Waltham Elementary School District - Prepare, Respect, Inspire, Dream, Encourage

Cold Weather Reminder for Tomorrow ❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️ As we head into another chilly winter day, please be sure your child is dressed warmly for school tomorrow. Coats, hats, gloves, and scarves are important for keeping our students comfortable and safe. Our buses will be warm for transportation, but please remember they are still buses—not quite as cozy as a car—so bundling up makes a big difference, especially during loading and unloading. We look forward to seeing all of your children tomorrow and appreciate your help in keeping them warm and ready to learn!

Waltham School will be closed on Friday, January 23rd due to the forecasted sub-zero temperatures in our area. All after-school activities for Friday will be cancelled. Activities scheduled for Saturday, January 24th are currently still scheduled as planned. Please stay warm and enjoy another long weekend🥶 Mrs. Eager

Students had an opportunity to participate in Mrs. Lukacsy's Waltham Hawk Winter Break Challenge. They took the hawk on adventures and created presentations sharing their fun! Congratulations to Millie T. who won the challenge! She received a Target gift card and a Scentsy backpack charm! Way to go, Millie! Thanks for sharing your creativity!

Please share our upcoming preschool screening information with family and friends of Waltham District #185!

Thank you to Illinois State Representative, Amy "Murri" Briel, for serving as our January Attendance Sponsor! We are grateful for her support of our attendance initiative as we celebrate dedicated students and continue to build positive attendance trends. Thanks to all our monthly attendance partners, we have seen meaningful growth here at Waltham—and it truly makes a difference for our students!

Our latest Creativity Ink ELA event was a great success! 6-8th grade students wrote letters to promote the campaign, encouraging friends and family to support the Illinois Valley PADS shelter in Ottawa. Thanks to their hard work and our generous community, we collected food, drinks, supplies, gift cards, and cash donations during this holiday season of giving and wrapped up the campaign with a fun pizza party to celebrate everyone’s efforts.

A big thank you to Pilkington in Ottawa for sponsoring our December Attendance initiatives! Their support helps us celebrate students and encourage great attendance all month long. We greatly appreciate their partnership!

🚨 ❄️Tonight’s Events Are Canceled ❄️🚨 ❌ ELA Family Event at Village Hall This event is canceled for tonight and will be rescheduled. ❌ Girls’ Basketball Regional Games Originally scheduled for Mon/Tues/Thurs — now moved to Tues, Thurs, and Fri. ❌ Cheer Practice is rescheduled for Wednesday ❌ 7/8 Boys practice is rescheduled for tomorrow t ❌ 5/6 boys game at Peru Parkside is canceled Thank you for your understanding! Stay safe, everyone. 🏫💙

Don't forget. Bingo night tonight @ Canal Port. Doors open at 5. Bring cash for Bingo boards and 50/50! See you there.

Last call for Spirit Wear before the holidays!

https://thesudco.com/collections/waltham

Waltham’s Macy’s Day Parade is Back — and This Year, You’re Invited! Our students have been hard at work creating props, scenery, balloon floats, and more…and now they can’t wait to share it with YOU! For the first time ever, we’re opening our doors and welcoming families to join the fun. Monday, November 24th Parade begins at 10:00 a.m. Doors open at 9:45 a.m. Please remember to bring your photo ID. We’re so excited to have a live audience cheering on our students for this school wide event. See you there!

A big thank you to Duane & Charlene Wollenberg for sponsoring our November Attendance Initiative! With three grandchildren in our district, their support helps us celebrate and encourage consistent attendance for all our students. We truly appreciate their generosity! 🙌📚

HyVee Steak Night from 4 pm-7 pm tonight!
$1.00 from every steak is donated back to the Booster Club!

Bus 3 is having mechanical troubles. Another bus is on the way to transfer kids to take them home. Bus 3 students could be up to 15-20 minutes late.

Waltham Families,
We’re excited to share that the Waltham Booster Club is partnering with Hy-Vee this October! For every steak dinner purchased on our special nights, $1 will be donated back to the Booster Club to support our students and programs.

Mark your calendars for these dates:
*Thursday, October 2
*Thursday, October 16
*Thursday, October 30


Thank you for supporting Waltham students—we can’t wait to see you at Hy-Vee Steak Nights!

Waltham School sent a test of the Waltham School alert system out earlier today. Please email jcole@wesd185.org if you did not receive the test message.

📚✨ Tomorrow is the First Day of School! ✨📚 We can’t wait to welcome our students back tomorrow, Friday, August 15! 🎉 🕗 Arrival begins: 8:05 AM 🔔 Tardy bell: 8:10 AM ⏰ Dismissal: 1:35 PM Let’s kick off an amazing school year together — see you in the morning with big smiles and ready-to-learn attitudes! 💙📖 #FirstDayOfSchool #BackToSchool2025e #r #itsgonnabeagoodday