4/14/22
No school tomorrow, Friday, April 15th. Classes will resume on Monday!
Student profile forms were sent out on Monday for students in K-4th grade. As always at this time of year, we begin to plan for the coming school year. This form is not mandatory, but can be helpful as we try to best meet the needs of all students at Hatch. If you have specific input about how your child learns best that you feel would be helpful as we prepare for the multistep process of classroom assignments, please feel free to complete the form. All parent input is by 5:00 pm Monday, April 25, 2022.
Our SHIELD results this week yielded two new cases of covid, and we had an additional case from outside testing. Please remember to keep your child home if they are sick. Luckily our current student vaccination rate is 84%. Thanks to this high number, many of our students who have been considered close contacts have been able to stay in school without disruption as they are fully vaccinated and symptom free. Please note that “window to the classroom” has been discontinued. In the event your child is placed in quarantine, please contact your child’s teacher for information on how to access materials and support them during that time. As we begin to roll back some of our mitigation strategies, please know we will continue to do all we can to keep our students and families safe. At the same time, we are looking forward to now being able to schedule field trips, mix students across cohorts and as of April 11, bring back hot lunch! Please be on the lookout for further details on future plans that will be sent from D97 today. For more local COVID-19 vaccine information, visit www.oak-park.us/vaccine. If you have any questions, please contact Nurse Rossi. Thank you for your support and partnership in keeping our schools safe!
Please continue to be patient with drop off. We are doing our very best to get students safely in the building. Here are some reminders to help things function smoothly for all:
Morning Car Drop Off Lane Reminders:
- Please be patient in the drop off line; with colder temperatures, we have longer lines.
- Please have your child ready to leave your car with a mask on; please have their backpack and lunch box easily accessible.
- Please stay in your car; we have staff to help kids out of cars and with doors if they are unable to do it themselves.
- Please let your child out of the car in front of the school at the main doors; please wait in the line to let your child out until you are at the entrance. It is icy along the curb, and we do not want children hurt.
- Please have your student exit from the right side of the car.
- If you need to park, please pull up at or past the playground, there is ample parking available.
- If dropping off, please allow extra time. Speeding through drop off is dangerous for students and staff.
Thank you for your help in keeping our students safe!
The School Garden Needs You! The beloved Hatch Patch is in need of new leadership to organize planting, maintenance, and harvesting. We are looking for a parent, or team of parents, to use the garden to start building back a sense of Hatch community and who will make the garden bloom to new heights! If you are interested, you can email us at [email protected].
Starting on April 1st until April 30th, William Hatch Elementary School will be collecting donations for Beyond Hunger's CAN DO Community Challenge. Local schools across the community have joined this challenge by hosting a virtual food drive. This Challenge is designed to heighten awareness about local food insecurity and encourages schools, organizations, and individuals to become more involved. Want to help?
Support Beyond Hunger and our school by making a donation directly to our team page. We receive points for every donation as part of the school competition. At the end of the month, whichever school receives the most points, takes home the can do trophy! We came in second place last year! This year we can take back our trophy and be in first place again. Last year we collected over 550 pounds of food.
One Book,One School- The youngest sibling in each family has now received a copy of our One Book, One School book, Ways to Make Sunshine! We are so excited to read this book all together as a community. To follow along with the reading schedule, answer trivia questions, complete fun projects, or listen to teachers read aloud, make sure to check out the Hatch OBOS website. Please reach out to Nefret Stringham, [email protected], with any questions. Happy reading, everyone!
The Hatch PTO has a NEW Facebook page! Be sure to "Like" this page and follow us for updates, reminders and community building opportunities!
https://www.facebook.com/Hatch-Elementary-PTO-106922995327523
D97 Updates:
The time is now...for Bingo!
Early Bird Pricing for Bingo Bash ends April tomorrow April 15th! Register now to get special pricing for tickets and tables. You can also choose to donate to our Bingo Prize fund, which helps local small businesses, and buy raffle tickets to win an Instant Wine Cellar (24 bottles of wine selected by Anfora Wine Merchants). We can't wait to see you, and celebrate this year's Staszak Outstanding Educator Award winner, John Hodge, Principal of Irving! Visit www.opef.org for tickets and details!
District 97 Hot Lunch Menus Now Available
Beginning Monday, April 11, all District 97 schools will resume serving hot lunch. The new menus and nutritional information are linked below.
- Breakfast Menu (Brooks, Irving, Julian, Lincoln, Longfellow)
- Breakfast Menu (Beye, Hatch, Holmes, Mann, Whittier)
- Hot Lunch Menu (3-Week Cycle)
- Hot Breakfast/Lunch Nutritional Information
- The current cold breakfast/lunch menu will be in place through Friday, April 8.
- Lunch Reminders
- Meals brought from home must be nut-free.
- Lunch will continue to be served at no cost to families.
Reminder: Stay Home When Sick!
Staying home when sick is essential to keep COVID-19 infections out of schools and prevent spread to others—regardless of vaccination status. Symptoms that should be monitored daily by ALL District 97 staff, families and students are:
- Fever (100.4 or higher)
- New cough
- Shortness of breath or difficulty breathing
- Fatigue from unknown cause
- Muscle or body aches from unknown cause
- Moderate/severe headache
- New loss of taste or smell
- Sore throat
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea