Back to School Dates

• Aug 8: Senior Registration 9am-1pm
• Aug 9: Junior Registration 9am-1pm
• Aug 10: Sophomore Registration 9am-1pm
• Aug 10-12: Freshmen Connection (and Registration), 9am-3pm 
• Aug 11: Friends of Payton Freshmen Family Pizza Party, 4-7pm
• Aug 17:  Make-up Registration, 9am-1pm (0nly if can't make scheduled day, please!)
• Aug 22: First Day of School
• Sept 22: Curriculum Night

Registration Summary

For Registraion, complete the Registration Documents here and then print and sign the .pdf forms that will be emailed to you to bring them to school at your assigned date and time. To read the school's Registration FAQs,click here.

For school fees, the Aspen online payment portal is now available. Payments should be made by Registration. 

At Registration, your student can expect to do the following:

1. Take a yearbook photo. Stuart-Rodgers Photography will take juniors’ and sophomores’ photos for the school yearbook and for student ID cards. Senior photos taken at registration are for school ID cards only; seniors’ yearbook portraits are taken by Stuart-Rodgers during individual appointments.
2. Return registration forms signed by a parent/guardian.  Complete the Registration Documents here and then print and sign the .pdf forms that will be emailed to you to bring them to school at your assigned date and time. To read the school's Registration FAQs,click here.
3. Pick up Chromebooks.  (Freshmen only.)
4. Pick up optional items purchased before registration (Ventra transit card or TI calculator). Please see July 8 registration email from school for a link to order/purchase these items.

 Questions about Payton registration should be directed to the following:

• Chromebook and technology questions: Dave Dvorak at dbdvorak@cps.edu
• Fee bills and payments: Amma Nantwi at aanantwi@cps.edu
• All other inquiries: Wanda Baez at wibaez@cps.edu or Mary Grubich at mmgrubich@cps.edu

We need volunteers for Registration! If you can help for a few hours, click here to sign up!

Friends of Payton 2022-2023

Welcome (and Welcome Back) Letter

Click here for letter in Spanish

Click here for letter in Chinese

Thank you to our translators, Christina Qun Xu and Leonora Georgeoglou!

August 2, 2022

Happy Back-to-School season, Payton families, and a BIG GRIZZLY HUG to each incoming freshman family! We hope each of you had a safe, healthy and restful summer. We are so excited and optimistic about the opportunities to connect (and reconnect!) and to support our students, our school and each other.

It is also wonderful to welcome back Dr. Fareeda Shabazz as our school Principal! Dr. Shabazz was Payton’s Interim Principal last year and after a great year leading the school was awarded the permanent position. For those that have not met her yet, Dr. Shabazz came to Payton after 9 years of leadership at CPS’ Richard T. Crane Medical Preparatory Magnet High School as its Founding Principal. Once you meet the impressive, accomplished and enthusiastic Dr. Shabazz, we are sure you will agree that Payton will be in great hands for years to come!

Friends of Payton (FOP) is the primary organization for parents and guardians to support Walter Payton College Prep. FOP has a 3-pronged mission, as it creates and supports opportunities to (i) Volunteer, (ii) Participate & Build Community, and (iii) Financially Support Payton.

FOP Accomplishments and Goals

While we have had to be flexible the last few years, there is much that we strive to accomplish together as a Payton community each school year:

·        

VOLUNTEER:

• Certify ~800 parents/guardians for volunteering (via CPS Level 2 certification approval process)
• Deliver 8,000+ volunteer hours to organize and assist with 25+ school functions & events

PARTICIPATE & BUILD COMMUNITY:

• Organize 4-5 larger community events per year for the Payton community, including Freshman Connection, Community Potlucks, FOP/Boosters 5K walk/run, and our Spring Grizzly Gala
• Facilitate smaller community gatherings such as group lunches and coffee chats
• Regularly communicate via FOP’s monthly e-newsletter (Payton Community News) featuring important school updates as well as celebrations of our students’ teams and activities; mid-month e-updates; FOP’s web page (wpcp.org/FOP) and on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook (all @ PaytonFriends34)
• Connect our community via FOP’s smartphone-app directory (DirectorySpot) for Payton families

FINANCIALLY SUPPORT PAYTON

Payton depends on $800,000+ of annual fundraising support from FOP to fund critical academic needs and student programs for Payton expenses not covered by diminishing CPS budgets, including:

• 4-5 faculty positions to maintain manageable class sizes and preserve AP classes and Honors electives for all students
• Payton Cares, an emergency assistance program for students in need
• “Teacher Wish List” items that go directly into classrooms to enhance learning for all students
• Funding for social & emotional learning resources for all students
• Professional development programs, helping Payton train and retain high-performing faculty in an increasingly competitive market for talented teachers
• Textbooks and Technology for 1-to-1 computer access for low-income students
• Significant support of student seminars, clubs, athletic officials and senior graduation
• Need-based financial support for International Exchange and Global Connections, Payton’s international travel programs for up to 200 Payton students annually

How You Can Get Involved

We encourage every family to engage and support the Payton community by:

Attending monthly FOP Payton Community Meetings. Principal Shabazz will kick off each meeting with an update about what's happening at Payton and answer parent/guardian questions. Our first meeting will be held virtually on Wednesday, September 7, 2022 at 6pm. Future meetings will be held on these Wednesday evenings at 6pm: October 19, November 2, December 7, January 18, February 1, March 1, April 19, May 17, and Monday, June 5. Please save the dates... and you can always find them on our website!

Building community. In this era of social distancing, FOP received great ideas from community members on ways to connect, and we are now launching support of parent/guardian-led lunch (or virtual) meet-ups and in-person (or virtual) coffee chats. More details coming soon to FOP’s website!

Volunteering at school events.  Volunteering helps you connect with other Payton families and assists the school in running events such as Spirit Wear sales, Registration and Fall Open House for prospective students. During Student Registration--or right now--you can register as an FOP Volunteer (via CPS Level 2 process) and complete our Volunteer Interest Form. You can always check the Current Volunteer Opportunities page to see our current needs. Or reach out to any FOP Board member listed below!

Contributing to Payton’s 2022-2023 Annual Appeal[1] and other fundraisers. Given CPS budgetary pressures, Payton faces yet another year of underfunded initiatives. Principal Shabazz will be working through the final details of our 2022-2023 school budget from CPS, but based on FOP’s pledge from Spring 2022 to support 4-5 teaching positions this upcoming school year, Payton will need a substantial amount of financial support from the community. Look for more information when our Annual Appeal kicks off mid-late October.

More information on ways to Volunteer, Participate & Build Community, and Financially Support Payton is on FOP’s website, in the Parents tab of Payton’s website (www.wpcp.org/FOP). Please also feel free to send questions or comments to any of FOP’s Board members (see below) or to FriendsOfPayton@gmail.com.

Thank you to all the Payton families who’ve contributed their community spirit, time, energy and financial support to our extraordinary school and community. We are deeply grateful for your support, year after year.

We hope you all have a great First Day of School on Monday, August 22. Until then, stay safe, stay healthy and Go Grizzlies!

Chris McGowan 

President

FOPpresident@gmail.com

Ellen Zickmann & Lori Leib

Co-Directors of Volunteering

FOPvolunteering@gmail.com

Erica Lara & Ruben Lara

Co-Chairs, Annual Appeal

FOPannualappeal@gmail.com

Ning Du

Treasurer

FOPtreasurer@gmail.com

Heather Bennett

Director of Communications

FOPcommunications@gmail.com

Chris Cote

Secretary

FOPsecretary@gmail.com

Cira Conley

Assistant Treasurer

FOPasttreasurer@gmail.com

Kim Froning

Ass’t Director of Communications

FOPcommunications@gmail.com

[1] FOP is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit. Donations are 100% tax-deductible. 100% of money raised by FOP supports Payton.

Volunteer

Current Volunteer Opportunities for Back-to-School:  Next week!

Please help if you can!  Let's start the year off strong!  A lot of volunteers are still needed to help with Registration and the Freshmen Family Pizza Night to welcome new students both freshmen and transfer students.  

• Sign up to volunteer for Registration here.(Help needed August 8-12, 17)
• Sign up to  volunteer for the Freshmen Family Pizza Night here.(Help needed August 11)
• Sign up to volunteer to organize chromebooks here.  (Help needed Friday am, Aug 5)

NEW THIS YEAR!!  Check out our Current Volunteer Opportunities page on the FOP website for a real-time list of open volunteer opportunities!

Interested in Volunteering this Year?

Please complete this Volunteer Interest Form!

FOP has open positions!

FOP is actively recruiting for a few open board and committee chair positions.  Interested in getting more involved? We'd love to hear from you! 

Open FOB Board positions:

• Annual Appeal Co-Chair/Database Director
• Annual Spring Fundraiser Co-Chair(s)

Open Committee Chair positions:

• Physics Day
• Family Information Coordinator

Email us at FOPvolunteering@gmail.com to learn more about the open roles.

2022-23 WPCP Level 2 Certification

All volunteers must be CPS Level 2 certified with Payton.  To certify or renew your WPCP certification, click here for instructions.  Level 1 and Level 2 volunteers are needed.

• To certify for the first time, click here and then submit your photo ID here.
• To re-certify your WPCP Level 2 certification, click this renewal form and submit your current photo ID here.

For more information, visit the FOP Volunteer Page

Participate

Welcome to the new Payton Families!  

A pizza party in your honor is being held at Payton during registration week. Please join us for pizza and a chance to connect with other Payton families.  

Thursday, August 11 from 4-7pm

New students and their families are welcome.

Freshmen families can RSVP here!

Payton Boosters Corner

The Payton Boosters Association is looking for volunteers to serve on its Board, become a team parent, and/or assist with fundraising efforts. Please contact pba@wpcp.org if you are interested in supporting our teams.

Season pass ticket sales are coming up! This is the PBA's main fundraising effort and proceeds go directly to our teams, supporting athletes and competitors. The season pass gets you into all home football, basketball, and volleyball games! Visit the Booster's page for details and click here to purchase. 

Because of your generosity, we can march forward.

Friends of Payton (FOP) is the primary organization for parents and guardians to support Walter Payton College Prep. FOP has a 3-pronged mission, as it creates and supports opportunities to (i) Volunteer, (ii) Participate & Build Community, and (iii) Financially Support Payton.

Our mission is to enrich the school's educational and extracurricular activities with resources that supplement the limited funding allotted to Payton through the Chicago Public School system. FOP is run by parents/guardians of Payton students as an audit-compliant 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Donations to the school through FOP are tax-exempt.

Every parent and guardian of a current Payton student is automatically a member of Friends of Payton - there are no membership dues or application processes. Learn how to get involved by attending a Payton Community Meeting or by contacting  FriendsofPayton@gmail.com or visiting the FOP website at  at https://www.wpcp.org/FOP for more information.