About the School
Changing Your Child’s After-School Transportation?
If you are calling about an after school activity change or transportation change (you will be picking your child up), please do so before 2:45 p.m. with your child’s teacher. All staff members check their phone messages at 3:00 p.m. to get any last minute changes in students’ schedules. Because of the tight fit on most busses, bus changes must be approved through transportation at extension 2801. Teachers and office personnel can NOT approve changes, as they are unfamiliar with the routes and scheduling. Please do not call after 2:30 p.m., as there is no guarantee that the message will be heard. If you call between 2:00 and 2:30 please call the River Valley office directly (x: 2100 or 2103), make sure you talk to someone personally and they will deliver the message. Do NOT leave a message.
Homework
Throughout the year, please remember that homework can be sent home with students from other classes. If your child is sick and needs homework to be sent home with the requested child, please call the attendance hotline and request homework to be sent home with (the student’s name) in (teacher’s class). When Mrs. Senese or Mrs. Krull check the hotline they will forward your request to the appropriate teacher. Teachers then have all day to prepare and send it home by 3:00 with the other student. When you are personally going to pick homework up for your child who has missed school, please remember that all homework is to be picked up at the end of the school day after 4:00 p.m. This allows teachers to properly gather all the materials that your child will need for the evening. Homework will be left on the "Homework Table" outside the office after school.
Dropping Off an Item?
Many times throughout the day parents bring items to school for students. Please help us in the following ways:
- Label the item with the student's name and teacher
- Drop it off in the office
Mrs. Senese and Mrs. Krull use “office helpers” to make deliveries throughout the day. We utilize the office helpers so that classroom interruptions are at a minimum and instructional time is at a maximum. Please do not ask that a sibling from Oakwood come and get your child’s homework or that they bring it home. Many of our books are too heavy and cumbersome for the little ones.
Recess
We go outside for gym and lunch recess as much as possible. Please dress your children appropriately. Coats, hats, and gloves are highly encouraged as the weather gets colder. There are very few days we don’t go out for recess.
Morning Drop-Off
Please remember that our school doors do not open until 8:35 a.m. Any students outside the doors before this time are unsupervised. Teachers and staff are not required supervise students until 8:35 a.m. This means students will be asked to wait outside, even when it is raining or cold. The best solution to this problem is to use the 15-minute window that is provided for our students from 8:35 a.m. until 8:45 a.m. to enter the building. School does not “officially start until 8:45 a.m. We provide the 15-minute window so that all students can be dropped off safely and with supervision.
If you have students that attend RV & OW, you can drop students off at either school. The RV traffic line comes through the circle in front of the campus and the OW traffic line goes through the lane in front of the school. Please pay close attention to the traffic staff. They will ALWAYS ask you to pull up as far as possible. By doing this, room is made for the many cars behind you. Your help in this area is most important and appreciated, especially on cold, snowy or rainy days.
Picking Students Up?
Please pick students up between 3:15-3:25 p.m. in the circle drive. If you are later then 3:25 p.m. you must park your car in the lot and walk into the school to get your child. No student will be allowed to cross the traffic lane without an adult.
If you pick your child up and require to physically greet them, you must park your car and walk across the traffic lanes to get your child. This is done for safety reasons. The easiest and safest way to pick your child up from RV is to get in the traffic line and circle through.
Most cars will exit to 127th Street. If busses are gone we will allow traffic to exit using State Street. Please watch the traffic person at the four-way stop. She will direct you to the safest route at the time of exit.
If you have students who attend OW & RV and you want to pick them up together, you must write a note that must go to the office. The RV student will leave at 3:10 p.m. to walk over to the OW gym. The OW student will be released a few minutes later to the OW gym. All students will exit the building with their sibling and should be picked up in the Oakwood traffic line.
After-School Activities
Please understand that we can not take a child’s “word” that they will not be attending an after school event, changing busses or that their plans have “changed”. If a student is scheduled to go to an event after school, we will make sure they get there, unless we have a note or phone call from you. Without a note or a phone call, we will send your child to the scheduled event. We need “formal” notices (phone call to the classroom teacher or a written letter) of any change that will take place with any of our children. We follow this policy for the safety of our children.
We appreciate your help in following these procedures as we want what is best for our students at all times. If you have and questions about any of the above procedures, please feel free to call me.