Randolph School’s End of the Week Notes for September 21, 2007

Please note.

No School for Elementary Students on Monday, Sept. 24.

Early dismissal on Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 2:18 p.m. for teachers’ professional learning communities (PLC) time.

Teachers:  Do teach your students about the new foam soap dispensers and why we’ve made that change.  (Only one squirt necessary.  Less expensive for the school to use one shot of foam than many squirts of liquid soap.  Less money spent on soap and towels means more money available for books, etc. that students use.) 

Curriculum and Instruction

Our Associate Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, Dr. Marilyn Moore, recently put out a request for a parent from each LPS school to attend her Community Curriculum Council, which meets 4 times per year to discuss district curriculum and other issues of interest to the parents.  There was an overwhelming response from Randolph parents.  Our representatives on the CCC will be Chris Pape, Sarah Lanik-Frain, Erica Birky Rios, and Lance McCord.

Randolph offers a school version of the CCC called the Principal’s Parent Forum. You are invited to participate in this year’s Principal’s Parent Forum meetings for Randolph School.  This is an opportunity to learn more about a variety of issues influencing Randolph School. 

At this first meeting, the participants in the Forum will come up with a list of topics of interest they wish to discuss and/or learn more about.  The Principal will use your input and ideas when weighing information and making decisions.

The first Principal’s Parent Forum meeting isThursday, October 18 at 7:00 p.m. in the Randolph Media Center.  This Forum will meet four more times during the school year:  Tuesday, Nov. 20; Tuesday, January 15; Tuesday, Feb. 19; and Thursday, April 27.  The Randolph PTA graciously funds childcare for these meetings.

Please complete the section below and email it back to me no later than Friday, October 12th to be part of the Forum.

______ Yes!  I will attend the Principal’s Parent Forum on Tuesday, Oct. 24 at 7:00 p.m. at the Randolph Media Center.

______ No, I cannot attend the Principal’s Parent Forum on Oct. 24th, but I want to attend the future meetings.

______ No, I do not wish to attend the Principal’s Parent Forum.

Name:  __________________________________

Parent of ________________________________

School Closing (Weather) Information

From Dr. Susan Gourley, LPS Superintendent:

Lincoln Public Schools is always looking for more and better ways to

communicate to our parents and students. We have decided to call each LPS household when school is closed due to bad weather. Our new mass communication system will allow us to notify each family individually.

If school is closed, the system will call our 20,000 households with

this information. It will take up to 45 minutes to complete the entire

list from A-Z. Since the calls are made in alphabetical order, names at the beginning of the alphabet will receive a call before those at the end of the alphabet. If the school closing decision can be made the night before, we will initiate notification calls by 10 p.m. However, often the school closing decision can’t be made until early morning because the weather is difficult to predict. In those cases, phone calls to homes will begin at 5:15 a.m.

We know this is early, but many families and students must leave home very early each morning to arrive at school and work on time. Also, the first LPS school buses leave at 5:30 a.m. to start picking up students. Notification will only help families if they are alerted in a timely manner. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by early phone calls.

As in the past, we will continue to notify all media outlets of any

school closings. Bad weather can affect various forms of technology. So with radio, television, and now, the mass communication system, we have many avenues to ensure our families are notified of school closings.

Meetings Held This Week

The School Improvement Process committee met on Monday, Sept. 17th.  Complete notes follow at the end of this memo, and are also available through the Randolph web site.

The Randolph Staff met on Tuesday, Sept. 19 at 8:10 a.m. in the media center.  Here are the agenda items presented and the person responsible for questions, if you have any.

Technology Time                      Use of Lexiles to Locate “Just the Right Reading Level Books”            Chris Haeffner

Infection Control Procedures                      Joan Creger

Medications on Field Trips                      Joan Creger

LPS Teacher Appraisal Process           Dr. B.

Next staff meeting is Tuesday, Oct. 2 at 8:10 in the Media Center.

LPS Elementary Principals Council met on Wed., Sept. 19 from 7:00 a.m- 1:00 p.m. at the district office.  Information to share includes:

• Identification cards:  If you lose your id card, report it to the office immediately.  Your id card is a key to the building and the district office and has to be de-activated immediately.  There is no charge for this.  The $10 fee is only for reissuing cards.  Notify the office asap if you misplace your card.
• Boundary changes being considered by the LPS Board of Education impact 26 of the 36 elementary school and all of the middle schools in LPS.  Although the Hawthorne and Dawes potential repurposing and subsequent new boundaries are getting lots of media attention, patrons should check out the maps on the LPS web site for complete boundary change information.
• LPS has an Integrated Mental Health grant which offers training opportunities for teachers and other school personnel to recognize and respond to mental health issues of children.  Randolph SpEd staff and administration are attending the workshops.
• School Security Reviews begin in October.  Dr. Dudley will tour each building and interview personnel regarding safety and security issues.
• Dr. Avery reviewed the new Physical Education standards and curriculum.
• Dr. Jacobson reviewed contractual professional development obligations and procedures.
• Dr. Jacobson presented the 2006-07 Science criterion referenced test results for the district and for individual schools.  These measures of how well students in grades 3, 4, and 5 learned our LPS science curriculum showed that higher percentages of Randolph students mastered the curriculum than the district average.
• Dr. Saunders and literacy teachers presented a workshop on vocabulary instruction and K-2 literacy assessments.

Upcoming Events

Sept. 24           No Students at School

                      Randolph teachers’ staff development time 4:15-6:15 p.m.  Multi-school event held at Capitol City Christian Church

Sept. 25           Early Dismissal at 2:18 for Teachers’ PLC time

Oct. 1           GET meets in Media Center at 8:10 a.m.

Oct. 1-5           Grades 2 & 5 students take Cognitive Aptitude Tests

Oct. 2           Staff Meeting at 8:10 in the Media Center.

PTA at 7:00 p.m.  Safety Night Activities for the whole family!

Sat., Oct. 6                      Pumpkin Run!

October 8-November 2           Donate gently used WINTER school clothes and coats to any Hangars location for the Bubba’s Closet clothing give away.   Bubba’s Closet will be held at Everett School on Saturday, Nov. 17 from 8-10:00 a.m.

October 11                      Parent Teacher Conference

October 11                      Student school pictures

October 16                      Parent Teacher Conferences

October 17                      Club Choice Fundraiser foods—pick up in the gym from 3:30-5:30 p.m.

October 22-26           Fall break            NO SCHOOL

October 30                      Early dismissal at 2:18

                                 PTA Board meeting 6:30 p.m.

November 2           Classroom Fall Parties

School Improvement Process Committee

Monday, September 17, 2007

8:10 a.m. in Media Center

Present:  Michelle, Connie, Judy, Jan, Jenna, Patrick, Wendy

1.  Instructional Conferences on Thursday and Friday

Thursday, Sept. 20

8:10  grade 2 in the Media Center

9:15  grade 4 in room 200

11:05             grade 3 in room 211

Friday, Sept. 21

12:25  Kindergarten in room 125

1:50           grade 1 in room 122

2:45           grade 5 in room 205

Teams are to organize and present their student information according to the color coded sheet given out August 28.  Dr. B. will put another copy into each SIP member’s mailbox.

2.  Building Flex time for Professional Development

Each school has 7 hours per year for their own specific professional development time.  Two hours will be used to attend this session with Guy Doud, former National Teacher of the Year on Monday, September 24 from 4:15-6:15 at Capitol City Christian Church’s

event center. 

3.  September 25 PLC Early Dismissal

3:00-4:20

All teachers meet in Media Center to review components of SMART goals. Dr. B. will email a copy of the SMART goals form to each SIP member for use electronically by the team members.

Teams develop SMART goals for groups and individuals due Sept. 26

For our October PLC session, we will review the essential outcomes identified by each team, and look for consensus, gaps, and overlaps in the outcomes from grade to grade.  Dr. B. will provide each team with a complete K-5 Randolph copy.  Teams can make copies as needed for review.

4.  PLC Sharing Fair

Dr. Moore, Dr. Jacobson, and Dr. Fisher are inviting schools to share their school improvement process, use of PLC time, essential outcomes, and SMART goals with them throughout this school year.  Randolph’s turn is Thursday, Dec. 13 at Lux Middle School from 4:00-6:00 p.m.  About six schools will share each session for about 10-15 mins.  SIP members, please add this to your calendars.