Dragon Fire News October 4, 2026

A huge THANK YOU to all of our Dilworth families, parents, and sponsors who supported our Color Run! The final number is about $ 37, 000.  Your generosity, enthusiasm, and support made the event a tremendous success. 

Our students had an absolute blast running, getting covered in color, and celebrating together! We are so grateful for everyone who donated, volunteered, sponsored, and helped make this such a fun and memorable day for our Dragons. Your support makes a difference for our students and helps provide amazing opportunities in our science program. Thank you for being such an important part of the Dilworth community!

Parent-teacher conferences will take place throughout the week. We encourage all families to sign up for a conference with their child's teacher. Please watch for an email from your child's teacher with information about scheduling your conference.

Are you getting excited for Halloween? We certainly are! As you’re planning for the festivities, if your child needs a costume, we can help! Reach out to Mrs. V, our school counselor (lindsay.verhaaren@slcschools.org), and she’ll set you up. 

We’re all familiar with the classic “It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.” Remember when poor Charlie Brown kept getting rocks? Oof! Poor kid! Even though it’s a silly gag on the show, unfortunately, sometimes our dragon kids can run into similar feelings of being left out and not part of the group. 

 

At Dilworth, we’re proud of our community’s sense of inclusion. Making sure all students feel like they’re a valuable part of the school is a core Dilworth trait.   

 

This year, as you plan for Halloween, we ask you to be mindful of others who may not feel included. It’s such a bummer when one of our great kids feels like Halloween at school was more of a bag of rocks than a barrel of fun because they were left out. 

Kind regards, 

Jill Baillie

We are using Edia AI to make reporting absences easier for families. When your child is marked absent, you will receive a text message within minutes. Simply reply to the message with the reason for the absence. Your response will automatically update the attendance record, and you can report multiple days at once.

If your child was simply tardy but marked absent, you can also let us know through the text message so we can correct the record. No app or account is required.

Please report all absences and tardies (tardies need excusal also) as soon as possible. You can do this in three ways:

Please note: Absences must be reported within one week to be excused, unless there are extenuating circumstances.

Edia AI sends messages to the parent or guardian phone number on file in PowerSchool. If you aren't receiving notifications, please contact the office to verify your phone number. Be sure to update your contact information whenever it changes.

Questions or need help?

Managing Anxiety 

Anxiety is a normal part of being human. It can even be helpful! It can make us more alert or give us a burst of adrenaline to run if we need to. But sometimes, it can feel like anxiety is taking over our lives. 

Are you struggling with your child’s anxiety? It can look like frequent stomachaches or headaches, trouble separating from a parent, or even leaving the house. What can we do to help our kids feel better? It may go against intuition, but our goal shouldn't be to try to eliminate their anxiety. Instead, we can foster resilience and confidence to cope when things are uncertain, and worries creep up. Children need the message that it is normal to have anxious feelings from time to time, and that it's okay. 

So how do we do this?  Avoidance will alleviate anxiety in the short term but will actually make it worse over time. Model for your kids that you also have worries that you have to push through. Talk to them about coping strategies that work for you, and to identify what works for them. Encourage them to practice being brave, and then process with them how they feel afterward. 

Dr. Camilo Ortiz, a clinical psychologist and professor at Long Island University, is even pioneering a treatment with promising results where kids are given “megadoses of independence” as an anxiety intervention. The underlying idea is that by doing things independently, even if it is unrelated to their anxiety, kids learn that they are competent to face life’s challenges. Follow this link for more information: Independence Therapy is a new treatment for anxiety (letgrow.org)   

If you would like to talk more about how we can collaborate to help your student with their anxiety, please let me know!

It is highly recommended to use the church parking lot across the street from the school as we have a very reliable crossing guard to help the students cross the street. Additionally, the South Parking Lot allows kids to safety cross with our Safety Patrol students. For your convenience, we will station Mr. Folsom at the First-Grade back doors until 8:47 am to allow later arrivals to enter the school. He will open the doors for the late students. Please do not drop off students at the front door until after 8:40 am.

There are two ways to deposit money into your child’s account if they will be eating school lunch:  

1) Pay online by creating an account. Follow this link to enroll.  

SchoolCafé - SALT LAKE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT 

2) Pay Hilarie Sant at the Front Office with a check or cash ONLY. We do not accept credit cards. Please bring the exact amount as we do not have change. 

We’ve got some great news: school calendars for the next three school years were just approved at tonight’s Board of Education meeting! School calendars for the following school years are now available on the district website: 

To find the printable calendars in English, click on the “Calendars” tab at the top of the homepage, scroll down to “Printable Calendars,” and click on the year you want to see. (We will have PDFs available soon in other languages spoken by SLCSD families and will send another email once those translations have been uploaded.)