Windermere Weekly Family Update 5-31-22

Windermere Weekly Parent Update

5.31.22

I hope you all had a terrific long weekend celebrating Memorial Day.  A special thank you to the many families who either are currently in the service, are Veterans and/or have family and friends who are serving or have served in our armed forces.  We are forever grateful for your service to our country.  

I wanted to share these pictures with our families to again say THANK YOU!!!  Since all of our parents are part of the PTO, a huge thank you from our students and staff, for funding this outdoor learning space in our new building.  It was completed early this spring, as the PTO fundraised over many years to provide the money for completing the railings, outdoor flooring and the furniture.  Over the past few weeks, it has been used daily (weather permitting).  What a gift and such a special place for our students/teachers to access.  The outdoor learning space in front of the school (see above) has also been such an asset to our learning spaces.  This was part of our building project, so again, thank you for helping make our building a reality.  We love it and can’t wait to continue using our space as a third teacher.  

It’s hard to believe we have one day left of school in our year together.  Thank you for a great school year.  And, thank you for entrusting your children with us this year!  This summer I will periodically share updates with you, however, I will not do a weekly update.  

Have a great summer.  We will be working hard over the summer to continue planning for the 22-23 school year.  If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to reach out.

Julie

Upcoming Dates

6.1.22 - LAST DAY OF SCHOOL - 1:00 Dismissal (Clapout will be around 12:45 p.m. if you would like to join us outside as we say have a great summer and thank you for a great school year!)

8.5.22 - First through fifth grade teacher names shared via email

8.8 & 9.22 - Kindergarten Screening at Windermere

8.10.22 - Kindergarten teacher names shared via email

8.16.22 - FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL for first through fifth grade (incoming kindergarten students will get their staggered start day when class lists are shared via email) 

Upper Arlington 22-23 School Year Calendar:  is linked here.

Windermere’s Got Talent: Windermere's Got Talent, our annual talent show, is linked below! It stars Benny West, a 4th grader at Windermere, and raises money for the United Mitochondrial Disease Foundation. Please enjoy!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sHKbA-aeDTqbNGzB2CRBJ3UtoLcAOV3z/view?usp=drivesdk

Federal program providing free meals for all students ending

Due to the pandemic, the federal government has been providing universal free school meals for students.  This program has allowed Upper Arlington Schools and other school districts to provide free lunches to all students since the spring of 2020.

This federal waiver program is set to expire on June 30, 2022.  This means that beginning next school year, free or reduced-price meals will be available only to the families that qualify based upon financial need.  All other students will be charged for meals and snacks purchased through the school cafeteria.

Please watch your email this summer for more information from the district on:

• Need-based applications for the free and reduced-price lunch program;

• Prices for meals, snacks and drinks in Upper Arlington school cafeterias;

• Instructions for adding money to your student’s lunch account via SPS EZPay; and

• And information on lunch availability for students with a zero or negative account balance.

UAHS Athletics youth summer camps

Upper Arlington High School coaches and players are offering several camps this summer for elementary and middle school students! Please see this flyer for a list of these opportunities. 

Syntero Summer Group: As part of our partnership with Syntero, Syntero is excited to offer FREE, in personal and virtual, prevention groups services this summer for students. Prevention services can benefit all students! The goal is to foster healthy, adaptive coping skills to more effectively manage life stressors. Registration opens Monday, May 9th at 12pm. Registration link and group information can be found on this flyer.  If you have any questions please email Larysa Gilbert at [email protected]. 

Lost and Found: Is overflowing! Please have your students check for any lost items. Everything will be donated at the end of the year.

Windermere Community Sensory Garden

We are so excited to begin the planting of our Windermere Community Sensory Garden in our raised garden beds outside of the Eyrie! Student Council will be planting this next week! We have been building up to this moment through our Town Hall meetings and school-wide activities which have focused on well-being: Caring for Ourselves, Caring for Others. The goal of this garden is to help students have respite and a place to feel calm and peaceful.  This will be an important place in our school community and we need some help maintaining it over the summer. This would just involve some watering and simple weeding. Anyone can participate and help out! You're welcome to come with friends and family and make it part of giving back to the community! Please email Katie O'Keefe at [email protected] if you are interested in helping! Thank you for considering!

PTO Update

We know our Hawks are counting down these last few days and hours until summer break!

What a year we have had! Our Windermere PTO has worked hard to make our first year in our new building a memorable one. A huge thank you to all of our volunteers that make each of our events throughout the year happen with a big dose of fun! From kindergarten screening in the summer all the way through KidFest to our end-of-year classroom parties, it truly takes everyone in our school community - from teachers and staff to parents and our Hawks - chipping in to help. 

Thank you for the opportunity to serve as PTO Co-Presidents of THE best elementary school! Serving in this role has been so much fun and rewarding. Windermere truly values a close relationship with parents to foster a team that works every day to serve every single Hawk and staff member in our school community. Thank you everyone for making this such a great place to learn and grow!

If you are a graphic designer and can lend a hand to PTO for some upcoming activities/creative projects, please email [email protected]!

Go Hawks!

Jen Mascho and Stephanie Tozbikian 

PTO Co-Presidents