Chester Elementary School
December 6, 2019
Lucky to have these two 5th graders for lunch on Thursday!
Principal for the afternoon!
Ms. Robey having fun with 3rd graders!
Greetings CES Families & Friends,
We hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday with family and friends. We are excited for our 3 weeks of solid learning before the Christmas break (December 20-Jan 6)
Penguin Patch shopping this week. Our wonderful PTA sponsors a low cost shopping opportunity for students to purchase small gifts for their family members. They will be setting up shop in room 17 (front modular) and will be open on Wednesday from 8-3, Thursday from 2-6 and Friday from 11-3. A big thanks to our PTA for providing this opportunity for our students!
Snow days - how do we decide? It's about that time to review our practices when determining if we have a school delay or closure as a result of snow. We usually start the night before reviewing the storm predictions and touching base with our transportation department and other school officials. Next, Superintendent Oestreich starts her day at 4:00 am and begins to review the weather, the amount of snowfall in each attendance area, road conditions and the anticipated weather forecast. She is in contact with county officials, CalTrans, our transportation department and our school principals. We determine if the buses can travel, listen to the advice of our county officials, principals and CalTrans, and decide if we should have a 2 hour delay, close schools for the day, or continue with a regularly scheduled day on normal times. This decision is made in collaboration with the principals for each of the 4 attendance areas (Portola, Quincy, Greenville and Chester). If a decision is made for a 2 hour delay or school closure, principals notify families and staff via our Aeries communication network by 6:00 am, and post on our school's Facebook account. If there is no delay, we DO NOT send any notification to prevent confusion. I recommend that you check your Aeries communication phone numbers and email addresses to make sure we have all of your current information. You can check this information by logging in to the link listed below entitled "Creating An Account." Please let Nicole or me know if any questions or concerns.
Snow removal at school! Speaking of snow days, how about a shout out to our wonderful Mr. Dan Bickel! Mr. Bickel also starts his day at about 4:00 am at CES to begin removing snow so we can access school! This guy's amazing, and never wants any attention or credit. High 5 him and thank him next time you see him! Mr. Bickel is our hero!
Outdoor recess. It's been the practice at CES (and I agree) that we will get our "mountain tough" students out enjoying some fresh air and exercise during almost all recess breaks, despite weather conditions. Please make sure your child has the proper clothing to be outside for 15-20 minutes enjoying some fresh air and play even when it's cold or snowing. (We will limit recess if we have a heavy rain to prevent them from getting drenched.) Please let me know if questions or concerns. Thanks!
Attendance. We've been averaging around 95% of our students in class each day, and this is improving. We appreciate our families striving to make sure their child misses no more than 9 days for the school year (= 95% attendance). As a note, even if a child is in attendance for the first 15 minutes, they are counted as present for the day. Thanks for your efforts in helping us reach our goal.
December 20 - possible school day. As long as we don't have any snow days these next two weeks, then we'll have December 20th off from school. If we do have a snow day in the next 2 weeks, then we will have school on December 20th. (School delays - we do not make up the time.)
A shout out to our local community supporters. Local organizations and businesses (ex Rotary, Elks, Lion's Club, local businesses, etc) provide a variety of services to our community and our students. We receive generous donations from our businesses, dictionaries for our 3rd graders, get help with students' glasses, receive dinners & gifts to our needy families during the holidays and are always witnessing individuals and organizations stepping up to support our youth in our community. Additionally, we continue to receive outstanding support of our fundraisers. We are incredibly grateful and are thankful to be part of such an involved and generous community. Thank you!
Reading each night? 20 minutes/night. Send me your pictures and your favorite books and we'll put them in an upcoming newsletter! Check out the article (link below) about how parents can encourage their child to read. Click on the link below.
Books for presents? The gift of literacy is a gift that keeps on giving, right? Check out some of the links below if you're looking for some ideas on books to purchase. Thanks for considering!
A big thanks to those of our families able to join us last Monday for an update on our school goals and how we address challenging behaviors. If you were unable to attend and would like to get caught up, let me know and I'll send you our information sheet, or give me a call to set up a time to meet in person.
We have lots of pictures with many of our outstanding students this week. We honored our November students on Monday and several of our 4th-6th graders on Friday. We don't typically identify the students in the pictures for safety purposes. Thanks for understanding.
In closing, we appreciate your ongoing support and teaming with us to make 2019-2020 an exceptional elementary experience for our students. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks!
Ms. Twitchell's student of the month
Ms. Klimek's student of the month
Ms. Cardona's/Ms. Connie's student of the month
Upcoming Dates
Dec 11-13 PTA Penguin Patch - Rm 17 (front modular)
Dec 19 - Winter Christmas Sing-Along 1:45
Dec 20 - No school, unless we have to make up a snow day between now and Dec 19
Dec 23-Jan 3 - Christmas break - please remember to read each day!
Ms. Whalen's student of the month
Ms. O'Kelley's student of the month....and little bro ready to go!
4th grade improvement awards
Ms. Crowther's and Ms. House's student of the month
Ms. Tantardino's student of the month
Mr. Beilby's student of the month
Mr. Beilby and star student
1st trimester principal's honor roll
Improved Performance awards
4th-6th 1st trimester achievement awards
Ms. Crowther and a star student
Ms. Tantardino and a star student
Thanks for your support!
Email: areeder@pcoe.k12.ca.us
Website: https://ces.pcoe.k12.ca.us/
Location: 158 Aspen Street, Chester, CA, USA
Phone: 530-258-3194
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChesterElementary/