Oak Grove News

Dear Oak Grove Parents/Guardians,

Between the months of November and January, students, teachers and parents across Illinois will have an opportunity to participate in the fourth annual statewide Illinois 5Essentials Survey. This survey is designed to generate a detailed picture of the inner workings of your child’s school. As a parent, this opportunity will allow you to share your thoughts on the important elements of school effectiveness in a survey about your child’s school.

On behalf of the Illinois State Board of Education, the Illinois 5Essentials Survey will be administered online by UChicago Impact at the University of Chicago. The survey gathers data related to five indicators that can predict important student outcomes, including improved attendance and larger test score gains. These five indicators that affect and predict school success are:

• Effective Leaders
  
• Collaborative Teachers
  
• Involved Families
  
• Supportive Environments
  
• Ambitious Instruction
  

Additionally, Oak Grove School has chosen to provide the optional 5Essentials parent survey. If at least 20 percent of parents complete this survey, a parent supplement will also be generated. The parent data will not be reported on the State Report Card.

Your participation in the parent portion of the survey will help us understand the conditions at our school and guide improvement. Your identity and survey responses will be kept completely confidential and will never be connected to you or your child.

The Illinois 5Essentials Survey will be available starting November 16 through January 16, 2017. To take the survey, please visit https://survey.5-essentials.org/Illinois/ and select the appropriate survey to begin.

For more information about the Illinois 5Essentials Survey, please visit https://illinois.5-essentials.org. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact 5Essentials Client Services at 1-866-440-1874 or 5essentials@uchicago.edu.

With Oak Grove pride,

Lonny Lemon, Ed.D

Superintendent

Hello Oak Grove Community,

In two weeks, Oak Grove will take part in the Hour of CodeTM activities as part of Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 5-11). We are delaying our school-wide Hour of Code to the week of December 19th due to the STAR testing schedule. The Hour of Code activity is a global attempt started by Hadi Partovi to encourage over 100 million students from over 180 countries to learn the basics of computer programming. Tutorials are available for students of all ages from Kindergarten to adult. Besides that activities covered during school hours, we encourage families to visit www.code.org/learn to explore the wide variety of activities that work on computer browsers, tables, smartphones, or with no computer at all. There are new Moana, Star Wars, Minecraft, and Frozen tutorials to try.

Hello! I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. Although I do not like snow, what fell on Sunday made the landscape simply beautiful! It appears winter is finally here, so I thought I would share the procedures for canceling school, in case we have inclement weather ahead of us.

The area superintendents work together to make decisions about canceling school. I work closely with the D128 high school district superintendent as well as the three other “feeder” school superintendents. Whenever bad winter weather is predicted, or occurs, we are in constant contact with each other. We also use up to date information provided to us by local weather agencies.

First, and foremost, it is our obligation to keep students safe as they wait at bus stops and travel to school. There are times when the area high schools choose to remain open, but the elementary schools cancel. However, we do try to avoid this if possible.

There is no “exact” temperature, or wind chill factor that causes cancellation of school. We make our decision based upon a myriad of factors, with each event being analyzed on an individual basis.

We are cognizant of your need to make supervision plans as far ahead as possible. We make every effort to consider this as we make our decision. If school is canceled, I will utilize our School Messenger phone messaging system first. We also will try to send an e-mail as well as update our website. Please know that those methods take a bit more time, so please don’t rely upon them as your first source of information. If your phone contact information has been changed, please inform the school as soon as possible, so that we may update your contact information on the phone messaging system.

In my 34 years in education, the decision to cancel school, or not, can be one of the most difficult. Either way, people are disappointed. Experience tells me that the most important factor is student safety, so it will be the determining factor in our local decision to hold classes, or not. Hopefully, our winter will be mild and we will not have to cancel classes.

Hello Geography fans,

This year Oak Grove School will hold our Geography Bee on December 19th at 6:00pm in the Junior High Learning Center.

Visit Mr. Henneberry’s website for registration and preparation activities.

Kiddos Catering now open for session 2 ordering! New this session – Meatheads and Luke's Pizza. There are also new menu items from Graffiti Grill, Luke's, and Potbelly: Chili, Chili Mac, Chicken Bacon Ranch Wrap, and Cheezy Potatoes from Graffiti Grill; Baked Potato from Luke's; and Meatball Sub from Potbelly. For more information, go to the virtual backpack or www.kiddoscatering.com

What She Wants Boutique -

From December 5th through the 10th please stop by What She Wants Boutique located at 200 West Golf Road, in Libertyville (inside the Advocate Condell Centre Club). They will be donating 15% of sales back to the PTO. Just mention Oak Grove at checkout. Store hours are Mon-Sat. 9-2pm, Tues 4-7. The store offers a nice variety of clothes and other gifts not found anywhere else.

Holiday Halls was a HUGE success thanks to many a volunteer & shopper!

Thank you to all who attended, volunteered & shopped!

Our Holly Breakfast was oh-so-Jolly thanks to Jen Pasternak, her hubby, & our hardworking parent volunteers.

A special call out to Mr. Farris, who never disappoints with our Choir Carolers.

Candy Cane Lane was overflowing with festive elves, toys galore & excited children!

Thank you master elf, Shannon Bilcox & her secret elf shop builders! Best wrapped door award north of 176!

Holiday Market was the best ever! Word on the street was “its an etsy shoppers dream!”

A special thank you to Tracey Schultze for securing our amazing vendors this year.

Our vendors included new & returning favorites & talented teachers who made our Holiday Market a true success. It was truly bustling with adults & children alike.

I, for one, am done with my holiday shopping thanks to OGS amazing Holiday Halls!

A final call out to our PALS & Honor Society students who helped create our new flyer,

helped vendors setup & pack up and helped our younger students & siblings shop Candy Cane Lane.

A huge thank you to all our student volunteers: Nick DeMartini, Dylan McCarty & friends, Allie & Becca Parker, Hannah Sachs, Paige & Avery Vang, Quinn Murphy, Olivia Sauers, Lily Williams, Ella Schaffnit, and Jane & Claire Arnold.

Thank you to all our volunteers for making Saturday such a huge success: Carla Braus, Christine Max, Courtney Johnson. Debbi Francl, Diana Servatius, Elizabeth O'Neil, Holly Colin, Kate Byers, Kathy Bailor, Kelly Ramirez, Lisa Stone, Lynsey Wolfe, Martin Reeves, Dana Huenneken, Melissa Sallman, Sarah Roe, Saritha Sirivol, Supriya Hukka, Susan Kirland, Tiffany Pioiolek, Jamie Evans, Christine Merrild, Candice Cleckley, Heather Glaisner, Nataliya Baturin, Robert Kaizer, Erin Fedie, Delynn Vang, Maria Roberts, Deb Townander, Renee Muehling, Erin Johnson, Eve Wallin, Julie Kloser, and Supriaya Hukku.T hey say “It takes a Village” & our OGS Village never disappoints!

Oak Grove ROCKS!

Join your Oak Grove and local community for OAK GROVE SCHOOL ROCKS AUSTIN'S! Enjoy live music from our very own Bradburys, OTR and HenneBerry while raising funds for the Oak Grove School Education Foundation. Please see the virtual backpack for more information.

Date: Friday 01/27/2017
Doors Open: 7:00PM CST

Visit http://www.ogsef.org/oak-grove-rocks to buy your tickets today!

SHOP to EDUCATE!

Now you can make your shopping pay off for the kids at Oak Grove – at no additional cost to you. Start your online shopping through the Merchant Portal on our website and your favorite stores will contribute a percentage of your purchases directly to the Oak Grove School Education Foundation. Simply click the "Support Us" tab at the bottom of our website (www.ogsef.org) and then “Shop to Support” to view over 150 great merchants in the gallery – including Amazon, Nordstrom, Target, Sketchers, Adidas, Hello Fresh, Fandango, Starbucks, Orbitz, Fanzz and much more!

The Student Council is hosting a school dance Friday, December 16 from 3:20-5:00 in the Junior High Cafeteria. Admission is a toy donation for Toys for Tots or a $10 cash donation for Toys for Tots. All toys should be unwrapped, new, and in their original packaging. Toys for Tots does not accept stuffed animals. Concessions and raffles will be available for sale in the dance. Students will be allowed to go back to their lockers after the dance to get their coats and backpacks. Please arrange to be picked up promptly at 5:00 in the junior high parking lot. Let's have some fun and do some good! See you at the dance!

Attention 6th, 7th, and 8th graders!! Keep your fingers and mind warm this winter by joining the Oak Grove Puzzle Club! Puzzle Club is a great way to connect with peers and keep busy during these cold winter months! This club meets to make puzzles and discuss puzzle strategies and tactics. It aims to give kids an opportunity to learn self confidence, perseverance, and resilience through puzzles and games! If you are interested in joining, please contact Mrs. Grambo at grambo@ogschool.org

Just a reminder while you are out doing some holiday shopping that we have two 8th grade students, Lyann Tam and Paige Vang, who have created an "Aid for Women" drive. They are collecting supplies for women who either find themselves facing unexpected/difficult pregnancies or may need help providing for their toddlers and infants.

Donation boxes are located in the Elementary and Junior High offices from December 5th to December 22. Suggested items: baby wipes, baby spoons, baby blankets, toddler coloring books, Walmart gift cards, size 3, 4, 5 or 6 disposable diapers, baby wash/shampoo/lotion, sippy cups, baby bottles, and baby food or cereal. All new or gently used donations are greatly appreciated!

Parents, we would like to be able to send text messages to any cell phone we have on file. Sending text messages to parent cell phones would be used very rarely for things like emergencies, school closings, and bus situations that need timely contact.

FCC law prohibits us from sending text messages in bulk without parents opting into the program. If you would like to be able to receive texts from the school, please send "y" or "yes" via text message to 67587. You must do this from a phone number that we have registered for you in PowerSchool.

On Tuesday, December 13th at 10 AM, if have NOT yet opted in, you will receive a message from 67587 requesting that you opt in. This is the only opt-in message you will ever receive. The message will read: "“Oak Grove School text messages. Reply Y for aprx 3 msgs/mo. Txt HELP 4info. Msg&data rates may apply. See schoolmessenger.com/tm.” Please keep in mind that this is stock text; we do not plan to send any set number of messages per month. We will only use this to contact you for the types of reasons specified above. Thank you for your help.

Please click HERE to view the flyers in our virtual backpack.

Click HERE to view Board Agenda and Minutes

Email: boe@ogschool.org
Website: www.ogschool.org
Location: 1700 S. O'Plaine Rd. Green Oaks, IL 60048
Phone: 847.367.4120