Dear Scott School Families,

The first two weeks have been a blast!  Students are settling in well and demonstrating respectful, responsible, and safe behavior, all while learning our school-wide and classroom routines.  I often brag about how awesome our students, staff, and school are, but truly and honestly, I feel so fortunate to be a part of an amazing community that supports education and takes pride in supporting students to thrive and be their personal best.  Thank you for trusting me and our school team to support the important work of educating and supporting children academically, socially, and emotionally.  

Next week, students will participate in fall DIBELS 8 screening for reading and take the reading NWEA assessment and the following week, students will complete NWEA math testing.  This information will help our team identify student strengths and target areas for instruction.  It's really important to remember that the information obtained through these assessments informs instruction, allows for monitoring student performance over time, and creates opportunities for celebrations, targeting areas for improvement, and creating goals, but these benchmark screeners do not define a student and encompass them as a whole learner.  There is so much more to a child then a single test score.  However, thank you for helping your child be at school and on time every day, especially on testing days since testing information is really helpful to us.

Drop off and pick up is going pretty well so far.  Thank you for reviewing and following these reminders so we continue to improve and create a safe and efficient drop off and pick up experience for everyone involved.

• When dropping off or picking up your child before or after school, please use our car loop.  That's what it's for!  Using a parking spot or another location makes it challenging to supervise your child, can be a danger to students navigating between cars, models that our procedures aren't important, and makes it extremely difficult for our staff to park and be on time to work.  Do NOT drop your child off in the street or park on the opposite side of the street and encourage your child to cross the street by themselves.  This practice is dangerous, and we care about our students' safety!

• Have your child exit your vehicle anywhere in the blue painted curb zone when using our car loop. 

• Place a large, legible sign with your child's first and last name in the vehicle window when picking your child up.  This helps keep our car loop moving and makes pick up run efficiently.  Hanging car tag signs will be available to families soon.

• Please follow the right turn only sign when exiting our car loop.  This too helps our drop off and pick up loop run smoothly, safely, and efficiently.  I recognize the itch to turn left, but I promise you that turing right takes about the same amount of travel time to go around the block if you need to head south then clogging up the traffic flow by waiting to turn left.  In addition, it's frustrating for all when others break the rules!  After turning right, please drive around the block instead of pulling into a parking spot to back out and turn around to then drive south on Wilson St.  This defeats the purpose of turning right out of the loop.

• Scott and Schavey dismiss at the same time, which is 5 minutes earlier than Herbison Woods.  However, Scott School's car loop is generally completed in 10 minutes (15 at the most), so please pick up your child at Scott first if you have children in other elementary buildings.

• Send a filled water bottle to school with your child.  Staying hydrated helps students be ready learners.

• As the fall weather sets in, help your child dress in layers.  Mornings can be cool and afternoons can be warm.

• If your child gets picked up, sending an umbrella is a good idea.  Unless there is lightning, students stand outside for pick up, and this can be for 10-15 minutes.

With gratitude,

Linda Reha

Scott School Principal

Hello Families,

We have had a great first 2 weeks of school. The students continue to impress with how well they are learning our expectations and demonstrating respectful, responsible, and safe behaviors. What a great way to start the year! This past week I was able to visit all classrooms to introduce myself, share about my role, and read one of my favorite books, "What Does It Mean to Be Kind?" I hope you are all having a nice start to the year!

Best Wishes,

DeAnn Schwarz

School Social Worker

Fall benchmark testing will start the third week of school as follows:

• DIBELS 8 - Tues., 9/8 - Wed., 9/9

• NWEA Reading - Tues., 9/8 - Fri., 9/11

• NWEA Math - Mon., 9/14 - Thurs., 9/17

Some helpful reminders about benchmark testing:

• These assessments are not ones that students can study for.  They provide insight on student progress and performance on the day the student took the assessment.  Other factors can influence how a student tests.

• Testing does not define a student.  Trend data and multiple data sources provide additional evidence of learning.  It's possible a student may have peaks and valleys in their testing performance.  Looking at several data points for an upwards trajectory of growth is what we're striving for.

• Please be sure to help your child get a good night sleep, a brain-fueled breakfast, and be to school and on time.  Your child's teacher will share specific testing days with you.

• Second graders and students with audio accommodations per an IEP or 504 plan will need earbuds/headphones.  Please consider sending in a pair for your child to keep at school.  We have some extras though for those who forget or don't have any.

• Help us celebrate learning with your child.  Even test results that are unexpected or lower than hoped for are learning opportunities and should be embraced.  It's all about the mindset adults have and model for our students.

Did you know the following about NWEA MAP testing?

SECOND GRADERS

• Per the recommendation of NWEA, spring data from last year is used to sort second graders according to their RIT score so they take the appropriate assessment aligned to them.  Here is how students are sorted:

  • Reading:

    • <190 RIT in the spring of 2023 = K-2 growth test (all audio)

    • 190+ RIT in the spring of 2023 = 2-5 growth test (no audio)

  • Math:

    • <200 RIT in the spring of 2023 = K-2 growth test (all audio)

    • 200+ RIT in the spring of 2023 = 2-5 growth test (no audio)

  • Please don't fret if your child takes the grades K-2 growth tests in reading and math this year instead of the grades 2-5 tests.  The test options are specifically designed to measure different aspects of student achievement in developmentally appropriate ways using a student's most recent RIT score.  Once in third grade, all students will take the grades 2-5 reading and math tests.

  • All new second grade students will take the grades K-2 tests since we don't have recent NWEA benchmark data to determine if they are ready to take the grades 2-5 assessments.

THIRD GRADERS

• All third graders take the 2-5 growth (reading & math) assessments.  This assessment is a transition from the early literacy based audio assessment that most students are familiar with in grades K-2 to longer connected text passages that do not include an audio feature except for students who are eligible for an audio accommodation through an IEP or 504 plan.

ALL STUDENTS

• When students transition from taking an assessment such as the K-2 one to the 2-5 one, sometimes they experience a performance dip.  Unless there is significant regression, this should not be cause for alarm because often students adjust to the new assessment the following benchmark testing period.  Essentially, it's important to look at several data points over time, called trend data, to determine a student's growth, not just a student's performance on a single day.

Calling all Scott School Families - - - If you haven't already, please complete this 30 second survey by 8 a.m. Tuesday, September 8th (even if your family doesn't need one) so we can prepare and distribute car tags soon.  We are excited to provide these official car tags to families within the next couple of weeks and will send follow up communication when you can expect students to bring one home.  Once you receive your car tag, please discard your homemade sign and replace it the new authorized student pick up signage.  Thank you! 

Scott School students participated in an assembly on Tuesday, 9/1, to fire them up for an awesome school year and to introduce our school motto, 'Handle Hard Better'.  The message from the assembly was to believe in ourselves and each other that we can all learn and apply productive and positive strategies and communication approaches when things are challenging to learn and grow.  Consider using this phrase at home and acknowledge when your child 'Handles Hard Better' because it truly is a life skill.  Below is a banner that was introduce at our assembly and is now hanging in the hallway when students enter the building, and below is also a sticker students can receive when they demonstrate handling hard better.

In class is where it's at!  DPS is partnering on a countywide effort to support student attendance.  Of course, we understand when students are sick and need to be home to recover.  We are hoping by providing information about the educational impact of excessive absenteeism will help our families join this coalition to support student attendance at school which will ultimately improve student learning and social/emotional opportunities for support and growth.  Thank you for scheduling appointments outside of school hours and planning vacations and other events around our district calendar.  Check out these two amazing resources that are informative and provide a wonderful visual tracker for you and your child to monitor their attendance in school.

Below is a message from our DeWitt PTA.

Join the PTA!

The PTA is more than just events—it’s a way to help support our students, staff, and schools throughout the year. PTA members can vote on funding and grant requests, help shape PTA decisions, and serve in chair or leadership roles. Membership is $10 for an individual, $18 for a dual membership, or $7 for staff. Everyone is welcome at our general meetings, whether you’re a member or not!

Join today: tinyurl.com/ptamember2627

Want to Volunteer?

Whether you have an hour to give, want to help at a single event, or are interested in getting more involved with the PTA, we’d love to hear from you! Fill out our Volunteer Interest Form and let us know how you’d like to help. Signing up doesn’t commit you to anything—it simply helps us know who to contact when volunteer opportunities come up.

Join the Volunteer Interest List: https://forms.gle/3amWhkAj7dqzgAP88

Upcoming Events

Family Skate Night
Friday, October 2 | 5:00–7:00 PM
Edru Skate, Holt

Lace up your skates and join us for a fun night with DeWitt elementary families! The rink will be closed to the public and open exclusively for our families.  $10 per skater (skate rental included)

Monster Mash
Saturday, October 24
Herbison Woods Elementary

Get ready for a frightfully fun evening at our free, family-friendly Monster Mash! Join us for dancing, games, a photo booth, and more. Costumes are encouraged but not required—come as you are or dress to impress!  Food and drinks will be available for purchase, so come hungry!  Admission is free, but we kindly ask families to bring a donation of individually wrapped, nut-free snacks to help stock our school snack closets for teachers to use in their classrooms.  To help us plan, please register in advance:

Register for Monster Mash: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/monster-mash--2026-3

A shoutout to our DeWitt Elementary PTA for organizing Chalk the Walk to greet students, families, and staff on the first day of school.  The motivational messages and drawings were inspiring and a friendly way to kick off the school year.  Thank you to everyone who participated in this fun event.

DeWitt Public Schools will continue to offer free breakfast and lunch to students this year.  Menus can be found here and will be updated soon.  We are grateful to families and our community members who donate healthy, no nut snacks to classrooms and our snack pantry which also provides our students brain and body fuel throughout the day.  Your partnership in removing hunger as a barrier to learning and child development makes a lifelong impact.  Thank you!

Student safety is a priority.  Please bring proper identification each time your child is picked up from school.  Here are some ways adults picking up students can be identified:

• Physical ID (ie. driver's license)

• Personal ID by office staff

• Other identification proof such as utility bills or other statements, credit card, etc., AND answer personal information that we have in Infinite Campus (ie. phone number, child's birthdate, etc.)

Thank you to the many families who have reached out and asked what donations they can make to Scott School.  Here is a list of things that we're always in need of:

• Healthy, no nut (doesn't contain nuts and is processed and packaged in a factory without nuts), individually packaged snacks

• Balls (basketballs, kickballs, soccer balls, and footballs)

• Disinfectant wipes

• Hand sanitizer

• Paper towels

There are some Scott students who have health-threatening nut allergies in our building.  Scott School is a 'No Nut' building.  Pack items that do not contain nuts for your child's lunch and snack.  It is critically important that we provide a safe learning environment for all students, and your help with this is needed and appreciated.  Please always contact your child's teacher if you have a concern about an allergy or other health condition related to your child that they should be aware of.  Also, if your child has a medical need, including food or other allergies, don't forget to update your child's Medical Management Plan by completing and submitting the district forms to the office before school starts so we can follow protocols to keep your child safe.

In order for Scott School personnel to administer medication to your child when we return to in person instruction, you must:

• Submit a completed district medication form to our office. 

• Be sure all medications are brought to and stored in our office. 

• Be sure prescription medication is in its original container accompanied with a physician’s signature. 

• Be sure non-prescription medication is in its original container accompanied by a parent’s signature. 

• Please communicate with your child's teacher if he/she takes medication daily at school. 

• If your child has a medical condition, please be sure to complete a Medical Management Plan for your child and turn it in at the office.

Medication and other medical forms can be found on our DeWitt Public Schools website.

Our school social worker, Mrs. Schwarz, is always willing to assist students and families in any way possible.  In addition to working closely with your child's teacher, consider reaching out to her if you have questions or need support.  She is truly amazing at what she does!  She can be reached at 517-668-3446 or schwarzdea@dewittschools.net.