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From the Principal
From the Principal
I hope you are relaxed, recharged and ready to start a new school year. I am so delighted that you are part of our amazing Leawood learning community. I welcome and value your positive energy and dedication to excellence in education, and I look forward to partnering with you and your children.
All signs point to another incredible and productive school year. Our skilled and devoted staff is already planning and preparing for your child(ren). Our enthusiastic office team is registering new families, ordering needed materials, and updating student files. Our hard working and conscientious custodians have spent the entire summer thoroughly cleaning the facility. And, our much-appreciated PTSA is gearing up to welcome families, provide volunteer opportunities, and offer other exciting events and programs. We are indeed a joyous and caring community with the common goals of providing the best possible learning experiences for our students.
New Staff
Each year brings positive change. An important aspect of my leadership here at Leawood is to build the capacity of my staff so they can grow and become the best they can be in their field as well. This means that I encourage and support our staff when they have the opportunity to be promoted to a higher level position, or even just to take a risk and try a completely different role or school to build their learning and effectiveness. You'll see many of these changes impacted us this year, but we have hired some incredible new staff. Please visit the "From our Teachers" page in this newsletter to find out more and welcome our new team members.
Facilities Update
If you drove past the school or utilized our outdoor playing spaces this summer, you may have noticed numerous maintenance and construction projects. First, the water main replacement has definitely taken us by surprise. They ran into several complications and delays, and water in the neighborhood has been affected as well. After completing the work on Jay, they headed east on Leawood, but they still need to replace the line from Jay west to Pierce. This will highly impact our drop off and pick up times, as the street will be down to one lane. The sidewalk on the north side of Leawood will also be closed, so I am currently working with Jeffco to ensure first and foremost, the safety of all students. We may need to change where our Watch Dogs and duty cross Leawood and Jay, and this will all be communicated to you shortly. I'm also working with South transportation to ensure our buses have safe routes.
Our manager at South transportation has offered to allow any student within qualifying distance to ride without being charged for the first month of school while the road closures and single lane traffic is affected. This is an incredibly generous offer to keep our students safe and reduce the amount of drop off and pick up cars during those busy times of day. Let me know if you have any questions.
You'll notice we repainted our parking lot area to better delineate parking, drop-off and student walking spaces and lanes. Thank you for remembering to walk completely around the parking lot as there is NO CROSSING at the entrance and exit of the parking lot. For those parking and walking in, thank you for remembering to use the crosswalk!
We love our new marquee! Thanks to all of you who have supported our many fundraisers over the last few years. It took a while to save for that, but it is so worth it! Thanks to our dedicated PTSA members who kept that dream alive until we had enough saved!
Last year’s district-wide safety and security review generated a recommendation that additional surveillance cameras be added to our schools to better monitor ingress and regress. Thanks to all our voters last November, this was made possible by the passing of our bond. Installation of our interior and exterior cameras is now complete. This enhances our ability to see and/or record who is on our campus at all times.
Student Placement
A great deal of time, effort and thought has gone into the process of student placement for the 2019-2020 school year.
Careful consideration was given from staff as well as student learning styles. Classrooms have been balanced academically and socially. Our class lists are structured to provide equitable class sizes at each grade level. Moving students is difficult without causing imbalances and inequities, and therefore that is not a practice we do here at Leawood. All of our staff work hard to make school a positive experience for ALL students. Leawood is eagerly looking forward to enriching your child’s life fully.
Leawood Mission & Vision
We spent time last year and again our first days back this year engaged in conversations about who we are, and what makes Leawood so special. You'll start to see our new mission statement all over school:
Special thought was put into the WE being students, staff, and community members, and the together part meaning we are all learners who strive to grow and improve each year. Did you notice the correlation with our new garden? Discover. Inspire. Grow. DIG?
Throughout the coming year, we will be sharing lots more about what we believe kids need to discover, to be inspired and inspire each other, and to grow. We are very excited about this work!
Thanks for your continued support and involvement at Leawood. Your commitment to ensuring that we remain a celebrated and successful school is awe-inspiring. I eagerly look forward to greeting students and families again. As I'm entering year 9 here at Leawood, it remains an honor and privilege to serve as your principal. Please stop by and say hello. Together, I know we will make this school year one of growth and achievement for all children.
For lots more information, be sure to check out our website at www.leawoodlions.us and like us on Facebook HERE
Warmest Regards,
Mrs. Shehan
MARK YOUR CALENDARS:
MARK YOUR CALENDARS:
Monday, August 12th – BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT
5:00-5:30 Meet & Greet on Front Lawn & Bring Supplies to Classroom
5:30-5:40 Student Transition to Activity: PreK/K in Community Room; 1st-5th in Gym
5:40-6:25 1st Classroom Presentation (including PTSA/Principal Info)
Preschool in their own rooms
1st grades combined in the library
2nd grades combined in Miss Field's room
3rd grades combined in Mr Boogert's room
4th grades combined in Mrs Henkes' roomm
5th grades combined in the music room
6:25-6:35 Move to 2nd Presentation or Pick up Students from Library or Gym
6:35-7:00 2nd Classroom Presentation (minus PTSA/Principal Info)
Wednesday, August 14th – FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL for Preschool-5th Grade (11:30 dismissal for all Kindergartners)
10:45-11:30 Preschool/Kindergarten Parent Orientation
Friday, August 16th – Welcome Back Community Event at Columbine HS, 6:30-8:30
Friday, August 23rd & Monday, August 26th – Modified Attendance Day for Testing: School by appointment only. Teachers sent their signup links in their welcome email on Friday. ALL students are expected to come for a testing time on one of these two days.
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