Fall is Here!

Wow! This has been a busy month, so I apologize for not making my weekly blog posts. I'll try to do better from now on.

For those of you keeping up with my pet stories, I have adopted a new miniature schnauzer named Chelsea who is about 6 years old. I had to fill out adoption papers, meet my new pet at an adoption fair, and then pass a "home visit" to make sure that I would provide a safe and loving home for Chelsea. I am happy to say I was approved and Chelsea and I are enjoying each other's company. She loves to take walks every morning and evening, so she is a great influence on me!!

Just like my dog is a good influence on me, we hope as adults that we can be a positive influence in our children's lives. Our actions communicate to children what is important to us, and what is of value to us, so it is critical that we choose our actions carefully. For example, if we choose to set aside a quiet time each night when all family members sit down and read, your children will learn that you value reading. Another example, which is a negative one, if we park in the school lot illegally or cross the parking lot unsafely between parked cars, we are teaching our children not to follow rules. That is not a value we should be teaching our children. Here are some more examples of how you can be a positive influence in your child's life:

--Check your child's homework each night.
--Teach him or her to say please and thank you.
--Speak to your children in complete sentences and model how to use big words.
--Expect your child to speak to you in complete sentences.
--Visit the public library every couple of weeks and check out new books to read.
--Even older kids still like to be read to, so find a book the family enjoys and read a chapter of it out loud to each other each night.
--Model for your children the value you place on helping others and giving back to the community. Recycle, volunteer to serve meals, or help a neighbor with a job around their house.

We will soon be sending home a Progress Report with every child. The first trimester is about half over, and the Progress Report will let you know whether or not your child is meeting grade level standards up to this point. If he or she falls behind during the first trimester, they will have a very difficult time catching up, so look for this report to come home and immediately meet with the teacher if it indicates your child is falling behind. How you respond to the Progress Report is another opportunity to let your child know that you value their efforts in school.

In order to make adequate progress each year and get out of Program Improvement we must have children in school. Teaching and learning occurs every minute of the day, so when children miss class they are not learning the state standards. If they do not have an opportunity to learn, they cannot pass the state tests at the end of the year. Our school depends on every student passing their tests so we can show adequate yearly progress.

The only reason students should miss school is for illness or family emergency. PLEASE limit the number of early pick-ups by making appointments after 2:05 on Thursdays, our early release days. To give you an example of the problem we face with early pick-ups, here is the data for just today:

**4 students were picked up 3 hours early, which = 12 hours of missed instruction and 4 teachers who were disturbed by phone calls to send students to the office.

**7 students were picked up 2 hours early, which = 14 hours of missed instruction and 7 teachers who were disturbed by phone calls to send students to the office.

**6 students were picked up 1 hour early, which = 6 hours of missed instruction and 5 teachers who were disturbed by phone calls to send students to the office.

These numbers were for just one day, so all told, 32 hours of instruction were missed by 17 students, and 17 teachers were interrupted while they were trying to teach. We cannot do our job with so many parents taking children out of school early. And, when you take a child out of school early it is not just your child who loses out. The entire class has to stop for the phone call, and your child is called out to gather all his or her belongings to go home early. That takes learning time away from everyone. Please help us solve this very serious problem.

Last week we awarded over 60 students with Citizenship Awards!! These are students who are working hard in class to attain grade level standards. The parents attended this special ceremony and students received certificates, free pizza coupons, and pencils! Following the awards ceremony we held our first "Eat Lunch with Your Child" event. It was a very busy and very exciting week for all!!

If you would like to volunteer to be a Room Parent please send the blue information sheet back to school with your child.

Have a great week, and be sure to be a positive influence in the lives of your children!!

--Ms. Boucher

Friday, September 18

We are at the end of another busy week here at Highland! Last night we had a great turn-out for the PTA sponsored, Art Night. This event was brought to families as the result of a fabulous collaboration of parents and staff who taught children about photography, painting, collage, and creative writing. Many families participated, so we look forward to receiving many entries in the PTA Reflections Art Contest later this month.

Friday was picture day, and this year Highland was a pilot school for a new photo package being offered by LifeTouch. Each student was photographed in two poses, and the resulting photographs will include a collage of both photos. Please let us know what you think of the new style when pictures come back in a few weeks.

We received some disappointing news this week. Although the estimates had indicated that Highland made significant growth for all sub-groups on last year's state tests (CSTs), it now appears that we fell just a bit short in the area of math for Students with Disabilities. Not having made the expected growth in this area, that means Highland does not come out of Program Improvement, and instead will move into Year 2. Each year that we do not make growth in all sub-groups we will have more sanctions placed upon us. This year it means that parents have a choice to move to another school, or can secure free outside tutoring, all at school expense.

We will continue to work harder than ever to help all students score proficient. It is imperative that parents support this work, too, by ensuring that students are at school, that they do their homework each night, and that extra-time is spent at home studying key skills. At the end of the year we sent out a list of computer resources that can help in this area. I will post those resources again on our school website.

Everyone at school works incredibly hard, so this news is difficult for all of us. We will increase our efforts to reach the new levels of expected proficiency this year, which grow by another 10%. We are starting a new after-school program designed just for students learning English to provide them with 3 more hours a day of language instruction, because at year's end, they must all take their state tests in ENGLISH, whether they are proficient in the language or not. We are going to do everything we can to get them to proficiency.

I met with Steve Libring from the City of Riverside to discuss the parking lot issues that several parents have talked to me about. He said we were doing about all we could in the front lot, and could only suggest that we include pick-up spots in the back lot, as well. The PTA suggested that we create a visual diagram of traffic flow, and pick-up options, to distribute to all parents, so I will work on that, too. As always, we depend on families and the drivers of the vehicles to work with us to keep children safe.

Monday, September 7

Happy Labor Day Holiday. I hope you have enjoyed your long weekend and are ready to return to another great week of school tomorrow. My holiday weekends have not been so great lately--I lost my 14 year old dog to old age on Saturday, so I am looking to adopt another miniature schnauzer from local shelters or rescue groups. The house is too quiet without the canine energy and companionship.

Highland School just received word that we are the recipient of a new grant from the federal government to serve an additional 101 students in our after-school program, HEARTS. Since this is such a large expansion of the program, we have decided to focus on enrolling as many of our English learners as possible, who will benefit greatly from three extra hours of school each day. Imagine the impact of 3 additional hours of language immersion everyday! Unfortunately, the learning gap between other sub-groups and English learners is significant, so this intervention program will help us close that gap. Applications will go home this week, and there will also be plenty of room in our current state funded HEARTS program for other interested students in grades 1st through 6th.

Last week was terribly hot, and I think the temperature got the best of some people. We had many complaints about the parking lot and the lack of consideration for others. Although we have worked very hard to communicate parking etiquette to parents through announcements in the first day of school packet, and many notices last year, we still have people double and triple parking and ignoring the direction of staff and volunteers working in the parking lot at heavy traffic times. We are doing our best to keep the traffic moving smoothly, but drivers must cooperate. Please park only in marked spaces--either in the white boxes around the island, or the lined spaces along the edges of the parking lot. No cars should ever park in yellow, red or blue curbs. Remember--our goal is to keep children safe. It may not be as convenient for the driver, but everyone needs to keep their focus on the children--not adult convenience. We will be discussing the parking lot at the first School Site Council Meeting this Thursday at 3:30, so please join us. The meeting will be held in the school office.

I will be taking a class tomorrow to learn how to update our school website, so be sure to keep checking the site often to stay current on what is happening at Highland School. My goal this year is to get every class online with a page to update parents on homework and expectations and allow you to communicate frequently with the teacher through email. Maybe the students can start a Blog, too.

Many teachers will be "going to school" this Saturday with a consultant, Rick Morris, who is going to teach us more about establishing positive routines and practices which will in turn save time that can be used to focus on learning. If you happen to drive by school on Saturday and see lots of cars in the lot, that will be why they are there.

Hopefully many families have taken the challenge to get their children to school on-time every day. Our attendance contest, "We Otter Be Here!" is going strong, and some classes are getting very close to receiving Otter Pops. Each day every child in the class is present, and on-time (in other words, the class has perfect attendance at the start of class at 9:00 a.m.) they get to color in one of the letters in the theme phrase above. After coloring in every letter, and the exclamation point, the class has earned the Otter Pops, and gets a new paper to start again. Which class will earn the most Otter Pop parties, I wonder? Could it be yours?

This is our parent meeting week, so join us at one or all of them. All meetings are held in the school office:

*****Wednesday is the PTA meeting at 5:30 p.m.
*****Thursday is the School Site Council meeting at 3:30 p.m.
*****Friday is the English Learner Advisory Council meeting at 9:30 a.m.

Enjoy your week!

--Ms. Boucher