Freeland Learning Center Newsletter

Wow! What a great start to the new school year! I hope you feel the same way and that you and your student(s) are adjusting well to the daily routines. One thing that I would like to explain a little bit about is our Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports (PBIS) system. With PBIS, our goal is to ensure a consistent school-wide approach to how we teach and reinforce appropriate student behaviors to enhance our school environment. Starting this week and throughout the school year, our staff will be explicitly defining, teaching, and modeling desired behaviors all around the school, such as the hallways, cafeteria, playground, etc. A major component of any PBIS system is positive reinforcement. Here at the Learning Center, our staff recognizes positive behavior by handing out SOAR slips when students are caught making good choices and meeting the expectations outlined in our behavior matrix.

Upon receiving a SOAR slip, students will write their name on the slip and place it in their classroom container to be entered into our weekly drawings for prizes. The SOAR slips have a perforated strip to allow them to detach the name portion of the slip, while keeping the other part to bring home. If your student happens to show you a SOAR slip that they received, please be sure to ask them how they received it.

To avoid last-minute confusion and to ensure all of our students make it to their desired destinations after school, we would greatly appreciate your efforts in making any end-of-day transportation changes by 3:15 each day.

Students at the Learning Center and Elementary School are encouraged to participate in our Hats On for Cancer fundraising event on Friday, September 21st. Students wishing to participate should bring $1 to school to and give it to their teacher to wear a hat of their choice for the day. All of the money collected will go towards the Clash For a Cure Fund.

On September 1st, the Freeland Community School District unveiled a new website at the same address, www.freelandschools.net, and at the same time launched a new app for mobile phones. This app will allow you to stay up-to-date with access to real-time information from each of the Freeland schools. Please be sure to periodically check out the Learning Center's Live Feeds, News, and Events as we will be updating those items regularly. My goal is to move away from the Skyward messaging system for school-wide news and information as quickly as possible.

The app can be downloaded for free in the following ways:

Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apptegy.freeland

iPhone:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/freeland-community-schools/id1418588052?ls=1&mt=8

As a reminder, the Learning Center opens at 8:30 every day, at which time you may drop-off your child. All students arriving between 8:30 and 8:55 must wait in the gym. When the 8:55 bell rings, students waiting in the gym, as well as those on the buses, will be released to go to their classroom. The students have very quickly become independent in learning this morning routine. Thank you for your efforts in helping to make this go so smoothly!

At the end of the school day, students may not be dismissed until the buses have arrived and parked on Third Street. At that point in time, the Y5/K students exit through the doors in the north wing nearest the parking lot. Our 1st grade students are temporarily exiting the doors in the south wing so that their teachers can more easily walk them up the sidewalk to each of the buses. As soon as the 1st grade teachers feel confident in their students' ability to travel independently to the buses, they will then use the main entrance to exit the building. When that time comes, 1st grade parents will want to wait outside the main entrance to pick up their student. At the start of the year, the buses can be somewhat delayed. I realize that adjusting to this routine can be challenging and frustrating, so I very much appreciate everyone's patience with this end-of-day protocol.

Leading up to the Homecoming parade and football game on Friday, October 5th, the Freeland Learning Center will be participating in Spirit Week. To show our school spirit and our Falcon pride, students are encouraged to participate in the following dress-related themes, but they certainly do not have to.

Monday, October 1st – Neon Day (bright colors)

Tuesday, October 2nd – Pajama Day

Wednesday, October 3rd – Mismatch Day

Thursday, October 4th – Hat Day

Friday, October 5th – Falcon Pride Day (green and white colors)

School will not be in session on Monday, October 8th because we will be involved in professional learning all day.

For help on creating or using our online meal account system, please refer to the help guide using the link below.

https://www.sendmoneytoschool.com/parentManual.pdf

For lunch and breakfast menus, as well as other helpful nutritional information, please use the link below.

https://freeland.nutrislice.com/