Hello Parents and Guardians,

We have had a great start to our new school year. The students are working hard and having some fun. They have been learning a lot of new collaborative, engaging and interactive strategies that make learning exciting. These strategies are part of our TAP program which is a “System for Teacher and Student Advancement” sponsored and developed by the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching. Our teachers are learning new strategies to employ into the classroom each week. As I walk through classes and begin teacher evaluations, I am excited to see these strategies in action along with the heighten amount of student engagement in every grade level and every classroom. Not only have we been focusing on student engagement but we have been implementing the new Common Core State Standards which are have much more rigor and higher levels of thinking and problem solving than past Standards. Both the TAP System and the Common Core Standards are challenging for our staff and our students, but, both have embraced the challenges with positive attitudes and style. We are a great school but we can always improve. 

I would like to thank all of our parents/guardians who attended the Meet the Teacher Night, which was a huge success, and our Curriculum Night, which wasn’t such a huge turnout. If you were unable to attend and you would like to receive your child’s grade level PowerPoint outlining your child’s curricular expectations for the year, please email your teacher for a copy. Please be aware that Parent/Teacher conferences are held on September 19th and 20th. We have sent home a hard copy and have attached the conference form with the newsletter. Please return your conference requests by Wednesday, September 5thto your child’s home room teacher or the front office and we will notify you of your conference time(s). Thank you.

You may have noticed that we have had to change our procedure in the front office regarding child pick up and adult identification. I have always been very proud of our office staff for knowing and remembering most of our parents and guardians, especially those of you we see daily or several times a week for years now. Unfortunately, we can’t know everyone, especially those who do not come in the office regularly. We have had some complaints from some parents regarding asking for identification from some adults and not others. In order to be fair and consistent, and for the safety of all of our students, we are asking to see identification from all parents who pick up their children during the school day and through the office. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause you and thank you for your understanding.

The changes made to our parking situation out front have caused us lots of excitement to say the least. Every day we are getting better at making the adjustments. Please know that the Sheriff’s department had been regulating the parking to ensure that all of us are “reverse” parking and that we are not parking in the bike lanes. It is my understanding that they have been issuing tickets, so please be careful to follow all new procedures. We are anticipating a cross walk across Main Street very shortly which will help tremendously.

Respectfully,

Joanne Pike