This program takes place once a month in the library from 8:20 - 8:35 am. The dates for this year will be announced soon!
with June Mikkelson
Welcome Back! It is wonderful to have our Unity Knights in the building and it's a great time to talk about self-regulation.
There are three big helpers in the brain. The prefrontal cortex helps you make smart choices. The amygdala reacts fast to protect you from danger. If there is serious danger, the amygdala will help you run, freeze, or fight. The hippocampus is like a scrapbook, saving important things like our favorite memories and our ABCs.
Learning about the brain helps students monitor and self-regulate. When the amygdala is triggered, it stops sending information to the prefrontal cortex where we make good decisions. By taking deep breaths, students can calm themselves, and reset their amygdala so that the prefrontal cortex can re-engage students’ ability to focus their attention and take control of their learning. With practice, the neural pathways used in self-regulation will strengthen making it easier the next time to reset, storing important ideas in the hippocampus.
Think of brain like an orchestra with thousands of instruments working together to make beautiful music. The wise conductor is the prefrontal cortex. The players are the Amygdala playing their feelings and emotions, and, the sheet music is the hippocampus helping us remember our notes.
Information taken from The Mind Up Curriculum: Brain Focused Strategies for Learning and Living.
Our TK & Kindergarten students exit from doors 25 and 26 (Mrs. Poulson and Mrs. Anderson's rooms). Our 1st and 2nd-grade students exit from the main entryway (door 1). Our 3rd-grade students exit from door 3 which is located behind our loading dock. The 4th and 5th graders exit from door 4 at the North end of the building. Please see the image below to assist you with this visualization. Please work with your family to agree to a common meeting place outside of the building. We do our best to limit student traffic within the building after school.
If you have a preschool child and a child in another grade level we can make special accommodations so that you can pick up all of your children at the preschool door. Please contact your child's teacher to work through this.
Should I keep my child home from school?
A common problem confronting parents of school-age children occurs when a child complains of not feeling well on a school day. What do you do?? The following are guidelines until your doctor can be contacted for an opinion.
Fever: Every home should have a thermometer. No child with a fever over 100 degrees should be sent to school. Keep the child home until free of fever for 24 hours WITHOUT medication.
Cold/Sore Throat/Cough: A child with a “heavy” cold and a hacking cough belongs at home in bed even though there is no fever. If the only complaint is a sore throat and there are no other symptoms, he or she may go to school. If white spots are present on the back of the throat or if he or she has a fever, keep the child home and call your doctor. If your child is diagnosed with strep throat, throw away his or her toothbrush and purchase a new one.
Stomachache/Vomiting/Diarrhea: Consult your doctor if the stomachache is persistent or severe enough to limit the child’s activity. If vomiting, keep home until he or she is able to keep food down for 24 hours or one day. Call your doctor is there is no improvement in symptoms.
“Pinkeye”/Conjunctivitis: If the white part of the eyes is pink or red, the child complains of a gritty feeling when blinking and has a discharge coming from one or both eyes, the child may have “pinkeye”. “Pinkeye” is highly contagious. If your child has any of these symptoms, you will need to keep your child home and contact your child’s doctor to determine when your child can return to school.
SICK CHILDREN BELONG AT HOME!!!!
WELL CHILDREN BELONG AT SCHOOL.
Have you reviewed the 2023-2024 SCCSD Parent/Guardian – Student Handbook? The handbook includes important updates to the district protocols for cell phones and vaping along with other information to help students reach their fullest potential at school. Families are encouraged to review the handbook with their students to make sure they are aware of what is expected of them as a student in the Sioux City Community School District.
Click here to view the 2023-2024 Parent/Guardian – Student Handbook.
Safe + Sound Iowa offers students and families a convenient way to anonymously report safety concerns related to our school. Trained dispatchers will share the information with appropriate school administrators and/or law enforcement so help can be given to those in crisis or at risk.
The safety of our students and staff is paramount. The District uses Standard Response Protocol or common terms to communicate our action and response to an emergency situation. The terms Hold, Secure, Lockdown, Evacuate, and Shelter are used so students, staff, and first responders understand the situation and how best to respond.
We encourage families to become familiar with these terms to better understand our school’s response and what to expect in a crisis situation. For more information on safety preparedness within the District, visit siouxcityschools.org.
Unity Elementary School
Principal: Kevin Finkey
Email: finkeyk@live.siouxcityschools.com
Website: https://unity.siouxcityschools.org/
Location: 1901 Unity Avenue, Sioux City, IA, USA
Phone: 712-279-6839
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnityElementarySchoolSCCSD/
Twitter: @UnitySCCSD
