Principal's Message

April showers us with rain AND joy, watching the children grow both socially and academically.

On Monday we had a visit from the Reptile Man and today our 1st -3rd grades attended a Musical at the High School, “A Year with Frog and Toad.” The sheer happiness of these events and the enthusiasm of our students is a reminder of the meaning of community. Thank you to PTA for sponsoring our Reptile Man event. Please see pictures from these events below. 

Attendance Goals 

This month we are focusing on improved attendance across the building by celebrating the grade level with the highest attendance. We are partnering with families to encourage our students to “Strive for Five.” Coming to school five days a week, on time and staying the whole day. 

Parents can help us with our attendance goal by communicating with the office to excuse absences and making sure that you walk your students all the way into the school to sign in if you are tardy to school. Students should never be dropped off at school late without being accompanied inside by a parent or guardian. 

If we can reach a day with 90% attendance I have offered to take a pie to the face. 

Supporting Students with Making Good Choices 

We are implementing a new behavior management strategy in some classrooms called “Think Time.” Think Time is a formal reminder and conference with a teacher for a child to think about and change an unexpected behavior in the classroom, small group, or recess time. It starts with asking students to think about how they are feeling before the misbehavior, how does this behavior impact others, and lastly how can they work to make a different choice in the future. The goal of this strategy is to get students thinking about their choices and developing better self-management skills. 

Lockdown Protocols 

We know that many parents have expressed concern over the recent lockdown events at Auburn Riverside High School, as well as the modified lockdown which occurred at our school on March 15th.

This seems like a good opportunity to share how we practice lockdown drills and prepare ourselves to protect our students from an intruder on campus. 

A few times a year we have  "lockdown" drills. During a lockdown drill we get on the loudspeaker and announce that we are going into a lockdown. Students go to the nearest classroom and we ensure the doors to the classroom are locked from both the interior and exterior. In fact, we instruct teachers to keep their doors locked at all times in order to ensure this happens more quickly.

Teachers then email a list of students who have been taken into their classroom or who are missing from the classroom. During the drill the Admin team walks the interior and exterior of the building looking to ensure that everyone is following protocol which is to turn lights off, draw curtains and remain silent. 

This protocol should be the same across the district. We have done two lockdown drills this year and have had one actual modified lockdown. During a lockdown the district communicates to families via text message and email when a lockdown starts and when the lockdown is lifted. This allows our team to focus on student safety. During any lockdown event no one is allowed to enter or leave the building, until the lockdown is lifted. 

Parent/Community Advisory Team 

Thank you to the parents and community voluteers who joined us last week to provide feedback on our School Improvment Plan. We appreciate your partnership and wisdom. We love sharing with you about the exciting work that we are doing as part of our school improvement plan. 

If you have more questions about behavior intervention strategies and/or school safety. Please consider joining us for our Parent/Community Advisory meeting on April 27th virtually at 4:45 p.m. or in-person at 6:00 in Portable 411. 

New Community Night date - sIgn Up to Participate Here