Manor News # 15
Included below in the News:
· Message from Jason
· Board of Trustees Brief
· Message from the Manor Art Room
· Manor Freecycle Corner
Included as attachments:
· Ross Valley Community News
· Manor Student Green Team Reminders for the Holidays
· Photo of Philippine Typhoon Relief Bake Sale
· Health Care Workshop Fliers in English and Spanish
· Word Version of this Newsletter
Message from Jason:
Greetings Manor Community,
As many of you may already know, the Board of Trustees for the Ross Valley School District was considering a proposal to move MAP (the Multi-Age Program) off of the Manor campus. This past Monday the Board voted against the proposal for various reasons, including the on-going financial costs, as well as the suitability of the Red Hill facility for the program. However, it is clear to me that the district and the Board do have a strong interest in providing more support to Manor. One type of support could potentially arrive, in the near future, in the form of increased administrative staff.
From my perspective, this decision necessitates that the entire Manor community (teachers, staff, parents, K-5 and MAP) begin some important conversations about what we want Manor to be. I believe there are some important questions that we need to consider. For example, in light of how our students have been performing for the past several years, is it still appropriate for us to continue to operate as one school which holds two programs (one neighborhood based, and one which draws from all over the district)? Or would it serve our children better to make two distinct schools on one campus? Obviously these are not the only two options, and I think it is time that we begin to enumerate the options and work together to create a new vision for Manor.
The idea of the necessity for this conversation has already been brought to the Manor teachers, the School Site Council, and the MAP Advisory Board this week. Now we must find a way to actually begin the conversations. Please stay tuned for announcements in the very near future marking dates and places to have these discussions.
I ask that we get creative, and stay completely focused on the positive objective of making the best possible learning environment for our children and students. I ask that we open ourselves up to wanting to truly understand perspectives that may be different than our own. This is an important time for us.
Manor Holiday Craft Making Party.
Mark your calendars forWednesday, December 11th, 2:30-5 pm immediately following school dismissal(in the Multi-purpose room) for the annual holiday craft-making fair--a wonderful community building event for celebrating the season. Manor students make the crafts to be shared with families and friends.
If you'd like to donate art supplies, treats, or volunteer to help with the craft party please email Liz, Kelly or Elizabeth.
Liz:
Kelly:
Elizabeth:
New Fundraising Opportunity for Manor (when you buy organic produce):
Farmigo is a new type of CSA service (Community Supported Agriculture) which allows you to place customized weekly orders on-line and pick up your order at school. All the produce is cultivated by local farmers, the vast majority is organic and around 10% cheaper than at Whole Foods. The best part of this is that if the Manor community can gather an average of 20 customers a week, Manor School will receive 10% of the proceeds at absolutely no cost or effort for us. This is a program that a few other local schools are participating in, including Brookside in our district. For more information, please follow the link below to see how it works at Neil Cummins in Corte Madera. There is a FAQ section of the site for your information. Stay tuned for more communication from me about this program that we are hoping to launch in the next few weeks.
https://www.farmigo.com/how-it-works/neilcumminselementary-cortemadera
Report Cards are Coming Home Today:
Today report cards will be sent home with all students. Please pay attention to how your child is performing. In most cases, these first trimester report cards will not have written comments because we had parent/teacher conferences just a few weeks ago. It is always good to give your child feedback on what you see. If you have questions or concerns about what is on the report cards, please contact your child’s teacher.
Typhoon Relief Bake Sale:
Thank you to all the parents who organized and baked to raise money for the survivors of the Typhoon in the Philippines.
Say Goodbye to the Star Test, Say Hello to Smarter Balanced Assessments:
California’s move to the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is bringing major changes, not only to curriculum and instruction, but also to the way student learning is measured. In October, Governor Brown signed AB 484, eliminating the 2014 Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR) assessments in English Language Arts & Math and replacing them with the California Measurement of Academic Performance and Progress (CALMAPP), often referred to as Smarter Balanced.
Here is what standardized testing will look like in 2013-14 in the Ross Valley School District:
• Students in grades 3-8 will take a Smarter Balanced English Language Arts or Mathematics Field Test on a computer through a secure browser that will be set up on all testing computers before the testing window opens. The dates of the test have not yet been announced, but at least 66% of the school’s instructional days must be completed before testing can begin.
• The California Department of Education will determine testing subjects by school and grade.
• The Smarter Balanced assessments will include the following types of items:
Selected Response Items ~ Students choose one or more responses from a set of options.
Technology Enabled and Enhanced Items ~ In addition to more variety in the way questions are asked, such as through the use of multimedia, technology will allow students to respond in new ways, like editing text or drawing an object.
Constructed Response Items ~ Students will produce text or numerical responses, rather than just choosing among possible answers. In some cases, they will be asked to demonstrate how they arrived at their responses.
Performance Tasks ~ Students will demonstrate the ability to integrate knowledge across multiple standards. These tasks will vary in length and complexity, and may require students to develop their answers based on multiple sources. For example, students might be asked to read a story or article, watch a short video, listen to an audio clip, or review research data, then answer questions and conclude by writing an essay based on their conclusions from studying the sources.
• Since this is a Field Test, no student, school, or district score reports will be produced. The test will measure the performance of over 20,000 newly developed test items and evaluate the test delivery system.
• This year, the 5th Grade STAR Science Assessment (which covers 4th & 5th grade California State Standards) will continue as the transition to Smarter Balanced Assessments take place.
• As more information about our testing assignment and time frame become available, I will share it with you. In the meantime, I encourage you to check out the following websites to learn more about the changes taking place and to preview sample test items to help you understand the complexity of questions the students will be asked to perform.
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ta/tg/sa/smarterftqa.asp
http://www.smarterbalanced.org/
Dates to Remember:
· Wednesday December 11th—Manor Holiday Craft Making Party, 2:30-5:00 Manor Multi
· Friday December 20th—Minimum Day, 2:10 dismissal
· December 21st-January 5th—Winter Break, no school
· January 6th—Staff Development Day, no school
Click here to view the Manor calendar: http://www.rossvalleyschools.org/index.php/manor.
Ross Valley School District Board of Trustees Brief:
Board Brief
Regular Board Meeting
December 3, 2013
Governance
New Trustees Amy Stock and Wesley Pratt were sworn-in, welcomed, and thanked in advance for their upcoming years of work. The Board then elected its new officers and representatives for the coming twelve months. They are as follows:
n President: Anne Capron
n Clerk: Annelise Bauer
n MCSBA/JLAC Representative: Wesley Pratt
Bond Construction Update
The Bond Department has been working overtime to keep our ambitious facilities plan on schedule. George Baranoff, Bond Project Manager, updated the Board on the following:
n The new White Hill buildings open December 4th.
n Architectural plans for the five-classroom addition at Brookside were presented. A complete set will be submitted to the Department of State Architect for approval this month; construction will likely begin in spring and the new classrooms are scheduled to be completed in time for the start of the 2014-15 school year.
n The Facilities Planning Executive Committee recommended and the Board approved the selection of Alten Construction to be the developer for this project.
Strategic Plan
Jim Brown, our strategic planning consultant, outlined the process that will be used in developing the District’s new plan:
n Forty-plus teachers, staff, parents, and community members, drawn from each of our District’s five campuses, have been selected to make up the Strategic Planning Task Force. This group will participate in two full days of planning and visioning. These initial sessions will take place December 9th and 10th.
n Once the Task Force has provided direction, the Writing Team, a much smaller group made up of Superintendent Eileen Rohan, Assistant Superintendent Marci Trahan, and Trustee Annelise Bauer, will write an initial draft of the document that will reflect the larger groups thinking.
n The initial draft will go back to the Task Force for additional input. It will also be sent out more widely, to “Network Groups”. These Network Groups are made up of educators from other districts who have recently engaged in this process and have kindly offered to assist Ross Valley by sharing what they have learned.
n After the Task Force and the Network Groups have provided feedback, the Writing Team will prepare a final draft for consideration. This draft will be sent out widely, and will be available to all Ross Valley community members.
n The final version of the Strategic Plan will be brought to the Board in spring for approval.
Message from the Manor Art Room:
Greetings Manor Community,
Kindergarten and MAP K/1 students have been continuing to learn and become familiar with different media such as clay and painting. The painting subject featured a fall farm landscape where students are continuing to learn drawing skills.
First grade students are discovering texture with clay and a fiber arts project where they are learning how to sew and developing a life-long skill, along with their fine-motor muscles.
Second grade students have begun a unit on depicting Self and Community, with projects that feature collage, language arts integration, and drawing a scene that includes many people in a community setting.
Third and MAP 2/3 are wrapping up their unit on Art of the Americas where they have become familiar with several regions and the folk art styles of Mexico. Projects have included: Tin Art, Amate Bark Painting, Metepec Ceramic Sun Faces, and Oaxacan Animal Sculptures.
Fourth grade students have been creating a collaborative mural with an Ecology theme that integrates social science and language arts. The mural was donated to us from the Wyland Foundation and will be submitted next year in a national contest on art and conservation. The mural will be hanging in the breezeway after the holiday break.
Finally, our Fifth and MAP 4/5 students are finishing a project that integrates language arts with a mixed-media self-portrait. Students are leaning about the art of micrography and topography in design and self-representation.
To view some student projects visit the link:
http://manorartroom.blogspot.com/
Thanks for helping make Manor school great and Thanks for supporting YES! And your child’s creativity.
Sincerely,
Nicole Diosdado
Manor Art Teacher
Manor Freecycle Corner:
Freecycle: "to recycle (re-use) by giving away an item for free that otherwise would have been put in the landfill." Here's an opportunity for Manor teachers or staff to post wanted items/material wish lists on a school-wide level; things that our ever-shrinking budget can't afford. It's a fun way to recycle and give to a classroom. If you have a desired item, please drop off to the specified teacher's classroom. For more info., contact Manor parent, Gina Neri at or mobile-415-215-3458
Manor freecycle wishlist:
· Ms. D, Art, Room 20, looking for small paint rollers, large paint brushes, small wood scraps
· Mrs. Mathis, Kindergarten, Room 1, looking used spare clothing: size 5 and 6pants, shorts, sweat pants and elastic waist pants are great.Long sleeve shirts too
Have a great weekend.