Washington Wildcat Chat

Dear Washington Families,

If you have not already done so, please take just a few minutes to participate in the 5Essentials Survey (5E). The survey takes about 20 minutes or less, and will help us understand the conditions at our school and guide improvements. Schools need a minimum parent participation rate of 20% for scores to count toward the overall rating. Currently, Washington parent participation is at 15%. We need your help to make this count!

The survey focuses on the five “essential” areas that research has shown are key components for school success: Effective Leaders, Collaborative Teachers, Involved Families, Supportive Environment, and Ambitious Instruction. Your identity and individual survey responses will be kept completely confidential and will never be connected to you or your child. The 5E survey is sponsored by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) and was developed in collaboration with the University of Chicago.

Please keep in mind these three helpful tips when completing the survey:

• Please focus on your experiences during the current school year.

• Take care to select the correct school and community (you’d be surprised how many schools in Illinois have the same name)!

• If you have a student at more than one school, we invite you to complete a survey for each location.

Please visit this link to begin: https://survey.5-essentials.org/illinois/

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and helping to improve the environment for student success at Washington.

Best,

Angie

For decades, Peter “Uncle Pete” Zonsius collected food from fellow parishioners at St. John Brebeuf in Niles and drove to Chicago’s west side, where he handed food to people in need. The Uncle Pete’s Lunch Project was started to carry on his good works, and is now part of the Washington community’s tradition of giving back. This coming Wednesday students will come home with an empty lunch sack and instructions on filling it. If you wish to participate, return the filled lunch sack on Tuesday, March 5th. The lunches will be delivered to shelters, food pantries, senior programs, and soup kitchens as well as those in need across Chicago’s West Side and Uptown areas. Volunteers will collect the lunch sacks as children arrive at school between 8:35 am and 8:50 am at the designated door that your child usually enters through. Note that we will have a collection box in the gym for students attending Before the Bell. Lunches will only be collected in the morning.

See this flyer for details on what to include in the lunch.

Thank you for your support. Wildcats Give Back!

In the coming weeks, our staff will collaborate on the important process of creating class lists for the upcoming school year. This process is quite structured, takes various factors into account and involves many stages.

Because the placing of students in classrooms is so important, we use a very specific and detailed process for all children. We consider several criteria in making our decisions, with no one being more important than another. The following criteria are considered before placements are made:

• The total number of children in all grade level classes needs to be equal.

• Ability levels of students need to be balanced in each grade level class.

• Leadership skills and other affective characteristics need to be balanced.

• Students’ learning styles should be matched appropriately with teachers’ instructional styles.

• Some student combinations should be split for social or academic reasons.

We will also be coordinating co-teaching opportunities that may dictate how we group and cluster students in all grade levels.

If you would like to provide specific information about your child to assist in the homeroom placement selection, please submit a letter by Friday, March 22nd. Pertinent information may include the parents’ view of how the child learns best, the environment that best suits learning, peer social matches to possibly avoid, and any other pertinent details. Such information will be considered as part of our process, but final decisions about class assignments are determined by administration and teachers.

Due to the nature and complexity of this task, we are unable to accept requests for specific teachers. We ask that you please do not put our teachers in an awkward position by requesting a specific placement to them. At times, they are unable to honor a request and we do not want them to feel responsible for not being able to follow through with considerations.

Please note, any letters received after Friday, March 22nd may not be considered in the process. Our staff will spend a significant amount of time on placements, and we take the process very seriously.

Lastly, please note that once homeroom assignments are made and notifications are shared in August, we are unable to honor requests for changes. We encourage you to take the opportunity now to share your thoughts. If you have questions or feel you need to have a conversation with me that our letter method doesn't provide, please contact me as I'd rather have this conversation now than a complicated conversation in August.

• Washington School Dance - March 2

• Uncle Pete's Lunches - March 5

• No School, Records Planning Day - March 8

• No School, Election Day - March 19

Inspire all students to discover their strengths, embrace learning, achieve personal excellence, and demonstrate care. Students thrive in a rich, rigorous, and innovative curriculum delivered by highly qualified teachers. Each student learns and grows in a safe, nurturing environment. In collaboration with student, parents, teachers and the community, District 64 provides opportunities for each learner to investigate, be successful, be resilient, and become inspired and empowered as they contribute to our global society.