Parent Teacher Conferences and Safety Drills

    Parent Teacher Conferences will be held face to face, via zoom or telephone call this semester.  Please use the link to schedule a time with your child’s teacher.  “Parent Teacher Conference Scheduler” We will assume the conference is face to face unless you or the teacher specify otherwise. We hope you AND your child will participate in the conference. We strive for 100% participation.

    For those of you who are new, in an effort to improve the consistency and accuracy of our academic grades, we use standards-based grading in grades K-6.  Students’ grades are marked relative to levels on a rubric and directly tied to learning standards.  However, we value a students’ marking in regard to behavior or citizenship just as highly as the academic portion of the grade book.  We also look at growth as the real measure to celebrate.  Learning is a journey not a destination, and we hope to move all students forward as far and fast as possible.

Emergency Drills

      In October, we practiced fire and earthquake drills.  Staff and students excelled at both of these.  However, whenever we conduct drills there is always more structure and supervision than will be possible in an actual situation.  For example, if a fire started during lunch, few of our children would be with their teacher.     

     Because we never know when we might have a fire, earthquake, or unwelcome intruder; we teach our students the principles for action and decision making. I believe knowledge is power and a sense of control alleviates anxiety. Students know we have plans and they know (in general) how to react in emergency situations. However, we need to do a little more preparation with them in the event we have a threat in the building.

     In school-wide discussions, we talk about three basic principles I believe they can remember: HIDE (securely), FLEE (until you are completely away from any chance of the threat), and FIGHT (when all else fails in the face of the threat).  The idea of a threat is scary, but I believe we need to empower students for their emotional benefit and physical safety, so they can respond if such a tragic event ever came to our campus.  We are working on an addition to our school-wide response protocol and that is the process for reunification for students and parents after an event.

     At some point we will be conducting an intruder drill. I will publish the date via email 48 hours in advance.  It is anticipated that our school resource officer and superintendent will be here to observe and participate in our drill.   If, for any reason, you believe participating in this drill will not be a productive experience for your child you may excuse them from the activity.