From the Desk of the Principal

Hello and Happy New Year! I hope that all of our families had a fun and relaxing winter break. We are feeling refreshed and excited to get back to school and learning!

This week we have started NWEA testing. This is a test that accesses the academic progress of your student(s). Testing will take place for the next 2 weeks and then we will have a week for any make ups that are needed due to absences.

Please make sure that your student(s) are well rested and have had a good breakfast. As usual, we will be serving breakfast here in the building starting as 8:39 as well.

With the start of the new year marks the end of the first semester. Report cards are being printed and will be sent home with your student(s) on Friday, January 17th.

END OF DAY CALLS and PICK UPS: You must call the office by 3:00 p.m. to make arrangements for your student to go home a different way. This is a policy that we have had in place and unfortunately have to enforce. Thank you for your anticipated cooperation.

Cold Weather: Cold weather as arrived and this means we need families to start sending students to school with warm coats, hats and gloves. Please make sure they have a change of shoes as well so they are able to remove their boots when they arrive at school.

Bus Rider Families: Please ensure you arrive at the bus stop for pickup and are prepared to board the bus 5 to 10 minutes early each day. This will help the drivers maintain their schedule and adhere to the designated routes. Thank you!

Outside Lunches: The district does not allow outside lunches to be delivered or brought into school for the students.

Sick Children: Please call the office and report that you are keeping your child home due to illness. The Cass Van Buren Health Department requires our school to report illnesses every week.

Messages from our School Nurse

Patrick Hamilton Elementary School is excited to announce that the Van Buren Cass District Health Department will be offering a great opportunity for our students again this year.

On Monday, February 10th, 2025 the health department dental hygienist will be at Patrick Hamilton offering a program to help stop tooth decay. The SEAL Michigan Dental Sealant Program will be coming to place dental sealants on permanent six-year and twelve-year molars at NO COST!!! If your child has dental insurance it will be billed and any amount not covered by your insurance will be covered by this program. Please check with your dental insurance as many plans do not cover the cost of dental sealants. If your child does not have dental insurance there will be NO cost.

Your child will receive informational paperwork along with the necessary paperwork to be completed. If you are interested in taking advantage of this opportunity please complete the necessary form and send it back to the school as soon as possible and we will take care of everything from there.

VISION SCREENING: The Vision and Hearing Technician from the Van Buren Cass District Health Department will be coming to our building in the next couple of weeks. The technician will be providing our 1st, 3rd, and 5th grade students with the required vision screening. This vision screening is done annually for these grades as part of our state requirements. We know that children who can see well have a better school experience so please ensure that your child wears his or her glasses to school every day if they have been prescribed them. This is just a screening and does not replace the importance of having your child’s vision examined by a provider. Please contact the main office or myself for any questions or concerns or if you wish to opt your child out of this screening.

Suzanne Dorman, RN, MSN

sdorman@dowagiacschools.org

269-782-4420 ext. 1218

*Please feel free to contact her if you have any questions.

Schedule of Events

January 20 - NO SCHOOL

January 20 - Board of Education Meeting 6PM @PAC

January 23 - Vision Screening 1st, 3rd, 5th Grades

January 31 - HERO Raffle

Building Highlights

We are very proud of our Spelling Bee Participants!

Pictured on the left is out 5th grade team which is (L-R)Jordyn Mohr, Rhlee Martin, Jackson Rohdy, Sylis Gallegos, RJ Contreras and Owin Zuhl

Pictured on the right is our 4th grade team which is (L-R) Izzak Krempetz, Aiden Garcia, Brooklyn Brown, Rozlyn Panczak, Lailah RIggs and Ethan Villegas.

The snow fall on Tuesday prevented some of our classes from going outside for their afternoon recess. Mrs. McIntyre and Ms. Ortiz took their students to the gym to have a little fun!

Our fearless leader, Mrs. Conlin, was hard a work on Tuesday to remove the snow from the sidewalk so our students and staff could get home safely. We appreciate her keeping our safety in mind.

Mrs. Russell, our art teacher, has started a little friendly competition between Pat Ham and Kincheloe to see who can design the best snowman. Elijah has designed a great snowman.

Mrs. Brinkers kindergarteners are hard at work building with Mrs. Swisher.

Mr. Suvarna's fifth grade class is hard at work on learning how to round decimals.

Mrs. McIntyre's class is working as a group on text work. The theme of this assignment was understanding settings in a story.

Reminders

Just a few reminders as a we are coming back from Winter Break in regards to the daily schedule.

School opens at 8:39 for Breakfast

Bell to start the day is at 8:53

Tardy is 9:01 - 9:19

Morning Absent is 9:19 - 11:50

Afternoon Absence is 11:50 - 3:40

If your child comes into the building after 9:01, they are considered tardy.

If they come in after 9:19 they are considered absent. In order to have it excused, you must either sign your student(s) in or call the office.

If you have any questions, please call Mrs. Ruff.

Student of the Month

Sophia Goins is our Patrick Hamilton Student of the Month. Sophia is a great example of an excellent 2nd grader. She works incredibly hard to get her work done, even going as far as to sacrifice some of the recess time to get it done. Her favorite subject is math. Congratulations to Sophia - we are very proud of you!