Principal's Newsletter
August 19th, 2016
WOW's
WOW to all the staff members working with me to help Tyler Groves and Anthony Jones be successful in the classroom—Mr. Beer, Mr. Hollinger, Mrs. Soyfer, Mrs. Durant, Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Leffeler, and anyone I may have missed!-Donna Baeten
WOW to Mr. Mack for visiting the Jones family with dinner last week to foster good home/school relations.-- Donna Baeten
WOW to Kelly Harris for enabling me to meet the walkers on Friday’s heat dismissal by helping to supervise my class in Mrs. Kelly’s room.--Donna Baeten
WOW to our new team members, Gabby, Heather, Drew, and Mack, for surviving the first week with a smile!--Donna Baeten
WOW to the entire 5th grade team. Thank you for making me feel so welcome over the last two weeks. I know it’s going to be a great year!!!!.....Cheri
Huge shout out to Tessa Golden, Deb Lodes and Rob Singleton for all of their AMAZING help getting food prepared, set up and cleaned up during the first week of school. I could not have gotten it all done without them!!!! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!- Jane Hepler
Thank you so much Jene’e Mackiewicz for the Starbucks gift card! It was such a pleasant surprise, and a great way to end our first week!--Alicia Baehler
I wanted to give a HUGE WOW to Erin and Ryan for all of their help with the Galileo testing on Monday morning. Nothing like staring the week with an assessment, and then with devices that wouldn’t work. You guys are AMAZING!!!!! …..Cheri Hosea
WOW to Mr. Beer for being incredibly helpful in providing resources and ideas on how to better assist our students.--Nathan Mackiewicz
WOW to Christina, Dione and Makenzie for being such awesome reading teammates! It is such a pleasure working together to problem solve and discuss students. Thanks for always being available to provide support and collaboration. Way to go team!! --Jodi Fitzgerald
Wow!!! to Ann Behrens for creating colored bus cards for all of Kindergarten. You are always thinking of ways to help. It is greatly Appreciated. –from The Kindergarten Team
Wow!!! To Susan Gorris for persevering on the kindergarten ipads. Thanks for finding the apps off of last year ipads and figuring how to get them loaded onto the new ones. –Kristen Schrameyer
WOW to Joyce Highfill for offering to take on the next new first grader even though her class numbers were not the lowest.--Dr. O
WOW to everyone who has been chipping in to help with a new student in third grade! --Dr. DeWeese
WOW to everyone for all the work you are putting in to building our positive behavior support system.--Dr. DeWeese
Future CITW Work and August 26th Plans
8:00-12:00 CITW Work in the Learning Commons (See PD schedule for staff members that have alternate locations)
- Effort
- Resource Exploration- Mindsets in the Classroom
- Recognition
- Exit Ticket
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:00-3:30 Building PD
- Character Committee Clarifications
- Zones PD
- Breakout Sessions (Use the link below to sign up for your sessions)
Committee and Task Force Sign Ups
Leave Request
As we begin a new school year and reflecting on practices from last school year I felt it was important to provide staff with some guidance in regards to taking personal days. Regulation 4320 sets forth the expectation for requesting personal leave. Please read the regulation. The most important piece to note is that personal leave must be request to the building administrator three days prior to the day being requested. There is a form that must be filled out and signed by the administrator PRIOR to putting the leave into AESOP.
Personal Days
Benefits eligible certified teachers, Local 1, FHESPA and Support Staff employees may take up to three (3) personal days with pay per school year to be deducted from the accumulated days in their sick leave account. All other benefits-eligible employees working more than four (4) hours per day may take up to two (2) personal days with pay per school year to be deducted from their sick leave allowance, or from the accumulated days in their sick leave account if their annual sick day allowance has been depleted. Teachers working four (4) or less hours per day may take up to one and one-half (1-1/2) personal days per school year. All other benefits-eligible employees working four (4) or less hours per day may take up to one (1) personal day per school year. These days will be available upon request to the principal/manager and limited by the following conditions:
- The employee must request the personal day from the principal/supervisor at least three (3) days before the proposed absence, except in cases where the circumstances requiring the absence makes this impossible.
- Personal days may be used for personal business that cannot be attended to outside of the employee's regular work hours. These days may not be used for time off based upon local weather conditions, for work stoppage, or for interviewing for positions outside the District.
- Personal days typically will not be granted the day before or the day after a holiday or student vacation, except when the Board-approved calendar has been changed with less than eight (8) weeks’ notice and such change revised the days which fall before or after a vacation. Exceptions for personal days before or after a holiday or student vacation may be granted if they otherwise follow the provisions of this policy and have prior written approval of the superintendent/designee.
- Personal days may not be used on a day of professional development, a day scheduled for parent/teacher conferences or on an orientation day.
- Personal days shall be charged against the employee’s sick leave account.
- No more than two (2) or ten percent (10%) of the employees in a particular job category in a building, whichever is more, may be granted personal leave at the same time. The absences will be granted in order of request. In case of extreme emergency, the Superintendent of Schools may grant absences in excess thereof.
- Personal leave must be taken in one-half (1/2) day increments.
Request for the personal day shall be made by completing the proper authorization form available in the principal’s/manager’s office. The employee’s signature on the request form indicating that the personal leave request is in compliance with Board policy is all that is necessary, except in cases where the request is to use a personal day immediately before or after a paid holiday or school break; these requests will require approval by the superintendent/designee.
In cases of extreme emergency, the superintendent/designee may approve same day requests.
There may be special circumstances where an employee desires to use more than the typically allotted number of days of personal leave in a year. The employee may make a request to the Superintendent of Schools to approve a request for additional paid personal leave. The Superintendent of Schools has sole discretion to approve said request.
New Swing
The SPED department has graciously received a grant from the PTO for a special education swing that will be installed on the empty frame on the back playground. The special education swing is only for special education students that are supervised with a teacher or para-professional. The special education swing is for our special needs students that have physical limitations and sensory needs. The students with physical limitations cannot always participate on the equipment and this swing provides another activity they can utilize. Swinging is important to children not only for fun and exercise but also to help their bodies organize and regulate their sensory systems. Please remind regular education students that this swing is for special needs students only. I appreciate your help!
Effort and Perseverance
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh9jAD1ofm4
Becoming the best starts with getting better today, tomorrow, and the next day. Don't worry about "best"......just focus on GETTING BETTER! --Jon Gordan
Oh so true….you never jump into something and start out on top. We are reminded of this while watching the Olympics. Many, many hours of practice, sore muscles and hard work have gone into making not only the champions but into making all participants. NOBODY STARTS OUT ON TOP! We are all evolving as administrators and teachers…we should be better tomorrow, next month and next year.
Leaving Early and Arriving Late
- Fill out the pink form 3 days early as a courtesy (Jane has the forms)
- Get approval from the principal- the form will ask you to tell who is covering your class
- Jane will get the form back and place it in a binder so that the office has access to it in case they are looking for a teacher.
- Approval will be made for special circumstances such as urgent or emergency situations or ongoing situations.
- If you are splitting out your kids between more than one person please send a list to all secretaries in the office so that students can be located.
PTO
The link above will provide you access to the PTO minutes from the August 16th meeting. I have asked PTO to share minutes with staff right after a meeting to help keep you informed of all the hard work PTO is doing for our school.
Thank you to Susan Adams, Jamie McCoy, Maggie McCarthy, Lisa Chamberlain, Susan Bayne, and Kristen Cuneo for attending the meeting!