Last year, the Nettelhorst community collaborated on writing a new school improvement plan or SIPAAA. The new plan will be in place from 2008 through 2010. It consists of the mission and vision of the school along with stated goals for growth during the next two years. Each week, I’ll focus on a part of the plan so that you become familiar with our community goals. This week our focus is the school’s vision and mission. The vision states the goals of the school. The mission states how the community will achieve those goals. It’s important that our vision and mission embrace all  our community members. 

Nettelhorst Elementary School Vision

Nettelhorst is a community of diverse learners, including special needs students and English language learners, who are independent thinkers and creative problem solvers who use their knowledge of the fine arts to enrich their educational endeavors. All students will graduate prepared for success in high school and beyond, becoming socially and globally responsible individuals equipped to make positive contributions to their world.

Nettelhorst Elementary School Mission

The Nettelhorst School, in collaboration with all stakeholders, provides each student with a personalized education in a safe, healthy, and supportive environment. Students are provided with opportunities to become creative and critical thinkers. The Nettelhorst community prepares all students to succeed in a global society by integrating all curricular areas, with an emphasis on the fine and performing arts. We embrace multiculturalism, social responsibility, and personal accountability with the goal of all students, including special needs and English language learners, achieving high academic and personal standards.

Another initiative we’ve been working on for Nettelhorst is our wellness policy. The Local School Council has adopted a wellness policy that reflects the new CPS wellness initiative. The policy is full of guidelines for class parties, lunch procedures, and teacher incentives. There are a few mandated rules that are not guidelines, including the fact that no soda pop is allowed in the school and no large bags of chips or other snacks are allowed; only small snack-sized bags or treats are allowed. It is proven that children become sleepy and have trouble focusing on tasks after consuming large amounts of sugar, and so as part of this wellness policy, we ask parents to refrain from packing regular-sized candy bars in children’s lunches. We’re also asking parents not to send in suckers with gum in the center. I’m sure we all remember our student days and finding a wad of gum stuck under a desk or table. That still happens all too often! Small snacks, such as the type that come in packaged lunches, are acceptable. Fruit snacks and roll ups are great. Also under the new policy, sharing food in the lunch room is not allowed due to allergies. All of this said, it is not the policy of The Nettelhorst School to take any food away from children. We will, however, request that children wait until after school to eat any regular-sized candy bars they may have brought to lunch. I have discussed the policy and its implementation with the staff, and I believe we have a clear understanding of the procedures at lunch.

Next year, we would like to adopt a policy where birthdays are celebrated once a month. Room parents and parents of children who are celebrating birthdays would coordinate the treats and celebration time in cooperation with the teacher. A once-a-month celebration reduces the amount of instructional time lost and decreases the overload of treats consumed by children. We believe it represents a balanced approached for those parents who do not like to see treats in the classroom and those who would like treats to be served.

Childhood obesity and high cholesterol are just some of the conditions that are seeing a significant increase among our children. Doctors are discovering that many children by the age of 12 have cholesterol built up in their arteries. 

School districts across the nation are supporting healthy choices by enacting wellness policies. Some districts or schools have eliminated any celebrations that include food. Our policy is not as strong as many across the nation or even within CPS. We have worked diligently to come up with a policy that supports education within the classroom. As you know, this is a new policy, and we’ll be reviewing it throughout the year and discussing the results and merit of the program at the end of the year. We will also be discussing this policy at the November meeting of the Parent Advisory Team. I encourage you to join us as we discuss this policy. We’ll announce the exact date next week.

Dates to Remember 

The Chicago Blackhawks partner with Nettelhorst; donate $200,000 to Nettelhorst’s Health and Wellness programs! Click here to read more!