We're Thankful for you!

We hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving Break next week. VASD has no school Wednesday through Friday, November 26th-28th. We're so thankful to have a wonderful school community with whom to partner in the education of your children!

~Ms. Houghan and Mr. Brunner

Parent Teacher Organization Meet and Greet

Date: Monday, December 8th

Time: 6:30pm

Place: Redeemer City Church, 5356 King James Way, Fitchburg, WI

Come learn more about the PTO and meet other Sugar Creek families. There will be free pizza and childcare and a Spanish speaking translator available. Hope to see you there!

We are interested in learning more about the family experience with our Fall conferences. If you could, please take a moment to fill out this brief survey about Fall conferences (one for each child you have at Sugar Creek), that would be so helpful. The survey is available in English and Spanish.

See Survey here

Sugar Creek sponsors a GOTR team every year. Our Sugar Creek Girls on the Run Team completed their celebratory 5K on Saturday, November 8th. Congratulations, girls! Girls on the Run is an international program that promotes life-skill development for girls in grades 3-5 in the context of training for the celebratory 5K run. Thank you to our coaches, who make this opportunity possible. Our coaches this season were Megan Duff and Heidi Abrams (Sugar Creek Staff Members), Julie Griessmeyer (Sugar Creek Parent), and Stacy LaBorde (Community Volunteer). That's a wrap for this season! Registration for the Spring begins February 27, via the South Central Girls on the Run Website.

Parent

VASD’s superintendent, Dr. Clardy, has a Parent Advisory Council. We recently asked Sugar Creek families to let us know if they wanted to be on the Parent Advisory Council, then all names were forwarded on to his office. We recently learned that our 2025-26 representatives from Sugar Creek are: Ryan Nechvatel, Kevin Scully, and Rachel Walker-Carranza. We thank them for fulfilling this role!

Staff

Our two staff representatives on the Superintendent’s Staff Advisory Council are Adriana Galvan and Amy Hartman. We appreciate the time they give to this!

Students in Ms. Weaver’s class recently planted bulbs donated to Sugar Creek by student Alex Grannan- Rubenstein’s family. Pictured across the backrow are Jacob Showers, VAHS student and participant in the VAHS Introduction to Education Careers class; Ms. Whitehorse’s mother (who loves to garden and joined to help!); and Ms. Whitehorse, a staff member who in the past has run a Garden Club at Sugar Creek.

At Sugar Creek Elementary School, we continue to develop partnerships with others in our community in order to meet the growing needs of our school families in challenging times. Some of these efforts include:

*Verona Smiles, a partnership through More Smiles Wisconsin, a Wisconsin non-profit, that provides comprehensive dental exams and x-rays with a local dentist.

*Bridging Brighter Smiles, a Wisconsin non-profit that sends dental hygienists who provide preventative (cleanings, sealants) services.

*The Sugar Creek Vision Clinic, supported by the Verona Lions Club and Verona Vison Care

*A Public Immunization Clinic, organized by the Verona Area School District

*The Sugar Creek Weekend Food Program, supported by local churches, to meet food insecurity needs.

To further serve our school community, we are committed to making all field trips and yearbooks free and meet many of the school supply needs in ways that do not involved families paying.

“Sugar Creek: doing our best for your children each day!”

We appreciate our First Student bus drivers, and their commitment to serving the students of Sugar Creek. On a recent Monday morning, Sugar Creek provided them with treats to start the day as our thank you to them!

The Verona Area School District is in the midst of a multi-year journey toward Standards-Based Teaching and Learning, a shift designed to ensure every student has clear learning targets, meaningful feedback, and multiple opportunities to demonstrate understanding.

This approach helps teachers align instruction, assessment, and feedback directly to grade-level standards, creating a more accurate, transparent, and student-centered system for reporting learning. Students are supported to set goals, reflect on their progress, and take ownership of their growth, while families gain clearer insight into what their child knows and can do.

To learn more about why and how VASD is making this shift, please view our Standards-Based Teaching and Learning Overview [English - link here] [Spanish - link here]

Helping Hands Holiday Gift Program - Registration and Donations

• REGISTRATION: If you and your family are in need of gifts for your children this holiday season, consider signing up for VASD’s Helping Hands! Helping Hands is open to all VASD families (including non-school aged siblings). Register using this form no later than December 5th, 2025 at 11:59pm. For assistance completing the form, please contact your school social worker. Gift distribution will be held in mid-December at Verona Area High School. More info to follow in the confirmation email sent after December 8th.
  *Please note that PRE-REGISTRATION is required; families that do not register will not be able to receive toys on gift distribution day.
   
• DONATIONS: If you would like to donate to the Helping Hands program, holiday gifts and/or gift cards will be accepted at any VASD school site through December 12th, 2025.Helping Hands Holiday Gift Program - Registration and Donations

See here for more information about the November meeting.

Four Sugar Creek teachers agreed to host VAHS students in the Introduction to Educational Careers class, taught by Ms. Sarah Stremlow. The students come for 34 afternoons for about 90 minutes, and each one has been doing SO well with our students.

Left to right in the photo are: Hadasa Rios Aguirre (with Ms. Andrea Zapata and Ms. Lexi Weckerly), Maribel Gonzalez (with Ms. Diana Castellanos), Olivia Christensen (with Mr. Christopher Westberg), Jakob Showers (with Ms. Linda Weaver), Max Schultz (with Mr. Bill Rose), Issabella (Izzy) Texidor (with Ms. Ann Kruse).

Registration is currently open for all. You can view the program information here. To get signed up, just click on the following link: Register Online We are offering two payment options for the registration fees: Pay in full at registration or choose the monthly payment plan option which is spread out over the 5.5 months of the program.

We will be providing a “walking bus” each day for the kids to get to the Community Center (130 North Franklin Street) from the bussing area between Sugar Creek and New Century.

Please let us know if you have any questions. You can reach us at 608-848-6815 or email at: parkandrec@veronawi.gov

Our awesome Reading teachers are in need of books from the following genres for our Little Free libraries!

• Spanish Books Chapter and Picture Books
• Popular Chapter Books & Graphic Novels
• Non Fiction Sports

Actually, we’re having a whole BUNCH of balls. The box pictured above recently arrived from the Murrow family, for our playgrounds. Thank you!

Mr. Brunner was very surprised by the title of this book, found at our recent Books 4 Kids event, until Frankie assured him the story has a happy ending!

All 600 of our students received new books to keep this week, thanks for the work of our PTO and our reading teachers Ms. Doberstein and Ms. Hoffman. Pictured here are some of the Student Council members (Logan, Liam, Emmy, Frankie, and Wyatt), who helped with set-up and take-down.