SUN PRAIRIE COMMUNITY SCHOOLS NEWSLETTER |
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Lexi Vanden Heuvel
Supporting Community Schools
608.318.8109
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Hello, Community School supporters!
My name is Lexi Vanden Heuvel and I am excited to be back serving in the Sun Prairie School District as I support our community schools while Jamie Racine is out on leave this fall. Most recently, I was the principal at Northside Elementary for eight years and had the privilege of working closely with Jamie as Northside transitioned to a community school in 2020. As a school leader I was able to see the positive impact this work has on our students, families, staff, and the larger community. I look forward to supporting all of our community schools, getting to know our community partners, and working closely with our incredible team of site coordinators and building leaders.
When I am not working, my husband and I are busy raising three amazing humans and leaning into their school communities this year at Token Springs, Patrick Marsh, and West High School.
Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions, ideas, or support needs. I look forward to engaging in this powerful work together!
Lexi Vanden Heuvel
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Google Voice Text or Call: (608) 561-7721
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WALKING SCHOOL BUS We are starting our own branch of the nationwide Walking School Bus! We are so excited to meet our students in the neighborhood and help them walk to school which should increase attendance, encourage healthy habits, and helps students come to school already with positive engagement with our Walking School Bus Drivers, “Ms. Shenika” “Mrs. Olivia” “Ms. Courtney” and Mrs. Anna-Cheri. Shout out to Mrs. Writzling for assisting.
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TAKING IT TO THE PARK - OCTOBER 5
Please join us for Taking it to the Park on October 5th after school from 4-6 pm. We see a lot of our families out and they would love to see you face to face out in the beautiful Vandenberg Park! Check out our Family Compact so you can make note of all our family-to-school events for the school year!
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CH Bird Site Coordinator Update
Shenika Moss has submitted her resignation from her position at CH Bird Elementary to pursue other opportunities. While our team and the CH Bird community are sad to see her go, we wish her the best of luck in her new endeavors. Her last day in her Community Schools role will be Thursday, September 29th.
We are so grateful for the community school work that Shenika has done over the past two years at CH Bird. The relationships and partnerships that she has built will continue to support the work of Community Schools and the CH Bird community for years to come.
We will work together to support this program in the interim while we recruit and train a new site coordinator.
We will begin accepting applications soon in our search for the new CH Bird Site Coordinator. We ask for your help in spreading the word so that we can find a strong candidate to fill Shenika’s shoes!
Please reach out to either of us if you have any questions.
With gratitude,
Nicole Toepfer, Principal of CH Bird Elementary School
Lexi Vanden Heuvel, Substitute Program Coordinator for Sun Prairie Community Schools.
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Katrina Collins is our new Site Coordinator serving at Creekside Elementary! Katrina has been working at Creekside for 10 years as a playground and teacher’s assistant and is very excited about this new role!
Over the summer the Creekside community enjoyed a community picnic. The event was very well attended and included many community partners who made it memorable and fun for students and families. Kona Ice was a popular attraction, giving away over 200 free Kona Ice cups, with the support of the Creekside CAFE and Community Schools. Face painting, dancing with a guest DJ, and free books from the Madison Reading Project resulted in many smiles throughout the evening. The event also welcomed families inside to drop off their supplies, visit their learning spaces, and get excited for the upcoming school year!
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Community Garden
This summer we created a beautiful community garden named Northside Rainbow garden as named by our students. We are growing tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, beans, watermelon, cantaloupe, carrots, pumpkins, kale, cabbage, and a variety of herbs.
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Wednesdays at Wetmore
I also held a program at Wetmore Park called Wednesdays at Wetmore! The program was an 8-week program and served 36 adults and 171 kids in our community.
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Saturday Scholars Program
We ran a summer school program from June 4th-July 16th and our scholars loved every Saturday learning with us! We served 17 students through this program and will continue this program into the fall.
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National Night Out
In addition to many great programs with students, we get to be involved in our community and share about the great work we are doing at events like National Night Out!
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Nighthawks Back to School
We kicked off the school year with a successful Ready, Set, Go event welcoming 330 adults and 272 kids as well as 9 community partners offering helpful information and resources to families! We added 29 new staff to our team this year and we are so excited for the year ahead!
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Celebrate Smiles Dental Clinic |
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Mentorship Flag Football Program
This program was developed in March 2022 and ran through June 2022. We entered the national youth flag league called “under the lights”. In this program, we talked a lot about our future as young men growing up in Sun Prairie and what that means to them and for them. We also made it a place for our students to do homework before we went to practice every Tuesday and Thursday. This program will be revamping this school year as well as other programs that will be coming to light.
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Youth and Teen Mentorship Program
This Program was developed in June 2022 and ran through August 2022. This program was Free, utilizing sports, activities, and career exploration in a safe, supervised environment to develop resilience skills, fine-tune leadership skills, and provide positive role models and lifelong mentors for youth and teens.
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Starts the 1st week of November |
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Urban Triage Summer Program
Over the summer months, students at Prairie Phoenix Academy participated in the Urban Triage summer program. Students and staff enjoyed the Sun Prairie Juneteenth event. Prairie Phoenix held a successful summer lunch program as well as joining the city for National Night Out. With the new school year in session Prairie Phoenix relocated to a new, completely remodeled space within Central Heights. Families, students, staff, and community members celebrated the new space with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
What’s Next for PPA
Launching adult programming, including GED classes, financial literacy, etc. The students of PPA have developed a Black Student Union and are ready to, not only impact their school, but their community.
From family FUN nights to fundraising with Culvers, this is just the beginning for PPA and the new school year. Prairie Phoenix also welcomed a new site coordinator this year. Tenisha Winn has served as a site coordinator within our district at Northside and as a youth advocate over the past two years. She is ready to go and begin impacting the lives of families, students, and the PPA community.
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Prairie Phoenix . . . RISE UP !!!!!! |
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World’s Best School for Community Collaboration Recognition and Celebration! Last winter, a grant was written nominating Westside as a World’s Best School for Community Collaboration. It came as quite a surprise when in early May, we learned we were on the top 10 list for this award! We knew we wanted to celebrate so in early June, we held a community-wide celebration! More to come on how we do in the competition with the winner announced in late October/early November.
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Camp Buena Vista
Each summer, Westside has been blessed to host a summer camp for our Wildcats in summer school. This camp is funded by the City of Sun Prairie and this is our 9th summer offering it! The summer camp would not be possible without many community partners who volunteer their time hanging out with our campers. Partners include Blackhawk Missions, Explore Children’s Museum, and City of Sun Prairie staff members. Special thanks to our amazing camp staff, who are all SPASD staff for leading our camp.
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Back to School Bash at the Element
On a beautiful evening in late August, we said goodbye to summer and welcomed the 2022-2023 school year, by taking the party to where many of our families reside. There was great food, games, activities and so many community partners that helped to make this a great event and the 200+ people that attended, thought so too!
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Garden and New Nature Area
Our Willy’s Wonderland garden has been amazing this summer! Our Wildcats helped plant the seeds last Spring which grew in our greenhouse, our summer campers helped maintain it by weeding and watering, and then, our afterschool program coordinator, Jill Dorfler, kept it growing when our Wildcats had their summer break. All the produce was shared with families at the neighborhood lunch sites this summer, many of whom do not have easy access to fresh produce.
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Kids Achieve Together, including Celebrate Us Club |
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Westside was blessed to be awarded a second five-year 21st CCLC grant from the Department of Instruction. This new five-year grant will allow us to offer academic enrichment programs for up to 70 Wildcats after school Monday through Thursday. This program would not be possible without this funding as well as our amazing after-school staff of which 90% are also Westside school day staff and have been with our KAT program for many years! |
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Tuesday, Sept. 20, 5:00-6:00 pm |
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We will be celebrating the kickoff to a new school year with a fun-filled night complete with a meal, games, fun on the playground and plenty of surprises too! |
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Meal Packing event for Haiti |
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Community Wide Schools Upcoming Event |
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Wacky Wednesdays in the Neighborhoods are back!! |
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Each Wednesday, beginning September 21, several community partners will again be out in neighborhoods connecting with kids and families! We will be at:
The Element on Main Street from 4 - 4:25 pm
Rolling Prairie apartments on South Bird Street 4:30 - 4:55 pm
Vandenburg Heights Park on Vandenburg Avenue from 5 - 5:30 pm
Please join us for fun, games, snacks, The Dream Bus mobile library and much more. Thanks to our many community partners for being part of this great program!
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Beginning Tuesday, Sept 13, 2022 |
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This free group English class will be offered online using Zoom. Students will learn English speaking and communication skills with topics including Students can take the class on their tablet, laptop or Chromebook. If a device is needed, the Literacy Network is able to loan devices out to students for the duration of the class. Beginning English classes will be held on Thursday from 6 - 7:30 pm with the Intermediate classes being held on Tuesday from 6 - 8 pm. Classes wrap up the week of December 5. |
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CONTACT US
Jamie Racine
Community Schools Director
608.318.8109
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Shenika Moss
C.H. Bird Elementary Site Coordinator
608.834.7320
Stacey Dudley
Northside Elementary Site Coordinator
608.834.7160
Brian McKenzie
Patrick Marsh Middle School Site Coordinator
608.834.7629
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Rea Solomon
Prairie Phoenix Academy Site Coordinator
608.834.6934
Stacy Darga
Westside Elementary Site Coordinator
608.834.7546
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