Principal's Message - Beaubien Elementary

Volume 6 – 19/20                                                                                January, 2020

Principal’s Message
Dear Beaubien Families,
Happy New Year to you and your family. I hope you are feeling refreshed, empowered and hopeful as we start
2020! I am very excited to welcome back our students tomorrow, Thursday, January 2 nd and Friday, January
3rd. Yes...you read that correctly… School starts tomorrow!

One thing I like about the school calendar is that we get another start to the school year! As in September,
there is an excitement being back in school. Our students are excited to share how their winter break was and if
you are like me, I’m excited to send my 3 boys back to school. Every start to a new year, I reflect and set goals
on how we can improve our school. I encourage you to reach out to me if you have any thoughts or ideas as
well. One very important goal that we have been working hard on is our school wide attendance. As of
December 20th, our overall school attendance rate is 95.1%. Our goal for 2020 is 96% I encourage you and
need you to help achieve this goal for our school!

Help Your Child Succeed in School: Build the Habit of Good Attendance Early School success goes hand in
hand with good attendance!

DID YOU KNOW?
• Starting in Prekindergarten, too many absences can cause children to fall behind in school.
• Missing 10% (or about 18 days) can make it harder to learn to read.
• Students can still fall behind if they miss just a day or two days every few weeks.
• Being late to school may lead to poor attendance.
• Absences can affect the whole classroom if the teacher has to slow down learning to help children catch up.
Attending school regularly helps children feel better about school—and themselves. Start building this habit in
preschool so they learn right away that going to school on time, every day is important. Good attendance will
help children do well in high school, college, and at work.

WHAT YOU CAN DO
• Set a regular bedtime and morning routine.
• Lay out clothes and pack backpacks the night before.
• Find out what day school starts and make sure your child has the required shots.
• Don’t let your child stay home unless she is truly sick. Keep in mind complaints of a stomach ache or
headache can be a sign of anxiety and not a reason to stay home.
• If your child seems anxious about going to school, talk to teachers, school counselors, or other parents for
advice on how to make her feel comfortable and excited about learning.
• Develop back-up plans for getting to school if something comes up. Call on a family member, a neighbor, or
another parent.
• Avoid medical appointments and extended trips when school is in session.

I wish you and your families a new year full of love and joy. As always, I have an open-door policy and I’m here
to support you and your families. Please reach out! My email is: mhludford@cps.edu . You can also reach me
at 773-534-3500 or stop by the main office.

Warm regards,

Michelle H. Ludford

January
2       School Resumes
7       LSC (6:30 p.m. in the library)
8       PTO Meeting (6:30 p.m.)                       When: January 30th from 3 pm - 8 pm
9       Spelling Bee                                  Where: Chuck E. Cheese
14      School Tour (8:15 a.m.)                                7142 Carpenter Road Skokie, IL
15      Pajama Spirit Day ($1)
                                                      Why: Beaubien Elementary
20      MLK Jr. Day (No School)
25      Sink Your Change Collection                   What a wonderful opportunity! Chuck E. Cheese
29      Geography Bee                                 is willing to donate 15% of all food sales this day.
30      Chuck E. Cheese Dine Out Fundraiser           Why not give yourself the night off and support
31      School Improvement Day (No classes)           our school with some food and fun?

Performing Arts Assembly…                            Health Unit
Thursday, January 16th                               The Beaubien P.E. Department is writing to
Join us for the 7th grade Cultural                   inform you that in the spring all classes will be
Dance and Music performance                          taking part in a Sexual Health Education Unit.
from 12:30-1:30 pm followed by                       Both Ms. Hernandez and Mr. Resendiz are CPS
the 8th grade Showcase of Dance                      certified to teach this unit. A letter will be sent
and Music from 1:30-2:30 pm.                         home with more information on the unit.

CPS Parent Portal Information
Do you want to check your child’s grades and attendance online? Activate your Parent Portal Account
today! All current portal users and parents who are interested in creating an account for the first time
must set up a new account. Existing Parent Portal accounts have not automatically been transferred
to Aspen.
How can I create a Parent Portal account?
Please contact your school to provide your up-to-date email address and request a Parent Portal
account in Aspen. Once parent contact information has been verified by the student’s school, parents
will receive a signup email from Aspen. If you don’t receive the signup email, we recommend to check
your Spam folder. If you are unable to locate the email, please contact your school for assistance.
I’ve received emails from my school in the past, why don’t you have my email on file for Aspen?
While your school may have your email address on file, it may not have been added to the previous
student information system, IMPACT SIM. Only email addresses in SIM were moved to Aspen.
I had a Parent Portal account before the change to Aspen, why don’t I have one now?
Security features, such as login credentials, prevents us from being able to transfer accounts from one
system to another.
I received an email to create a Parent Portal account in Aspen, are there additional resources that can
help me with the setup process?
See short video that walks you through the setup process https://cps.edu/Pages/parentresources.aspx
I have multiple children in CPS, but I do not have a Parent Portal access for all of them. How can I fix
this?
Please contact your school if you are experiencing this issue. There are a few reasons why this might
be happening, which we have listed below for your reference. Your school will be able to determine
which of these reasons is causing the issue and resolve it for you.
    ▪ We do not have you listed as a contact in Aspen for your children.
    ▪ The former system contained multiple accounts for you, possibly with conflicting information
       (e.g., different names, home addresses, email addresses, phone numbers).
    ▪ In Aspen, your contact information should be verified and merged into a single account in order
       for all of your children to appear in your Parent Portal account. This allows for more efficient
       security and management. Your school can help ensure that the correct contact record is
       attached to your children.

Beaubien Math Team ~ CJML
Congratulations to the Beaubien Math Team! CJML Contest 1 was held on Nov. 9th and we couldn’t
be prouder of these Bulldogs…

 ▪   6th grade Individual Winners:       ▪   7th grade Individual Winner:
         o 5th place: Dimitrios D.               o 4th place: Angelo L.
         o 4th place: Conor M.           ▪   8th grade Individual Winner:
         o 3rd place: Michael M.                 o 3rd place: Jakub N.
         o 2nd place: Radu B.

Our 6th grade Team place 2nd in the Candy Bar Round.
Special thanks to our coaches, Mrs. Friedhart, Ms. Randazzo & Mrs. Combs, whose hard work and
dedication helped lead the Bulldogs to these impressive finishes!

STEM Fair Results
The Beaubien staff would like to congratulate ALL the participants in the STEM Fair; the judges were
astounded by your creativity, perseverance, and hard work ethic! The Science department would like
to thank all the teachers, staff members, and parents who shared much patience and support
throughout this process. The following is the list of winners from this event:

          5th Grade…                           6thGrade…                       7th & 8thGrade…
 1st place………Ethan L. (305)          1st place……..Marcus A. (307)      1st place………..Chloe H. (300)
 2nd place…………Ola K. (208)           2nd place….…....Victor T. (307)   2nd place……..…..Nicki T. (310)
 3rd place………Jaden S. (305)          3rd place………Juliette L. (200)     3rd place…..….Isabella E. (302)
                                                                       4th place………. Jakob N. (303)

              Honorable Mention…
                 ▪ Jace S. (207)
                 ▪ Sadie C. (202)
                 ▪ Andrea P. (309)
                 ▪ Dario R. (302)
                 ▪ Jobenn S. (202)
            Heartfelt thanks to Ms. Choi, Ms. Fleischhacker, Mr. Carr & Mrs. Friedhart
                            for their countless hours and dedication!

Spring Fling
Beaubien’s largest annual fundraiser, the Spring Fling and Silent Auction, is set for Saturday, May 16,
2020 from 6:00-10:00 P.M at a new exciting location, Five Roses Pub in Rosemont! It's not too early
to get your babysitters lined up for the big event! The Spring Fling is a great, adults only, night out
where you'll have the chance to mix and mingle with the Beaubien community while enjoying food,
drinks and also the chance to bid on some amazing auction prizes. We are also excited to announce
that this year's event will feature online bidding and checkout! The committee has already begun
collecting donations. If you or a family member, would like to donate, please
email beaubienspringfling@gmail.com for details. Popular donations include gift certificates to
restaurants, theater tickets, tickets to local sporting events, golf or fitness center passes, personal
services, spa certificates, artwork, unique gifts, and wine or beer. We look forward to another fun and
successful fundraising event! Be on the lookout for more details soon!

Wolves Game
Save the date for Saturday, March 28th at 7 pm when the Chicago Wolves take on the San Antonio
Rampage. Watch your student’s communicator for a flyer!

January Dine Out Event

When: January 30, 2020
        3 pm – 8 pm
Where: Chuck E. Cheese
       7142 Carpenter
        Skokie, IL
A flyer with coupons will be sent
    home closer to the event.

     Beaubien gets 15% of the sales
        from Beaubien diners.
  You don’t want to miss this fun event!