PES Puma Family Blog: PES Family Blog, November/ December 2024

Poynette Elementary School Staff are:

"Leaders in providing a positive, successful, and safe environment for ALL"

so our students can say,

"We are Pumas! I am learning and growing every day."

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WE DID IT AGAIN!

State Report Card Score of 83.6- Significanly Exceeds Expectations

We hope that all is well with you and the days keep flying by. I thought it was appropriate to share the great news of the District and School report cards. The Poynette School District continues to score very well and our school has exceeded many schools in the surrounding area. It is the second year in a row that we have been in the top category and our score continues to go up.

Along with that, goes the picture of our staff continuing to work hard and get better every day! They have been taking a Literacy KEYS Training this year and continuing to put the best practices for teaching literacy into place. Our school is awesome and scores well because of the amazing staff we have here. Go Puma Nation!

School Screeners

We try to limit the number of formal assessments, but at the same time this information is essential in providing our students with the best education. We have some assessments that are required by the state like AIMS Web+ (Grades 4K-3rd) and also the Forward Exam (Grades 3&4). We also have district screeners that we have our students take. We use the following screeners:

AIMS Web+ Literacy (3 times a year)- This is a new state required assessment by ACT 20. It will be given two times this year, but 3 times a year moving forward. We will be communicating a lot more about this new screener and there are timelines that we need to follow as well. This screener will help us determine support and interventions in the area of literacy for our students.

Fastbridge Math and Literacy (3 times a year)- This assessment allows us to determine what supports and interventions that our students may need. These supports could include working with Mrs. Yanna, our literacy interventionist, or Mrs. Wallace, our math interventionist.

Fastbridge SAEBRS (Social, Academic, and Emotional Risk Screener) (3 times a year) This assessment allows us to form small groups or individual supports to help students be successful in their classroom. These supports could include working with Ms. Sisco, Mr. Hausser, Ms. Ary, our school psychologist or Mrs. Matush, our guidance counselor in a small group or individual setting.

IXL for Math and Literacy in 3rd and 4th grade- This assessment is the same one that is used at the middle school. Our teachers can identify and students can work on individual skills to improve in both math and literacy. We also use this screener to help with determining interventions and supports for our students during Puma Pounce Time.

If interested, more information can be found at Illuminate Education.

Report Cards
With our trimester ending on November 26th, we will be reporting our grades to our families. The grades will be available in the Infinite Campus Parent Portal on Monday, December 9th. We will be mailing out the report cards starting on December 9th so parents can see both the marks and the teacher comments. Please let us know if you do not receive your child's report card in the mail.

Drop Off and Pick Up Procedures

The other day we had rain during pick up time and it prompted us to write a reminder. It was pouring rain and the pick-up line seemed to move flawlessly. One of the reasons was we did not have very many parents that were parking in the lot or leaving their cars. No one really wanted to get wet (except Mrs. Schuster and Mrs. Doebert who did an awesome job facilitating the line), and so the cars were all in the line. We ask that you continue with this practice and what has been a goal of ours - that we only use the crosswalk by the front entrance for parents who are coming into the school for after school meetings. Our hope and goal is that we can have very few, if any, parents/guardians standing on the sidewalk or under the front entrance overhang. We would like the cars to be in the line and able to move in and out of the parking lot quite quickly. Again it takes us about 13 minutes to clear the building. If you come at 3:16 like some parents, you can just whip right through.

Unfortunately, we have had some close calls this year with either staff, students or parents almost getting hit by cars or in the parking lot that were not following our procedures. We do not want any more of these kinds of unsafe situations and again if we use the rain model, then we should not have any issues at all. We are also looking at restructuring our parking so there are more spots near the front of the building for visitors. We are anticipating sharing some information after the December Holiday break.

PAD Parent Club School Directory

Another service that our PAD Parents' Club who does great work for us, offers is a student directory each year. If you would like your contact information to be available to other parents for birthday parties, playdates, etc., then you will want to get your name in the school directory.

You can view the directory at any time at this link: Poynette ES & MS Directory
If any changes are needed at any time you can email poynetteparentclub@gmail.com, we would be happy to update the directory.

School Safety Information

Poynette School District participates in the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of School Safety (OSS) SPEAK UP, SPEAK OUT program. This threat reporting system is available 24/7 and is free to all. Students, parents, school staff and community members can submit a school safety concern by downloading the SUSO app (Android and iOS), visiting speakup.widoj.gov or by calling 1-800-MY-SUSO-1. Resource Center staff work around-the-clock to respond to reports and to deploy a response. Please click on the link below if you have a safety concern that you would like to report anonymously. You can report the following concerns:

Bullying, harassment or intimidation
Student self harm concern
Alcohol, drug, or weapon concern
School safety concerns including all threats
Report a concern by visiting this link to SUSO at https://speakup.widoj.gov/ or 1-800-MY-SUSO-1

P.A.A.W.S. Program (Poynette Area Adults Working with Students)

We are excited this year to again roll out this program that will encompass our school’s mentors, tutors, WATCH D.O.G.S. (Dads of Great Students) and field trip volunteers. We are really hoping to a lot more adults participate this year! We can set up volunteer plans that are flexible, weekly, or day-long that will support our students. Volunteers will have a T-shirt to wear for the day and also access to a free school lunch depending on your volunteer plan. We have the saying on a wall in our school of “Strong Schools, Strong Communities”. We would love to add your picture on our wall this year. If you are intrigued by these offers or interested in volunteering at our school, please contact Mr. Hausser at 635-4347 ext. 100 or at jhaus@poynette.k12.wi.us.

In order to volunteer at our school or participate in a field trip, you need to pass our district background check. These checks need to be completed every three years. Some of our parents/guardians will need an updated background check. If you are unsure of your status, you can contact the school office at 635-4347 ext. 107 or 109 to receive that information. The background check form is located on our website, here is the direct link: Criminal Background Check for Volunteers. We will seek additional volunteers in the Spring; continue to watch for communication updates.

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November