Desert Willow Families,
As a follow up to the lockdown at CSHS last Friday, I wanted to reiterate the importance of making sure that your information is updated in PowerSchool. Please do not assume that your information from Infinite Campus transferred over. Should an emergency occur, the phone numbers and people entered in PowerSchool is what we will be using to contact and who we release students to. If you need help logging into and updating your account please contact our from office.
It has been a lot of fun seeing all of the spirit wear this week! Tomorrow is our grade level spirit day. Here are the spirit wear themes per grade level:
K: Dress as your favorite character
2: Holiday Pajamas
3: North Pole Everything!
4: Holiday Hats
Hammerman: Wear blue
5 & 6: Students dress like teachers and teachers dress like students
Roadrunner Ready,
Brandie Dunlap
attention bus riders
We are excited to be the pilot school for CCUSD's new bus parent portal! You will be receiving more information in the coming weeks. In order to have access, parents MUST have the annual updates in Power School complete. The directions are located below. Please let us know if we can help!
CCUSd one team employee of the month
STUDENT ARRIVAL AND DISMISSAL PROCEDURES AT DESERT WILLOW
- The safest way to pick up your child is the school bus or carline pick up.
- It is very important NOT to cut in the lines, as your child(ren) will not be ready for pick up. Your specific number tells us to get your child(ren) ready for pick up.
- Use marked crosswalks (Please do not wave students across the street)
- Please stay in your car during dismissal.
- Please do not park in the neighborhood and tell your child to walk to your car without supervision.
- If your child is a “walker,” they should be walking directly to their house. We cannot reasonably supervise our neighborhood streets to ensure your child makes it home safely.
- For the safety and security of all our students, we will not call students out of class between 3:00-3:30 pm.
- All dismissal transportation changes need to be communicated to our office prior to 2:30 pm.
For our families utilizing drive up drop off an/or pick up, here are some helpful tips.
- Line up single file.
- Do not enter the front driveway until 8:40 AM or 3:25 PM.
- Drive slowly and cautiously.
- Our preschool students dismiss earlier than other classrooms and they are allowed to pull into the parking before 3:25pm. This allows our youngest students and our students requiring extra assistance time to safely get into their vehicles and exit campus.
- At arrival -Thank you for dropping off only in the bus lane, not the parking lot. We greatly appreciate you helping us not have students cross the drop-off lane!
- At dismissal - Show your car tag number to our staff member. Please have them visible in your car. Sometimes Maestra Bright is not able to see as high as your vehicle dashboard. Pull up to a colored dot. Stay in order.
- Wait for your child. We will unload and load 10 cars at a time.
- Please do not get out of the vehicle. One of our staff or Roadrunner Patrol will come and assist your child to the car.
- We will only allow students to climb into cars on the passenger side of the vehicle.
- If your child needs assistance buckling their car seat please pull forward and park in the parking lot so that you can assist your child and we can keep the car line moving. Staff and students do not buckle students.
- Please do not pass other drivers unless directed to do so.
- If your child is not ready at dismissal, we will ask you to park and we will bring them out when ready.
Please remember that to assist with the safety of our walkers and the efficiency of our car pick up option, the walkers will be dismissed a few minutes later, we are opening the gate by 3:35pm. As we all become more familiar with the procedures, the quicker every dismissal option will become. Thank you for your understanding and help with this.
A few reminders from the local Phoenix Police Department to follow:
- School zone speed limit of 15mph
- Use marked crosswalks (please do not wave students across the street)
- PCC 36-134 (stopping, standing, and parking regulations)
- ARS 28-815 (blocking bike lanes)
Lost and Found
Attendance
Attendance matters. Did you know?
- Starting in preschool and kindergarten, too many absences can cause children to fall behind in school.
- Missing 10%, or about 2 days each month over the course of a school year, can make it harder to learn to read.
- Students can still fall behind if they miss just 1 or 2 days every few weeks.
- Being late to school may lead to poor attendance.
- Absences and tardiness can affect the whole classroom if the teacher has to slow down learning to help children catch up.
- Attending school regularly helps children feel better about school—and themselves. Start building this habit in preschool so they learn right away that going to school on time, every day is important. Eventually good attendance will be a skill that will help them succeed in high school and college.
- High rates of absenteeism affect our school's letter grade from the Arizona Department of Education.
- As long as your child is healthy, please encourage showing up to class when school is in session. Every day of school is an important opportunity for students to learn as well as connect to peers and their teachers.
If your child will be late or absent, please call the attendance line at 480-575-2800 and leave a message or email for Ms. Jennifer at jdennison@ccusd93.net. If your child arrives late they must be signed in at the front office by an adult. Students are late if they are not in their classrooms when the 9:00 AM bell rings.
Safety Spotlight
POTENTIAL SCAM NOTIFICATION
Our police partners alerted us to a rising scam in the area. It is not an uncommon fraud scheme and it has happened recently in nearby districts as well as CCUSD. These types of schemes are usually done to parents or the elderly and state they have their kids/grandkids or that their kids/grandkids have been arrested and need money to be released. We wanted to let our families know for educational reasons:
1. A parent received a call from someone stating they had their child and they needed to send money. They even went as far as to have what sounded like a child's voice in the background encouraging the parent to get the money. The parent thankfully called the school and was able to verify that the student was safe at school.
2. A parent received a phone call that mentioned their daughter had been involved in an accident then mentioned something about taking them down to Mexico with the cartel. The caller appeared to get frustrated with the dad and ended up hanging up on the phone before they asked for money but the father felt like the conversation was headed in that direction.
3. A parent was called recently from an unknown person who stated their child had been kidnapped and would be killed unless they sent money. The parent quickly called the school and verified that the child was safe at school and was just an attempt to get money.
Should this happen, please contact your school and allow us to actually lay eyes on your student to assure you that they are where they belong. Then, please follow up with the police department that serves your neighborhood: Phoenix Police, Scottsdale Police or Maricopa County Sheriff.
Thank you to our police partners for letting us know so we could share this with you.
Roadrunner Happenings
Learning For Life - Loving to Learn
MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR DWES EVENTS
UPCOMING DATES
Every Friday - Roadrunner Spirit Day
12/5 - 12/9 Penguin Patch
12/7 6:30pm DWES Winter Band Concert @ DWES
12/7 7pm CCUSD Parent Academy: Chemicals of Concern & Common Sense Zoom Presentation
12/8 11:30am Choir Performance at Desert Ridge
12/21 Half Day: Dismissal @ 12:30PM (not 2pm)
12/22-1/4 No School: Winter Break
JOIN AND SUPPORT THE DWES PTO
By joining the PTO you will have a say in future PTO elections and vote on important items to enhance your student’s educational journey at DWES. Register to join on the PTO Website: https://desertwillowpto.org/
Volunteers needed for the Book Fair, please click here.
Penguin Patch Fundraiser
The students at DWES are having so much fun shopping at the Penguin Patch® Holiday Shop! The kids are picking out the prefect present for everyone on the their list. Reminder: Don't forget to send your student with their budget envelopes!
We are still in need of volunteers! Volunteers will assist students in shopping, checking out, and wrapping gifts. Visit the link below to sign up!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0D49A5A82EA46-penguin1
Yearbook Information
PTO OPPORTUNITIES THAT SUPPORT DWES
Fry's Community Rewards Program- If you shop at Fry's Food Grocery Store, please link up your Fry's V.I.P. card to Desert Willow or enter organization number WM786. Fry's Community Rewards Program will automatically donate to DWES on your behalf from your purchases! Here is a link to Fry's Community Rewards Program to link your card.
Amazon Smile - Shop on Amazon? Support DWES every time you shop at no cost to you! Select Desert Willow PTO as the charitable organization and every eligible purchase you make on Amazon Smile will result in a donation to our school. Here is a link to shop!
Tuft & Needle - Need a new mattress? Buy one the easy way - online and with FREE shipping! Tuft & Needle has partnered with our school and will donate 25% back to DWES on every purchase. Order through Tuft & Needle Gives Back or on the Tuft & Needle website and enter Desert Willow Elementary School, it's as easy as that!
Click here to see ALL of the unique and easy ways you can immediately help raise funds for DWES while you shop!
PTO SPONSORS
Thank you Christofferson and Legge families
FOLLOW DWES on Social Media
We love to share all of the great things happening at our school site. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram for updates.
Counselor's corner
News around the district
ECS
Preschool's Monthly Newsletter
HELPFUL LINKS
CCUSD GOVERNING BOARD
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