EES Family Communication April 11, 2025

Posted on 04/13/2025

April 11, 2025

Good afternoon to our EES families!

Bento Box Night/Math and Literacy Night: Easthill Elementary School, in collaboration with our School Council and Hastings Prince Edward Public Health, is excited to offer a no-cost community event. Drop in on Wednesday, April 16, 2025 any time from 3:00 to 6:00PM for our "Make and Take Lunch and Learn Math/Literacy Event"! Learn how to make delicious and easy school lunches that won't break the bank. Students and family members will move through stations, making their own lunch items and learning about food. Families will also have the opportunity to participate in a variety of Math and Language Based activities that our students participate in throughout the school day! At the end of the event, all participants will go home with lunch for the following day and a Family Math/Language Kit for use at home. Also, families that attend will have their name entered into a draw to win either a Math or Language based game to take home.

This event is drop-in between 3:00-6:00PM and is open to EES students and their family members.

Please use the link below to complete a quick form of how many family members will be in attendance. Thank you all for your support and we look forward to seeing you on April 16.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJXIhKM5heXhKowq7FtvxTaFiBjv9xVZ3Z5U3vXGApvfF5aQ/viewform?usp=header

Words Matter Campaign: We are excited to announce that our school will be participating in the Words Matter Campaign. This is a multi-year initiative designed to reduce the incidence and impact of harmful and discriminatory language in our school community. Our continued goal is to create a safe, respectful, and inclusive environment for all. We have begun dialogue with our Intermediate students and this will continue and discussions will begin to take place in all classes before the end of the school year. There will be a focus on positive identity, knowing ourselves, and developing the self-confidence to interrupt conversations that use harmful and discriminatory language. Please stay tuned for more information and the things we are talking about with our students in upcoming weekly communications.

Just a continued reminder that The City of Belleville will be enforcing parking restrictions, based on the City bylaws, in front of the school. This will include tickets to cars parked on the West side of the street, and if your car is unattended on the East side of the street. Moving forward, the city has said there is to be no parking on the West side of Macdonald Avenue (opposite the school). Stopping on the East side of the road in front of the school is permitted, but only if the car is not left unattended. We continue to work with the city to ensure that families can pick up their children in a safe manner, and ensure that bylaws are followed. A reminder to all families that there is an additional parking lot on the Northwest corner of the school property. This lot holds approximately 30 cars. There are two entrances to the lot now, one on Macdonald Ave and another on Macdonald Gardens. Parking in this lot and walking over to meet your child could help alleviate the congestion at the front of the school. Local businesses have also asked that parents do not use their lots for parking. They have told us they will ticket or tow cars parked in their lot. Finally, we have noticed a few cars that park to drop students off at the school and remain in the lot during the school day. If you could kindly keep parking spaces available for staff during the school day it would be greatly appreciated. Some people are parking cars in the lot and going to the hospital as well. The hospital does have parking on site. Please use that parking lot if you are going to BGH. Thank you to those that reached out with their concerns. We hope this helps explain the situation and possible alternatives to parking on the street.

Yearbook: Yearbooks are available to order through Cash Online. Included will be a page for each homeroom, special events, teams, grads etc. Full colour yearbooks are available to order for $20.00 until May 15. Delivery will be mid-June.

School Council - We are excited to support student learning at Easthill through the support of the School Council. Our next meeting will be on Thursday, May 29, 2025 at 6:00PM in our Learning Commons. We will also offer an online connection for people that may not be able to attend in person, but can join virtually. More details and the link for the Meet will be shared out closer to May 29, 2025.

Check out our Website for up-to-date information on all things EES: Easthill Elementary School

Student Absences - Detailed information about SafeArrival can be found at HPEschools.ca/Absence. Please use the toll-free number, website, or mobile app to report your student’s absence in advance. The toll-free number is 1-833-568-2535. Links to the SafeArrival website and mobile app are available at go.schoolmessenger.ca. The program has recently changed - partial day absences and late arrivals are no longer available on School Messenger.

EES Information Items & Updates:

April 15 - Popcorn Day
April 16 - Bento Box & Family Math and Literacy Night
April 16 - Bandfest
April 17 - Pancake Breakfast
April 17 - Intermediate Skating Trip
April 17 - Spirit Day - Hat Day
April 18 - Good Friday - No School
April 21 - Easter Monday - No School
April 22 - Popcorn Day
April 23 - HPEDSB Chess Tournament
April 24 - Hot Lunch - Hashbrown Casserole
April 25 - Spirit Day - Inside Out Day
April 25 - 3/4S & 1T Visit to the Public Library

EES Community Supports & Updates:

Mental Health & Well Being Supports for Families
Kids Help Phone – 1 800 668-6867 or text CONNECT to 686868
Children’s Mental Health Crisis Line – 613 966-3100 (15 years old and under)
Quinte Health Care Crisis Line – 613 969-7400 (16 years +)
We’re here to help! Please contact your child’s teacher or EES Administration if you would like to know more about our Child and Youth Worker (Ms. Violi) and how they can support getting connected to community resources.
Children’s Mental Health Resource Poster: CMHS Resource Poster

EES Student Teams & Clubs (currently running with staff involvement):

EES Student Council - Leadership team for intermediate students to further develop the EES Community through student voice and involvement in fundraising and event planning for whole school participation.
JEDI (Justice/Equity/Diversity/Inclusion) Club - A school-based equity club of intermediate students and staff working together to assist and inform our equity plan, considering different perspectives and setting priorities for our school and community.
EES Band - An exciting after school opportunity (Monday’s & Wednesday’s) for intermediate students interested in learning how to play an instrument.
EES Crochet Club - An opportunity for students to learn the skills of crochet in a fun environment with their peers.
Chess Club - A group dedicated to learning the finer skills of chess as well as opportunities to play with and against their peers.
Blue Jays Club - EES has been picked to be a Blue Jays Affiliate School and have created a Rookie League for our K-Grade 6 Students: Rookie League provides a platform for a wide range of children and youth experiencing diverse barriers to join together and participate in highly inclusive, mixed ability, safe and fun softball and/or baseball programming. Rookie League is the ultimate safe-space for any young person looking to develop new skills and have fun. The goal of Rookie League is to build a sense of community and belonging for children and youth. It is a club that is focused on students from K-6 where students engage in team building games and baseball development activities.

Easthill Elementary Pizza Days

We are excited to continue Pizza Days. In partnership with Bourbon Street Pizza, we will be providing cheese pizza slices to students for a cost of $2.50 per slice per week.

Pizza Days will be on Wednesdays each week. Payment for pizza will be done through our Cash Online payment system. Please review the weekly family communication for steps to set up Cash Online. Pre-ordering only.

Cash Online now has May pizza ordering available, and orders will be due on May 5 at the end of the school day (2:30pm) for pizza delivery on May 7, 14, 21, & 28. A reminder email will be sent on May 3. This email will arrive even if you have already ordered.

Ordering will take place every four weeks. It will be posted on Cash Online for all families to access as they wish. If you have any questions or are having difficulty setting up Cash Online, please contact us and we will be happy to support you. Instructions for Cash Online are below.

Popcorn Days

May popcorn days are May 6, 13, 20, & 27. Orders will be received until April 17. Pre-orders only. A reminder email will come out April 15.

School Cash Online Printable Instructions.

Step 1: Register

a) Go to hpedsb.schoolcashonline.com or select the “Get Started Today” option b - complete each of the three Registration Steps

Step 2: Confirmation Email

Registration confirmation email - click on the link in the email to confirm your email and School Cash Online account. The link will open the School Cash Online site and will prompt you to sign into your account. Use your email address and password just created with your account.

Step 3: Find your student(s)

This step will connect your children to your account. a) Enter the school board name b) Enter the school’s name c) Enter your child’s last name and 9-digit Ontario Education Number (on your child’s report card) or ID number provided to you for new JK’s d) Select continue e) On the next page confirm that you are related to the child, check in the agree box and select continue. f) Your child has been added to your account.

Step 4: View items or add another student

If you are in need of your child’s student number to set up Cash Online, please contact the office and they can assist you.