"Kids on Stage" coming June 12th, 1-2pm in the cafeteria

WEEKLY LETTER FROM DR. PAMELA IRVINE, PRINCIPAL

April 25, 2008

Dear Parents and Families:

I would like to tell you about some changes in our building for next year. Kathy Macpherson, Adams 1/2 teacher, will be leaving us for a new school next year.Ann Piazza from Hillside will be taking Kathy’s place. Hillside teachers who have been placed in other schools are: Debbi Heinrich - Holt; Debra Gelzer - Edison; and Lori Redding - Crest. At this time, Linda Smart’s placement is pending. Our long time custodian, Brad Rhodes, will be retiring at the end of June for a well deserved rest. After serving in Afghanistan, he really rates retirement. We will miss all of those leaving us, but we wish them well. We may also have some changes in our classified staff, however, assignments for this group will not be set until later in the year.

We will be very sad to see Hillside closed next year. We wish all of our departing families and students the very best. To utilize the empty space left behind, we are moving the Adams kindergarten to room 7 (near the bathrooms!). We are also hosting the Early Intervention program in Room 2, and may have a preschool in one of the other classrooms. In addition, we would like to have a Headstart class if possible. Our afterschool program, ACE, will also have a classroom. Room 11, vacated by the kindergarten, will be used partly as a sensory classroom for some of our students with disabilities.

As far as our specialists go, we are lucky to be able to keep our wonderful librarian, Molly Hansbrough. Molly is retiring, but will come back to work just for our school. We are able to keep a 1/2 time counselor, Janice Hornsby, and we also will continue to have music. We are increasing our pe time slightly as district requirements are going up. This is due to the wellness policy and the need to keep children active and to fight childhood obesity.

Other changes for next school year include a dramatic increase in technology. We will have 3 to 4 Smartboards for 7 classrooms, and each room will have a computer projector and document camera. Staff are receiving additional training, with some classrooms instituting blogging sites as well as an array of other activities. We are excited about the future! Most of our building is wireless (though sadly, the office is not). Staff have also received recent training on use of united streaming, nettrekker, and lexiles--ask your child’s teacher if you want to know more about this.

I received an interesting email from a school in Florida. They googled positive behavior support programs and came up with Adams/Hillside! They had lots of questions and also said our procedures and flowcharts were “brilliant.” We are sending them copies of our behavior forms and giving them information on the behavior reporting program we use, SWIS (School Wide Information System). This system tracks behavior by day of the week, time of day, location, type of problem behavior, and by student. We also track minor and major behaviors. Our PBS team meets monthly to go over data and design interventions as needed. Since spring can be a difficult time for behavior, we recently started using Bugs (Being unusually good) cards. Any staff member can give these out when they see a child doing the right thing. Cards are placed in a bug catcher in each classroom, and the classes having the most cards each week will receive a prize during Friday fun club. So far, students seem very taken with the idea. Thank you to Sheryl Aydelott from bringing this idea back from a training she attended.

This past week has been Human Dignity Week. Each student and staff member committed themselves to the Human Dignity Coalition Pledge. The pledge is reproduced in this newsletter. We are proud of our students’ empathy and concern for all people This is one of the main reasons Adams/Hillside is such a wonderful building.

In a moment of optimism, I took the heavy blanket off my bed. Sadly, it is now back on. I hope you had greater foresight. Let’s hope for (true) spring!

Dr. Pamela Irvine, Principal
Adams/Hillside Elementary Schools