February Community Update

Hello NHI Friends and Families,

After a fairly quiet January, the pace starts to pick up again in February and March. As we pass the halfway point of the school year, we thank you for taking a few minutes to review this update so you are aware of all of the important events coming up over the next few weeks. This month’s community update will highlight some important topics, including:

• Success at Nature Hill: Attendance
• Wolf Recognition Spotlight: Mike Harder
• Changes in the Front Office: Welcome back, Mrs. Carol Hunter!
• Join the Pack: Spring Club Sign-Up
• PTO Update
• Reminders regarding scheduling for 2018-2019
• Into the Woods: Information on Ticket Sales and Performance Dates

 As always, please feel free to reach out if you have any questions!

Wolf Pride!
Jason

Success at Nature Hill: Attendance

In this section of the newsletter I usually try to share an insight or two on ways we can work with you to support your child’s education. It came to my attention that we never have really discussed the importance of consistent attendance. Before reading on, please don’t think of this is as a lecture or a stern reminder of the importance of attending school. We get it, things come up that keep your child home—sometimes appointments cannot be scheduled after school or that once-in-a-lifetime family vacation cannot happen during one of our scheduled breaks. Also, PLEASE know it is okay to keep your sick child home from school!

When compiling student attendance, we define a student as being absent if they miss any part of a school day. In addition, we track how much class time a student may miss because they are tardy or in the office to meet with a counselor, Ali or myself. So far this year the attendance rate at NHI hovers around 88%. This is consistent with the past few years, but does not meet our goal of having a 90% attendance rate or higher. In addition, since the beginning of November, 13% of our students have three tardies or more, most of which are due to being late at the start of the day.

Some strategies we are implementing at NHI to improve attendance include:

• Once a student receives a 3^rd tardy in a trimester, Ali Hedrick sits down with them to discuss some strategies to manage time. These conversations have been very effective in improving tardy rates.
• We offer on-site services for individuals who have counseling appointments with Family Services of Waukesha and the GALS Institute. Counselors have an office at NHI, and you can arrange to have your appointment conducted there. This would help cut down on class time missed due to travel and appointment availability.
• We have arranged to open the building as early as 6:45am so that families can drop their child off early and help reduce the amount of traffic from 7:15-7:25am.
• We are trying to offer more clubs that start as early as 6:15am as an additional way to alleviate morning traffic.

In order to help with attendance rates please consider:

• Making appointments for your child during their lunch/recess period. While I understand that 35 minutes may not be enough, it is a good amount of time in which your child would not miss any core academic classes.
• Take a look at the 2018-2019 school calendar as you start to make your vacation and appointment plans for next year. Take note that there is one extended weekend or break every month.
• Check your child’s attendance on Family Access. You do not get a report when your child is tardy to class, however, you can monitor it daily. These are often great ways to start conversations about the importance of being on time to events and can help build good time management habits.

Thank you for your help and support!

  

Wolf Recognition Spotlight: Mr. Mike Harder

Mike Harder is a former Nature Hill student who graduated from OHS in 2015. As an adolescent he lost his hearing and he had to adjust to a new way of life. Recently, he came to talk to each grade level about that experience and discussed the importance of our Wolf Pride themes of believing that we can be successful, accepting others without judgement, owning our actions, listening, and including others. In sharing the challenges that life presented him, Mike pushed our Wolves to consider one another’s stories and to reflect on what mark they will leave on our school community. Thanks for sharing your story, Mike!

Mike’s presentation was held in conjunction with our Speech and Communication Celebration Week. Leading up to his visit, our students participated in a series of activities focused on recognizing and learning more about speech, stuttering, hearing loss and tools used to facilitate communication in our society. You can click here to access the different activities and resources shared with our students.

Thank you to Tiffany Strassburg, our Speech and Language Pathologist, for leading us through an informative and fun week of learning!

A New Face in the Front Office!

This past year, our long-time Administrative Assistant, Mrs. Deb Wittnebel, announced her retirement, which will be effective on June 29, 2018. Deb has worked at Nature Hill since it opened in 2008, and has worked in the Oconomowoc Area School District for 28 years. Please wish Deb well as she embarks on her next full-time job as a grandma, baker and traveler!

We are excited to share that Mrs. Carol Hunter will be replacing Deb as our head Administrative Assistant. Carol will be a familiar face to many of you and our students as she is our former Assistant for Athletics and current Administrative Assistant at Ixonia. We are excited to welcome Carol back to NHI! Her professional experiences within our school district and her personal experiences as a proud mom of two former Wolves will be extremely beneficial as we continue to ensure our building runs efficiently and that you are provided the top-notch customer service you deserve. Congratulations and welcome back to the Pack, Carol!

Join the Pack! Spring Club Sign-Ups

Sign up for spring clubs will occur in the library from February 28-March 6. You can click here to review the updated spring club brochure, which highlights all of our clubs, sports, and activities being offered from March through the end of the year. Some of our more popular clubs are offered in the spring, and they include:

• Triathlon Club
• Hands for Change Service Club
• The 2^nd Annual Student Directed Play
• Trap Shooting

Club participation this year has been THROUGH THE ROOF! Current participation rates are:

• 65% of 5^th graders
• 59% of 6^th graders
• 69% of 7^th graders
• 74% of 8^th graders

Thanks to all of our dedicated advisors who help make these clubs possible!

PTO News

The PTO is hibernating for winter and will meet again on April 9 at 6:30pm in room 152A. However, please be on the lookout for information on how to join our Fun Run sub-committee or help at the Spring Book Fair.

Scheduling for 2018-2019

The course request process for next school year ends on February 2. Please refer to your email from January 17^th outlining this important process. Feel free to call Deb Wittnebel at the front desk if you need any help completing the course request.

Into the Woods

Our annual all-school musical will take place in March at the OAC. You can purchase tickets by clicking here. Thank you to our PTO who has paid for buses so that our entire school can travel to see the performance at the OAC during the school day on Wednesday, March 7. Public performances will be held on:

• Thursday, March 8 at 7:00pm
• Friday, March 9 at 7:00pm
• Saturday, March 10 at 1:00pm and 7:00pm

Please see the note below from Director Amy Jappinen about this year’s performance.

Nature Hill is thrilled to be heading “Into the Woods” for this year’s all-school musical.  64 performers, 41 tech crew members, 7 adults on the production staff, and countless adult/parent volunteers will proudly present all of our favorite fairy tales combined into one thrilling show to our community on March 8, 9, and 10th. In addition, the entire school and all of our district fourth graders will be seeing the show during the school day on March 7th. Thank you so much to our terrific PTO for their support and providing the transportation to the OAC.  This year’s show is being performed at the Oconomowoc Arts Center. Tickets are available through the OAC box office and are $12 for adults and $10 for students. Children 2 and under are free.  Into the Woods Jr. is a part of the Broadway Jr. collection. This collection takes well known full-length musicals and edits them so that they are friendlier for intermediate level performers and audiences. Many of the favorite songs from this classic show and movie are included. We hope that you will join us at the OAC in March, as we are excited to be presenting this production, as well as our pre-show of Disney Music and classic characters, to our community.

Upcoming Events at Nature Hill

Please mark your calendar for the following upcoming school-wide events occurring between now and early March. Individual classroom or grade-level activities will be shared with you by your child’s teacher.

Date	Time	Event
Thursday, February 1 & Thursday, February 8	3:15-7:30pm	Winter Parent-Teacher Conferences Teachers have sent out information about conferences. I look forward to seeing many of you there!
Friday, February 2	6:30-9:00pm	Winter Dance: NHI Gym and Cafeteria We hope your Wolf can join us for our staff-sponsored dance! Tickets are $5 and can be bought at the door.
Thursday, February 15	6:00pm & 7:15pm	5th & 6th Grade Band and Choir Concert: NHI Gym Please join as we listen to all of the hard work of our 5th and 6th grade musicians during the second trimester. The 5th graders will perform at 6:00pm and the 6th graders will take the stage at 7:15pm.
Monday, February 26	All day	No School: Professional Development Day There will be no school on February 26 so that teachers can attend their district committee meetings.
Wednesday, February 28- Tuesday, March 6	All day	Spring Club Sign-Up: NHI Library Students can sign up to Join the Pack this spring in the library.
Friday, March 2	All day	Last Day of Trimester 2 The trimester ends on March 2. We anticipate publishing report cards on the afternoon of March 9.