Friday Update 3/3/2023

Dear Siwanoy Families,

Happy March!

Sometimes you have to end the week with a recess handstand competition against an athletic 2nd grader! Spoiler alert, Emerson beat me! This is one of the many reasons why I love my job. This picture is just a microcosm of the fun we have here at Siwanoy. While we work hard academically (our winter reading and math data was fantastic. Kudos to our hard working teachers), we have to remember that we are in the business of children, building positive and lasting relationships, and giving our brains a break sometimes for fun.

Siwanoy Upstander Gallery Walk

Here at Siwanoy, we have been talking about what it means to be an upstander. On March 15th, you will have a chance to see just what that means to your children. We will be hosting a gallery walk that will depict art from quotes of historical and present upstanders from around the world. Students will choose a quote and make a piece of art that describes what the quote means to them. This gallery of artwork will be displayed throughout the halls for all to enjoy. Parents/family members will have the opportunity to walk the halls (not classrooms) to enjoy artwork from all grades. To make this work in terms of space and time, please see below for your grade levels' "viewing time". For space and organizational purposes, please be sure to stick to your time. Thank you and I hope you enjoy your time at the event!

K-2 - 8:30-9:00

3-5 - 9:15-9:45

Word of the Month - Integrity

The word of the month is Integrity. Having integrity means knowing the difference between right and wrong and choosing to do the right thing, even when it is hard. This also means being honest, avoiding gossip, and being an upstander.

Parent Teacher Conferences/ Report cards

Report Cards- Our second trimester will be ending on March 8th. Parents will be able to access their child’s report card via our parent portal after 3:00 pm on March 14th. To access the report card in Infinite Campus, please follow this link to access our parent guide. If you do not know your login credentials or need to reset your password, please create a ticket in the service desk: https://lhric.service-now.com/student

Parent/ Teacher Conferences- Parent/ Teacher conferences are scheduled for the evening of March 15th and during the day on March 16th, except if your child's teacher is being trained in Responsive Classroom. Please note that parents will have a choice of whether to attend the conference in-person or virtually. Teachers will be sending out information on how to sign up for parent/ teacher conferences in the next few weeks.

If you would like to schedule a time to meet with your child's specials' teacher, please see the contact information below.

Mr. Maley - P.E - kmaley@pelhamschools.org

Ms. Taveras - Art - etaveras@pelhamschools.org

Mr. Vamos - Music - rvamos@pelhamschools.org

Ms. Pignataro - FLES - lpignataro@pelhamschools.org grades 3 and 5

Ms. Lavin - FLES - clavin@pelhamschools.org grades 2 and 4

Ms. Ferris - SEL - lferris@pelhamschools.org

Ms. Sullivan - Library - asullivan@pelhamschools.org

Music Updates from Mr. Vamos

If you are planning on participating in the NYSSMA PIANO festival, which will be taking place on June 9th and 10th at Yorktown High School, please fill out this Google Form and send in a 22$ check made out to The Pelham School District no later than April 10th. This is a hard deadline! If this is something your child is interested in they should talk to their piano teacher first so that they can choose the best repertoire and level. Feel free to email Mr. Vamos if you have any questions. He can be reached at rvamos@pelhamschools.org.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1yY5PO0HbnJ4zyRLdUtb6R1J2Dj3773s1ep0oIuGM2WA/edit?ts=63efa5c8

Mr. Vamos in a musical!

Please see the link below for information about our very own Mr. Vamos participating in a musical at Concordia College on March 11th, at 11am. We are very proud of him!

Mr. Vamos at Concordia

District Survey

District Communications Survey

The District is partnering with the National School Public Relations Association (NSPRA) to conduct an audit of school and District communications. If you have not already done so, please take a few minutes to complete this anonymous communications survey. 

The survey, which will be open through March 13, is an integral part of the audit process and seeks to assess the communications preferences, perceptions and ideas of all stakeholders, including parents/guardians, staff and community members who no longer have children in our schools. The survey is available in both English and Spanish.

Please take the survey now!

Lunch Support

During lunch, we receive a range of support from various teachers and parents. Pizza Tuesday is always very busy and we were down a school lunch worker from the company. That did not stop Ms. Weaver and Ms. Rothschild from stepping up to the plate to ensure our kindergarteners were given yummy pizza in a timely manner! I have candid photos of some of our other lunch heroes but for some reason they will not load!!! Thank you to all that step up and go the extra mile on a daily basis!

Playground update

At today's PTA meeting I was able to share the exciting news that we will be getting a new playground! Installation should happen at some point in July. We went over a couple of designs and I will make a decision based off of the feedback from those at the PTA meeting and our teachers. This is a timely matter and I have to give the designer an answer by Monday to get the process rolling. We are very excited!!

Gentle reminders

Please remember to drive safely through our little village, especially in our school zones and when parking, please be mindful of our neighbors driveways. We really appreciate your help with this.

COVID Procedures

We know that a lot of you will be traveling over February break. Covid tests went home in backpacks this past week. Please make sure to test your child before returning to school on the 27th. I think that this is going to be the biggest hurdle for us of the school year. If we can curb the spread of covid right after this break, I predict that the rest of the school year will be healthy, happy and full of fulltime learning. For further information, please see this from our Superintendent https://www.pelhamschools.org/district/about/district-news/pps-news-story/~board/district-news/post/rapid-test-distribution

CultureFest Planning Committee

We are looking for volunteers to join the 2023 CultureFest planning committee! We had our first CultureFest last June and it was a smashing success! We are hoping that we can build on last years momentum to make this year's event even better. CultureFest is an event of food, dance, music and art that celebrates the rich tapestry of families and cultures that make up our Siwanoy community. If you would like to help plan in any way (big or small), please reach out to siwanoydiversity@gmail.com. (CultureFest Date: Thursday, May 4 from 5pm-7pm. More details to come!)

Building Bridges program starts May 8th

Please see the link below about additional information on Building Bridges and on how to get involved.

Building Bridges Program

Upcoming dates:

3/6 - Day 2

3/7 - Day 3

3/8 - Day 4

3/9 - Day 5

3/10 - Day 6

Keep spreading the love! #everydayabetteryou

Farid Johnson

Principal, Siwanoy School