Friday, January 20th Family Update

Happy Friday and happy Lunar New Year weekend O’Dea Core Knowledge Elementary families!  It was a bit of a wonky week for us and hopefully you were able to enjoy some time outside for our snow day this week.  For me…it was a great day to get outside and tap into my Midwestern shoveling skills…get caught up on some work…and get a little cross-country skiing in at City Park as well. 

As we continue to enter into our winter season, please ensure that your child is dressed appropriately for playing outside for recess.  We do go outside if it “feels like” above seventeen degrees and it can make for a chilly experience if students do not have appropriate winter gear on.   On a winter gear note…if you cannot find your child’s winter coat…there is a really good chance that it is in our lost and found.  There are so many coats in our lost and found that it looks like the sale rack at TJ Maxx!  If you are missing a coat, please have your child check the racks located in the hallway by the library.

Next week we are hosting our next lockdown drill.  We will host it on Thursday, January 26th, at 10:00am.  Our teachers are sharing the date/time with the students so that they are not surprised, and we do our best to explain the value of this activity in a child friendly manner.  Being prepared for emergencies is key…and we practice so that we can respond quickly and meaningfully as needed. 

Last week I attached our budget survey for families, and I am reattaching it here Parent survey 2023.docx  to continue to collect your thoughts.  We hosted our winter School Accountability Committee meeting last Thursday to start the conversation about our budget planning process for this spring.  Our hope is to have our budget approved and our staffing plan complete for the 2023 – 2024 school year by the end of March.  We will continue to share information with families along the way.  As always…if you have any questions…please feel free to reach out.

Even though today is Friday, it still feels like a Tuesday with our days out this week.  I am so grateful to have a clear day on my calendar so that I can spend time in each of our classrooms with our students.  Whether it is watching a Readers’ Theatre presentation of a Midsummer Night’s Dream in fifth grade to snugging in on the floor with our first graders during a read aloud…it is simply the favorite part of my job. I love spending time watching your children thrive at school.  I know that I have said it a thousand times…and I think that I shall say it forever…we are truly the lucky ones.

Happy weekending!

Much love and support,

Laurie

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