Randolph School’s End of the Week Notes for January 25, 2008

Celebrations!

Happy Birthday to Jenna Perales on January 31!

Congratulations to Connie Philippi on being named an A+ Educator! Her photo and the nominating letter from Linda Mathis were featured in the Lincoln Journal Star on Monday, January 21^st.

Condolences

Our sympathies are with Melanie Bundfuss and her family on the death Friday, January 25, of her grandfather. Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

MVP for Week of Jan. 28-Feb. 1

Michael Johnson

“Michael does a great job of teaming with all of us. He’s a pro!” Second grade team

“Thanks, Stan, for the rolls today!” All of us

“I just want you to know that Art teacher is amazing. I can’t even believe that’s an Art room—the floors, tables, and sinks are kept up. Tell her thanks.” Bob

Please note.

There is a Skate Night Fundraiser tomorrow, Saturday January 26, from 4:30-6:30 p.m. at the Skate Zone to benefit Jenny Kahm. Jenny is a cousin of student Eric VanOtegham. Jenny was injured in a recent car accident and her baby was killed. The skate party admission is $3 plus skate rental. For more information, please call 435-8846.

TICKETS!

The Randolph office has only 7 tickets left for the Richard Louv presentation at the Lied Center on Tuesday, February 19 at 7:00 p.m. This is a FREE program and Lied tickets are gone. Dr. Bonaiuto will return these tickets to the Lied on Friday, Feb. 1^st. If you are interested in hearing this national advocate for outdoor education and children’s learning opportunities in nature, please call the office asap.

Curriculum and Instruction

On Thursday, February 21 from 7-9:00 p.m. the Expressive Arts teachers will host “An Evening with the Arts”. Each teacher (Art, PE, Music, and Computer) will showcase the evolution and development of their curriculum, and teach a mini lesson for parents. Child care is available, but space is limited. Please RSVP to the office (436-1163) if you will attend this Parent Forum event, which is open to all Randolph families. The EA team is offering this indepth look and conversation as part of their time for conferencing with parents. They’ll be at some of the conference times in March with all teachers and families, but this is an exclusive opportunity for small group conversation with these important educators. Please plan to attend!

Staff Development

REMEMBER! Tuesday, January 29 is an early dismissal day at 2:18 for teachers to meet in their Professional Learning Communities.

Student Information

The University of Nebraska Athletic Department and the NU Women’s Basketball team would like to thank your school for participating in our third annual “Spotlight on Schools” program on Thursday, February 21^st to help cheer on the NU Women’s Basketball team. Tickets to this game are only $1. You can also enjoy hotdogs for $1 and Pepsi for $1. Tickets will be available at the door on February 21^st.

For Your Information

I am still in need of one more parent on Feb. 5 and March 4 to help give tours of Randolph School to any Hawthorne families prior to PTA meetings. Tours begin 6:30 p.m. PTA begins 7:00 p.m. Thanks to Brad Peterson for volunteering for Feb. 5 and to Pru Devny for volunteering for March 4^th.

Meetings Held This Week

The Elementary Principals Council met on Wed., January 23 at LPSDO. The agenda included:

1. The introduction of the Back Pack Extra Mile walk on April 26^th at 10 a.m. at East High School. (This is a district wide fundraiser event to support the back pack food program. This is replacing the district participation emphasis in participating in the annual Heart Walk. Business Affairs at LPS is sponsoring this event, instead of the Heart Walk, which remains a community wide event. The Back Pack Extra Mile walk is a fundraiser directly for our LPS students.) Each school needs a team captain to rally us to the cause. If you are willing to be our organizer, please let me know by Feb. 1^st. Each staff will receive a 2 sided copy of the memo.

2. A handout on LPS Liability coverage questions was distributed. Each staff will receive a copy of the memo.

3. Principals held a discussion of their leadership study text, chapters 3 and 4 of The Daily Disciplines of Leadership by George Reeves.

4. Principals held a brief discussion of the development of a new type of teacher/ staff appraisal document. This is an ongoing multi-year process, and the “reading research and talking about that” stage.

5. Social Studies consultant Karen Stanley apprised principals of the progress /timeline for the Social Studies field study.

6. Barb Jacobson reported on the development of the middle school report card, which is much more in line with the standards based, objectives driven curriculum in our district. Several middle schools are piloting this current version.

7. All Professional Learning Communities will complete a baseline data survey at their January 29 PLC meeting time, and turn it in to the principal. Principals will compile the responses for their building’s PLCs and send on to Vern Fisher and Marilyn Moore for their reports to the Board. Randolph staff completed this brief survey in teams last year, since we were using the PLC format before the entire district.

The survey is due to Dr. B. as the PLC leaves on Jan. 29^th.

8. Dr. Jacobson shared the LPS summer calendar with principals. Each staff member is getting a copy of the August dates for inservices, etc. For your summer planning, I share the following important dates with you:

June 2 teacher work day

June 3 teacher comp. day for completing building flextime

June 4 Multicultural Institute

June 5 (Randolph) Bright Lights moves in

June 9 (Randolph) Bright Lights sessions 1 & 11 through June 13

June 23 (Randolph) Bright Lights sessions 3 & 4 begin June 27

July 7 (Randolph) Bright Lights sessions 5 & 6 begin July 11

July 14-15 (Randolph) Bright Lights cleans up and moves out

July 15-Aug. 8 Randolph custodians have to clean whole building

July 22 PLC training (SIP members needed for this day with pay.)

Aug. 4-5 Administrative Conference

Aug. 6-8 New teacher orientation

August 13 All teachers start: Elementary building time a.m. and district professional development time in p.m.

August 14 District PLC training for all teachers all day

Aug. 15 Elementary work in rooms

August 13 Elementary work in rooms

August 13 Safe Walk to School Night OPEN HOUSE!

Aug. 18 Elementary work in rooms

August 19 First Day of School!

9. In an update from the Foundation for LPS Fund a Need program, it was noted that $36,000 of teacher grant requests were funded in 2007, which was an increase of 90% from the previous year! 60% of the teacher fund a need grants are from elementary teachers.

Upcoming Events

Jan. 29 PLC Early Dismissal 2:18

Jan. 30-31 Grade level instructional conferences with Dr. Bonaiuto

Jan. 31 Dr. Moore, Asst. Superintendent for Instruction, meets with Randolph Staff at 8:10 to conduct appraisal of Dr. Bonaiuto as principal.

Feb. 4 GET meets at 8:15 a.m. in Mrs. Mahoney’s room

Feb. 4 100^th Day of School!

Feb. 5 Staff Meeting 8:15 Love and Logic #1 Presented by Lisa C. and Kathy W.

Feb. 5 PTA at 7:00 p.m. Tours for Hawthorne families at 6:30

Feb. 11 School Improvement Process committee meets at 8:15

Feb. 11 PTA sponsored Randolph School Skate at A&R Skate, 40^th & Old Cheney. Watch for detailed flier.

Feb. 12 Staff Meeting 8:15 a.m. Love and Logic #2 Presented by Cara, Jeanie

Feb. 14 Classroom Friendship Parties

Feb. 18 No School for Elementary Students: Teacher Plan Day

Feb. 19 Staff Meeting 8:15 a.m. Love and Logic #3 Presented by Susan R.

Feb. 19 Richard Louv at the Lied: Outstanding speaker on the value of outdoor education and nature experiences for children. It’s FREE! See flier in Randolph Relay for details.

Feb. 21 Technology Planning Committee meets 8:15 a.m.

Feb. 21 NOTE CHANGE OF DATE: Principal’s Parent Forum 7 pm.

Feb. 25 SCIP meets

Feb. 26 EARLY DISMISSAL for Professional Learning Communities 2:18

Feb. 29 Read Across America Celebrations for Dr. Seuss’ Birthday