Bobcat Blog

• Sunday, September 17: Bobcat Farmers' Market Feast (see details below)
• Monday, September 18: MAP Testing Begins
• Monday, September 25: District Closed - No School
• Thursday, September 28: Picture Day

It was great to see so many of you in person or online at the PTO general meeting last Saturday. Please be sure to read below to learn more about the meeting and election results. Congrats to all of the new board members. I am really looking forward to working with you this year.

• When picking your child up from school early or bringing them late, you need to come into the building and sign them in on the iPad in the vestibule.
• When leaving school early, your child needs to walk through the office so Ms. Cooper or Ms. Harlan see them before they enter the vestibule to meet their family member.

All fourth and fifth grade students were invited to come to the first Chorus rehearsal today to try it out. If they are interested in coming back next week, then Ms. Rosenblum will assume they are committing to being a part of this year's chorus. 4th and 5th grade families: If your child is interested in being a part of this year's chorus, please complete the form below. Thank you.

CHORUS PERMISSION 23-24

We hope you can save the date and join us at school Thursday, November 9 between 6:00 and 7:30 pm for lots of math fun! More information will be coming soon.

Hello, Beye Families,

Welcome to a new year of the Beye PTO. As you may know, we held our first general meeting of the year last weekend and it was wonderful to see so many people attend both in person and remotely. The PTO succeeds when our members participate!

Minutes from the meeting can be found HERE, but our main business was to pass a budget for the school year and elect a new board.

Congratulations to our new board members,Curtis Cox, Casey Goldberg, Michele Jurewicz, Tawny Lane, Audrey Wojtonik, and teacher representative, Ms Hosler, as well as to returning board member, Kate Boonstra. Principal Sullivan continues in her role as board member, and I thank the membership for promoting me from vice president to president.

A huge thank you to our outgoing board members who collectively have served the PTO for more than 2 decades: Alima Belconis, Colleen Burns, Chris Thomas, our outgoing president, Evan McKerns, and the amazing Mrs. Harlan. These volunteers have put in countless hours working on behalf of our community and our kids.

If you have an hour or more to give to our community, please consider volunteering for the PTO. We are always looking for volunteers for different events, and also have some larger roles we are looking to fill, including Parental Involvement Chair, Fundraising (especially BeyeWear sales and the Fun Fair), and Communications (putting together the Beye Directory). Please reach out if you'd like to learn more.

I look forward to hearing from you and to seeing you at many of the exciting upcoming PTO sponsored events: this weekend's Bobcat Farmers' Market Feast, the Dia de los Muertos celebration in October, and the Math night in November. I'm so excited that we will be bringing back Math and Reading nights, as well as other large community get-togethers, like the Fun Fair and more Parents' Nights Out.

Here's to a great year!

Molly Greenwood-Whalen

President, Beye PTO

president@beyeschoolpto.org

Do you want to get involved in your child's classroom, support your child's teacher, and get to know other Beye families? One of the best ways to do this is by becoming a Room Leader. Room Leaders help teachers plan classroom celebrations, recruit other parent helpers, work to plan teacher appreciation week events and coordinate class teacher gifts, and help foster a sense of community among families in their child's class. Thank you to those parents who have already stepped up to volunteer! We are still looking for Room Leaders in 3Chambers/Ferguson, 3Eubeler, 3Law, 1Stewart/Hiatt, 1 Banks (Bowman), KSigunick, and KMilburn. If you don't see your child's class listed here, but are still interested in being a room leader, don't despair! Many of these classes are looking for a second room leader. Ask your child's teacher if you're interested.

Student Green Team

Sign your student up for Student Green Team by 9/25, first session is Wednesday 10/4.

Open to all students!

Meets bi-weekly during lunchtime for the duration of the school year.

https://forms.gle/6pHBx9Jf22GTqzrj7

LUNCHROOM SORTING MONITORS NEEDED- ONE HOUR PER MONTH

Once per month, for one hour (11:40-12:40), help direct students on how to sort their lunch into compost, recycling, food recovery (community pantry collection) and landfill waste in order to support Beye’s zero waste efforts.

Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E49ADA92CA4FBC70-lunchroom#/

GotSneakers Shoe Drive

Bring in your used gym shoes for recycling and help prevent them from ending up in the landfill. The Beye School PTO gets funds in return for the shoes collected. Learn more at

https://gotsneakers.com/

Brookfield Zoo Fall Recycling Event

Saturday, September 30, 2023

9am-2pm

They will be collecting electronics, textiles and used books, and more. Please see link for more details.

https://czs.org/FallRecyclingDay

Thank you,

Lauren and Kara

For anyone who doesn't know, Beye has an award winning Green Team! Additionally, I am excited to share that last year the Green Team added a student green team! This came as a result of students wanting to be involved.

If your child would like to participate in the Student Green Team, open to all ages, please complete the form below. The Green Team leaders would like families to complete it by September 25.

Beginning in October, students meet on Wednesdays during their lunch time. They still participate in recess on those days.

https://forms.gle/6pHBx9Jf22GTqzrj7

Thank you to the Beye PTO Fitness and Nutrition Group for this exciting opportunity.

Bobcat Farmers' Market Feast is being hosted by the PTO on Sunday, September 17 from 2-4 pm at Beye on the back patio. We're asking families to respond by September 11 so we can get a head count for guests.

Here is the link to the RSVP for Bobcat Farmers' Market Feast:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScFjmHacagWkd9LvcSg6P0qzje0vpPz1FIs3h-9uSvAjLXPmA/viewform?usp=sf_link

Thank you for taking a peek and signing up!

There are still a handful of p.m. session spots available for early childhood blended classrooms at Whittier Elementary School for the 2023-24 school year!

District 97 is seeking students who:

• Are non-IEP students who will be between the ages of 3 and 4 years by Sept. 1, 2023;

• Demonstrate age-appropriate language and social skills;

• Are Oak Park residents;

• Are not enrolled in a preschool program.

Click here to apply to the 2023-24 Early Childhood Blended Program>>

For more information about the Early Childhood Blended Program, including please visit https://www.op97.org/teach-learn/ecblended. The program flyer can be viewed here.

If you have any questions, please contact the district's early childhood coordinator, Michele Suedbeck, at 708-524-3134.

Join the 'Beye School Families' Facebook Group to connect with other Beye families and stay in the know about upcoming PTO events/programs

Report Card Dates for 2023-24 School Year

Student learning and accomplishments are reported regularly and in a variety of ways by District 97 schools. The report card, which is issued each trimester, is one of the ways we report student progress. This year’s report card dates are:

• Dec. 8, 2023 (Trimester 1)

• March 22, 2024 (Trimester 2)

• June 4, 2024 (Trimester 3/Last Day of School)

You may also receive information about your child’s progress through standardized test reports, assessments, progress reports, phone calls, personal letters, portfolios, exhibits of student work, and/or family-teacher conferences. Our fall conferences will be held Thursday, Oct. 26, and Friday, Oct. 27. Additional details will be shared by your child’s school.

CLICK HERE to view the updated 2023-24 school calendar. >>

The Beye PTO will soon be moving away from using Konstella as a means of communication. They will be using google instead. They are working on building out their database of family emails for communication this year. With your approval, please take a minute to record a family email or two that the PTO can use for Beye communication this year.

If you have a Konstella account you do NOT need to submit your email as the PTO will migrate contacts from Konstella to Google.

Beye PTO Brief Communication Survey (If not a part of Konstella, please consider completing this so the PTO captures emails for communication)

District 97 remains committed to maintaining safe and healthy schools. We continue to work in partnership with the Oak Park Department of Public Health, following guidance set by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH).

When should a child remain home from school?

Staying home if you are ill is essential to keep infections—including the virus that causes COVID-19— out of schools and prevent spread to others. Please visit the District 97 Health Services page for more information about when to stay home. If you have specific questions, please contact your school nurse.

COVID-19 Guidelines for 2023-24

Following IDPH guidelines, individuals who test positive for COVID-19 must stay home for five days after the first day of symptoms or testing positive (Day 0). They may return to school on Day 6 if:

• They are 24 hours fever free with no fever-reducing medication AND

• No diarrhea or vomiting for 24 hours AND

• Improvement of other symptoms.

Masks are strongly recommended around others for five days (through Day 10). Per local guidance, anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 should also complete Oak Park Department of Public Health's Positive at Home COVID 19 Test form.

For more information, please visit: COVID-19 Guidelines for D97 Students and Staff

My apologies for not getting this message out sooner. When it is raining (not just misting) or if it is below 15 degrees temp or windchill, students will enter the building before school instead of waiting in line for their teacher. Students will come in their regular entry doors. Kindergarten, second and fourth grades will head to the auditorium. First, third and fifth graders will head to the Commons (lunchroom.) Some staff will have signs to remind and direct students to those locations where supervisors will be waiting for them. Homeroom teachers will then pick them up to head to class. If your child is having a tough time, you may bring them to the front office, and we can have someone escort them to the proper location.

From the District on August 18

The district sends periodic text notifications from the short code phone numbers 79041 and 87569. You may opt-in to text messages from your school at any time by sending YES to these numbers. You must have your phone number on file with your child's school to receive text messages. Once you opt-in, BrightArrow will send you a confirmation that your phone number is opted-in.

Consider signing up as we use this communication weekly to remind families about Wednesday’s early dismissals and when necessary for things like bus delays.

See the flier below for details. For more information including pricing, email:

jodiwalkerspeech@gmail.com

The breakfast and lunch menus for our elementary and middle schools are available at http://www.op97.org/business-office/food-service. During the 2023-24 school year, students may:

• Bring a nut-free lunch from home.
• Order school lunch.

Free and Reduced Lunch Application
Students may receive meals at a free or reduced cost either by being directly approved by the State of Illinois OR being approved after completing the 2023-24 Free and Reduced Lunch Application (English/Spanish). All families who are directly approved by the state will receive an approval letter by email. If you feel your student may qualify for free or reduced priced meals but are not directly approved, we encourage you to complete the application as soon as possible Please visit https://www.op97.org/business-office/food-service for more information.

Cheryl Sullivan

Beye Principal

csullivan@op97.org

Location: 230 North Cuyler Avenue, Oak Park, IL, USA
Phone: 708- 524-3070
Twitter: @MrsSullivand97