Highlands

· think creatively, integrate information, and work cooperatively to solve real life problems

· act responsibly and sensitively when making decisions and cooperating with others

· become increasingly literate in language arts, mathematics, sciences and the fine arts

· share responsibility for their education with educators, parents, and the community

Highlands School’s slogan, “A Whale of a School”, began in the 1982-83 school year.

Three events led to this. The first, a fourth grader, Chad Melzer, died of cancer. In his memory, students and staff contributed to a memorial fund in honor of Chad.

The second event resulted from this fund. A fourth grade teacher, John Beehler, knew of a sculptor of whales, John Perry, from California. The memorial money purchased several of Mr. Perry’s whales, which are now displayed in the LRC. This collection is part of the Art Awareness presentations.

The third event was a contest for a slogan to be chosen by our school. Many entries suggested great ideas. The winner was fifth grader, Kim Daffinee, with her picture of a whale captioned, “Highlands Is a Whale of a School.”

Let’s give a cheer for Highlands School – Hurray!

RULES AND EXPECTATIONS FOR STUDENTS

BUILDING RULES

5. Hats/caps/scarves or any form of non-religious headwear are not to be worn in the building

6. No personal electronics may be brought to school including but not limited to game systems, music and headsets, etc. The school is not responsible for any lost items.

LUNCHROOM RULES

The school will reserve the right to remove lunchroom privileges from students if they consistently break the following rules:

2. After being seated, you may begin eating. 1^st and 2^nd grade lunchtime will include “chew time”.

4. When you are finished, wait for the supervisor to call you by tables to go to the trash can, or follow any other specific directions. If you have an accident in the lunchroom at any time, report it to the supervisor and follow that person’s directions for taking care of the problem.

6. Should a child create a disturbance, he will be responsible to the supervisor on duty. A second offense will be called to the attention of the parent/guardian. An offense requiring principal involvement may mean loss of lunchroom privileges for a period of time.

7. Supervisors will be taking children outside most days. All children will be expected to go outside unless they have a note from a doctor.

8. Children who are to return to the classroom must have a note from their teacher and must be under direct teacher supervision in the classroom area.

PLAYGROUND RULES

General

Swing Set

Recess Rules

RECESS AND DIRECTED PLAY ACTIVITIES

First and second grade students have a fifteen-minute directed play activity period in the morning and a ten-minute recess following lunch. Third through fifth have a ten minute directed play activity period following lunch. The time allocation includes getting dressed for DPA/recess and getting undressed, please manage time accordingly. Playground supervisors and/or classroom teachers will monitor students during DPA, depending on the grade level.

CLASSROOM DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURES

Maintaining classroom control and discipline is primarily the responsibility of the supervising teacher. Grade level teams develop grade level rules and procedures, communicate these clearly, post the rules in the classroom, and require the students to behave accordingly. A copy of the discipline plan is distributed to parents.

GRADING

Report cards at the K-3 level have descriptive ratings for academic areas: S-Satisfactory Progress, N-Needs Improvement and I-Improvement Shown. Students are also evaluated on their effort in the amount of time, work and energy put forth in attempting to learn as observed by the teacher.

Students in grades 4 and 5 receive letter grades: A-Exceptional Achievement, B-Above Average Achievement, C-Average Achievement, D-Below Average Achievement and

Distribution of report cards is done at the end of each trimester (November, March and June). A discussion guide accompanies the report card at the end of the first and second trimesters. The purpose is to enhance discussions during parent teacher conferences in November and March.

BICYCLE PRIVILEGES

Third graders and up have the privilege of riding bicycles as long as they follow bicycle safety rules. Please remind children regularly to dismount and walk bicycles once they arrive on school property. Students may not bring scooters or skateboards to school.

ENTERING AND EXITING BUILDING

COLD WEATHER

All children should come dressed appropriately for cold weather and expect to go outdoors. If there is snow on the ground, students MUST wear boots and snow pants or remain on the blacktop. No boots are to be worn in school. Shoes are to be put on after entering the school. On inclement days children may spend a portion of their recess out of doors or be kept indoors throughout the recess period.

“Inclement days” are determined by taking wind chill, precipitation, ice and snow cover and temperature in to account. The temperature guide for indoor or abbreviated recess is a wind chill of 0° or below.

TELEPHONE USE BY STUDENT

Student use of telephone will be kept to a minimum and be made by written request of the teacher. No social calls. Band/Orchestra students will be allowed one call for their forgotten instrument. Student cell phones must be left in backpack and used after school, only as necessary.

LRC PRIVILEGES

Students are responsible for the care and timely return of LRC materials. Students with overdue book fees will not receive final report cards until fees have been paid.

I FORGOT TABLE

Items brought in for students are to be placed on the I Forgot Table (i.e. lunches, homework, instruments, etc.) The child will be responsible to check the table if they are missing something. Parents are not to go to the classroom.

LOST AND FOUND

Lost articles are placed in the chest in the hall outside the LRC and across from the gym. Children should be directed to look over the items in the wooden chest in order for the items not to accumulate. At the end of each trimester, the remaining items are given to a charitable organization. Parents will receive periodic reminders about lost and found.

HEALTH OFFICE

Absence reporting

We have initiated a consistent procedure for reporting absences within the elementary schools of Naperville School District 203.

You are requested to call 420-6534 (Health Office) prior to 8:15 a.m. to report daily absences. A recording device will be used between 2:30 p.m. and 8:15 a.m. to record the following information:

If you anticipate the absence to be more than one day, please call the same number between the hours of 10:00a.m. and 2:00p.m. to discuss the absence with the school Health Technician.

If a child is absent and we have not received a call, we will attempt to reach you by calling your home and/or a number, which you have designated for checking on absences. We ask that the designated number be other than your home telephone number. We will call these two numbers by 10:15 a.m. to check on unreported absences.

Parents of afternoon kindergarten students are to call 420-6534 anytime before 10:00 a.m. to report daily absences.

The responsibility for reporting absences remains with the parents. If we are unable to reach you at either designated number, we will send you a reminder to call in.

Students are routinely screened for vision and hearing in Kindergarten and 2^nd grade. They are screened for hearing in 1^st and 3^rd grade and vision in 8^th grade. If they are in a special education program, or if a teacher or parent requests a screening, both vision and hearing are checked. The vision screening is not a substitute for a complete eye and vision examination by an eye doctor. Your child is not required to participate in the vision screening if you have submitted a report signed by an optometrist or ophthalmologist indicating that your child has had an eye exam within the previous 12 months.

FAMILY VACATION GUIDELINES

The professional staff at Highlands School is committed to your child’s education. The dynamic interaction between teacher and child during directed lessons cannot be replaced by workbook pages or dittos. It is this interaction that is the essence of quality teaching, because it is here where teachers present new concepts, adjust to needs, check understanding, guide learning, and build rapport. For this reason, we are most interested in encouraging student attendance. Obviously illness and emergencies will occur. However, some events, such as vacations, should be arranged according to school schedules.

The district school calendar is usually available approximately six months prior to the opening of school.

If a trip is unavoidable, we would like to establish a few procedures to assist continuity in the educational program.

1. Advance notice of the trip should be given. Please notify the teacher at least one week in advance.

2. Work can be provided for one to two weeks depending upon a particular class’s pacing and the amount of new concepts being introduced. Beyond that, it is difficult to accurately plan. If they are gone more than one week children will be given work when they return.

3. We would encourage the use of vacation time for learning experiences that are not always possible in the classroom. Some suggestions might include encouraging children to:

4. If work is provided, we ask parents to assist us by taking responsibility in seeing that the work is completed and corrected.

PARENT NOTES-WHAT TO DO WITH THEM

· Parents should send a note to school notifying the teacher if the child will need an early dismissal, providing specific details. The teacher may keep the note to remind them of the change in routine for that child and will send a copy to the office. Parents need to sign the child out in office and back in if the child returns to school. The Health Tech must have this time of dismissal/return for attendance records.

· When the parent arrives in the office, the secretary pages the room and the child then comes to the office for dismissal.

· According to the Parent/Student handbook (Page 34 in Highlands white pages), “Students who are assigned to ride the bus must do so unless a note is sent to the principal from the parent. If a student needs to switch buses for any reason, a note must be written to the principal explaining the reason for the switch.”

· If no note is given to the teacher, but the child “says” there is a change, the child will be put on the bus.

· Practical practice is that parents write a note to the teacher asking for a different bus stop (on the same route). In this case the note is brought to the office by the child and the office signs and stamps the note. The child then takes the note back for his/her backpack and is instructed to give it to the driver at 2:30. The bus driver will not drop off at another stop if “stamp of approval” is not given by the office.

· If parents request a different bus route for one day, this will not be granted. Students may not ride the bus home to a friend’s house to play after school. Changing bus routes to facilitate play dates or babysitting is not allowed.

· Transportation Department provides a form for those families where a student needs to be transported to/from a different bus stop everyday because of daycare arrangements or other long term reasons. Transportation Department must approve this request.

GUIDELINES FOR VISITATION

Parent Visitors

Through the Home and School Handbook for Parents, we have encouraged parents to visit school and have set aside the following guidelines:

1. Parents should contact the teacher and office to schedule a specific day and time.

3. Upon arrival sign in at the office and take a visitor badge. When leaving sign out in the office and return the badge.

Student Visitors

Visiting relatives or friends of students may not spend the day at school. They are welcome to come before or after school.

NO PETS ON SCHOOL PROPERTY

Highlands School is a pet-free schoolyard during school days. During arrival, dismissal and during school hours, pets are not allowed on school property. This includes pets visiting classrooms.

Talk203 is District 203's self-subscribing email information system, delivering timely District and school news and information right to subscribers' email boxes. Parents, students and community members are invited to sign up by clicking the Talk203 graphic on the District website at www.naperville203.org. If you are already a subscriber, please remember to update your Talk203 personal information yearly to reflect any changes in the schools your children attend or to record a new email address. This can also be accomplished by clicking on the Talk203 graphic which appears on the right side of District homepage.

During the course of the school year your child(ren) will be involved in many school activities that may be captured on video or photographed for sharing and/or placement on the school or website or in District publications. Videotaping and photographing of children in special education settings for non-educational purposes will be authorized only with parental consent. Outside of special education settings, students may be videotaped or photographed by parents, observers, school employees, students and news media personnel from time to time while participating in school activities. If you desire that your student not be videotaped or photographed in these circumstances (outside of special education settings), please be sure to sign the Permissions Denial form that is sent annually in the registration packet and return it to the school. This form also provides for exclusion of family contact information (address and phone number) in the Home & School Directory. The Permissions Denial form must be signed and submitted to the principal at the beginning of each school year to avoid any misunderstandings. The form may be accessed on the District 203 website at the following link: http://www.naperville203.org/assets/PermissionsDenialForm%2Epdf

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PROCESS

The School Improvement Process at Highlands is a process that involves the entire teaching staff. There is a Building Leadership Team (BLT) comprised of representative staff, parents, and community members. This team meets monthly to guide the school’s examination of district and state requirements by providing resources and setting school goals. The faculty carries out the school goals. Each teacher is a member of a study group, each studying a common book, Habits of Mind: Discovering & Exploring, by Costa & Kallick. This resource will provide a common understanding of how students can develop their thinking skills to support our school improvement goals of becoming self-directed learner and critical thinker.

Highlands School has been equipped with four video surveillance cameras monitoring key exterior doors and hallways. Summer 2007 construction added a keyless entry system for faculty. In addition, a buzzer system with camera surveillance has been installed at the front entrance, door 1. As this will enhance our security greatly, we are requesting your patience as we use this system. The secretaries will be monitoring the buzzer and camera system to identify each visitor. All visitors are still required to stop in the office and sign-in upon entry to the school after they have been “buzzed in”.

The Naperville Police Department and school administration have completed a walk through inside and outside our building to help in refining our internal lockdown procedures. An action plan is in place and practiced twice each year. If you should have any questions about this plan or our facility safety, please contact the office.

BEHAVIORAL EXPECTATIONS

In April 2004, Highlands School adopted “Rights and Responsibilities” that are used throughout our school for the common good of all students. Children are expected to do their best at all times. That means that high standards are expected in completing school assignments as well as exhibiting proper conduct in the halls, on the playground and at special events such as assemblies and field trips.

Every student is responsible for making sure that they treat others with respect.

♦ It is your responsibility to respect individual differences, ideas, and feelings.

♦ It is your responsibility to respect school property and the property of others.

BULLY BACKPACK

Another component in our efforts to create a safe school environment was teaching the students methods to stop bullying, should they encounter such an individual. The “backpack of strategies” that was taught included:

HIGHLANDS SCHOOL EMERGENCY PLAN

If conditions exist that make it unsafe to remain in the building, the building secretary will notify the police, fire department and the Administrative Center as necessary.

The following procedures will then be put into action (this was practiced 10-10-06):

1. Students will evacuate the school and assemble outdoors as they would for a fire drill.

3. Students will walk, in order of level, to the field on the west side of the building.

4. Students will maintain their classroom lines with teacher supervision throughout the relocation period.

5. The building secretary will notify North Central College/Merner Field House. 637-5500, if relocation is deemed necessary.

6. If a bomb threat is the cause of the evacuation, the building search team will assist the fire and police department.

8. The Principal and Assistant Principal will remain on site and will designate which classroom groups are to begin walking.

9. Students will remain with their assigned classes for the duration of the transportation procedure and the assembly at Merner Field House.

11. Parent Link phone call out system will be activated and each family will be notified. A Talk 203 e-mail message will also be sent to all Highlands families.

12. The Principal and Assistant Principal will dismiss students to parents after it is deemed that conditions are safe.

15. If parents are not available, students will be retained until regular dismissal time.

16. If, at regular dismissal time, parents have not picked up students, buses will be used to transport them home.

17. A communication base will be established during the event at the Administrative Center (420-6300) and at Merner Field House (637-5500) for parent questions and information.

ACTIVITY	DESCRIPTION	GRADE LEVEL	NUMBER OF STUDENTS	TIME
Artrageous Connection* Dottie Farrell	Children participate in creative hands-on experiences with multi-media such as clay, three-dimensional work and crafts. Children are challenged with problem-solving and divergent ways of thinking. Outside artists, teachers from NCC, and parent volunteers act as facilitators. This art club is offered four times a year.	4^th - 5^th	100-125	2:30-3:40pm 1 time per week for 5 weeks
Chess Club Curt Willis	An opportunity for students to learn and play chess. A gathering activity, lessons and play comprise the daily routine.	3rd - 5th	25	7:05-8:00am 2 times/week for 5 wks; 2 sessions/year
Diversity Club Jim Polites	Students investigate and learn about other cultures. Activities may include listening to music, playing games, sampling new & different foods from around the world, and understanding that it is our differences that help to make our country great.	5^th	15	2:45-3:45pm 1 time/week beginning in October.
Grade Level Games Curt Wills	Students learn and participate in a variety of activities and games of their choice.	1^st- 5^th	250-300	7:00-8:00am 1 time/year for 4 weeks
Floor Hockey Curt Willis