Central Hub

Dear Central Parents,

Like many of you, this is my favorite time of year! Autumn is the perfect season for my favorite things.... cozy sweaters and socks, seasonal coffees in decorative cups, pumpkin flavored foods, campfires with smores, golden colored leaves, and increased family time.

However, for many, during a regular year and not one still being impacted by the pandemic, it can be stressful. As educators, we are aware of this as we teach and care for your children. During this time of year, if you have concerns, I encourage you to reach out to one of the following people: your child's teacher, our school counselor, Mrs. Slavens, or me, Mrs. Thacker, because we truly want to be a support for you and your children.

Overall, fall becomes a time where we pause to be thankful. I am truly grateful to serve as the principal of Central Elementary and have incredibly supportive families, like you! My hope over the next couple of months is to continue to be intentional in getting to know our parents even better. Please feel free to stop in the office or talk with me in the cafeteria.

As I close, please know I am here for our parents, students, and staff via email at jthacker@plainfield.k12.in.us or a phone call.

Sincerely,

Julie Thacker

Principal

Hello Central Families!

he PTO has some fun events coming up this month!

We are so excited to bring the Book Fair back! The week of November 15-19

Students will have the opportunity to shop the Scholastic fair in person during their usual library special class as follows:

MONDAY: Feasel, Todd, A. Johnson, Hackleman, O'Conner, Menser

TUESDAY: Mosier, Roach, M. Johnson, Weaver, Pagels, Tobey

WEDNESDAY: Schroeder, Stultz, Maple, Mitchell, Szepski, Gibbs

THURSDAY: Harris, Carmichael, Laswell, Hess, Reister, Richard

FRIDAY: Makeup Shopping 9am -11am

FALL BOOK FAIR NOTES:

- Students can shop with cash, check (to Central PTO) or E-Wallet.

- E-Wallet links can be shared with family to add additional funds. E-Wallet funds not spent at the fair are converted to Scholastic Gift Card for online purchases. Set up at https://www.scholastic.com/bf/centralelementaryschool46168

- No Sales Tax is charged on PTO Book Fair Sales!

- To eliminate coin change, sales will be rounded to the next dollar unless exact payment is provided. Round-Up change will be used to purchase books for students in need.

- Class shopping only; no morning shopping.

- Please be flexible with shopping lists as Scholastic cannot guarantee inventory of specific titles at this time.

We are having another fundraiser with uPaint Pottery November 17-19. This is a great opportunity to have your kids make holiday gifts for grandparents, aunts/uncles, baby sitters, anyone! It is also a fun way to spend time with your family.

There are two ways to participate and earn money for Central.

Paint in Studio: Go in during our three day event and choose your painting projects. At checkout tell the uPaint staff member that you are painting for Central Elementary and 20% will come back to us.

Pottery To-Go: Stop in-studio or order online. uPaint will package your pottery, paints, and brushes for you to pick-up and paint at home. When done, drop your pottery back at the studio for firing. At check-out, place Central Elementary Fundraiser in the comments to donate 20% of your purchase back to Central.

We look forward to serving Central’s staff, students and families this year with you!

Nicole Rongo, President; Bree Setterlof, Vice President; Connie Burns, Secretary; Karen Cravotta, Treasurer; Laura Miller, Financial Secretary

Attendance- Please do not send your child to school if he or she is sick. If you need to report an absence, you must call the school main office number at 317-839-7707. We know quarantines are likely to happened this year. Our number one priority is the safety and well-being of your child. We will be here to support you if your child is unable to attend school.

• PowerSchool and Emergency Contact Information-If your child becomes ill at school, we must be able to contact someone to pick up your child. Please make sure all your information and the information of anyone who you permit to pick up your child is up to date.

• Tardy- if your child comes to school after the 8:50 a.m. bell, you must walk the child into school to sign them in at the front desk. Do not drop them off on the curb if you are late. If you are late due to an appointment, please walk the child into school to sign them in and you can bring the doctor’s note to mark that in PowerSchool as a medical appointment.

• Picking up early- If your child has to be picked up before 3:45 p.m., it will be marked as Leave Early in PowerSchool. You are asked to send in a note to your teacher and call the front office if you will be picking up early. You must walk into the school, show your ID to the secretary, and sign your child out.

• Prearranged Absence- If you know that your child will miss school due to a pre-planned vacation, medical procedure, etc, you are asked to fill out the pre-arranged absence form. See the link below.

Every school has an RN full time on staff. We are fortunate to have a school nurse. Our nurse administers medication, does vision and hearing screenings, all on top of taking care of your children at school. If your child has a medical condition or takes prescription medication during school hours at 317-838-3652.

Medications and over the counter medicine- Please note all medication must be delivered to school and picked up from school by a parent. Medications must be in their original packaging; prescription medications must include documentation of the student as the person to whom medication was prescribed (i.e. prescription label).

• Asthma Paperwork- please contact our school Nurse for the form.

This year, your child will be given a computer to use while at school. In the event of a quarantine, we will make sure your child has a computer to take home in order to continue with school work. You may be asked to complete computer condition document when you come to pick the device.

If you need any help with school supplies at any point in the year, please reach out to our school counselor, Mindy Slavens. We have had many donations and are glad to help support your child's learning any way we can. She can be reached at mslavens@plainfield.k12.in.us

We are still updating our calendar for this year, but I am sharing our Central Elementary Parent Calendar. I am hoping this will help you to have all our important events at your fingertips.

(Disclaimer: Every phone is different. If you have a Google calendar, it will work for sure; others will have different steps to follow, but your phone should prompt you.) Note - for Google, you need to be on a computer to add the calendar.

Link to VIEW ONLY the Central Elementary Parent Calendar

https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=plainfield.k12.in.us_k4mb22sskfrkul9o8017a6fovc%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America%2FNew_York

We need you! Help students with fun hands-on learning at The Imagination Lab. Learn more and sign up at "Volunteer @ The Lab" on our website (https://www.plainfield.k12.in.us/o/the-imagination-lab)

Providing a safe arrival and dismissal system is extremely important to all of the staff at Central Elementary. To achieve that, Central utilizes a number system when dismissing our car rider students.

Car Rider Request Form-In order to have your child picked up by a parent or guardian after school, you will need to fill out the 2021-2022 Car Rider Number Request Google Form.

If you are a driving or picking up your children from school, please look at both links below to understand our process.
2021-2022 Car Rider Video Directions
2021-2022 Written Transportation Directions

Add/Cancel Bus Service- You will need to fill out the Transportation Data Form to add or cancel bus service.

The MyStop app is a great way to follow your child’s bus, and it is installed on all Plainfield school buses except Bus #20, #25, and #46. These are new buses that transportation has been working to get the system installed.

• The link to download and sign up for MyStop can be found here: https://www.plainfield.k12.in.us/page/transportation

1. Download Versatrans My Stop App in App Store or Google Play.

2. Select Plainfield Community School Corporation (Indiana)

3. Enter Username -Students ID number (if you do not have this contact the office)

4. Password- student’s birthday in this format: MMDDYYYY

5. If there are multiple students that are linked with that family through PowerSchool they will find each student there.

The following information is from our handbook:

If your child is to go home a way different than their normal arrangement, you must send in a note to the teacher with instructions as to how the child is to go home. We will not allow a child to go home a different way without a note.

Please make these arrangements before school or by 1:00 p.m. at the latest. Children will NOT be allowed to ride a different bus to or from school. All children have assigned seats on the bus.

If you call requesting that your child become a car rider, you are required to come into the

school office to sign out your child no earlier than 3:45 p.m. Your child will be waiting in the office lobby until you sign them out. Signing your child out prior to 3:45 does affect your child’s attendance, as it counts as a partial day present.

If you call requesting that your child ride a bus home instead of being a car rider, we will need to verify that we are speaking to the child’s parent/guardian by asking certain questions or through caller ID on our phone system. To make this smoother, please call from one of the phone numbers that you have registered with our school as contacts.

Finally, please note that e-mail notifications of changes for the end of the day ride home are not accepted. We are not able to ensure that the email will be read in time.

Have you moved recently? If your child rides the bus, we want to make sure your child is picked up on schedule and dropped off safely to your home. If you have changed addresses since you did the online registration in PowerSchool, we will need to have you fill out a Transportation Data Form so we can pass the information to the transportation department so your child's bus route can be updated. Please return this form to the main office as soon as you can, so the appropriate changes can be made. Call us if you have any questions!

The YMCA runs a before and after school program at Van Buren.

The program is run independently from the school so click the link below for information on how to sign up your child.

In addition, there are several daycares that bus kids to and from Central that include ABC Daycare, Living Christ for Kids, Kids Connection, Children of America, Beginning Steps and Kindercare.

Plainfield Community School Corporation will continue to participate in the USDA Temporary Federal Food Waiver that has now been extended through June 30, 2022. This program offers free breakfast and lunch meals to all students, based on the following requirements:

• Students must take the required reimbursable meal components in order for it to be free. These components will be posted in each cafeteria, and school staff will help students with the selection.

• Not all food options are free under this program.

  • Extra items (such as a bottled drink), a la carte items, or vending machine snacks

  • In order to purchase these extra items, students will need to have adequate funds in their meal account

• Free meals are automatically offered to all students regardless of income, and you do not need to complete any forms or paperwork for your child to receive the free options.

The Plainfield Community School Corporation uses the PowerSchool Parent portal, which gives you access to your child’s grades, lunch account balance, bus schedule, and registration for returning students for the next school year.