Shout out to the members from Lincoln's Young Entrepreneurs Club as they learned a valuable lesson about the sharing side of making money. They donated their time and talent and sold their homemade products at Wednesday’s volleyball game. They made a total of $309 from customer purchases as well as direct monetary donations! All of this will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Thank you to everyone who supported this event.

A special thank you to Mr. Sienza for leading this “spirit of giving” project!

A few things to be mindful of for this month:

• Early Dismissals: February4 and February 11

• No School: February 16

• Trimester 2 Ends: February 27

Congratulations to our 1st and 2nd place finishers in the annual Spelling Bee. Each homeroom participated in the event and put one student forward to compete in the finals (left to right: Camden, Aubrie, Nathan). Ultimately, Nathan J wound up winning the Spelling Bee and Camden D taking 2nd place. Congratulations to all of the participants and good luck to Nathan in the regional spelling bee.

National Wear Red Day is celebrated each year on the first Friday in February, to bring greater attention to heart disease as a leading cause of death for Americans. 

This is a reminder to all of us the importance of healthy living through exercise and healthy food choices.  Heart disease does not discriminate – it is the leading cause of death for men and women in the United States.  You can make healthy changes to lower your risk of developing heart disease.
Risk factors for heart disease include: • Smoking • High blood pressure • High cholesterol • Overweight/obesity • Physical inactivity • Diabetes • Family history of early coronary heart disease • Age (for women, 55 and older)

Heart disease is largely preventable. Here’s what you can do now to reduce your risk:

• Don’t smoke • Eat for heart health • Aim for 30 minutes of physical activity at least 5 days a week • Ask your doctor to check your blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose

For the year, Washington School has a collective attendance percentage of 94.7%. This means that our students average about 4 absences for the year. If your child is missing more than four days of school to this point in the year, they are at-risk for falling behind their peers. When students miss school, they miss instruction, they miss feedback, they miss opportunities to collaborate and work on activities. When students experience those losses it can potentially build into anxiety. Anxiety about the work piling up, social shifts. Additionally, students who are chronically absent are at higher risk of falling behind, scoring lower on standardized tests and even dropping out.

For the month of January, Washington School has a collective attendance percentage of 94.2%.

We want your kids at school everyday!

February 3rd will open the 5Essentials survey. The State of Illinois provides an anonymous survey for parents to provide feedback on the service quality of our schools.

The completion of the survey provides us with your collective voice to better develop & serve you! Please take the time to complete this survey.

Here is this year’s link for parents to provide feedback.

We will be texting the link out as well.

5ESSENTIALS SURVEY ADMINISTRATION FOR SCHOOL YEAR 2024-2025 WILL RUN FROM FEBRUARY 3, 2026 TO MARCH 13, 2026.

Starting on February 8, we will have 5 weeks before we start our Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR). IAR is a mandatory assessment for students in grades 3rd - 8th that measures mastery of the Illinois Learning Standards in English Language Arts and Mathematics. We are seeking your partnership to sharpen our skills over the next 5 weeks by encouraging your child to do the following DAILY:

* 20 minutes of silent reading of a book

* 20 minutes of iReady math and/or IXL math activities attached to your child

Research shows that the difference between "meeting standards" and "exceeding standards" often comes down to two simple habits: volume and consistency.

The 20-Minute Reading Advantage: Students who read for 20 minutes a day are exposed to 1.8 million words annually and consistently score in the 90th percentile on standardized tests. This daily habit builds the "mental stamina" required to navigate complex passages without fatigue.

Targeted Math Growth: Using adaptive tools like iReady and IXL for just 20 minutes allows your child to "close gaps" in real-time. Students who reach proficiency in just one or two new skills a week can see their test scores jump by as much as 15 percentile points.

The School & Home Partnership: When children see their parents value these daily minutes, their academic self-confidence increases. This "partnership effect" is one of the strongest predictors of student success—more than homework alone or even classroom environment.

By committing to these 40 minutes for the next 5 weeks, you aren't just preparing your child for a test; you are sharpening the tools they need for lifelong confidence and success.

Under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, any homeless child shall be immediately admitted, even if the child’s parent/guardian is unable to produce records normally required for enrollment. A homeless child may attend the District school that the child attended when permanently housed or in which the child was last enrolled. A home child living in any District school’s attendance area may attend that school. The child shall have access to the same free, appropriate public education as provided to other children, including a public preschool education. Please contact Kelly Legrenzi, homeless liaison for the Oglesby Public School District for additional information about homeless issues.

Nurse's Notes

Just a note from your school nurse to remind you that during cold and flu season the spread of most infections can be reduced by good hand washing. After coughing, sneezing, and before eating, please remind your children to wash their hands well. If your child experiences a sore throat with a fever or a sore throat that is not going away, he or she should be checked by their medical doctor to determine if they may have strep throat. If a diagnosis of strep is made, your child needs to be home on an antibiotic for 24 hours before returning to school and fever free. Thank you for helping in keeping the spread of infection to a minimum.

If your student has borrowed clothing at Lincoln, please be sure to launder it and return it to the school nurse.

School Physical Information

If you have a kindergarten student and have not turned in an eye exam or dental exam this year, please do so as soon as possible.

If you have a 2nd grade student and have not turned in a dental exam this year, please do so as soon as possible.

School Nurses Page

February Lunch Menu

February Activity Calendar

As a reminder school breakfast and lunch are free for all students.