Note from the Nurse – Outdoor Education Trip

Dear Parents/Guardians:

The Fifth Grade Outdoor Education Trip to The Dunes Learning Center is fast approaching and the kids are getting excited. As the school nurse, I want to be sure your child is cared for in the best way possible. If your child takes any medication, which needs to be given over the course of the trip, I want you to be informed that District 97 policy requires that your physician submit an order for administration of medication for both prescription and over the counter medications. If you are planning on sending medications for administration by an Irving  staff member during the Outdoor Education trip, please have your physician fill out the Licensed Prescriber Treatment Authorizationform and return it to the health office . The form can be found for print out on the District 97 website (Please go to Parents/Forms/Medical Prescription Authorization Form). Please sign the parental/guardian consent on the bottom of the form which is required as well. All medications that will be taken on the trip should be turned into the health office no later than February 12th. If the health office already has your child’s medications and forms, please disregard this letter. Thank you for your time and please feel free to call with any questions at 708-524-3089

Sincerely,
Jamie Peterson-Strokosch, RN, BSN, CSN-IL
Irving School Nurse

Rainbows will begin next month

Dear Irving Parents/Caregivers,

When something traumatic happens in a family the entire unit is affected.  Death, divorce, separation, and other forms of loss are not just adult concerns.  Like adults, it is possible for children to experience grief in stages.  Due to the developmental process, the signs do not look the same.

Washington Irving Elementary School is proud to announce the return of the Rainbows Support Group for Children.  Meetings with a trained facilitator are scheduled to begin during the lunch hour in late February 2013.  Rainbows has a 12-week curriculum with a celebration at the end.

            Rainbows is NOT therapy.  It is a support group that allows children the opportunity to bond and share in a small, private setting outside of the classroom.  Activities include discussion about age-appropriate literature, arts and crafts, personal journal entries, etc.  Groups will be organized according to grade level and there is LIMITED space.  Please complete and return the permission slip on page two of this document by Friday Feb. 8th, 2013.  Permission slips will be honored on a first-come first-served basis.  Once 10-15 forms have been accepted no other slips will be taken. 

Kila Bell-Bey, MSW                         Lillian Aldawoodi

Irving School Social Worker          Irving Psychology Intern

708-524-5830 ext. 6150               708-524-3090

kbell-bey@op97.org                      laldawoodi@op97.org

RAINBOWS PERMISSION SLIP

Movie fundraiser

On January 26, the Oak Park Women’s Guild is hosting a movie fundraiser in honor of local resident Kathleen O’Bryan Kurrle. Kathleen was born and raised in Oak Park and has been fighting a long battle against Stage IV metastatic breast cancer that, when discovered in 2008, had already spread to her liver and bones, and, eventually, her brain. Attached is information about the event. The organization would appreciate anything you can do to help spread the word about it.

FLYER

Wednesday Journal’s Editorial Praises the Irving School and Community

Here’s to Irving School

Tuesday, January 22nd, 2013 10:00 PM

Come summer, District 97 will start in on renovations of the final four elementary school playgrounds. Whittier, Hatch, Mann and Irving schools will get the upgrades. We’re excited because we understand that a great playground is essential to a school and its neighborhood.

Oak Park voters agreed with that idea a couple of years ago when they OK’d a tax hike referendum for the grade schools by a notable margin. In that campaign, the district pledged that a vote in the affirmative would lead to continued support of arts and music curriculum, a long-delayed investment in the basic systems of the school buildings, and an investment in technology and in playgrounds.

While some revisionists have suggested that new playgrounds are a luxury and that the school board is throwing around taxpayer funding casually, we disagree. We’re getting just what the school board promised, and we believe in the power of recess, of exercise, of social learning on a playground.

What we are most excited about is that finally Irving School is going to get rid of that dangerous and hideous ocean of blacktop that defines the school for anyone passing by along Ridgeland Avenue. By fall there will be a new playground and a soccer field. The project will be completed with funding from the school district, the Irving PTO, and, we’re confident, the park district. Now that’s a collaboration.

We’ve got a long memory and what we remember are the decades when Irving, down in southeast Oak Park, was the forgotten school in the District 97 system. It’s where older teachers went to earn out their pensions, where principals stayed too long or didn’t last long, where an acre of asphalt was considered an adequate playground.

Over the past decade-plus, Irving and its community have shaken off that stigma through hard work, true partnership between parents and the school, overdue district support and an activism in the wider neighborhood, which now sees Irving as the deserved and essential anchor of a vital community.

If there is a better place in Oak Park to spend a million bucks we don’t know what it would be. Here’s to Irving School and its new playground.

Sign-up at www.oakpark.com to get the latest news updates for Oak Park and River Forest via e-mail.

—
SEOPCO – South East Oak Park Community Organization
P.O. Box 1722
Oak Park, IL 60304-1722
www.seopco.org
seopco@gmail.com

Volunteers needed for indoor recess activities tomorrow!!!

Tuesday’s predicted cold temperatures mean the Irving students will probably be inside at recess. We need volunteers to supervise the kids between 10:45 and noon so they have the option of playing games and getting some physical activity rather than watching a movie during that time. Please click the following link to sign up!