What's New?
From the Desk of Mr. Drouhard
Dear Amity Families,
It was another exciting week at Amity. Grades K-6 had the opportunity to see Dr. Brooks Gibbs on Thursday as part of a school wide assembly. He was very entertaining in delivering his message centered around the Golden Rule! Hopefully your child learned something from his message.
Kindergarten and 1st grade were fortunate to receive books from Chick-fil-A as part of their 1 Million Book Giveaway campaign. These books were delivered by our high school Chick-fil-A Leader Academy students on Friday! Our high school students did a fabulous job of connecting with our students while reading these new books to them. The famous Chick-fil-A cow was even on hand, so if your students reported a sighting while passing in the hallway, they weren’t telling you a tall tale!
Many more exciting events are occurring in the upcoming weeks. Harvest Night is coming up quickly and many details regarding the night are being shared below in this newsletter! We can’t wait to welcome you and your family on October 20th!
Take Care,
Josh
Weekly Photo Gallery
Click the link below to access photos from all around Amity Elementary during the week!
Student Half Day and Teacher Record Day- Friday, October 14th
Students will be in school from 8:00-11:05 on Friday, October 14th. The second half of a day is a teachers records day in which teachers will be finalizing grades for report cards. Report cards will be coming home in backpacks on Friday, October 21st.
Lunch On Friday, October 14th
The cafeteria will not be serving “to go” lunches on Friday, October 14th. This is a change from past practices, so I wanted to make everyone aware.
No School On Monday, October 17th
Students will not have school on Monday, October 17th. Teachers will be attending professional development training to improve their craft of teaching.
PTO Update: Autographed Joe Burrow Football And Deer Park Spirit Wear At Harvest Night
The Amity PTO will be raffling off an autographed Joe Burrow Bengals football at Harvest Night this year. Each ticket will be $1 with the proceeds supporting activities for the students at Amity. The drawing for the football will occur at the conclusion of the 3rd grade concert. The winner does not have to be present to win the football.
The PTO will also be selling Deer Park spirit wear at Harvest Night. Come purchase the newest styles to show your school spirit! Youth sizes will be available!
Can Goods For Harvest Night
Youth Service Club will be serving Stone Soup at Harvest Night. Please send in canned vegetable donations to help make this a reality! Students may put canned veggies in labeled boxes by the lost and found. We will be collecting canned vegetables until Wednesday, October 19th for the Stone Soup.
We will also collect canned goods the night of the event to help feed those in need within our community. Thank you!
Welcome Schoolhouse Photos!
Amity Picture Day is Wednesday, October 19th, and our partner this year is Schoolhouse Photos for school pictures and the Amity Yearbook. As Schoolhouse is a paperless company, parents/guardians will be receiving communications from them via email instead of receiving an order envelope.
Your first email will be an introduction to Schoolhouse Photos, followed by a reminder the day before picture day. After October 19th, please continue to check your email for updates including an access code to your child's private gallery where you can choose and order their photos. A two week ordering window will allow pictures to be ordered with free shipping and a bulk delivery back to Amity. After that time, pictures can still be ordered and will be shipped directly to your home (postage fees apply).
In the past, you ordered your child's pictures, sight unseen. We’re pleased to offer you the opportunity to view and choose your child's pictures before you order. Our goal is to make this process as easy as possible for you, and to deliver a superior product with a variety of poses and pictures to choose from.
Amity Book Fair
The Amity Book Fair will run from Tuesday, October 18th-Monday, October 24th. Students will visit the book fair during their special time. The book fair will also be open during Harvest Night as well. Please consider supporting our book fair as all proceeds benefit the Amity Library in purchasing new books.
Links to Fliers can be found below along with an e-wallet that can be set up for cashless purchases by the students.
Sandy’s Closet Donations
Deer Park Schools owes a big thank you to our community for supporting Sandy’s Closet this past spring and summer. The clothing room has seen a significant increase in family use since the beginning of this school year. Your donations have been greatly appreciated by our shoppers.
As you begin to change over your own children’s clothing for fall and winter, please keep us in mind for any clothing your children can no longer wear that you are looking to donate. We accept gently used children’s clothing, shoes, boots, coats etc. - sizes infant through clothing appropriate for our high school students.
Donations can be dropped off at the front desk of the Holmes Building M-F from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. We are grateful for your continued support of our families.
October Lunch Menu
Due to supply issues, lunch menu options change frequently based on availability. The most up-to-date menu is below, however, please continue to check the Deer Park Food Services website for the latest information.
Looking Ahead
Please mark these important dates on your calendar!
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Camp Kern: October 10-12
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End of First Quarter (Student Half Day): Friday, Oct. 14
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Professional Development Day (No School): Monday, October 17th
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Fall Picture Day: Wednesday, October 19th
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Amity Harvest Night: October 20 | 6 p.m.
In Case You Missed It
Smile Program Coming to Amity Elementary
Great news! Deer Park Community City Schools has again partnered with the Smile Programs…the mobile dentists to offer in-school dental care!
The mobile dentist will be coming to both Amity Elementary:
Wednesday, November 30 and Thursday, December 1
Socktober Collections
The Amity Youth Service Club will be collecting new socks for the month of October. All of the socks collected will be sent to Sandy's Closet for our community. Please keep supporting both our Youth Service Club and our community by collecting socks for Socktober.
Student Safety Training
As part of the district’s ongoing focus on school safety, we continue to review, update, and practice our school building crisis plans and procedures. Meant to help guide staff and students in the event of an emergency, these plans and procedures offer instructions on a multitude of safety issues, natural disasters, inclement weather, and building security.
In an effort to improve the safety of students and staff at Amity Elementary, our teachers will be training our students on procedures to use in the event of school lockdown. We have already gone through this process once this year, and were able to do so quickly from previous years training. A school lockdown can be used for a variety of situations. An active intruder inside or outside the building is the most intense and will be the focus of the training.
To train our students, our teachers will be using a script that is designed for grades K-6 to introduce and discuss what the class would do in an intruder lockdown situation. I want to assure you that this script does not go into specific detail regarding the violence that has occurred in schools from intruders, but rather enforces the lesson of listening to the teacher in the event of an emergency.
Listening to the teacher is the same practice used in fire drills and tornado drills.
The script will introduce students to the terminology recommended by the Department of Homeland Security of “Run, Hide, Fight” and can be used in community situations as well. Following “Run, Hide, Fight” in that order helps students to keep themselves safe. The last measure—“fight”—describes barricading doors or throwing items to disorient the intruder as a last case measure. We are not teaching students to seek out or take down an intruder within the building. Students will be taught they should always look to run and hide with the help of their teachers in this situation.
I know that these are heavy teaching lessons for our students to start learning at a young age. Our teachers know our students best, and will go through this script in a way that is tactful and informative. I wish we didn’t have to teach our students these things. The reality though is that as a school, we need to prepare our students to react and follow teacher directions in the event of any emergency.
Our students will be trained this week by their homeroom teachers. Following these training sessions, we will practice a safety lockdown once during the month of October. It will be announced over the PA that we are conducting a lockdown drill prior to the drill occuring, and will consist of the students locking down within the classroom. The drill will only last 5-10 minutes and then we will resume with our academics as usual.
Please feel free to reach out to our teachers or members of the administrative team should you have any questions.
Lunch Charge Policy
This is a reminder to parents that once a student reaches $30 of charges on their account, they will be provided with a minimal lunch which includes a peanut butter sandwich (or equivalent for those with allergies), a fruit, a vegetable, and a milk. Once they pay their charges, students can resume purchasing a lunch of their choice. For questions on your student's lunch charges, contact the main office.
Deer Park Youth Basketball Registration
If you're interested in playing Deer Park Youth Basketball this year, you have until Oct. 17 to sign up! Visit http://www.dpbasketball.org for more information or to sign up today!
Harvest Night
We are excited to announce that we will be hosting our Fall Harvest Night on Thursday, October 20th. Harvest night runs from 6:00-7:30 with a variety of events spread throughout Amity Elementary. From 6:00-7:00 there will be literacy games and activities at each grade level run by our teachers. Our book fair will also be open that night for purchases which benefit our Amity Library. At 7:00 the 3rd grade class will hold a performance in the gym. This event is free for all, so please mark your calendars.
Breakfast at Amity
Just a friendly reminder that students must purchase breakfast to enter the cafeteria between 7:30-7:45. With the expiration of the USDA’s Free Meals for Students initiative, breakfast will no longer be free for all students. I just wanted to put this on parents' radars so that charges from breakfast don’t pile up. If you believe you might qualify for free breakfast and lunch due a financial hardship, please see the information below.
Free and Reduced Lunch Updates
As you may recall, the past two school years all public schools, including Deer Park Schools, took advantage of the USDA free meals waiver for students. Unfortunately, this program expired on June 30, 2022. This school year, Deer Park families will once again have to pay for their school meals.
For Deer Park families who may continue to qualify for free or reduced meals based on income or other qualifying factors, please complete the free and reduced meal application form online through FinalForms. If, for some reason, you are having trouble accessing the form through FinalForms, you can print off a hard copy and email the completed hard copy to Brianna Listermann at listermann.b@dpccsd.org. You may also turn the hard copy into Betty Hollander at the Board of Education office located at 8688 Donna Ln., Cincinnati, OH 45236. The hard copy of the free and reduced application form can be found here:
Staying Connected
There are multiple ways to stay connected to Amity Elementary School.
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Newsletter: All parents who have completed FinalForms should receive Amity Weekly Newsletters. If you are not currently receiving them, please register for the e-mail communication. To register, simply go to https://www.deerparkcityschools.org/ and click on the button on the bottom of the page that says “Subscribe to District News”.
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Twitter: Follow Deer Park Schools for the most up-to-date news and happenings at @DeerParkSchools or @DeerParkAmity
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Facebook: Follow us at Deer Park Community City Schools.
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Inspiring & Empowering Lifelong Success
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