Welcome to the 2019-2020 School Year!

September 2019

Dear Families,

We are off to a terrific school year! It was my pleasure to begin the year reading your child the story The Day You Begin by Jaqueline Woodson, talking about the importance of differences and sharing our stories.

At the end of August, our school hosted our first ever “Ready to Learn Fair,” serving 69 students. Students received haircuts, backpacks, school supplies, and personal care products to begin the school year. If you are new to our school and need school supplies or a backpack, please call our family social worker Lisa Emrich.

Every year I try and get this important message to families! Please complete and return any paperwork that was sent home to you. It is incredibly important that we be able to get in touch with you or someone you trust in the event of an emergency! Please take care of that today if you have not done so. As the year goes on, let us know immediately if your phone, address, or contacts change.

All students have begun DIBELS testing. This is a reading test given 3 times a year and helps us track our school progress. NWEA testing in both reading and math is underway for grades 2-5, with grade 1 piloting in some classrooms.

“Challenge Five” is our district initiative encouraging all students to keep absences to 5 or less during the school year. School Board Policy recognizes two kinds of absences: excused absence, and truancy. Excused absences are absences because of illness, death in the student’s immediate family, or other approved reasons that have been verified with a written note from a physician or other qualified health professional. I hope you agree, coming to school every day, on time, will help encourage our children to be responsible adults with bright futures.

We have lots of upcoming events, so keep your eyes on event flyers and the newsletter. A couple of special notes are Literacy Night on September 26th and Open House on October 9^th!

The staff at William Allen School is looking forward to a year of learning and fun. We thank you for being an important part of your child’s education.

Lynn Allen, Principal