School Procedures

Open House and Curriculum Night

Irving School’s Open House and Curriculum Night

Thursday, September 13, 2012

➢ Classrooms with 80% or more parent attendance will earn a class prize

➢ Raffle prizes will be awarded throughout the evening

➢ Kindergarten classes will be open from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.

➢ Mrs. Schassburger’s Class will be open from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Curriculum Overview in Classrooms

6:30 – 6:55 1st Grade & Ms. VonHagel’s Class & Ms. Saliny’s Class

7:00 – 7:25 2nd Grade

7:30 – 7:55 3rd Grade

8:00 – 8:25 4th Grade & 5th Grade

** Art, Music, Physical Education, and Support Staff will be available in their classrooms/offices from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Childcare will be provided during curriculum presentations – pre-school aged children in the community room; grades K-5 in the auditorium with a movie. Students must be supervised by an adult at all times if not in childcare.

FLYER

We’ll see you there!!

Letter from Mr. Hodge

September 2012

Dear Parents/Guardians,

We have a number of students this year with severe, life threatening allergies to peanuts, all other tree nuts, as well as their products and oils. Strict avoidance is the only way to prevent an allergic reaction. For this reason we must be cautious with all classroom snacks eaten in the classroom and party foods distributed in the classroom during schoolwide celebrations. There will be a NO NUT POLICY for the following classrooms:

Kindergarten- Ms. Ricchio, Mrs. Gullo, Ms. Weigel and Ms. Arroyo
First- Mrs. Pelling, Mr. Degman, Ms. Kekatos and Mrs. Solomon
Second-Mrs. Ahearn and Mrs. Klette
Third-Mr. Gray, Mr. Sak and Mrs. Kaunelis
Fourth-Mrs. Payton
Fifth-Mr. Eng and Ms. Balicki
Special Education-Ms. Saliny

In addition, we will be implementing the following food policy concerning schoolwide celebration foods:

All food served to the students must be purchased in a store. No bakery or homemade goods may be brought into the classroom.
The teacher must be given prior notice about any food items being brought into the classroom.
All items must be sent in its original packaging with the listing of ingredients. If the list is omitted the food will not be distributed.
Labels can be read in several ways:

Nuts are listed as ingredient
The label has a “may contain nuts’ warning
A warning that the food may have been processed in a facility that contains nuts

Please be advised that our lunchroom is not a Nut Free Zone and that we offer a Nut Free Table for children with nut specific allergies. Friends of children with nut allergies may sit at the Nut Free table if they eat a hot lunch provided by the school lunch program.Parents who send a lunch from home for their child are free to pack the foods of their choice. It is our hope that families CHOOSE to not send foods containing peanut butter or nuts.

We expect to have a wonderful year at Irving with these few accommodations. Since it is easy to forget these concerns if you do not live with them daily, we will send periodic reminders. We appreciate your support and understanding.

Sincerely,

John Hodge
Principal

Letter from Mr. Hodge about Birthday Celebrations

August, 2012

Dear Irving Families,

Thank you for helping us get off to another great start! As we begin the school year, I know we all have high hopes and aspirations for what we will accomplish over the 2012-2013 school year. One of the goals we are striving to achieve as a school, a district, and a community is to improve the physical health and wellness of our children. With this in mind, and based on the district’s Wellness Policy and the feedback I have received from parents/guardians and staff, we will be excluding food from all future birthday celebrations at Irving School.

Just as we have in the past, these important milestone moments for our students will be commemorated with a school wide announcement, birthday sticker, and a birthday book signed by me.

In the classroom, gifts of small, inexpensive birthday favors such as stickers, pencils and cards will be permitted. We ask that arrangements for the delivery and distribution of these items be made in advance with your child’s teacher. You can also donate a book to the class or school library in honor of your child’s birthday that can be read on or near his/her birthday.

While food will no longer be part of our birthday festivities, it will still be served at other school celebrations such as Halloween, Winter Holiday and Valentines Day. In those cases, we will continue to encourage menu choices that reflect what we are teaching our students about nutrition and wellness.

Please call or email me if you have any questions about the changes to our birthday guidelines. Thank you for your contributions to the health and wellness of all of our students and for your ongoing support of Irving School.

Sincerely,

John Hodge, Principal, Irving School

LETTER

When & What is Form & Fee Night?

Class lists!
Eagle Extras!
Pay your fees!
Ask questions!

Form & Fee Night is Thursday, August 16, from 4-6pm. If you have not already paid your school fees and lunch fees online then bring your checkbook to Irving at this time to do so. The forms went out in the summer mailing, but some are also available on the District 97 website.

More fun than that, though, is this is when class assignment lists are posted. Look outside the school’s front door to see which teacher your child has. Note that the lists will come down that night in order to make some changes. Class lists are not posted online for privacy reasons. (Please do not share photos of a class list on Facebook or other public online setting.)

The school is open on Form & Fee night, so new families can tour around on their own and the kids MIGHT be able to peek in their new classrooms.

Eagle Extras, Irving’s after-school program, is accepting registrations starting at Form & Fee night as well. Details can be found here.

Families do not have to stay for the whole time. Just drop by and say hello while you fill out forms, ask any questions of the front office staff, and hang out with parents you haven’t seen in a while.

See you soon!

PTO Meeting Agenda for April

We hope you can join us for the April PTO meeting, which is this week on Thursday, April 5, at 6:30 in the Media Center/Library. As always, free childcare is provided.

This month the PTO meeting includes a presentation by the Oak Park Education Foundation on what their organization brings to Irving and other Oak Park schools. We will hear more about the formation of a new committee, Different Together, which is a social group offering community and support for LGBTQ Irving families, families with gender diverse children, and friends. We will discuss new wellness initiatives throughout District 97, which may have an impact on room parents and potentially on PTO fundraisers. (Click here to see the District 97 Wellness Council information, including links to guidelines and policy documents.) We will review preliminary proposed changes to the PTO By-Laws. Finally, we will accept nominations for next year’s PTO board officers, as all terms are one year (renewable up to three years in the same position). See all agenda items listed below.

We hope to see you there. If you are unable to attend and would like to discuss anything on the agenda, please contact Laura Crawford at lauracrawford47@gmail.com, Jodie Ackerman at jodiepto@yahoo.com, or any of the other PTO board members (click here for contact info).

Irving School PTO

Agenda for Monthly Meeting

April 5, 2012

6:30-8:30PM

Irving Media Center/Library

 1. Welcome

2. Presentation by the Oak Park Education Foundation (OPEF) (15 minutes)

3. Principal’s Report (15 minutes)

4. Treasurer’s Report (10 minutes) 5. Committee Reports: (30 minutes)

a. Announcement of new committee: Different Together

b. Fun Fair & Silent Auction event evaluations

c. Schoolyard Project status update

d. Box Tops update

e. Note updated activity dates on PTO calendar online

f. Other committee reports

6. Votes (30 minutes)

a. Vote to approve/deny budgeted cost of table at OPEF Staszak Dinner as support to OPEF.

b. Present new cost item for vote at May meeting: Installation of new lettering for an Irving School sign.

c. Present new cost item for vote at May meeting: Audit of PTO finances.

d. Request made by District 97 Wellness Council: Vote to approve/deny limiting PTO fundraisers at restaurants to two per school year.

e. Request made by District 97 Wellness Council: Vote to approve/deny limiting the promotion of all restaurant fundraisers so that they are not directly marketed to students.

f. Vote to approve/deny the creation of an Irving School section on oakpark.com as part of a new presence of District 97 schools.

7. Proposed changes to PTO By-Laws prior to vote at May meeting (10 minutes)

8. Nominations for PTO Officers for the 2012-2013 school year prior to vote at May meeting (5 minutes)

9. Eagle Extras update (5 minutes)

10. Approve minutes from 3/1/12

11. All other business  (Note: Teacher’s Reports will be presented every other month: September, November, January, April, May.)