Dear Families,
I want to welcome all the new families who will be joining us this year and also welcome back all our returning families, whom I have missed!
I hope that your summer has been spent enjoying special times with your family and that you are looking forward to the new school year. I look forward to meeting all the new families and I invite you to come by any time and introduce yourself. I have an Open Door Policy.
This year we are fortunate to have two new teachers joining our staff. Christie Richards is a recent graduate from Cal Poly with a single subject teaching credential in English. She will be teaching 7th and 8th grade language arts. She is very excited to be joining our staff and she comes to us with great student teaching experiences in working with a broad range of learners and creating a classroom environment where instruction is differentiated in order to meet the academic needs of her students. Tessa Hornbuckle, our new elementary PE teacher, received her BS in elementary education from Iowa State University. She is very excited to be on board. Not only will she teach physical education to our K-5 grade students but she will also work with the Middle School students during our new Enrichment Period in the afternoons. She has worked as a tutor, enrichment instructor in San Luis Obispo County, and as a substitute teacher.
Lunch Program Expansion
We are very happy to announce that our hot lunch program will now serve cooked-from-scratch meals 5 days a week. This has been a very exciting summer. The 2 grants that Debbie Breck (College School District Business Manager) and I wrote to the Orfalea Funds' s’Cool Food Initiative were approved (see s'Cool Food Program). The grants will allow us to purchase more kitchen equipment and to convert our storage closet into a kitchen walk-in storage area. Consequently, we are able to expand our kitchen to not only serve our students but also College School District students. Providing lunch service will be a source of on-going revenue for Santa Ynez Valley Charter School. We have been able to increase Linda Houston’s hours as our Chef and hire two “Lunch Teachers” to help prep in the kitchen. We hired Nancy Beauchamp (parent of Sherri and Nick) and Lorri Carleton. Both come to us with great experience and enthusiasm. The Lunch Program will begin on Wednesday, September 1st. Be sure to check the Tuesday Folders for more information and turn your lunch orders in by Friday, August 27 at 1:00 p.m.
New Schedules
K-1 students will eat lunch from 11:15-11:55. Grades 2-8 will eat lunch from 11:30-12:10. We are very fortunate as a benefit of our lunch service to be able to use the College Campus playground during recess and lunch this year. K-1 will share the lower playground and 2-8 will share the upper playground. Teachers will be more present on the playground during the recess and lunch times, as they will have the responsibility of supervising one recess and one lunch per week. Please see the bell schedule, which reflects our new schedules. Middle School will now be released for lunch at 11:30 and eat at 11:40. They will have the first 10 minutes to play on the playground while the elementary students eat their lunch first.
Electronic Information
This year our plan is to move towards sending most information home electronically. We are in the process of setting up a system that will enable us to do a better job of reducing the amount of paper that we use. It will be very important that we get your email address so that we can set up our database.
If you don’t have an email address where you can receive the monthly newsletters and school information, please let us know so that you can receive printed copies.
The packet sent home is full of valuable information. Please take time to read the information with your child and fill out the forms. Please sign and return them to the office NO LATER THAN the first day of school.
My first Tea and Coffee with the Director will be on Friday, September 3rd at 8:00 A.M. in the office lounge. This is a great opportunity for us to meet and talk informally about any questions, concerns or comments you may have about SYVCS.
Correction: 8th Grade Orientation is on Wednesday, September 1st at 5 PM.
I look forward to our first day of school at 8:00 A.M. on Wednesday, August 25th.
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I have an open door policy - please stop by and say hello! |