Author: laurac47

Parent Outreach and Support Team

Parents often have questions and challenges that can best be addressed by other parents.  The Parent Outreach and Support Team (POST) provides Irving families with a parent-to-parent connection. POST members are volunteer parents who can provide a listening ear, give advice, and help answer questions regarding school, family, or community issues. Your questions or concerns can be large or small, about school events, resources, supporting school success, or special needs of your child or family. For more information contact a co-chair:

Update from D97 on 8/1/11

Welcome to the District 97 community listerv for the 2011-2012 school year. This listserv will be used to disseminate important news and event information from the district and community. If you have questions or need additional information about any of the items listed below, please e-mail d97feedback@op97.org. If you no longer wish to receive these e-mails, please unsubscribe using the link found at the end of this message.

Launch of District 97’s New Web sites
District 97’s redesigned family of Web sites are now live. You can access them by visiting www.op97.org. The sites have several new features, including an upgraded online calendar, searchable staff directory, interactive district map, teacher Web pages and staff intranet site. There is also a brief video tour of the new site, which can be accessed via the first rotating image on the home page of the main district site.

Kindergarten Readiness Screenings
This month, all incoming District 97 kindergarten students will be asked to participate in a Kindergarten Readiness Snapshot screening. Through this screening, we will be able to effectively assess children’s skills and abilities prior to starting kindergarten, and be better equipped and prepared to meet their academic, social and emotional needs during the school year. Please click here for additional information about the screenings, including the dates, times and locations of the screenings for each elementary school.

District 97 Fee Information for the 2011-2012 School Year
Click here to access the District 97 fee information for the 2011-2012 school year, including:

  • Letter from Superintendent Roberts regarding fees
  • Payment options for all 10 schools
  • Middle school fee form
  • Elementary school fee form
  • Early childhood fee form

You can access the free and reduced lunch application by clicking here.

District 97 Digital Backpack
We have made several improvements to our digital backpack, which we implemented in January 2010 in an effort to reduce the amount of paper we use. The Web-based backpack features links and downloadable PDFs containing information from the schools, PTOs, district and community that has been distributed in a hard copy format in previous years. You can access the digital backpack for all 10 schools by visiting http://www.op97.org/digital-backpack/.

Handbooks and Policies
Please click here to access the Effective Student Behavior Handbook and Parent Handbook for the 2011-2012 school year. Please click here to access the policies that were recently adopted by the Board of Education, including the new student discipline and bullying policies.

WORM Club: Morning Reading Program Needs You

What, you don’t like worms? Not to worry, WORM Club has nothing to do with worms. It stands for Working on Reading in the Morning and has everything to do with helping Irving kids become better readers. If you or someone you know likes reading and loves kids, this prgoram could be a great match.

WORM Club is a very successful program that meets before school, Monday through Thursday at 7:30 AM. You don’t need to be available every day to volunteer. If you can only do one day a week, that’s fine, we can still use you.

Volunteers that staff WORM Club are everything from River Forest retirees to OPRF High School students who volunteer before late arrival. WORM club tries to match one volunteer with one student whenever possible so we need as many volunteers as possible.

If you have questions about this program or you are ready to help out, please contact Mr. Sak at nsakellaris@op97.org

This program is incredibly important for the students who participate in it. I urge you to pass this request on to anyone who you think would be interested in helping out.

Thank you!

Shop Online for Irving

Don’t forget to support the Irving PTO whenever you shop online! Take a look at the Donate page for more information.

The PTO will receive a percentage of your shopping total whenever you purchase from Amazon or any of 100+ online retailers. Just be sure to start shopping with the links on the PTO website first, and some sites ask you to sign up in advance. Details are on the Donate page.

Please share this information with friends and family so they can help support the Irving community from wherever they live! Thanks for your support!

PBIS

Irving School, in conjunction with District 97, is using the Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) program to help us achieve our goals. PBIS focuses on improving a school’s ability to teach and support positive behavior of all students. It is a proactive, systematic approach to prevention and response to classroom and school discipline issues. Emphasis is on developing and maintaining safe and respectful environments where teachers can teach and all students can learn.

Here at Irving School we focus on 4 essential principles to ensure that all students are doing their best inside the classroom and school. We refer to those as our Eagle Essentials:

Be Respectful,
Be Responsible,
Be Peaceful,
Be Safe,
…Everywhere.

If you have any questions about the program or would like more information please contact your teacher or Ms. Creehan at 708.524.3090 or ecreehan@op97.org.