Sequoia Elementary Newsletter
School News and Updates
Principal Message
Last Friday was Fine Arts Day and it was a great day of fun, art and color! Thank you to our Fine Arts Day Coordinators, Katrina Gillaspie, Dian Ross and Sherry De La Torre for all the planning and time put toward making this a great day for all our students. We also had many parent volunteers that helped before, during and after this big, day-long event! Thank you to everyone for such a great day! (Color Day photo, Ball Wall photos below)
As you may remember, in the fall we had a garden clean up day to clear each bed and get things ready for the year. With the support of SPC, Erin Agius, our science facilitator, and several parents and staff, we're making the garden a wonderful place to learn and have fun each day. We have also contracted with School Garden Network recently to help us get our garden back on track and think forward about utilizing the garden even more for fun, science and other curriculum possibilities. One of our parents, Jessica Helms, even created beautiful salads for our staff this week with many of the ingredients coming directly from our garden. (Garden and Salad photos below)
I wanted to give a quick shout out to Tara Hackett and Deana Terrell for all the time and planning they put toward a wonderful Teacher Appreciation Week! Thanks to all of YOU as well for the cards, flowers, desserts and kind messages to all our staff. All of you helped to make sure our staff felt valued and appreciated all week long. We feel lucky to work with your students each day and grateful for all your support throughout the year! (Student made poster photos below)
Staffing for 2019-2020 School Year
I want to update you on staff for the 2019-2020 school year. We have some movement and new additions to Sequoia that I am excited to share.
Kinder-Amy Martling
Kinder-Stephanie Nolen
Kinder-Amanda Rose
1st grade-Robin Foss
1st grade-Jamie Lopez
1st grade-Sonya Gonzalez (Ms. Gonzalez comes with high praise from Whited Elementary. She currently teaches 2nd grade and is excited to join our first grade team.)
2nd grade-Anna Goetz
2nd grade-Lisa Waud
2nd grade-Shannon Palmer
3rd grade-Sheleen Craig
3rd grade-Jacki Fogleman
3rd grade-Chelsea Borell (Mrs. Borell will be on maternity for the first 6 weeks of the school year. I will let you know who the long term sub will be in the fall.)
4th grade-Laura McNeill
4th grade-Nancy Slay
5th grade-Stephanie LaPlante
5th grade-Rhiannon King
6th grade-Gina Pellegrini
6th grade-Kristy Weber/Megan Byrum-Job share (Mrs. Weber has upper grade experience at previous schools she's taught in and Mrs. Byrum spent 5 years as a 6th grade teacher at Austin Creek. I think they are going to be a great fit as part of our upper grade team)
Ms. Thomson has been a joy to have at Sequoia and will be pursuing teaching positions in Sonoma County. We thank her for the great work she's done with our 6th graders this year!
Another change we are making to the entire school district is adding credentialed PE teachers to each school campus. I am happy to announce that Gina Melton will be our new full time PE teacher. Mrs. Melton is currently teaching 4th grade at Austin Creek.
We also have a new Student Support Coordinator, Amy Nouguier, who will spend time with our grade level teams analyzing student data, determining intervention groups and working with small student groups as well. Mrs. Nouguier currently teaches 1st grade at Whited Elementary.
Learning Preference Forms
Some of you have asked about class placement for next year. As a staff, we work very hard to place all of our students carefully. We consider many things when placing students in classes. Teachers spend hours together trying to balance academic and behavioral needs, gender, learning styles and more. I also meet with each team to look at our class placements and make sure that we have considered all the pieces carefully. We hope you will trust our staff to know your students and make the best decision possible. We also know that students sometimes have learning or social preferences that you need us to be aware of when placing your child in a classroom for the following year. Learning Preference Forms will be available in the office on Monday, May 13th and due Friday, May 17th. Learning Preference Forms are meant to give us information about what kind of learner your child is or any other social or behavioral considerations we should take into account when placing your child into a classroom. This form is not meant for teacher requests. We will not consider Learning Preference Forms turned in after May 17th.
We are excited for all the many events happening to end our year. We are looking forward to celebrating the year we've had and teachers that will be moving on to new adventures as well as welcoming the new staff members coming our way!
Mrs. Clark
Teacher Appreciation Week!
Our Growing Garden
Sequoia Garden to Table!
Sequoia's First Color Run
We could still use some volunteers to make our Color Run a success! Please use the link below to sign up!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0D49AEA72CA0F58-sequoia
A few reminders:
- If your child goes to after care, a change of clothes is recommended.
- The color is not meant to stain, but it may take a couple washes to come out of clothes completely.
- There is a No Color Lane for those students who do not wish to run through the color stations.
Thank you to the Healthy Kid Committee for planning and executing this event and to SPC for sponsoring our Sequoia Color Run.
Wednesday, May 15, 2019, 01:00 PM
Sequoia Track
Grade Level Color Day!
2019 6th Grade Ball Wall!
2nd Annual 6th Grade Car Wash!
Saturday, May 18, 2019, 01:00 PM
Sequoia Parking Lot
Dates to Remember
- May 18th , 1-4pm - 6th Grade Car Wash
- May 21st - 22nd - Sequoia's Annual Book Swap
- May 22nd - Open House - 5:30 Ice Cream Social; 6-7pm classrooms will be open
- May 27th - No School (Memorial Day)
- May 31st - Last Day of School (early release at 1:25pm)
Events and Activities Flyers
Sequoia Elementary School App
Sequoia Elementary
Location: 5305 Dupont Drive, Santa Rosa, CA, USA
Phone: 707-539-3410