IMPORTANT

DATES

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013

Volume 1, Issue 13

WoodsEdge Howl

Our Mission: We are an innovative school dedicated to developing independence in our students.

September 12-26th— Cookie Dough Fundraiser October 2nd—Student Count Day

October 8th—OPEN

HOUSE 4:00-7:00 pm

October 9th—Picture Day October 16th— Cookie Dough Delivery

October 17th— No Students/Staff Only October 18th—22nd—

No School—Fall Recess

October 23rd—

SCHOOL RESUMES

October 31 -

The WoodsEdge School Improvement Team is looking for parent representatives to be

part of our team. The School Improvement Team is a team of professionals, parapro-

fessionals and parents working towards improving our students educational outcomes.

Currently, our team has annual goals to increase our students’ academic and positive

behavioral skills and reports to the State every year about how we are reaching those

goals. Being on the School Improvement Team requires availability on the 3rd Tues-

day of the month from 2:45-3:30, the ability to complete some small tasks during non-

meeting times, and the motivation to help our school improve its programming for our

learners. Child care for your student can be arranged during the meeting, if needed.

The School Improvement Team meets at WoodsEdge. For more information, or to

express your interest in being part of the School Improvement Team, contact Alisha

Krcatovich at (269) 250-9438 or akrcatovich@kresa.org. If you’d like to be on the

team, but our meeting time doesn’t work for you, contact us anyway. We may be able

to find other ways in which you could be involved. We’d love to have more parents’

perspectives to help drive our School Improvement Team’s vision for our school!

Parent Newsletter of

WoodsEdge Learning Center

Page 2

WoodsEdge Learning Center

Mariah reminds us that

barriers can be broken...

….as our students walked

about downtown Kalamazoo

and spent some time hanging

out at the local hot dog stand

with their friends. Throughout

their lives our students have

been labeled in many ways.

On this day they were just

highschoolers.

- Teacher, Josh Johnson

Our Mission in

Action

WE are committed

to making sure that every student has a

way to communicate.

WE allow students

TIME to do things independently.

WE ask: What am I

doing for my

students that they

could do for

themselves?

WE use state of the art technology to

foster independence.

WE implement

evidence-based

practices.

WE use a team

approach.

WE recognize each student as a unique

individual with unique strengths

and needs.

WoodsEdge Wolves

THE WOODSEDGE WAY We are SAFE We are INDEPENDENT We COMMUNICATE We are the WOLVES!

ULS

Curriculum Themes

September-October

Pre-School - Meet My

Family & Friends

K-12 - History

Transition - Personal Health Care

*******

“Take me out to the ball game” was the ULS cur-

riculum summer theme. Every classroom was able

to come into the gym throughout the summer and

the final three weeks were dedicated to scrimmages

and playoff games. During the playoffs the students

had designed hats, shirts and banners and all were

able to participate in a baseball game. The Wood-

sEdge World Series winners were the students in

Ms. Woodward’s AM classroom, the “Tiny Tot Tur-

tles.” This team scored a total of 28 runs during

playoff games! The competition was fierce, but the

most important part was that all participated at their

highest level of independence.

Thank you, classroom staff for all you did to make

this a school-wide fun learning experience!

Etinosa Idemudia

Matthew Penner

Samantha Spanhak

Alex Hughey

WoodsEdge Learning Center

Page 4

WoodsEdge Learning Center

Our Mission: We are an innovative school dedicated to developing independence in our students.

Parents, families and other caregivers are encouraged to attend the annual

WoodsEdge Open House slated for Oct. 8th from 4-7 pm. Staff will be on hand to

showcase our Unique Learning System (ULS) curriculum, and demonstrate the

use of assistive technology that is enhancing our students’ communication skills.

Visitors will have a chance to meet teachers, support staff, and administrators as

they tour our classrooms, therapy areas and specialty rooms. WoodsEdge shirts

will be on sale, along with student-made rugs and jewelry. Visitors can enjoy

some refreshments as they learn more about community resources available to

our students and families. Come join us for a fabulous fall Open House!

WoodsEdge Open House—October 8, 2013

Administrative restructuring has resulted in changes for WoodsEdge Learning Center. This year, Carmen Jonaitis will be a Special Education Administrator for Early Childhood pro-grams and services. She will be responsible for Special Education services to preschoolers and will supervise the PET (Pre-Primary Evaluation Team), FIT (Family, Infant, and Toddler pro-gram) and all WoodsEdge preschool staff.

Mindy Miller’s administrative responsibilities will be expanded in her role as offsite administra-tor. Mindy will continue to supervise the staff for the HI/VI (Hearing-Impaired and Visually-Impaired programs, as well as oversee staff serving KRESA’s offsite ASD classrooms in Port-age, Parchment and Schoolcraft.

WELC Director Angela Telfer and Assistant Director Michele Gulbis look forward to working with Carmen and Mindy to provide oversight to KRESA’s Special Education students.

WoodsEdge Parent-Student

Handbook Available

The handbook is available on our

website: www.kresa.org/

woodsedge Click on “Parents”

More information will be added to our parent page in the future—stay tuned! If you would like a printed copy of the handbook, please contact the school office at 250-9400

Student Absences

Please remember to call the school absence line whenever your child/young adult will be absent. If you call the office absence line, rather than the teacher, the office will inform the teacher of the absence. Thank you for your coopera-tion! It helps in our goal to keep everyone safe and ac-counted for.

Absence Line:

269-250-9402

Our Vision:

A community without

For Transportation questions or problems on existing routes, please call the District Transportation Office first.

If you require additional assistance, or for transportation questions or problems with a new route or a new student's bus-

ing, please call Lynne Seibert at 250-9412.