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.